S01.E08: The Key

[AnimeMania]

(Season Finale)

Maura tells the passengers an unbelievable truth. Then, their memories shift and Daniel changes a code. Maura faces an unexpected reality.

Premiere Date: November 17, 2022 

[raven]

Binged this over the last few days and there was a LOT going on, lol.   Though I think Dark was better, this was overall a good watch and I hope we get a second season.  I'm guessing that Elliott died; hence the passage and room under the grave, where Daniel gave Maura the new pyramid.   Maura was so grieved she created the sims and everything got out of hand.  I actually didn't realize there were 8 eps and if we had ended with everyone looking at all of the defunct ships, that would have been okay too.   Of course the question is, what the hell is the unknown brother doing??   I'm assuming the spaceship is reality, unless it's not, lol.

So when we see Maura's father gloating about how everyone dies because they make the same dumb decisions - is that part of Maura's sim that she is creating or does his own personality bleed through?  Are the individual memories that we see - and that others see by going through tunnels - do those stories come from Maura or the individual travelers?  They are pretty terrible experience so I don't think the individuals would make them up but they are actually in 2099 so what are they remembering, if they're "real" memories.  My head hurts :)    Maura's father tells Daniel it was smart of Daniel to use the Prometheus to get to the Kerberos - when I think back on it, we know they are both trying to stop the sim at that point, though it seems that Maura's dad wants to restart it, giving it the appearance of an experiment.  Again, was this Maura's "script" essentially, or was it her father's actual personality?  Lots of interesting questions around this one.

What a great cast, though the tendency to whisper dialogue was annoying.  I was really intrigued in the beginning and though my interest waned a bit around ep 5, I wanted to know what happened.  

It'll be interesting to read everyone's thoughts!  There's also a Making Of special, which was pretty good.

[Enero]

5 hours ago, raven said:

 Of course the question is, what the hell is the unknown brother doing??   I'm assuming the spaceship is reality, unless it's not, lol.

I think the space ship may be the true reality being that it appeared that many who were on the ship in 1899 are in pods on this ship. It’s advanced and the technology aligns what was seen in the simulation for the voyage to a America. When Daniel explained to Maura how he changed the code to the simulation and used her wedding ring as the key to “waking up” he implied that she’d be returning to reality once she activated the new pyramid with the new key. Speaking of Daniel,  I didn’t see him in any of the pods on the spaceship so how did he know what the brother was up to, but yet was able to be apart of the simulation himself? And why didn’t he want the father to “wake up” everyone if it’d get them all out of the simulation Maura created?
 

Quote

So when we see Maura's father gloating about how everyone dies because they make the same dumb decisions - is that part of Maura's sim that she is creating or does his own personality bleed through?  Are the individual memories that we see - and that others see by going through tunnels - do those stories come from Maura or the individual travelers?  They are pretty terrible experience so I don't think the individuals would make them up but they are actually in 2099 so what are they remembering, if they're "real" memories.  My head hurts :)    Maura's father tells Daniel it was smart of Daniel to use the Prometheus to get to the Kerberos - when I think back on it, we know they are both trying to stop the sim at that point, though it seems that Maura's dad wants to restart it, giving it the appearance of an experiment.  Again, was this Maura's "script" essentially, or was it her father's actual personality?  Lots of interesting questions around this one.

I understood that the father was trapped in the simulation himself, but being that he was trapped like everyone else, I didn’t understand  how he could watch what was going on and show “Elliot” the truth. Though he was trapped himself did he have the power to manipulate the simulation, albeit limited, with his own code? I’m guessing so since he had the same weird key pad that Daniel had. And again if this was a simulation Maura created, how did the father get trapped in it but yet have power to manipulate it on some level? He didn’t seem to know that the brother was now the “creator” , so  again how was Daniel all knowing? Unless Daniel was an illusion himself, like Elliot, but was built into the simulation by Maura as a fail safe if things go wrong. But again, how would illusion Daniel know that the brother had become the mastermind? Did Maura always know (and thus illusion Daniel knew) and had forgotten this too?

I do think all the horrors the passengers were remembering from their pasts were true. But perhaps those things didn’t happen in the 19th century but the 21st.

This show was basically the poor man’s version of a mashup between Inception and Alice in Borderland, but wasn’t nearly as interesting as this movie and series.

I thought I was going to have to rewatch this to understand what the heck was going on but thankfully they revealed the whole plot in the last episode. This was entertaining but not re-watchable. Though I do have some lingering questions I don’t think I’m intrigued enough to watch another season, if released.

Edited November 20, 2022 by Enero

[peachmangosteen]

My interest started to wane by the last 2 eps and then I read that it was plagiarized from a Brazilian comic so that really dampened my lingering excitement lol.

[peachmangosteen]

Looking into it more, the plagiarism thing isn't as bad as it was first made out to me to be.

[krankydoodle]

The way this played out didn't entirely work for me, at least partly because I'm still confused about what's going on, but I'll definitely watch a second season if they keep going. I wonder if I would've liked it more if I hadn't been comparing it to Dark, which got me much more invested in the various characters and their relationships. Anyway, I still thought this was a great watch and had fun trying to figure out where it was going.

ETA: The 1899 subreddit is worth checking out if you don't mind speculation about future plot points. People pointing out some of the things I missed in the show has made me appreciate it even more.

Edited November 21, 2022 by krankydoodle

[Ariah]

Had a lot of Lost vibes throughout: a group of people with „flasbacks” about their past, forced to work together.

I binged the series during the weekend and enjoyed it very much. Got me speculating like no other show for a while.

The characters were all interesting, which I find always surprising (in a positive sense) and the mystery was alright. 
 

Happy they’ve wrapped up the ship plot (mostly) and opened a new chapter. There are still some questions left, of course: why did Daniel turn off the little girl? Is Daniel alive or a protective program created to save Maura? Is Ciaran actually Maura’s brother or another construct?

I hope season 2 is going to happen. And, on a complete shallow note, captain Eyk is extremelly easy on the eyes.

[Sakura12]

I saw this while scrolling through Netflix. I never saw Dark. It also took me a few episodes to realize I was watching a dub. I was wondering why their mouths weren't matching what they were saying. I turned the dub off. So did most of them have no idea what they were saying since they all speaking in their native language?

This was intriguing and I would watch another season. I was hoping each ep would've shown flashbacks to the other characters. I suppose a S2 could show more.

I was thinking Shutter Island at first and that they were all patients in a mental hospital. I thought all the characters that survived were the real ones and the others were people they tragically lost. Now I want to know why they are on the spaceship, is it for the same reason only taking place in 2099.

Also why is their statis dream being on a doomed steam ship. Is that Maura's doing or her brother. You'd think people would want a better sim then that. 

I'm going to go with Maura's husband, son and father are all dead in reality. I didn't see them in the pods. But then again that looked like one part of many different areas that could also hold pods. 

[Notwisconsin]

The season finale, assuming there's even going to  be a season two, reminded me of Passengers (2016), where some poor schmuck somehow gets waken up waaaay early from stasis on an interstellar spacecraft.

The CGI makes it look like an interstellar spacecraft, although, the welcome screen looks entirely retro. The sim is run by a supercomputer what has several AI personalities. But the whole thing with it being a SIM didn't seem particularly original.

[peachmangosteen]

I do know one thing, if this show aired weekly I would be way more invested in it. 

[iMonrey]

I didn't love this. I wanted to. Dark is one of my all-time favorite shows.

But I knew what was going on while I was watching Dark. I didn't know why it was going on, but I understood what was going on. But I had no idea what was going on watching this. That's a lot of episodes to watch when you don't know what's going on. Sure, it's intriguing and visually compelling, but it's just a Russian Doll of a mystery which is very frustrating. Even finding out the whole thing was a simulation leaves me with far too many questions. 

I don't know if I'd watch another season. Binging does not lend itself to retention, I usually have to re-watch a season when a new one drops a year or two later, and I didn't like this enough to re-watch it.

[Ariah]

I did rewatch the series, looking for clues I missed and of course there were those lingering looks from Daniel and the boy moving to protect Maura many times.

But because I’m weird, I’m currently wondering why the creators made it so that the captain’s white beard streak and the subtle scars on his face match (one is the elingation of the other) and why did they find it important to add these marks to Eyk’s face? I mean the actor would have looked weathered enough without them, so… maybe it’s important.

(also, the silver shell Daniel’s using to hack has ICCIC written on a side: International Conference on Cognitive and Intelligent Computing:))

[peachmangosteen]

7 hours ago, Ariah said:

But because I’m weird, I’m currently wondering why the creators made it so that the captain’s white beard streak and the subtle scars on his face match (one is the elingation of the other) and why did they find it important to add these marks to Eyk’s face? I mean the actor would have looked weathered enough without them, so… maybe it’s important.

At first, I thought the fact that Eyk, Krester, and Ángel (and even Maura, with the wrist marks) all had scars was going to mean something but I guess they just happened to all suffer a scarring injury unrelated to each other or the simulation or whatever.

[Ariah]

15 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

At first, I thought the fact that Eyk, Krester, and Ángel (and even Maura, with the wrist marks) all had scars was going to mean something but I guess they just happened to all suffer a scarring injury unrelated to each other or the simulation or whatever.

Maura’s scars are addressed in-sim, so is Krester’s. I imagine Angel’s scars come from either the priest that Ramiro killed or self-flagellation.

Now would the scarred charactered beling to one group IRL or is that just a coincidence? A way for the sim to show code corruption, maybe?

—-

I’m also wondering if Maura that woke up has all the memories or just her sim 1899 ones? When she saw Eyk post waking up, she visibly gasped and stepped back, then looked at her ring. Now this could have just been her shocked reaction to seeing him alive after he got „deactivated” (which would fit the 1899-memories Maura) or maybe she was surprised to see him at all IRL for some reason?

Anyways, Season 2 announcement cannot come soon enough!

[iMonrey]

The way the story is presented, I don't believe Maura et. al. are really on a space ship. I think it's just another simulation or delusion. The idea that they were in a  simulation only accounts for either being on a ship at sea or their flashbacks to their pre-ship traumas. It would not explain both. Nothing here explains the opening flashbacks of Maura being dragged away by orderlies screaming "I'm not crazy." If she had memories of her "real" life inside the simulation then she isn't on a space ship. If she's really on a space ship in 2099 there's no explanation for those flashbacks within the simulation.

I have a hunch they are all in some sort of mental hospital, given all their past traumas we've been shown, and that a doctor - whether it's really Maura's father or not - is doing some kind of experimental treatment on them that's causing these hallucinations. 

[nokat]

I liked that there were hidden chambers under beds that showed people's true guilty secrets or horrors in the past. What I didn't understand were the continuing players in the repeat. We could see at the end there were some finals, and not some like (Krester) in the pods. Is it some existential thing to see if you are the final one to see your errors? The mass exodus of dropping bodies was a press of a button, so no longer needed, except to push them to the top of self preservation.

So I was left wondering, did people volunteer to get rid of the past, or were they forced to relive them.  I'm thinking White Bear from Black Mirror. There wasn't one person who didn't have something in their history, although Oleg's was a mystery. Just a bloody trail.

[silverstream]

The biggest mystery to me right now is the brother. Assuming that the spaceship is actual reality, I think they were all in virtual reality for the space journey (that spaceship looked really cool, but it didn't look like it had a lot of creature comforts for passengers) and Maura's family is the heads of the shipping company in real life too. Maura and her husband seem to have been in charge of the VR; the simulation must originally have been some comfortable 1899 ship journey to go with their real-life 2099 ship journey. Then there was some kind of shism between Maura and her father (not sure what, or where the brother comes in here) and at the same time Elliot died (maybe a pod malfunction, or a meteor hit the capsule with his pod, or he fell ill, there's plenty of possibilities), and Maura went of the rails and decided to change the VR so she could forget her son was dead, trapping them all. Now the dad wants out - he doesn't care about anyone else getting out - and Daniel wants Maura out because he thinks she's the only one who can fix whatever's wrong in reality (the whole thing with her brother). And the reason the journey stopped being pleasant and started being a looping journey from hell is either because Maura was careless programming in her grief or (and I tend towards this explanation) was done on purpose as part of her father's attempt to get at the key and get out.

Or I could be completely wrong about all of this lol.

I think the hatches under the beds might be because their real memories and experiences are bleeding through to the VR environment and being translated to equivalent 19th century memories. There has to be some kind of translation mechanism for existing memories, otherwise the real, 2099 passengers would be way more unfamiliar and uncomfortable with 1899 culture and tech - for example, I certainly wouldn't know how to properly put on elaborate 1899-style rich people clothing, at least not without it feeling weird. (Though maybe they gave all of the 2099-era passengers a crash course on manners and customs of the late 19th century?)

On 11/24/2022 at 7:35 PM, iMonrey said:

Nothing here explains the opening flashbacks of Maura being dragged away by orderlies screaming "I'm not crazy." If she had memories of her "real" life inside the simulation then she isn't on a space ship. If she's really on a space ship in 2099 there's no explanation for those flashbacks within the simulation.

I think this is already explained - it's what actually happened in the simulation. The eight (or was it seven?) days on the ship play out, then her father captures her, drags her back to the room in the sanatorium (this is the "I'm not crazy"-scene), injects her with the thing that makes her forget whatever she's learned during this iteration of the time loop, and the ship simulation starts all over again, ending with her being dragged to the sanantorium again, and so on and so forth. When we see this at the beginning of the first episode, it's what's actually happening in the simulation at that time - the end of one loop and the beginning of the next one.

I hope we're going to have some plot in the ship simulation going forward where some of the characters that survived to the end remember and have to do some sort of quest to find pieces of code (/objects in the simulation I guess?) that got scattered when Daniel reprogrammed stuff. Ideally, plotwise it would link up with the real-life stuff - so, they'd need some information in the real (spaceship) world to save everyone / solve the real world issue, but this information is hidden in the simulation so everybody needs to work together there. I don't think they'd have called it "1899" if that time period will never matter again.

Edited November 26, 2022 by silverstream

[SlovakPrincess]

Before I start nitpicking, let me just say the acting, across the board, was fantastic (special shout out to the kid playing Elliot - that is not an easy role to bring to life or make sympathetic, especially for  child actor, and by the end I felt for him).  As were the costumes and visuals.

Maybe just personal preference, but I was really invested in the 1899 stories of the characters, and wanted to spend more time with all of them and their backstories and see how their lives turned out (though knowing some would probably die on the ship) ... so finding out it was a simulation and we'll never find out who makes it to America to start a new life was ... disappointing.  I would've liked less time with people crawling through hatches and more time with Tove, Ling Yi, Olek, Jerome, Clemence, Angel, Ramiro, and even that awful lady who apparently ran her own pimp-out-geishas business (how did that become her life?).  

Also ... what oddly specific characters for a bunch of people on a spaceship in 2099 - stories that are all traumatic and rooted in the highly restrictive, discriminatory world of 1899.    

(And how'd you like to get stuck playing Lucien in the simulation over and over - "ok, you betrayed your friend horribly, you whine a lot, you have seizures, and you disappoint your new wife in bed regularly -- go!"  "...um ... how long are we doing this for??") 

And did my brain glitch, or did we get none of Olek's backstory except for two seconds of seeing his Statue of Liberty picture in the snow next to a blood trail?

 @iMonrey raises an interesting idea - maybe they're in neither 1899 nor 2099.  Some of the music choices (late 60s and 70s), as well as the clunky-looking technology and the 70s-ish look of Maura's bedroom with her husband and the father's office ... could it be people trying to imagine the tech of the future while being trapped in some kind of mental experiment or group hypnosis?  Also, for a bunch of people in 2099, they have a lot of emotional connection to the idea of life in an unfair world where women have no rights or independence and the LGBTQ characters are all forced to hide their lives.    

Edited November 26, 2022 by SlovakPrincess

[Mercolleen]

On 11/25/2022 at 12:32 PM, nokat said:

I'm thinking White Bear from Black Mirror. 

Yes to White Bear similarities! This series was a mashup of Black Mirror, Life on Mars, Lost, and the Matrix, with the gross veiny vines of Stranger Things thrown in. And I'm annoyed at how it was left off. So many good questions from other posters above. 

I was also wondering why Daniel turned people off, especially if there was the chance it would be blamed on Elliot. And what was up with the people marching off into the sea? And how was the first mate involved? And who invented those weird remote controls? And what is the triangle language?

Edited November 26, 2022 by Mercolleen

[patty1h]

I'm throwing this out here for opinions from folks who have watched the whole series.   I just finished episode 5 and it's been a test of endurance and staving off boredom.  I am really wondering if I should keep on or bail now and save myself the time - is it worth the next 3 hours/episodes  or would it be better to cut my losses now.   Does everything somehow get wrapped up in such a satisfying way that makes the previous hours worthwhile?  I gave so much of my time to some mediocre shows (The Sinner, The Patient, The Midnight Club, Pam and Tommy, etc.) and ended up feeling used and cheated that I'm not going to take chances anymore.

Just a YES or NO will do, so as not to spoil other viewers.  Thanks.

[nokat]

8 hours ago, patty1h said:

I'm throwing this out here for opinions from folks who have watched the whole series.   I just finished episode 5 and it's been a test of endurance and staving off boredom.  I am really wondering if I should keep on or bail now and save myself the time - is it worth the next 3 hours/episodes  or would it be better to cut my losses now.   Does everything somehow get wrapped up in such a satisfying way that makes the previous hours worthwhile?  I gave so much of my time to some mediocre shows (The Sinner, The Patient, The Midnight Club, Pam and Tommy, etc.) and ended up feeling used and cheated that I'm not going to take chances anymore.

Just a YES or NO will do, so as not to spoil other viewers.  Thanks.

I'd say yes.

[wanderingstar]

This episode is where things came together for me - particularly at the end. Even after the revelations of episode 7, I was very invested in what happens to these characters. Are they real? Figments of Maura's imagination? (I sure hope Eyk isn't-lol)

I also really loved the characters running in and out of each other's memories. The landscapes (mindscapes?) are so surreal they made it easy to relate to the characters' disorientation.

Will need to rewatch the whole season to see what clues I missed.

Edited November 27, 2022 by Gillian Rosh

[nokat]

1 hour ago, Gillian Rosh said:

I was very invested in what happens to these characters. Are they real? Figments of Maura's imagination? (I sure hope Eyk isn't-lol)

Yes, seeing Eyk is there still....when Maura kept grabbing him and the sexual tension was there.  Waves fan. I'm thinking Eyk is her husband and Daniel was a fling? Is he the one keeping her there? We saw her father saying she caused this to keep her child with her, but why this miserable experience then?

[Mercolleen]

14 hours ago, patty1h said:

I'm throwing this out here for opinions from folks who have watched the whole series.   I just finished episode 5 and it's been a test of endurance and staving off boredom.  I am really wondering if I should keep on or bail now and save myself the time - is it worth the next 3 hours/episodes  or would it be better to cut my losses now.   Does everything somehow get wrapped up in such a satisfying way that makes the previous hours worthwhile?  I gave so much of my time to some mediocre shows (The Sinner, The Patient, The Midnight Club, Pam and Tommy, etc.) and ended up feeling used and cheated that I'm not going to take chances anymore.

Just a YES or NO will do, so as not to spoil other viewers.  Thanks.

I would say NO until we find out that a season 2 was greenlit.

[iMonrey]

Quote

Just a YES or NO will do, so as not to spoil other viewers.  Thanks.

It sounds like you're about where I was by episode 5 which is when I was started to get really annoyed with it.

Let me put it this way: you will be no less annoyed if you make it to the end.

[patty1h]

Thanks for the opinions on whether to continue or not.  I'm going to follow @iMonrey's advice and quit.

[Kirsty]

I liked the space ship ending, but on the whole I didn't think this was a very good finale. Weakest episode of the season. Full of lame faux-philosophical dialogue and nonsense about hacking the code, delivered as portentously as if it was the word of God.

But I enjoyed the show and would recommend it. It had a fun, creepy, edgy atmosphere and it's different from anything else on tv. I loved how it kept coming up with bizarre new developments in each episode. It was enjoyably inventive. Like, weren't those weird spikes of what looked like metal that were growing out of the ship's walls a great manifestation of sickness? Like cancer or something.

However, the thing I disliked most about the show happened in this episode ie. None of the characters we were following from the start solved the mystery. None of them figured it out and escaped or rescued themselves, as one would naturally expect from a story like this. And I'm including the heroine, Maura, in that group.

Instead, Daniel, a character we didnt know from the start, a character I'm not particularly attached to, and a character who knew what was going on the entire time, "reprogrammed" the simulation to rescue Maura in the finale. What??! Do I think that would ever in a million years happen to a male protagonist on his own show? A spouse figures out a way to rescue him so he never gets to solve his own mystery? Not a chance, mate. It's too bad Maura doesn't get to figure out a damn thing. Or rescue herself, let alone any of the others. It's very unsatisfying. And the usual tired sexist bullshit.

Edited November 28, 2022 by Kirsty

[Grammaeryn]

Anyone remember the US version of Life on Mars? 1899’s final scene sure seemed familiar….

[Ariah]

2 hours ago, Grammaeryn said:

Anyone remember the US version of Life on Mars? 1899’s final scene sure seemed familiar….

But then the UK version was completely different:)

I think the US Life on Mars paralels were on purpose, especially with the Bowie song (albeit, not the titular one). I also believe the 2099 is another layer of simulation, what’s with Maura’s eye pupil being a triangle in the final shot - a clear indication that something’s off (if it was a US network show, I’d say that was made for shock value and will be forgotten next season, but since it’s Jantje and Bo, I have faith it’s a serious clue)

[wanderingstar]

One other thing I liked in this episode - when Eyk returns to the Kerberos and he and Maura hug, the rest of the people are like "Um, guys...we kinda have some pressing matters to attend to." 😆

It's a moment of levity in a show that doesn't have many.

Edited November 28, 2022 by Gillian Rosh

[Ariah]

30 minutes ago, Gillian Rosh said:

One other thing I liked in this episode - when Eyk returns to the Kerberos and he and Maura hug, the rest of the people are like "Um, guys...we kinda have some pressing matters to attend to." 😆

It's a moment of levity in a show that doesn't have many.

Yes! My shipping heart loved this scene! 
 

To be fair, I really liked (narrative-wise) how their relationship progressed throughout the series: from mutual interest, frail trust, distrust, back to trust again. In the previous episodes we had at least two scenes of Maura running towards Eyk and him just firmly stopping her with prodding questions (1.04 and 1.05). Here he just hugs first, asks questions later :)

[peachmangosteen]

15 hours ago, Kirsty said:

Like, weren't those weird spikes of what looked like metal that were growing out of the ship's walls a great manifestation of sickness?

I thought maybe it was the 'virus' Daniel was implementing.

[Jack Shaftoe]

I really liked the first two seasons of Dark, the third not so much and the big reveal in the end was all kinds of underwhelming, as such reveals usually are. 1899 has the high quality acting and cinematography of Dark and lots of plot twists but I found the characters mediocre at best. They seemed to be on track to become interesting early on when life on the ship was relatively normal but once shit hit the fan it was one surreal crisis after another and their past was explored mostly in brief flashbacks. I can't help but think it might have been better if the main cast were smaller and the characters' pasts and respective traumas were explored more instead of the gazillion repetitive scenes along the lines of one character saying "What the hell is going on?" and another replying "Beats me but we are screwed". Or people asking Maura if she remembers.

[BetyBee]

All through this confusing series, I kept thinking of Star Trek TNG - the maze of same looking hallways, the confusion about reality. I told my husband more than once that they must be on the holodeck. I guess I was proved somewhat right when we saw the spaceship. I don't think I'll bother with another season if there is one. I'm very impressed by those here who know all of the characters' names. I think y'all pay more attention to details than I do!

[Spaceman Spiff]

On 11/22/2022 at 6:59 PM, iMonrey said:

I had no idea what was going on watching this. That's a lot of episodes to watch when you don't know what's going on. Sure, it's intriguing and visually compelling, but it's just a Russian Doll of a mystery which is very frustrating. Even finding out the whole thing was a simulation leaves me with far too many questions. 

I don't know if I'd watch another season. Binging does not lend itself to retention, I usually have to re-watch a season when a new one drops a year or two later, and I didn't like this enough to re-watch it.

Agreed and I can usually follow plot lines fairly well. Toward mid-season when you find out it is a simulation it totally negates any of the following death scenes having any emotional impact.

This final episode frustrates because imho nothing is resolved.

Maura: "My father is experimenting on us this isn't real, it's a simulation, he is the creator"

Maura's Father: "I'm not doing this, your mother and father are doing this, don't trust them. Your mother is the creator of this simulated reality and looping"

Daniel: "I reprogrammed everything so you could use your wedding ring to wake up from the simulation, beware your bother for he is the creator ( a character we never met)"

Maura awakens from stasis on a space ship in 2099 ala Dark City, and still nothing is resolved.

[foxfreakinmulder]

I'll watch season 2 if we get one but I have so many questions that didn't get answered. Here's just a couple, why did Maura remember her dad and brother but not husband and son? Why did those passengers jump off the ship? What was that black stuff that lady had on her hand? WTF is going on? I did like the cast and setting, I guess season 2 will take place in space? Why the hell would anyone make a simulation of a girl getting raped :-( 

[EarlGreyTea]

Did anyone else think Sebastian was going to turn out to be Ciaran, Maura's brother? It would make perfect sense - him being in on the simulation, having the red hair, and being the right hand to Maura's father.

I love Daniel and Maura, and whomever cast the little boy, Elliot, did a great job. Great little actor, and he looks like he could be their kid.

Daniel really works for me as a character. He does desperate longing really well.

Edited December 4, 2022 by EarlGreyTea

[silverstream]

12 hours ago, foxfreakinmulder said:

I'll watch season 2 if we get one but I have so many questions that didn't get answered. Here's just a couple, why did Maura remember her dad and brother but not husband and son?

[...]

I did like the cast and setting, I guess season 2 will take place in space? Why the hell would anyone make a simulation of a girl getting raped :-( 

I think Maura made herself forget her husband and her son on purpose - I can't remember which episode, but I'm almost positive Daniel had a line to that effect (before the son thing was revealed, it was only alluded to as some nebulous "trauma").

At this point, my theory is that the characters' 1899 pasts are a sort of "translation" of their actual memories, that is, for example in Tove's case, that something similar happened to her in the 2090s and the simulation just dressed it up in 1890s surroundings. (That is, of course, unless 2099 timeline isn't "real" either, but we'll have to wait for season 2 to get more evidence of that.)

11 hours ago, EarlGreyTea said:

Daniel really works for me as a character. He does desperate longing really well.

I agree! I like him too. In the forum of one of the early episodes I speculated Daniel's backstory would turn out to have something to do with Maura and it would be sad, and that was mostly due to the actor projecting at Maura so hard lol (and also due to the fact that the only other show I've seen that actor in wants you to very much see him as the "noble sacrificial hero").

[chediavolo]

On 11/26/2022 at 8:04 PM, patty1h said:

I'm throwing this out here for opinions from folks who have watched the whole series.   I just finished episode 5 and it's been a test of endurance and staving off boredom.  I am really wondering if I should keep on or bail now and save myself the time - is it worth the next 3 hours/episodes  or would it be better to cut my losses now.   Does everything somehow get wrapped up in such a satisfying way that makes the previous hours worthwhile?  I gave so much of my time to some mediocre shows (The Sinner, The Patient, The Midnight Club, Pam and Tommy, etc.) and ended up feeling used and cheated that I'm not going to take chances anymore.

Just a YES or NO will do, so as not to spoil other viewers.  Thanks.

Bail. Wasted 8 hours of my life. 

[Conotocarious]

I likes this so much better when it was a supernatural period piece.

[JustHereForFood]

Well, this was some bullshit.

I liked it up to about episode 5 or 6 I think, but it turned gradually worse and a lot of stuff was left being not important, which made me think of LOST, but here they managed that within one season.

When it was finally confirmed that they are in a simulation, I thought that we will get to see at least one more sequence from start to finish, but instead we had to watch a full episode of the simulation ending, people running up and down on the ship and the ship going through some tunnel to that place where all previous sequences ended, which was a huge waste of time, IMO.

Also, not only we didn't get to see what the mysterious crystals (or whatever it is) are, we didn't even see what it did to that woman's hand at the end. Well, I'm not interested enough to watch another season to find out.

On 11/21/2022 at 5:30 PM, krankydoodle said:

I wonder if I would've liked it more if I hadn't been comparing it to Dark, which got me much more invested in the various characters and their relationships.

For what is worth, I never watched Dark and I ended up disliking this series, after liking it at first. 

On 11/27/2022 at 2:04 AM, patty1h said:

I'm throwing this out here for opinions from folks who have watched the whole series.   I just finished episode 5 and it's been a test of endurance and staving off boredom.  I am really wondering if I should keep on or bail now and save myself the time - is it worth the next 3 hours/episodes  or would it be better to cut my losses now.   Does everything somehow get wrapped up in such a satisfying way that makes the previous hours worthwhile?  I gave so much of my time to some mediocre shows (The Sinner, The Patient, The Midnight Club, Pam and Tommy, etc.) and ended up feeling used and cheated that I'm not going to take chances anymore.

Just a YES or NO will do, so as not to spoil other viewers.  Thanks.

No, not worth it.

[Haleth]

On 11/25/2022 at 7:05 PM, silverstream said:

The biggest mystery to me right now is the brother. Assuming that the spaceship is actual reality, I think they were all in virtual reality for the space journey (that spaceship looked really cool, but it didn't look like it had a lot of creature comforts for passengers) and Maura's family is the heads of the shipping company in real life too. Maura and her husband seem to have been in charge of the VR; the simulation must originally have been some comfortable 1899 ship journey to go with their real-life 2099 ship journey. Then there was some kind of shism between Maura and her father (not sure what, or where the brother comes in here) and at the same time Elliot died (maybe a pod malfunction, or a meteor hit the capsule with his pod, or he fell ill, there's plenty of possibilities), and Maura went of the rails and decided to change the VR so she could forget her son was dead, trapping them all. Now the dad wants out - he doesn't care about anyone else getting out - and Daniel wants Maura out because he thinks she's the only one who can fix whatever's wrong in reality (the whole thing with her brother). And the reason the journey stopped being pleasant and started being a looping journey from hell is either because Maura was careless programming in her grief or (and I tend towards this explanation) was done on purpose as part of her father's attempt to get at the key and get out.

I really like this explanation but think Elliott was dead before Maura (and Daniel?) stepped onto the spaceship.  (I'm not sure Daniel is really there or part of Maura's program.)  I think Maura created a simulation of Elliott which somehow led to the malfunction.

Did the number of passengers and crew on the spaceship equal the number of passengers and crew on the steam ship?  I couldn't identify all the people in the pods but I'm thinking everyone who was on the ship (except maybe Elliott and Daniel?) were also on the spaceship.  All those people who jumped overboard are somewhere in stasis, waiting to be rebooted into the next loop.

What a terrible thing for those people who had to relive their guilt/trauma every 8 days.

I don't really understand Dad's motivation.  Why wouldn't he want the loop to stop?  Why wouldn't he help Maura use the key to wake up?

I hope this wasn't a one and done series.  I'd like to see where it goes from here, although I would much prefer to learn more about the passengers on the steam ship than watch Maura battle her brother for control of a spaceship.

On 11/26/2022 at 7:34 AM, SlovakPrincess said:

maybe they're in neither 1899 nor 2099

Maybe 1999? 

On 11/27/2022 at 6:05 PM, Kirsty said:

It's too bad Maura doesn't get to figure out a damn thing. Or rescue herself, let alone any of the others. It's very unsatisfying. And the usual tired sexist bullshit.

Season 2.  

[peachmangosteen]

3 hours ago, Haleth said:

Did the number of passengers and crew on the spaceship equal the number of passengers and crew on the steam ship?  I couldn't identify all the people in the pods but I'm thinking everyone who was on the ship (except maybe Elliott and Daniel?) were also on the spaceship.  All those people who jumped overboard are somewhere in stasis, waiting to be rebooted into the next loop.

Krester was in one of the pods and he was one of the people who jumped off the ship.

Quote

Maybe 1999? 

I swear, in the first ep when Maura is looking in the mirror, she starts to say '19' before correcting herself to say '18.' 

[Tardislass]

I really liked this even more than Dark. There is so much psychological stuff involved.

Spoiler

Emily Dickenson's poem in the beginning talking about sky, sea and God being like the mind. The beetles that Jung wrote about as a story for how patients believe what is real and the Greek mythology of Prometheus who created man and gave them scientific knowledge aka fire. The god Zeus punished him by making a bird peck out his liver and having it grow back only to have the whole cycle start again. Kerberos was the three headed dog that guarded Hades and kept the dead from leaving. Even the devices are like puzzle games that are big in Germany.

For those who don't like puzzles it's probably dull, but I'm loving it and the songs fit perfect and everyone is really pretty-and good actors.

On 12/14/2022 at 9:36 AM, peachmangosteen said:

Krester was in one of the pods and he was one of the people who jumped off the ship.

I swear, in the first ep when Maura is looking in the mirror, she starts to say '19' before correcting herself to say '18.' 

What I thought was interesting was she had to correct herself from saying she WAS a doctor. Hmm. Honestly, I think the show is easier to follow than their last one but I'm guessing it will probably be better to wait until all seasons are done to understand it. I've read several people think it's dull but I don't see it. It's more like a mystery that drops clues and hints and doesn't reveal much until S2 or S3. At least the creators know the ending. I'll never forgive myself for watching all 11 seasons of the X-Files and thinking there was a cohesive story. And what they did to GA in the last episode was criminal. But I digress.

[sugarbaker design]

Will season 2, if there is one, be called 2099?

[wanderingstar]

Some scattered thoughts after rewatching the finale.

*Maura's father is a shit parent and an even shittier grandparent.

*Someone, please give poor Elliott a hug.

*Love the creepiness of the ship archive.

*Maura and Eyk's reunion - and the faces of the other passengers witnessing it - will always delight me. Felt bad for her when Sebastien "turned off" Eyk. She and Eyk really did hold onto each other across this nightmare like their lives depended on it.

*I was tracking who was ending up in whose memory landscapes: Maura + Eyk ended up in Tove's; Mrs. Wilson and Tove ended up in Jerome's. Clemence and Jerome ended up in Ling Yi, and Ling Yi and Ramiro ended up in Maura's - and then Ramiro's(?)

*I found it interesting that Maura said that she feels nothing when she sees pictures of her and Elliott.

*So, all the main characters were in the spaceship pods at the end - EXCEPT Daniel, Elliot, Sebastien, and Henry. 

Quote

Will season 2, if there is one, be called 2099?

That was my assumption, but sadly, the creators of the show confirmed on their Instagram that the show has not been renewed for a second season. I'm bummed because I really loved this show and wished the creators had gotten a second season to elaborate on the story.

[wanderingstar]

I miss this show, so I made an "inspired by" playlist that includes some of the songs played in the episode outros.

 

Edited January 12, 2023 by Gillian Rosh

[Dobian]

This show was too messy for me.  It began as The Titanic, then turned into a Twilight Zone episode, then Dr. Who shows up, and then it wraps up with Maura in Space 1999 (not a typo, the old show).

Edited February 19, 2023 by Dobian