Rohan Jain
Netflix’s ‘1899‘ is a sci-fi mystery TV series that follows a group of migrants on a passenger ship, Kerberos. When Kerberos finds Prometheus, a missing ship, the passengers start experiencing unexplainable things that make them question what’s real and what’s not. The plot thickens in episode 5 after episode 4’s shocking ending, wherein the boy is thrown off the ship but reappears in the ship’s cabinet.
Episode 5 picks up from this point and comprises incidents we don’t quite understand. However, a few revelations bring us slightly closer to the mystery behind the ships. Maura’s motive for being on the ship becomes more apparent, and we learn more about the Creator himself. So, here’s everything you need to know about what happens in episode 5. SPOILERS AHEAD!
1899 Episode 5 Recap
Episode 5 delves further into two major subplots, which involve the revelation of Maura’s true identity and the Creator. Besides these, we see passengers experience hypnosis while Daniel and the boy try to accomplish their mission.
Maura’s Real Identity
The episode begins with Maura’s dream, in which she is being dragged into a mental ward and injected with a black liquid. When Maura wakes up, she learns that the boy is locked in a cabinet, and everyone is puzzled about how he got back from the sea. As Maura protests and tries to get him out, people get hostile. One of the people impulsively shoots her, but the bullet freezes midway along with everyone else in the room.
Only Maura is able to move, and she decides to unlock the cabinet and bring the boy out. Maura sees the pyramid in his hand and deduces that the pyramid gives the boy the power to stop time. The boy takes Maura to her room, and as she asks him questions, he simply writes, “They are listening,” on a piece of paper. The boy also whispers to Maura that he can’t say anything and that she has to ask the Creator. The sentence makes us wonder if everything happening aboard the Kerberos is one person’s doing, and we find an answer by the episode’s end.
The boy then takes Maura to the shaft underneath her bed. He uses his green beetle bug to create a portal through the shaft’s wall and leads Maura to the place outside the hospital. It’s the same place Maura sees in her dreams, but she seems to be awake this time. Maura ends up in the same mental ward and sees her father standing behind her. She asks him about her brother, and her father says Maura isn’t asking the right questions. He injects the black liquid into Maura, and she wakes up in her room. Maura doesn’t understand how she wakes up despite not dreaming and why her father glitches in the mental ward.
Maura seeks out Captain Eyk and confesses that she hasn’t been forthcoming with him. She says her real name is Maura Singleton and not Maura Franklin. The captain pieces together that the man, Henry Singleton, who bought three ships, including Prometheus and Kerberos, is Maura’s father. Maura talks about a letter she received from her brother, which said that he knew what their father was up to.
Maura reveals that, like herself, her father is a doctor. However, the latter is obsessed with the human mind and will go to any lengths to study and understand it. Maura seems too sure that Henry bought the ships to perform experiments on people and that everything happening on Kerberos might not be real. The revelation also makes us wonder if Henry is the Creator.
The Hypnotic State of Passengers
While this happens, a machine in the steam room starts on its own. It’s the same machine Captain Eyk showed Maura in an earlier episode and mentioned how it doesn’t work. Right after the machine starts, the passengers go into a trance, go to the deck and jump overboard. Ling Yi’s mother and Krester are two significant characters that jump from the ship. The passengers who aren’t in a trance figure out that the trance state is contagious. So they tie themselves to heavy objects to ensure they don’t meet the same fate.
Daniel and the Boy’s Mission
However, Daniel Solace seems unaffected by the ticking sound that seems to cause the hypnosis. After the boy stops time and takes Maura away, Daniel finds the boy outside the hospital. Daniel asks the boy if he brought Maura here, and the latter says Maura didn’t remember. The boy also says that they haven’t made it this far before. The conversation seems cryptic but makes us ponder. We wonder if this has happened before and if the boy and Daniel are trying to accomplish something together. We also consider the connection between Maura, Daniel, and the boy. After all, in episode 4, the boy hugs Maura, and in episode 5, Daniel dives in front of the bullet to save Maura. So, how are the three connected, and what does the boy want Maura to remember?
As we ask these questions, we see Daniel go to the steam room and connect his device to the machine. After sliding a few buttons, Daniel stops the machine. The ticking sound stops, and the people come out of the hypnotic state. It makes us realize that the machine is responsible for hypnotizing people, but we still do not know who controls it.
The First Mate and Henry’s Connection
While these events unfold, the first mate seems to be up to something too. He opens a hidden compartment and starts pressing buttons. However, there are only two buttons – one is a triangle, and the other is an identical but inverted triangle. Later, when he goes into the control room, a crew member gives him a message which says ‘Sink ship.” The first mate takes out a device that looks exactly like the one with Daniel. He slides a few buttons, and the crew member faints. It’s almost as if he switches off the man and then hides him.
After the hypnosis stops, a few surviving passengers, including Maura, and Captain Eyk, regroup on the deck. Daniel and the first mate join them too, and the latter gives Eyk the telegraph, which says, “Sink ship.” Daniel says that the company could mean Kerberos and not Prometheus.
The scene then cuts to an office where Maura’s father, Henry, sits. Henry receives a telegraph which has a cryptic message on it. The message is in triangles and inverted triangles, indicating that the first mate might have sent the message. Henry reads the message and says they don’t have much time and that the boy needs to be found. Henry then looks out from his window and sees a giant pyramid. We get the impression that Henry is the Creator, and the pyramid might be related to everything happening on the ship.
Read More: 1899 Episode 7 Recap and Full Summary
