Diksha Sundriyal
A string of mysterious disappearances, a decades-old murder case, a tangled mess of relationships, and a cult at the center of it define Netflix’s French mystery drama, ‘Anthracite.’ It begins with a kidnapping and a web sleuth, Ida, coming to the village of Levionna to figure out what happened to her journalist father, who was looking into the thirty-year-old cold case connected to the mass suicide of a prominent cult. The path to the truth is trying and tiring, especially as Ida struggles to keep up with the case in the face of her depleting health. By the end, however, she has a renewed vigor, especially now that she knows she is incredibly good at her job.
While there are many baffling twists and turns in the entire show, what might catch the audience off guard the most is its mid-credits scene. What does one make of it? How is it connected to the overall arc of the story? SPOILERS AHEAD
The Post-Credits Scene Expands the Possibilities For Anthracite Season 2
Labeled as a limited series, ‘Anthracite’ remains true to form and ties up all loose ends, at least the relevant ones that pertain to the case(s) at hand. Every question in the show is answered to the audience’s satisfaction, barely leaving anything to the imagination. From the latest disappearance of Ida’s father to the thirty years old mystery of Roxane and Marie and the cult’s mass suicide, every single case, every death, every conflict in the show is resolved by the time the credits start to roll, which confirms that the show has done its job. But then, we get the post-credits scene, and a promise of something new is served to the audience.
In this scene, Ida tells the audience how her father made a documentary about the case and has almost finished it. Every person relevant to the case has been interviewed, and Ida is on the hot seat, answering questions about the case when she receives a text on the forum. She cannot ignore it because the forum and the community of iData have become an important part of her life. When she was diagnosed with leukemia at a young age, she was left by herself, getting chemotherapy and spending a lot of alone time in the hospital. Because even her own father couldn’t stay with her through it, he decided to give her a companion who could. He brought her a laptop and put all the world at her feet.
This led Ida to discover her community online. She found her people all over the world, and the connection between them was such that she could be anywhere in the world at any time of the day, and there would always be someone to talk to her, help her, assist her, advise her, and be there for her. And she could be the same for other people. To consolidate this bond, Ida created iData, which soon evolved into a family for her and was extremely helpful in solving her problems in Levionna. While her problems are solved, one must remember that iData is an international community, which means Ida is not the only one with a sketchy past, loads of secrets, and a ton of mysteries surrounding her.
For all the community has done for her, it is now her turn to give back. The video that she receives doesn’t necessarily pertain to her own case. In fact, from the looks of it (CCTV footage of a woman receiving a mysterious box and jumping away from it in fear after opening it), it is a completely unrelated case. It is posted by someone like her, who wants help solving the mystery of the box, or even by some curious sleuth who came across the video and decided to delve into its mystery, employing the community’s help in figuring out what the case is all about.
Ida’s immediate curiosity about the video, coupled with her desire to become a journalist just like her father, proves that she is ready for the next challenge. By this time, she knows all the secrets that had been kept from her since she was born. This has also allowed her to receive the treatment that would cure her of her years-long illness and live a healthy life again, something that she had completely given up hope on. But now that she knows she is not going to die of leukemia, she can focus on her dream of becoming a legit journalist, of using her skills as a web sleuth to crack seemingly uncrackable cases, and the video appears to be a worthy challenge, a perfect case for her to solve, to establish herself as a sleuth of note.
By extension, this also means that the Netflix series is open to a second season, which may or may not be connected to the plot/case of Season 1. The show could very well become an anthology, with certain characters like Ida, being the only common ground it has with the previous season, making the audience all the more excited to find out where the next case will lead her, and more importantly, to find out about the contents of the mysteiorus box.
Read More: Anthracite: Is the Netflix Show Inspired by Actual Events?
