Tamal Kundu
Netflix’s ‘Barracuda Queens’ is a Swedish crime-drama series. Set in 1995 in Stockholm, the show is very loosely based on a series of burglaries committed by a group called the Lidingöligan in the late 1990s. While the Lidingöligan was exclusively comprised of boys, the burglars in ‘Barracuda Queens’ are all young women, though both the real and the fictional groups are from affluent and privileged backgrounds. As the series begins, childhood friends Louise “Lollo” Millkvist (Alva Bratt), Klara Rapp (Tindra Monsen), and Mia Thorstensson (Tea Stjärne), and Klara’s sister, Frida (Sandra Strandberg Zubovic) incur a considerable bill after a night of partying.
Not wanting to ask their parents for money, the girls devise a plan to break into the home of their new neighbor, Amina Khalil (Sarah Gustafsson). What they don’t know is that Amina is home at the time, and she sees them during the act. But instead of revealing everything to the police, she joins the group as they begin targeting their rich and annoying neighbors. Here is everything you need to know about the ending of ‘Barracuda Queens’ season 1. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Barracuda Queens Recap
The series begins with a flash forward to October 1995, when the police interrogate the Barracuda Queens. The narrative then shifts to earlier that year and finds Lollo, Klara, Mia, and Frida spending their final wild night at a luxury hotel in Båstad. Lollo wakes up the following morning on the beach, nude and with a guy she doesn’t even know. Klara fell asleep in the bathtub with the tap running. Her sister’s shouts awaken her, and she discovers that the washroom is flooded. When they reach their homes in Djursholm, Lollo finds that she has been charged 100,000 kronor on her credit card for the partying, while Klara discovers that she has to pay 75,000 kronor for the water damage she caused to the hotel.
The girls are called the Barracuda Queens because they used to spy on older boys at the Barracuda beach and presumably later partied there themselves. Among the friends, Mia leads a relatively non-affluent life. Her parents are divorced, and she lives in a working-class home with her mother. She also works as a maid for a wealthy couple, Gunilla and Gustav Carlsson. The latter has a tendency to grope her at any chance he gets.
At the party hosted by Lollo’s parents, Margareta (Izabella Scorupco) and Lars, the girls discuss how they will get the money to pay off the debts. Klara is an exceptional law student and diligent daughter, and she can’t let her parents find out that she was so drunk that she passed out in a hotel bathtub. As for Lollo, her mother has told her that she needs to take responsibility for her actions.
At this very party, the girls meet Amina, and Klara steals Margareta’s watch. Although she later pawns it along with her own timepiece, it’s still not enough to pay back the hotel. Feeling guilty, Klara confesses to the girls, giving Lollo an idea. After seeing the type of jewelry Amina’s mother has, the Barracuda Queens decide to break into the Khalil household on the day they are supposed to be at a wedding in Cairo and steal things. However, they discover that Amina is still in the house. She wakes up by the commotion and recognizes all the burglars.
When Amina’s parents return to Sweden, they speak to the police, and Amina claims that she slept through the entire incident. She later approaches Lollo, assuring her that she and the others have no reason to be worried about her and a friendship forms between the two. With Lollo’s brother Calle in town, Lollo encounters Tobias, a friend of theirs since childhood. When Tobias breaks her heart, the four girls decide to make him their first target. Tobias spends most of the year in London; his parents aren’t in Sweden either. So, the girls have an easy time burgling his home and stealing artworks, expensive wines, and other valuables. Before departing, they drink “super expensive” champagne, leaving the empty bottle on a table with four glasses around it.
Soon, Amina joins the gang, and the number of glasses becomes five. As time passes, the burglaries become more frequent and daring, drawing the attention of the authorities. Lollo forces one of her relatives, Carl-Johan, to hide the stolen goods in the barn on his property. However, Trisha, a maid at the Khalil household, finds out what the Barracuda Queens are up to and begins blackmailing Amina. Klara breaks up with her pretentious and insufferable boyfriend, Niklas. Calle and Amina briefly date before the latter ends the relationship because of the rising tension between her and Lollo. In the season finale, the girls’ crime spree comes to a jarring halt after the police track down some jewelry they stole at a pawn shop.
Barracuda Queens Ending: Do the Barracuda Queens Get Caught? Do They Go to Prison?
The Barracuda Queens first draw the attention of the authorities in the burglary investigation when Lollo is apprehended for speeding in a stolen Rolls-Royce convertible. She claims the car belongs to Carl-Johan, but that doesn’t make the police go away. In one of the times Trisha blackmails her, Amina gives her the earrings they took from the Carlsson household. When Trisha pawns them, the authorities find out and come for her. The Barracuda Queens threaten Trisha to stop her from revealing anything about them, and she doesn’t. Amina’s parents later have her deported.
However, the detectives investigating the case realize that the five girls are part of a clique and connected in one way or the other to all the burglary victims. Combining all this with the fact that five empty glasses were found at every crime scene, the detectives come up with the theory that the girls are responsible for the burglary. The Barracuda Queens are brought in for questioning before they can get their story in order. The more they speak, the more they implicate themselves.
However, the girls get incredibly lucky as a group of male burglars breaks into Klara and Frida’s home while their father is there. He calls the police, and the burglars are caught red-handed. Among the things recovered from them are some of the stolen goods that Frida collected from every burglary, which effectively makes this group the suspects. The authorities also raid the property of Carl-Johan’s family and find the barn empty. They have no other choice but to set the Barracuda Queens free.
Who Moves the Stolen Goods from the Barn?
After the detectives come to speak to Carl-Johan, he reaches out to Margareta. After recovering from the shock of learning about what her daughter and her friends have been doing, Margareta cleans up Lollo’s mess with Carl-Johan’s help. When the girls are released, they find all the stolen goods at “the practice,” likely an office space used by the Millkvist family, after Margareta sends them there and realizes that she is the one who saved them.
There is a subplot in the show revolving around Margareta, Lars, and their failing marriage. Lars wants out and is in love with Viveca, Klara and Frida’s mother. Like every wealthy neighborhood, this one has its secrets. The adults often get together and swap their partners. But Lars believes that he shares something special with Viveca. Margareta has repeatedly told him that Viveca will never leave her husband, and she is proven right. As the series ends, Margareta does a proverbial victory lap and visits a luxurious hotel with her husband.
Will the Barracuda Queens Continue the Burglaries?
After their release, the girls drink and celebrate, demonstrating that they have learned very little from their recent ordeal and not realizing how close they came to going to prison. In this instance, they were helped by sheer luck and Margareta, but that will not always be the case. As they have gotten away with their crime, it is bound to fill them with confidence and a sense of invulnerability. Like their real-life counterparts, the Barracuda Queens will probably continue their burglaries for years to come until their caught and prosecuted. But that apparently didn’t stop the Lidingöligan, so there is no reason that conviction will stop the girls either.
Read More: Is Barracuda Queens Based on a True Story?
