Tamal Kundu
A Jon Iver Helgaker, Jonas Torgersen, and Joel Trussell creation, ‘Captain Fall’ is an adult-animated crime comedy series. The plot revolves around the eponymous Captain Jonathan Fall (Jason Ritter), a gullible young man who graduates at the bottom of his class and is surprised when he discovers he has been hired to captain the Caribbean Queen cruise ship. What Jonathan doesn’t know is that the ship is secretly used in an international smuggling and human trafficking operation, and all his subordinates are involved in it.
The real mastermind of the operation intends to use the hapless Jonathan as a scapegoat for his illegal activities, so his underlings collect evidence implicating Jonathan in all their crimes. Blissfully unaware of this, Jonathan starts believing that these people genuinely care about him, unlike his family members, who are admittedly horrible. Here is everything you might want to know about the ending of ‘Captain Fall’ season 1. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Captain Fall Recap
Helgaker and Torgersen are the creators of ‘Vikingane’ or ‘Norsemen,’ the spoofy and satirical comedy series. They bring their brand of absurd and brutal comedy to the modern maritime with ‘Captain Fall.’ Jonathan is the quintessential neglected younger child of his family. His parents showered all their love on his older brother, Tanner (Adam DeVine), leaving Jonathan to be effectively raised by the family maid. Jonathan grew up to be insecure and naive but kind to a fault. His family has been maritime captains for generations, but as mentioned above, Jonathan graduates at the bottom of his class and has little choice besides accepting a gig that involves captaining a boat at an amusement park. However, he fails to hold on to even that job after Tanner shows up one day at his workplace and destroys the boat.
The series begins with the arrest of the previous captain of the cruise ship, prompting the secret head of the entire operation, Mr. Tyrant (Anthony Carrigan), to order a different approach this time. He first has the former captain killed and makes it seem like a suicide. He then instructs Liza (Lesley-Ann Brandt) and Pedro (Alejandro Edda), two officers on the ship, to find him the worst possible captain, and that’s what leads them to Jonathan. Along with his family, Jonathan is surprised by the job offer but eagerly accepts it. Suddenly, his parents’ behavior toward him changes drastically, bewildering both Jonathan and Tanner.
On the first day at the job, Jonathan witnesses Pedro viciously killing a group of would-be muggers in Rio de Janeiro. Although Pedro and Liza succeed in convincing Jonathan that the local law allows people to kill muggers, he is still traumatized by the incident. Liza decides to try something else and pretends she is romantically interested in Jonathan. This works like a charm, and Jonathan recovers quickly.
Even though ‘Captain Fall’ has narrative threads that stretch across the season, the episodes are self-contained in certain aspects. In one of the early episodes, the Caribbean Queen delivers a group of indigenous South American tribal people to a human zoo in South Africa. In another episode, it is revealed that the group develops and supplies erectile dysfunction drugs made from tiger penis. In episode 7, the ship hosts a meeting between an African warlord who fears public speaking and a prospective Chinese client looking for efficient soldiers. The smugglers use a feline paw as its logo, which draws the attention of Agent Steel (Christopher Meloni) of the Special Unit, seemingly the only man in his team to care about work and not be immersed in social media.
In the season 1 finale, Steel infiltrates the ship hoping to catch the mastermind behind the operation and erroneously zeroes in on Jonathan, who is completely head over heels in love with Liza. Overly trustful and naive as ever, Jonathan organizes “mandatory foam party” on the ship that the rest of the crew uses as a guise to deliver their Middle-Eastern client his newest wife.
Captain Fall Ending: Does Jonathan Find out the Truth?
The first season ends somewhat abruptly without reaching any significant conclusion. Jonathan remains as naive and clueless as ever, though it seems that he has started to suspect something is amiss after his confrontation with Steel, who accuses him of being the mastermind of the entire smuggling and human trafficking organization before jumping into the ocean to escape.
Jonathan’s parents and brother are horrible people; Liza recognizes this when she accompanies him to his home. It’s incredibly tragic when Jonathan states that the people he works with on the Caribbean Queen are his family, allowing Liza to reflect on the irony as she and the others are setting him up to take the “fall” for their crimes.
Why Does Agent Steel Suspect Jonathan?
After a disastrous raid in which several people die, Steel’s life gets ruined, and his wife leaves him. He spends a few days wallowing in self-pity until one of his friends takes him out for speed dating. Throughout the evening, he remains disinterested in everything around him until he notices an advertisement for singles’ night on the Caribbean Queen. On the side of the photo, there are crates with a feline paw logo. Steel makes the connection and travels to Cyprus, where the ship is currently anchored.
After infiltrating into the Caribbean Queen, Steel finds the file that the crew has created on Jonathan, implicating him in their crimes. Early in the season, Steel correctly deduced that the former captain wasn’t the mastermind of the operation. But here, he ultimately makes the same mistakes that his colleagues earlier did. In his haste to find the culprit, Steel concludes that Jonathan is responsible. He grabs the file and the other evidence he has accumulated and prepares to jump off the ship. This is when he and Jonathan encounter each other.
Neither man knows what the other is speaking about when Steel accuses Jonathan of being the mastermind, and Jonathan claims that he is a humble captain who ferries passengers from points A to B. But before leaving, Steel declares himself as Jonathan’s “worst nightmare,” and that seems to trigger something in Jonathan’s mind. Since becoming the Caribbean Queen’s captain, Jonathan has been drugged multiple times, and his memories have been suppressed. As a result, he is plagued with vivid nightmares. So, when Steel mentions nightmares, Jonathan’s brain seems makes an automatic connection, though he doesn’t completely realize what is happening.
Does Tanner Know the Truth about Liza?
At one point in the series, Tanner is also hired as a cruise ship captain but is later fired when it becomes apparent that he is a nearly irredeemable sexual deviant. He ends up returning home and finds himself at the receiving end of his parents’ scorn for the first time in his life.
When Jonathan comes for a visit with Liza, Tanner tries to seduce the latter, and that goes as well as one can guess. Tanner is petty and cruel, but he is no match for a cold-blooded murderer. She tortures him and forces him to behave much more brotherly with Jonathan.
Later in the evening, Liza receives a call from Pedro and goes outside hoping to get a better signal. She doesn’t know that Tanner is in the tree house when Liza turns on the speaker on her phone to speak to her colleague. However, by the time she is finished, Tanner is shown to be in a deep sleep. He likely has heard something, and that will play an important role in season 2.
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