Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Kaleidoscope’ follows the story of a man named Ray Vernon who brings together a group of highly skilled people to steal billions worth of undeclared bearer bonds. The stakes are just as high as the prize from the heist, but Ray is ready to do it even if it’s the last thing he does. We soon find out that things are much more personal to him and it’s not just about the money. By the end, the storm clears, and secrets, lies, and betrayals of the people Ray trusted the most come to the fore. Here’s what the ending means for him and the rest of the people involved with the heist. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Kaleidoscope Plot Synopsis
Moving non-linearly in time, the story of Ray Vernon becomes the central plot of ‘Kaleidoscope’. Years ago, he was friends with a man now known as Roger Salas. They’d executed many heists together, but during one such stint, Ray suffered a heavy personal loss while Roger slipped away and started a life for himself that Ray always wanted. Years later, Ray gets a chance to exact his revenge when he discovers that Roger has started a security firm that holds billions in bearer bonds. Ray plans to steal them, ruining Roger and exacting his revenge.
Orchestrating such a plan requires people who are not only great at what they do but are also the ones that Ray can trust. He starts with Stan, the man who had been Ray’s cellmate in jail. Stan can procure anything, including a chemist named Judy. Stan and Judy have a history which makes things a little complicated considering that Judy is now married to a hotheaded man named Bob. There is also Ava Mercer, Ray’s attorney, who is good at keeping things in line, handling everything from finance to security. Just when it looks like Ray has his dream team and an airtight plan, FBI agent Nazan Abassi starts looking into them, putting a wrench in their plans.
Kaleidoscope Ending: Who Stole the Bonds?
The bonds are everything when it comes to the heist. For the entire team, they are the only motivation to take a risk that can potentially ruin their lives and maybe even lead to their death. However, in the aftermath of the heist, no one seems to know where the bonds are. Not even Ray. Even months later, those who survived the heist have no idea what happened to the money. It was all supposed to have been loaded on the truck, but when they open the boxes, there are blank sheets of paper under a cover bond to dupe them. This poses the question, where did the bonds go?
The answer is revealed in the final episode where we see the heist take place. Ray concocted the entire plan on the shoulders of his daughter, Hannah, who was his inside man on the job. He just wanted her to pass on the information and place some things inside SLS to make his job easier during the heist. However, he didn’t want Hannah to be there when the heist took place. He never wanted her to be connected with it, which could not only risk her career but also put her life in danger. Hannah, however, didn’t agree with her father.
While Ray is busy making plans of how to get the bonds out of the vault, Hannah is busy figuring out how to take those bonds from her father and his crew. And she comes up with an ingenious plan. The building where SLS has its offices is also from where FedEx sends out its packages. Hannah gets her adoptive sister, Liz, a job there. According to Ray’s plan, once the bonds are out of the vault, Judy would send them through the elevator to RJ. Inside the elevator, the boxes would be unchaperoned, which is where Hannah comes in.
The FedEx facility lies between the SLS office and the floor where RJ will intercept it. Hannah finds a way to stop the elevator at FedEx without anyone knowing. This is where she gets the boxes out, and swaps them with the ones that have blank sheets of paper. She leaves a couple of bonds on the top in every box, just in case someone peeps in. She knows that no one has time to check all the bonds, which means that she can get away with it before anyone’s the wiser. Getting Liz that job was also a part of her plan. In this way, she manages to get almost all the bonds out of the reach of her father.
Why Did Hannah Betray Ray?
Considering that Hannah is the closest person to Ray in the entire group, it makes one wonder why she would go to such lengths to ruin her father’s plan. Why would Hannah betray Ray? It turns out, this was for his own good. When Ray made the plan to steal the bonds, he was focused on taking revenge on Roger. He didn’t realize that he would be stealing from some of the most powerful people in the world, ones who would never stop looking for him and once they found him, they wouldn’t be very forgiving. Hannah wanted to save her father from himself, but for seven years, he showed no inclination to change. So, she had to change tactics.
Hannah stole the bonds only to give them back to the people to whom they originally belonged. She knew that they were looking to clean those bonds because they were undeclared and hence fell under the category of black money. Previously, Thiele had approached Roger to find a way, but Hannah gave them an option of her own. She told them about the robbery. With the bonds stolen, they could not only get the insurance on those bonds, but they could also completely escape the legalities surrounding them. They wouldn’t have to answer for something that they didn’t have, making it easier for them to move those bonds and turn them into clean money.
She also tells them about the few bonds that they would lose, but those losses would be easily covered by insurance money. With this plan, she gives a win-win situation for her clients. It is not only beneficial for them but also makes Hannah an important asset for them, ensuring her safety. Another reason this is a smart move on her part is that it will ensure her career safety. Once SLS is robbed, Roger is bound to go down. If Hannah didn’t betray Ray to help the clients, it would have been career suicide for her too. Who would hire a person whose promotion was immediately followed by a robbery? But by becoming the money launderer for the three most powerful people in the world, she makes sure that she has a job, ensuring her financial security.
Hannah also didn’t want Ray to be hunted for the rest of his life, which she knew would happen if the clients didn’t know where their bonds went. Even though it didn’t make much of a difference, this move on her part was to try and save her father. With this, she also made him realize that she was no longer tied to him. She wouldn’t spend another minute trying to change him, because he tried that years ago but failed, and it cost Lily her life. Hannah is not going to fall into the same cycle, so this betrayal is a way for her to show her father that she is more than just a pawn in his game.
What Does Ray Put in Roger’s Personal Vault?
In the episode that takes place immediately after the heist, we find Roger Salas going through the empty vaults of his security company. All the bonds of his clients are gone, but that’s not it. When, on the insistence of Agent Abassi, he opens his personal vault, he finds something that Ray has left behind for him. What is this thing and what does it mean for him and Ray?
Years ago, when Ray and Roger were still friends they planned a heist. This was after Ray had decided to call quits on his career in crime, wanting to do the right thing for his family. However, it backfired on him, and once again, he was lured back into the game, which was equal parts revenge and greed. He and Roger tried to steal gems from the necklaces that were being presented inside the same place where his wife used to work at before she was unfairly fired.
The same night that Ray gets to stealing, unbeknownst to him, his wife arrives on the premises. When Ray is almost caught, Roger stages a fire to buy them some time. However, Lily gets trapped in it and dies. It is particularly painful for Ray because he believes that Roger could have saved her. Instead, he saved his own skin and ran away. All of this happened because of the gems they wanted to steal. It cost Ray everything because his wife died during the heist, following which, he was caught by the cops, leading to separation from his daughter, whom he didn’t see for another seventeen years. Meanwhile, Roger not only walked scot-free but also built a good life for himself, never giving Ray another thought.
Ray gets angry about this fact, which is why he decides to ruin Roger. He ruins his business by stealing the bonds, but that’s not enough. Ray wants his old pal to know who was behind the robbery. So, he leaves the same gem that he was busy stealing while his wife walked into the room next door where she would later die. This is Ray’s way of letting Roger know that Ray has had his revenge.
Read More: Correct Order of Watching Kaleidoscope
