Nemesis Ending Explained: Does Coltrane Get Caught?

The Netflix crime drama series ‘Nemesis’ charts the story of a cop’s obsessive cat-and-mouse chase after a criminal. Ever since the death of his partner, Lieutenant Isaiah Stiles has been chasing after a four-person crew in an attempt to bring the right people to justice. Therefore, he becomes convinced that he has finally pinned down his partners’ right killers when a string of robberies begins to pop up around Los Angeles with a familiar MO involved. However, things go south when he zeroes in on Coltrane Wilder, a respected community member and successful businessman, as his prime suspect in the case. The latter is an expert at juggling two lives and tying up all loose ends when it comes to his criminal profile. Consequently, as the distance between these two men shortens, the stakes get higher and so do the risks. SPOILERS AHEAD!

Nemesis Recap

A robbery unravels at a high-profile Halloween party in Los Angeles, where four individuals dressed as robbers from the 1940s walk away with a large payday. Off-the-bat, law enforcement officer, Isaiah Stiles, gets a sense that the crime is related to the death of Manny, his last trainee, who was gunned down during a theft response call. Although the department caught a killer and labeled the case solved, the Lieutenant is convinced that the real killers are still out there. His ensuing obsessive search for them has come with a high cost, including the estrangement from his family and a separation from his wife, Candace. Even though his Captain, Jimmy, thinks he’s on a wild goose chase, he allows him to look into the case for curiosity’s sake.

Meanwhile, Coltrane, the head of the foursome behind the robbery, learns that his wife, Ebony, no longer wants to participate in their criminal escapades. Furthermore, she wants him to leave this life behind. As a result, he agrees to go straight after pulling off two jobs to get enough money for himself and his crew. The group receives jobs from Charlie, the mastermind behind the operations, who also happens to be Ebony’s older sister. Given the circumstances, she puts Coltrane’s crew on a diamond heist, involving simultaneous robberies at three different stores. Although the heist is a success, one mistake from Deon leads to the death of two police officers, turning the theft into a cop-killer case. Luckily for Isaiah, he gets to be the one at the helm of the case and even snags himself a task force for the job.

Nonetheless, the case soon gets closed after the discovery of the diamonds in a crime
scene involving the deaths of multiple gang members. While the department buys it, Isaiah remains convinced that the whole thing is staged, meant to throw them off the real perpetrators’ scent. At the same time, he has plenty on his plate in his personal life, too, as his son, Noah, insists on getting closer to his deadbeat grandad, Amos. Things begin to look up when Isiaha makes some progress in his off-record investigation and learns about Deon and his potential involvement in the diamond heist. Through him, he also identifies the other members of the crew and pins Coltrane down as the potential ringleader. Shortly afterward, he attends a charity event with Candace and discovers that she is friends with Coltrane’s wife, Ebony. Simultaneously, the latter realizes the Lieutenant is on his tail. He also learns about his wife’s pregnancy on the same night. As a result, he decides to take a risky, but lucrative job from Charlie to put an end to his double life as soon as possible.

However, the last job introduces new problems when Charlie’s contact, heir of a dangerous Armenian cartel, Andrei, backs out of the deal, leaving the crew with large amounts of drugs and no pay. Initially, Coltrane tries to solve the problem by paying his friends with his own money. Nonetheless, Deon gets greedy and tries to sell the product himself, which swiftly leads him into a set-up. Although he chooses to sacrifice his life rather than sell out his friends, Isaiah is still able to connect with Coltrane, allowing him to investigate the businessman openly. This ticks off the other man, who decides to rope Amos into his next scheme in an attempt to use him as a scapegoat. Their plan ends with a public shootout with the police that puts Isaiah’s job on the line. Ultimately, Coltrane kills Amos and tries to frame the son for the murder. Still, despite the perfect set-up, all hope isn’t yet lost for the suspended officer.

Nemesis Ending: Does Isaiah Catch Coltrane?

Isaiah’s driving motivation throughout the series remains his incessant desire to catch Coltrane for the death of his trainee, Manny. Every crime the latter commits only serves as another layer to his pre-existing rap sheet that the Lieutenant becomes aware of, desperate to prove in an effort to arrest him. Nonetheless, the businessman seems to always be one step ahead of him. Anytime the cops get close to him, Coltrane throws them a scapegoat to frame for the crime, seamlessly closing the case and erasing himself from the narrative. Therefore, Isaiah’s biggest challenge remains his inability to attach him to any of the crimes. In the absence of any hard proof, his pursuit of the respected real estate mogul simply begins to seem like a crazed witch hunt.

Isaiah’s chances are further diminished when Coltrane doubles down on his presumed innocence in the aftermath of Amos’ death, walking into the precinct with Ebony to prove his innocence. Even so, the former Lieutenant manages to convince the Captain and his task force that he’s being framed for the murder of his father. Meanwhile, Candace believes that her friend, Ebony, is trapped in an abusive marriage, being forced to support her husband’s innocence for the sake of her and her unborn child’s safety. For the same reason, she agrees to ambush her with a secretly recorded meeting in an attempt to get a confession out of her. However, all this does is expose the fact that Noah’s life is possibly in danger. As it turns out, the teenager, who witnessed Coltrane killing Amos, is a loose end and has become a prime target for currently-MIA Charlie.

As a result, Ebony gets arrested for conspiracy to murder while the Stiles family and the police department scramble to find and rescue Noah. Eventually, this ends with Ebony reaching out to Charlie to call off the hit. Yet, after walking away from custody, she tries to skip town only to end up injured and back in custody, this time in a hospital room. Thus, Coltrane, who refuses to flee to safety without his wife, is compelled to enact a rescue mission that includes using himself as bait for the police officers. As such, it all comes down to a chase between him and Isaiah. In the end, the criminal manages to once again outmaneuver the cop. Even though he is within an arm’s distance from Isaiah, the latter has no choice but to allow his rival to escape. Ultimately, Coltrane runs to his freedom, earning a fugitive status but successfully avoiding arrest for now.

Why Does Isaiah Let Coltrane Go?

The final confrontation between Isaiah and Coltrane isn’t a simple showdown between the two characters. Instead, it also includes the presence of a vengeful Noah. The latter is hungry for revenge after what the real estate businessman did to his grandfather, Amos. The fact that immediately after the murder, the cops showed up at the crime scene only to arrest him and Isaiah as the top suspects, hounding them for hours, has dissuaded the teenager from having any faith in the system. Therefore, he has decided to take justice into his own hands. When he learns about the chase between the police and Coltrane, he intentionally intervenes to get the drop on the other man.

Yet, Noah isn’t the only one after Coltrane. Members of the Alvarez gang are also targeting the man for killing half a dozen of their men during a kidnapping gone wrong. Therefore, during the confrontation between the young Stiles heir and the businessman, one such gangster ends up shooting Noah in the leg. By the time Isaiah catches up and kills the gangster, his son is already bleeding out on the street, saved only by the fact that Coltrane is keeping consistent pressure on his wound. The scene is starkly reminiscent of other times in the Lieutenant’s life. From Manny, to Brinkley, to his own father, Isaiah has been down this path before.

However, each time as the tragedy was unfolding, Isaiah chose to focus on the upcoming revenge. Throughout the series, his most pressing flaw has been his inability to prioritize personal relationships and connections over his all-consuming desire for vengeance. Therefore, at that moment, when Coltrane makes him an offer, he can’t refuse. Isaiah chooses to trade places with the criminal, taking up the spot beside his son and putting pressure on his potentially lethal wound. In doing so, he simultaneously allows Coltrane to escape from right under his nose. The decision showcases his growth as a character, where one dire situation forces him to recalibrate his priorities.

Does Ebony Skip Town? What Happens to Her Baby?

Unlike Isaiah, Ebony’s priorities remain straight from the very beginning of the story. She has long been a collaborator with her criminal sister and husband. However, seven months prior to the events of the season, she undergoes a harrowing experience. Following pregnancy complications, she loses her baby, Zahir. In the aftermath of the miscarriage, she realizes she can no longer entertain the life of a criminal. For the same reasons, she retires from the job and urges Coltrane to do the same.

Yet, when things become dire, and her husband finds himself in the jaws of trouble, she has no choice but to step back into the game. Ebony’s quick thinking and street smarts allow the Wilders to put up a defense that proves their innocence despite Isaiah’s constant hounding. Yet, her friendship with Candace ends up costing her nearly everything. Therefore, after her initial arrest on the charges of conspiracy to murder, she tries to skip town. So far, she has been reluctant to leave because she doesn’t wish to leave her husband behind. However, now she’s confident he can follow after her. Nonetheless, her plan fails and lands her back in police custody in a hospital.

During this time, Coltrane comes to her rescue. Even though Charlie tries to kill him, as a way to tie up a loose end, he convinces her to team up with him to save her sister from ending up on the wrong side of the law. Through their combined strings, Coltrane and Charlie manage ot pull off a rescue mission, extracting Ebony from the hospital and into the back of a getaway van. In the end, the expectant mother flies away and out of the country with her sister. The fact that she has to leave her husband behind to do so is bound to become a major plot point for her character in the potential future season(s).

Does Candace Cheat on Isaiah? Does She End Up With Malik?

While helplessness drives Ebony and Coltrane apart in the finale, a different truth persists for Isaiah and Candace. The latter couple has been dealing with marital problems throughout the series. Candace feels like she can’t trust her husband due to his persistent habit of putting his job above his family. Over time, they manage to work through these issues, but everything unravels near the end. Candace finds out that Isaiah had gifted her a spy necklace in an effort to observe her meetings and conversations with Ebony, the wife of his enemy. Furthermore, she ends up the inadvertent victim of an Alvarez kidnapping scheme meant for Ebony as a way to kill Coltrane.

The hit on Coltrane, which led to the kidnapping, was called by Isaiah, which blurs his morality on new levels. In the end, the businessman saves her from the kidnapping while her husband remains entirely unaware of everything that is happening. As a result, in the aftermath, Candace finds herself knocking on her ex-boyfriend, Malik’s, door. Ever since she started to second-guess her marriage, she has consistently wondered if she made the wrong decision by choosing Isaiah over Malik back in their college days. Therefore, in the wake of such a traumatic event, she ends up sleeping with her ex-boyfriend, seeking comfort with him. As the season ends, Candace is still torn up about this decision, but the early deterioration of her marriage remains evident.