Unfamiliar Ending Explained: Why Does Katya Kidnap Nina?

Created by Paul Coates, Netflix’s ‘Unfamiliar‘ follows two former spies, Simon and Meret, on a quest to bury their dark past for good. While they spend a full 16 years of this new life without a hitch, the surprise reappearance of a shadowy figure throws everything into chaos. All things trace back to a single event that took place sixteen years ago, which has, over time, created a puzzle made of nothing but lies. As each layer of truth gets unraveled, Simon and Meret’s attempt to save their daughter’s lives grows hopelessly more desperate, and the season finale of this German spy thriller dials that paranoia up to eleven. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Unfamiliar Plot Recap

‘Unfamiliar’ begins with a man stabbing and then shooting himself, before calling a mysterious pick-up and treatment service to the rescue. Simon and Meret, two former spies who worked with the German BND, now lead a quiet life with their 16-year-old daughter, Nina. But they also secretly run the clean-up business. Upon getting the man’s call, the duo treats him inside their hi-tech safe house, before quickly realizing that the man is an assassin sent out to kill him. On the other end of town, Koleev, a high-level bureaucrat, meets a hitman by the name of Jonas Auken, whose team has been stalking Simon and Meret as per Koleev’s orders. Though the assassin manages to send Jonas a picture of the duo, Meret intercepts and kills him right after.

While Meret deals with the assassin, Simon falls unconscious on the street due to an untreated brain aneurysm, which is on the cusp of becoming fatal. However, he chooses to keep this a secret from his wife as they look deeper into the people who are after them. In the process, we get numerous flashbacks to 16 years in the past, when the duo was in Belarus along with their handler, Gregor Klein. While they were tasked with safely bringing in Koleev, then a Soviet diplomat, to Germany, Gregor’s real intention was to rescue Koleev’s partner, Katya, and her unborn child. The plan backfired, and Koleev ended up escaping after poisoning both Katya and the baby. While Meret and Simon made it to the scene just in time to complete an impromptu delivery, Gregor ordered them to leave Katya behind to die.

Going behind Gregor and Meret’s backs, Simon secretly brought Katya back to her senses and then lied that her baby had died. Meanwhile, he and Meret adopted the baby as their own, and that brings us to the present, with Koleev wishing to wipe out the three agents who know of his secret, before his wife, Vera, is declared an ambassador. While he manages to get to Gregor with the help of a mole in the BND, finding Simon and Meret proves to be a hard task. In the meantime, Katya also resurfaces in the duo’s life, leading to a series of tense familial exchanges, especially about how much Nina does and can know. Jonas, the assassin, also appears to have an unresolved past dynamic with Meret, and learning of this, Koleev kills him without hesitation, before engaging in a fierce exchange of fire with her and Simon. In the end, the duo survives the fight with Koleev, and Simon’s aneurysm is safely removed, but Katya seemingly has plans of her own.

Unfamiliar Ending: Why Did Katya Kidnap Nina?

At the end of ‘Unfamiliar’ season 1, Katya betrays Simon and Meret and gets them arrested by the BND. In the process, she also tricks Nina into believing that they are escaping the hospital early, all the while putting her in Julika’s car, far and away from her parents. Although this can initially be interpreted as an act of pure malice, Katya has her own, well-founded reasons for making the move. To begin with, the past day’s worth of events is more than enough to prove that Nina is not safe with Simon and Meret, especially with Koleev still hot on their tail. The fact that the spy duo is almost out of resources means that they likely won’t survive another wave of attacks, and seeing that, Katya makes a judgment call, putting all her trust in the BND to protect both her and her biological daughter. At the same time, she realizes that, for the BND to help her, she needs to give them something in return, and it is here that Simon and Meret’s arrest comes into play.

A deeper reason for Katya’s betrayal lies in her ongoing feud with Simon and Meret, regarding Nina’s parentage. Earlier, the duo handed Nina a video recording, promising to answer some of the questions she might have in case they die. However, the fact that Nina plays the videos ahead of time reveals that their contents only extend to their past lives as BND agents, and not the truth about her biological mother. While it is possible that they didn’t factor that detail into the video due to never anticipating Katya’s return, the fact that they are lying does not change. Simon especially promised to Katya that he would reveal the truth to Nina herself, but given that the video, his seeming last word on the subject, fails to bring that up, Katya might have felt betrayed and forced into making this choice.

Shortly after Katya makes the phone call to Julika, she convinces Nina to walk out of the hospital without her parents, making use of the little trust they have developed in the past few days. While Nina initially resists the idea, she ultimately gives in, not knowing that her parents are being arrested by the BND a short distance away. Now that the narrative mainstage has shifted to the agency’s headquarters, neither Nina nor her parents has any means of resisting what fate has in store for them. Worse, Katya has no knowledge of the mole within the BND, and might have unknowingly pushed her daughter deeper into danger. Ironically, the only person left who can turn the tide around is Julika, the very person who made this development happen in the first place.

Will Katya Tell Nina the Truth About Her Parents?

Now that Katya is largely in control of the situation, as well as her dynamic with Nina, the question of truth is more ambiguous than ever. Although she promised Simon that they would have this discussion only after he and Meret told Nina their side of the story, that deal likely no longer holds any value to either of them. Conversely, with Koleev possibly still having access to the BND, and indirectly, to Nina, Katya might have no choice but to tell the truth to her biological daughter. On a thematic level, this twisted turn of events is a direct result of Simon and Meret’s continued complacency, especially when it comes to exploiting Katya’s agency and stripping her of the truth for decades. The very fact that Katya agreed to hold back was a testament to her patience, but that bubble might have burst already.

With the truth about Nina’s parentage coming out sooner or later, the story is geared to get into the depths of its central thematic question: Are Simon and Meret the real parents of Nina, or does that title go to Katya? While it is undeniable that Simon tricked and dehumanized Meret, Katya, and even Nina on some level, he has also come to love and cherish Nina as her father. The same goes for Meret, who maintains a tough exterior as a mother, but in reality is going through hell and back to ensure the safety of her daughter. Nina is the very reason the two spies left their dark pasts behind, and while the tragedy surrounding Katya cannot be overturned, it is ultimately Nina’s decision as to who she truly feels safe and comfortable with.

Is Koleev Dead or Alive?

While the BND manages to grab hold of Simon and Meret, the real antagonist of the story, Koleev, has a rather ambiguous fate in the final stretches of the season. After Vera learns the truth about what he was up to in Belarus, an irreconcilable rift appears between the two. This has both relational and political consequences, as she no longer feels any need to protect Koleev and instead begins to see him as a burden. To that end, his final appearance has him locked in a room, with a gun cocked behind his back, as his father-in-law ominously declares that his time has come. However, the fact that we never even hear a gunshot, much less see Koleev’s dead body, makes his death an unlikely scenario in the grand scheme of things.

Earlier in the show, we see Koleev cheat death not once, but twice, and in both cases, he is firmly at gunpoint. This repeated imagery is likely intentional on the creators’ end and serves to foreshadow his survival in the finale. Another element of the story that substantiates this idea is the fact that, in the scenario where he isn’t killed, he is scheduled to return to Moscow anyway. We know that a return to Moscow is the last thing Koleev desires, which makes it probable that he already has a backup plan in place, one that requires neutralizing the threat posed by his wife and her father. Instead, the more likely direction for his arc is a return to the hunt for Katya and Nina, which is bound to accelerate given their connection to the BND, an agency he has within his grasp.

Who is Starfish? Does Julika Know About the Mole?

In the final stretch of ‘Unfamiliar’ season 1, the real identity of the mole, also known as Starfish, is revealed in a twisted fashion. While we are led to believe this entire time that the mole is Julika’s former lover, Alice, Vera’s father reveals that Starfish is actually a man. Indeed, it turns out that the real mole is none other than Julika’s boss, Ben, who has been feeding Koleev information, possibly since Gregor’s departure from the agency. Furthermore, it is also revealed that Ben planted information incriminating Alice, starting from her fingerprints on the phone, and the made-up details of her conversation with Koleev. Her death, as such, is recontextualized to be a cold-blooded murder that is framed to look like a suicide, forever tainting Alice’s legacy as someone who betrayed the BND.

While Alice is initially the prime suspect within the BND, several crumbs spread throughout the story foreshadow Ben’s involvement in the crime. To begin with, only three people in the institution catch hold of Gregor’s secret location, and it is Ben who suggests going there the following day, hours after Gregor is already kidnapped. Secondly, every time Koleev mentions Starfish on-screen, the scene cuts to both Ben and Alice, suggesting that one of them is the mole. The twist also recontextualizes Ben’s attempts at gaining Julika’s trust and respect, which can now be seen as his way of getting close to her to extract more information.

Notably, Ben seems to have no real desire to fill in the role of Starfish and tries to quit the deal right after he kills Alice. However, Vera outsmarts him by recording his indirect confession to the crime, which now serves as a permanent bargaining chip, stripping Ben of whatever agency he had left. With this, his decision to arrest Simon and Meret can be interpreted in a new light, as it is in Vera’s best interest not just to kill the duo but also Katya and Nina. Given Ben’s disillusionment with Koleev, he might join hands with Simon, Meret, and Julika at a critical moment, but as of now, the odds seem to be stacked against them.