Pratik Handore
Hulu’s ‘Wreck’ is a British horror comedy series created by Ryan J. Brown. Set on a luxurious cruise ship, the plot follows Jamie Walsh, a teenager searching for answers about the death of his sister, Pippa. Jamie teams up with Vivian, Cormac, Rosie, Olly, and others on the ship as the group soon faces dangerous situations. Meanwhile, a serial killer wearing a duck mask continues to claim innocent lives on the cruise. The series employs elements of the slasher genre and plants an intriguing murder mystery that keeps the viewers invested throughout its runtime. However, its ending delivers plenty of twists and leaves viewers needing answers. In that case, allow us to break down the ending of ‘Wreck’ season 1! SPOILERS AHEAD!
Wreck Recap
‘Wreck’ opens with Pippa, a young woman working on the Sacramentum, a cruise ship, followed by Danny, her ex-boyfriend. After Pippa blows off Danny, she is stalked by a mysterious presence revealed as a man in a duck mask. The masked man attacks Pippa and tries to kill her. However, she jumps off the ship to avoid being killed. Pippa’s death is reported as a suicide. A few months later, Jamie Walsh, Pippa’s nineteen-year-old younger brother, joins the staff of the Sacramentum to uncover the truth about her mysterious death.
Jamie assumes the identity of his friend Cormac Kelly to sneak aboard the ship. On the Sacramentum, Jamie meets Vivian, a teenager like him, and Karen, the chief of staff, who gives the new joiners a tour of the ship. However, Jamie’s plan is jeopardized after the actual Cormac comes aboard the ship to reunite with his girlfriend Rosie, who broke up with him before the trip due to a misunderstanding. However, Jamie convinces Cormac to say hidden by promising to keep an eye on Rosie.
Soon, Jamie and Vivian discover the secret parties held for the staff where they can get drunk and high. However, the staff is also forced to follow a strict work regime. After learning the truth about Jamie’s reasons for being on the ship, Vivian decides to help him uncover the mystery of Pippa’s death. Jamie meets Danny and questions him about Pippa. However, the man in the duck mask kills Danny later that night. Jamie meets Olly, a young gay teenager like him, and they bond.
From Pippa’s phone, Jamie discovers she was extorting a man with a fish tattoo until she died. Meanwhile, Sophia wants to stop selling drugs and pleads with Officer Sam to let her go. Jamie meets with the ship’s tattoo artist with Olly’s help and learns the man with the fish tattoo is an officer. Cormac sneaks out of Jamie’s room and discovers Sam is the man with the fish tattoo shortly before reconciling with Rosie. Jamie speaks with Sophia and learns about the drug operation on the ship.
Jamie suspects Olly of being the killer after he attacks Sophia. Later, he makes a deal with Sophia to get rid of her drug stash in exchange for her going to the police. However, Sophia breaks the deal after Jamie flushes out the drugs. Olly explains that the Filipino mafia forced him to scare Sophia because of a rivalry between them and the officers. However, he denies being involved in Danny’s murder. Jamie and Vivian soon realize the threats they face on the ship and inform the police. The cruise director Mr. A, aka Henry Allan, bribes Detective Martinez, who comes aboard the ship to investigate Dylan’s death.
Later, one of the staff members, Jerome, is brutally murdered. Meanwhile, Vivian meets Lily, one of the passengers on the ship who defends during an argument. Soon, Vivian and Lily become romantically involved with each other. Jamie confronts Sam, who admits to loving Pippa, and gives Jamie her incident report. Using the report, Jamie and Vivian sneak into Pippa’s old room and find a list of people with names struck off them. As Jamie and Vivian try to uncover the mysteries surrounding the murders on the ship, they stumble into a larger conspiracy that threatens their lives.
Wreck Ending: Who Is the Killer? Who Controls the Game?
In the fifth episode, Vivian and Lily discover the truth about Sam. He is revealed as the duck-masked killer who attacked Pippa and killed Danny and Jerome. Viviana and Lily meet the rest of the group and reveal their discovery. Jamie and Olly use the map they found in Pippa’s room to find another one of the secret rooms. Meanwhile, Vivian and Lily hide in the latter’s cabin, with Karen on the lookout for the group. However, the group finds themselves in the lion’s mouth when they meet Mr. A in the secret room. Finally, the truth about the sinister events on the ship comes out.
The ship run by Velorum, a multi-million corporation, is not just a luxury cruise. It is a hunting ground for the rich and influential people of society. The staff members are picked as prey for the guests, who are each allowed to kill their targets as a part of the corporation’s “human” experience they offer on their ships. On the Sacramentum, Mr. A is in charge of the operation and shows Jamie, and his friends the room the crew and the passengers use to spy on the staff. Moreover, the parties with endless booze and drugs are a mere distraction for the staff to be roped into the heinous hunting game.
Ultimately, it is the wealthy people willing to pay to hunt innocent lives who are in control of the deranged game that is taking place on the ship. However, Mr. A controls the operation on the Sacramentum and kills Sam to demonstrate his power. Furthermore, Mr. A instructed Sam to kill Pippa because she was dangerously close to exposing the charade. Consequently, Jamie and his friends find themselves in grave danger, with the wealthy passengers itching to kill the ship’s crew.
Do Jamie and Vivian Survive?
In the finale, Vivian decides to execute her plan to kill Vivian. Lily chose Vivian and got close to her to add more fun to her first hunt. She intends to kill Vivian and complete her portion of the game. Meanwhile, Beaker captures Olly and threatens to kill him if Jamie does not reveal the names of everyone who is aware of the situation on the ship. However, Jamie and Olly are saved by the timely arrival of Rosie and Cormace. Jamie reveals the truth to the rest of the group and, with Sophia’s help, convinces them to fight against the officers and the wealthy passengers.
An all-out war ensues between Jamie’s allies and the officers, with Olly convincing the Filipino gang to side with Jamie;’s faction. Meanwhile, Jamie slips away from the fight to save Vivian from Lily. Lily frees Vivian from captivity to make the hunt more exciting and uses a chainsaw to kill her target brutally. However, Jamie arrives in the nick of time, giving Vivian the edge in the battle, resulting in Lily’s death. While Jamie’s side faces overwhelming odds, he and Vivian inform the authorities, and the chain of carnage and pure violence on the Sacramentum ends. However, the same hunting game occurs on several other ships owned by the Velorum, and Jamie and Vivian decide to continue fighting until they take the corporation down.
Is Pippa Dead or Alive?
In the finale’s closing moments, Jamie and Vivian make a pact to continue fighting. However, Jamie laments not finding his sister in the process. While a part of him knew she had passed away, a part still hoped he would see her alive, given the several mysteries surrounding her supposed suicide. As Vivian comforts Jamie, the camera pans out to show helicopters circling above the ship. However, we cut to another boat in the distance with a mysterious hooded figure observing the ship. The person is revealed to be none other than Pippa, and she is still alive.
The season ends on a shocking cliffhanger without giving any details of Pippa’s survival. However, since Pippa jumped from the ship, she likely survived. Moreover, she had become aware of the threat to her life and could have already anticipated Sam’s attack. As a result, she planned the jump and ensured she had the necessary resources to survive. Pippa seems to be planning a return to the Sacramentum and collecting the evidence she left behind to expose Velorum. However, the job has been fulfilled by her younger brother.
Read More: Where is Hulu’s Wreck Filmed?
