It’s a bit of the series of the moment that erases all the others and it was rather expected from the creators of Dark. 1899 is a series that does not take you by the hand and distills a lot of mysteries throughout its first season. But we quickly missed a few things, so we’ll give you a little list of the details you might have missed in the series but also give you some theories found on the dark web, sometimes that would explain some strange aspects of the scenario. .
The hidden details
1. The hidden pyramids everywhere
They are so ubiquitous that you must have spotted the ones on the envelopes of the mysterious letters, those on the secret trapdoors under the beds or even the one tattooed on young Elliot’s neck. But did you notice that we also saw it on the wallpaper of the asylum, on Ying Li’s kimono, in Clémence’s earrings, on the carpets of the boat or even on Maura’s pendant? Yeah, and we may have missed some more. Anyway they like triangles.
2. The ending sentence that suggests a lot of things
When Maura wakes up in a spaceship at the end of the series, she discovers on a screen several messages that her brother sends to her including the phrase “let your coffee kick you before reality does”. Except that we already see this sentence in the simulation when Ramiro found it written on a book in the control room of the boat. So what does that mean? That she’s in a simulation again? That her brother doesn’t care about her? Both are likely.
3. Kerberos boat name
Needless to say, the names of the boats were not chosen at random. In Greek mythology, Cerberus is the big three-headed dog who guards the gates of the underworld and keeps people from getting out (or potentially getting in, but it would be a bit of a fool to try). We can therefore see here an allegory of the prison with the name of the creature since the boat is more or less a concept which retains the spirits of the characters against their will. Or the creator thought the name was super classy, but that’s less likely.
4. The name of the Prometheus ship
In the same mythology, Prometheus is the titan who decided to bring the flame of knowledge to men and alienate the Gods. A pretty nice project at the base but which turned against him: he was condemned to be attached to a large stone to have his liver eaten by an eagle and that this torture is repeated every day. If we summarize, we can therefore say that Prometheus was stuck in a really not fun time loop destined to repeat itself tirelessly, a bit like the passengers in the boat.
5. The year 1899
We understand at the end of the season that the action does not take place at all in 1899 but rather in 2099 (which we are not at all certain of, however). In any case, we are almost certain that Maura chose this date for her simulation to take place. If we can’t really attest to why she chose this year in particular, there is however a detail that dates well from this year and it is quite simply the book that she is reading and which is on her bedside table. This is the novel “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, a deeply feminist book about a woman who breaks the chains of patriarchy to emancipate herself and which could be a metaphor for the way Maura tries to free herself from her own jail.
6. Scarabs that open doors and flashback
To understand why the “keys” have this shape we must remember the flashback where Elliot captures a small beetle and his mother tells him that if he loves these creatures he must let them free, and that she will also have to let go. Maura probably took this image of beetles when creating the simulation to represent keys that open doors and therefore allow freedom to be regained. This is also a time when she is clearly lying to her son since she refuses to let him go and creates a simulation to keep him alive. A beautiful parent’s lie.
Theories
7. Daniel: alive, dead, or neither?
We can quite logically wonder if Daniel, Maura’s husband is really alive and present in the simulation with the other characters. We do not see his body appear in the very last scene in the ship, so there is room for doubt. Some theories say he might be alive somewhere else, others say he’s dead, and a much more interesting one is that he’s some kind of artificial intelligence trapped in the first simulation, which is why he leaves almost understanding that he won’t be able to help Maura anymore outside of her.
8. The End: A New Simulation
As we said above when talking about the famous message on the screen, there is nothing to indicate that the scene in the Prometheus spacecraft is not a new simulation. If the plans of Cirian, Maura’s brother, do not seem really clear, he seems to be having fun with this famous sentence of his amnesiac situation of his sister and nothing indicates that she is here in a more real place than not. was the boat.
9. Black Crystals
According to one theory, the large black crystals that appear and gradually destroy the simulation are actually a virus that Daniel introduced into the simulation to bug it and restart it. Everything pretty much goes in this direction since the material seems to really destroy everything that comes into contact with it, including characters like Virginia whose skin turns completely black after touching the stones.
10. Elliot Is Dead
If we understand in several flashbacks that Elliot is sick and that Maura is making the whole simulation to keep him with him, a symbolism helps to understand that the little one is probably already dead. This is the first simulation created that can make this understood, that of the child’s room where the little one hides for a while which is simply placed under a tomb with a wooden cross. The message is quite clear.
11. The recurring theme of identity and, by extension, identity theft
If the very first scene of the series shows us Maura talking to herself trying to convince herself that she is not crazy while saying her own name, she can suggest that she is not who she is. said to be. This question of stolen identity is much more recurrent in the series than you might think since three other characters are not who they say they are: Ramiro who killed a priest before taking his costume, Lucien who killed a high-ranking legionnaire to take his identity and Ying Li who took the place of another young girl after having killed him as well.
12. Everyone is Maura
Probably the most far-fetched but give me a chance to explain it. Each “significant” character in the series could represent a part of Maura’s personality:
– Eyk Larsen whose daughters died because he was at sea would represent the part of her that let her son die unresponsive and focused on something other than helping him by wasting his time creating the simulation.
– Angel and Krester who have to hide their sexuality and not live it freely because of society would be the part of Maura’s personality who, although a doctor, cannot practice because she is a woman.
– Ying Li, Lucien and Ramiro would represent the fact that she changed her identity, Maura’s real name is Singleton and not Franklin. Especially since in software engineering, a Singleton is a name given to a form of design pattern used to bring together an entire class into a single object (pointy but heavy with meaning).
Future seasons might then explain what part of Maura’s personality the other characters represent, but maybe I’m getting carried away.