1899 Episode 2 Recap: The Boy

Andreas Pietschmann as EYK in 1899

Wake up! It's time for episode 2 of 1899. To see all of my 1899 recaps, go here.

In the last episode, Captain Eyk made the unpopular decision to follow the signal to the Prometheus, taking the Kerberos off course and delaying the trip to the new continent. He and a hand-picked crew of misfit passengers boarded, finding only one boy in a locked cabinet. In his hands, he held a mysterious black pyramid. Also, just when we thought we had met all the key characters, a last-minute stowaway climbed on board, wet to the bones. He used the mystical locksmith beetle to open the cabin next to Maura's, room 1013.

So let's get into it. You can listen to this recap on Apple podcasts; use the link or search for the show 1 of My Stories. 

1 of my Stories · 1899 Episode 2 The Boy

Episode 2: The Boy

We open with distorted noise and a vision of flames. A pair of eyes snaps open, with one of the pupils resembling a black triangle. The camera pulls back, and we see it's Captain Eyk lying on his back in the dark. He stands up, and a forest surrounds him – the trees barren. He hears a child's voice singing a simple tune. Eyk moves towards the voice and calls the name Nina. He seems to think the voice belongs to someone he knows.

He keeps walking and comes to a house in the dark. Someone is in the window, but it's too far away to see. A taller, second figure appears. Behind the pair, flames ignite. Captain Eyk cries Nina! Then, we hear Maura's voice say, "Wake up!" Just like Maura in episode 1, Eyk wakes up in his bed on the Kerberos. He stands up and grabs the child's ribbon he found on the floor of the Prometheus. He holds it close, like the ribbon can ground him. He next flails desperately towards his desk, grabbing the now-empty liquor bottle. He roughly opens desk drawers until he finds a full bottle and takes a healthy swig, because that's what everyone needs when they first wake up. This is a very different captain from the first episode. In that episode, the captain seems elegant and in control. Here, he's completely undone.

A knock at the door interrupts his swigging. The first mate, Sebastian (Tino Mewes) lets him know that they received a message from the company. The message includes only two words: Sink ship. Sebastian further explains that they tried to send a message back but could not make contact. And there's one more thing. Sebastian brings Eyk to the bridge and shows him that all of the compasses on the ship are acting out of whack. The hands keep rotating endlessly. Something is afoot. The captain's personal compass is acting the same, as well. The crew ask the captain the question we all had in the last episode: Why is that boy the only one you found?"

We go to the title credits, with Ben Frost and Eliot Sumner's rendition of "White Rabbit."

Die Gedanken Sind Frei

Before, we go forward, I want to talk briefly about the song the child was singing at the beginning. This song shows up several times in this episode. The name of the song is "Die Gedanken sind frei." It's a popular protest song in Germany that has been used through time to express dissent for any form of censorship or thought control. At one time the song was banned. Anti-Nazi resistance movements used it as an anthem.

When the child's voice sings the song, it comes across as creepy, but in the world of these show creators, art is not chosen randomly. We have already seen many instances in the first episode of characters not allowing anyone to shape or control their mind, first and foremost Maura. In her vision, she complains that her "father" has messed with her memories. She doesn't want to be silenced. Later, she challenges Eyk on his notion that rules should not be challenged. Olek is punished for speaking up and is told, "Down here, we don't ask questions." Also, Maura says the brain holds all the secrets of the universe. By deduction then, to tamper with someone's brain equates a robbing of that universe. A person's mind must be free to think.

An English translation of the lyrics reads:

Thoughts are free, who can guess them?
They fly by like nocturnal shadows.
No person can know them, no hunter can shoot them
and so it'll always be: Thoughts are free!

I think what I want, and what delights me,
still always reticent, and as it is suitable.
My wish and desire, no one can deny me
and so it'll always be: Thoughts are free!

And if I am thrown into the darkest dungeon,
all these are futile works,
because my thoughts tear all gates
and walls apart: Thoughts are free!

A sleeping boy 

Okay, back to the episode. The boy from this ship lies asleep in Maura's bed. She watches him. And we can hear repeating high-pitched ringing tones. These happen off and on throughout the episode. Are the tones audible noises to the characters or in their heads? Maura goes over to the desk and touches the black pyramid. After a moment, she leaves her room, closing the door behind her. As soon as the door closes, the boy's eyes fly open. We must speculate whether he was pretending to be asleep or actually woke up due to the door noise. I'm guessing the former.

A scene in the coal room  

We then move down to the coal room. The same two workers who were talking about the missing Prometheus in episode 1 are now interrogating Olek for information. Let's call them Thing 1 and Thing 2 for now. Their entire role seems to be just to stand around talking instead of working. Amongst their lofty thoughts today, they ask him all the same question everyone wants to know (almost like audience stand-ins): Did you really only find 1 boy? No one else? What could kill over 1,000 people. One of them wonders if it could be wolves. The other makes fun of this ridiculous suggestion because how could a wolf get on the boat. He wonders why a wolf would kill everyone except one boy. But the other insists, "What if he's the wolf – the boy?" Although the suggestion still sounds outrageous, the idea of the boy possibly being a "wolf in disguise" is definitely a chilling thought. For his part, Olek is silent. Unlike Mrs. Wilson, Olek knows how to keep a secret.

We don't have time to think much about that idea because the captain does the unthinkable and comes into the coal room, looking for Olek. Olek looks surprised but comes when called. The captain asks Olek to find out how much coal is left in the bunkers but to not let anyone know he has asked for this information. Olek nods in compliance and another round of creaks and groans can be heard coming from somewhere on the ship.

Did the boy wake up yet?   

We then move into the first-class hallway of rooms. Maura is walking down the hallway and gets intercepted by the captain. He's been looking for her. They share smoldering glances, but the captain is able to pull himself together and ask her some reasonable questions: Did the boy speak? How was he locked up when he was the only one on board? How did the signal get sent when the machine was broken? Again, all the question we are asking. He then hesitates and changes his line of questioning. "On the Prometheus, did you experience anything strange?" Maura is the perfect poker player, "What do you mean strange?" The voice singing "Die Gedanken sind frei" comes back. The captain asks Maura if she hears anything. She says, "Hear what?" The captain realizes he sounds sort of batty by now, so he turns around and walks away.

Alexandre Willaume as ANKER in 1899

Sweet hour of prayer 

We move to a porthole down in third class. Tove's father is speaking in Danish to the crowd. We find out his names is Anker, which means anchor. He comforts the people to not be afraid. That God will protect them. He says a prayer:

"Be with us Lord in a world where the powers of darkness are strong. Don’t le the waves of darkness close around us. Have mercy on us when we lack endurance and fortitude. Strengthen us when are trapped by worry and fear. Oh, Holy Spirit may we be protected from evil and all the falseness of the world. Let your spirit light up before us and testify with our spirit that we are yours. Then even darkness will become light for us. When you are together with us, nothing shall harm us, our Lord."

Note: The part about darkness being like light to God is in Psalm 139: 11-12.

As the prayer concludes, the camera shifts to the drawing room of Ángel and Ramiro. Ramiro is sleeping on the bed, and Ángel is watching. So, who is the evil and falseness of the world? Is it one of these characters or the two of them together, alluding to a deception they carry with them? Ángel glances down at his cigarette case. It's the one he opened the night before, when he gave Krester a cigarette.

My name is Daniel   

Meanwhile, Maura walks back towards her room with a bundle wrapped in white. She stops when she sees Daniel outside her bedroom door. He almost looks like he's about to walk in. He apologizes immediately and says that he thought he heard whimpering noises, like someone crying. He then drops the subject and introduces himself, "I'm Daniel Solace." Ah, so we now know his name. Daniel means "God is my judge." Daniel in the Bible is also known for being thrown into the lion's den and protected by the power of God. So, it's a strong name. Maura does the polite thing and introduces herself, too, sharing her name. She then moves closer and asks if they have met before because he seems familiar. He responds by saying he doesn’t think so, but his eyes look a little sad.

Maura enters the room then and finds the boy awake and fully dressed, sitting at the end of the bed. She goes to him and offers the bundle, which turns out to be food. He doesn't seem interested in eating. Maura low-key starts to interrogate the boy: Don't you want to tell me what happened? Who locked you in there? Where are all the passengers? Geez, Maura. No one seems to understand the concept of building rapport. Instead, their procedure seems to be to bombard the person with questions.

The boy doesn't say anything. He gets up and walks over to the desk. He picks up the black pyramid and simply hands it to her. He either can't or won't speak. My podcast partner told me that he hoped the kid wasn't electively mute, but here we are.

What is your calling?   

We shift now to the third-class bathing house. Since the third-class is kept separate, I'm assuming the first-class passengers have their own washing area. The little Danish girl, Ada, patiently washes Krester's hair. She's a good little sister. She shares her thoughts with him. That it's odd they only found one boy alone on the ship. She then speculates that the boy must have been quite lonely by himself. She wonders what he will do in America. Will he live on his own and go to school? This is on her mind because Ada really wants to go to school. She hopes she can talk mom and dad into this plan because she wants to be a doctor.

Krester points out that mom and dad will never agree because they will need to help build the church. Okay, so this family is going to plant a church. But Ada feels strongly that each person has a calling, and her calling is to be a doctor. She asks Krester, "Do you know what your calling is?" Krester avoids the question and seems impatient. He suggests she go bother Tove or play with her doll. Ada asks when he became no fun. She grabs her doll and walks out of the bathhouse.

The cigarette case ANGEL gives to KRESTER

You are a hard man to find  

Krester's response seems to indicate that maybe he doesn't have a calling or hasn't been allowed to think about such things. He's the oldest son of the family and that often comes with special responsibility. Krester keeps rinsing off his hair, but he isn't alone for long because Ángel appears saying that he's a hard man to find. Krester is rendered speechless. I don't blame him for being surprised because if this is, indeed, the third-class bathing area, Ángel is crossing class lines to have this conversation.

Ángel walks towards him and shows him the cigarette case. He wants Krester to have it. Instead of handing it to him, though, he boldly gives him the case by putting his hands in Krester's pockets. At the same, he makes direct eye contact with Krester. It's another intimate gesture that would be reserved only for someone very close to you. This is the second time he's crossed Krester's personal bubble. But Krester seems perhaps not to mind.

The moment is interrupted by Tove, who walks in looking for Krester. She calls him by name and looks surprised to see Ángel there. Ángel is delighted because now he knows Krester's name. He smiles flirtatiously and says, "See you around Krester" and then walks out. Tove looks angry. She demands to know who that man is. Krester kind of stutters that he doesn't know. Tove mysteriously reminds him that "he promised her something." As soon as she leaves, Krester gently caresses the case. He seems pleased.

Andreas Pietschmann as EYK in 1899

Business talk on the bridge  

We cut to the ship's bridge. The captain looks out on the waters. He has another conversation with first mate, Sebastian. He asks him if anything seemed strange when the ships were sold. Sebastian mentions that he was just glad they elected to keep half the crew. Apparently, the ships were sold to an English company yet kept half of the German crew. It's not a given they would do that. So this gives us a little insight into the ship's genesis. The details are fuzzy but perhaps Captain Eyk and the crewmen were on this ship before it was sold. Their new owners are British, but this partnership is new. That explains why Eyk seems very distrustful of the company. He isn't sure if his employers have good intentions in their orders.

Eyk points out that they are carrying hardly any freight, just like the Prometheus. Cabins are only half occupied. This all leads him to realize that no profit is being made with these journeys. That the Prometheus is a trustworthy vessel that carries 45,000 tons of steel. And the only orders are "sink ship?"

Aside: The Captain makes a good point here. Even if the Prometheus is damaged, the company could always harvest it for parts and use it for materials to build a new ship.

Sebastian gently tells the captain that the crew needs orders. The Kerberos still hasn't resumed the journey, and everyone wants to know the deal with the boy.

Jonas Bloquet as LUCIEN in 1899

Lucien and Ling  

Up on the first-class balcony, Ling stands alone looking at the Prometheus. Lucien approaches and starts the conversation with, "Spooky, isn't it?" He goes on to ask her what she thinks happened. He's speaking French. Of course, Ling can't answer him. Even if she understands French, which there's no reason to believe she does, she is supposed to be pretending to speak Japanese. They are standing fairly close together, but he's not looking at her. He mentions he's seen photos of Japan and how fascinating it all seems. That he one day hopes to visit Japan to see the astonishing trees and flowers, the rice paper walls, and oddly shaped houses. These are weird things to be saying. It's definitely the odd types of conversations men start when they are interested in you but trying to make conversation.

Yuk interrupts their interaction to drag Ling off. She's definitely angry that Ling might be talking, even though Ling didn't say a word. For her part, Ling didn't look too thrilled about the conversation either. She didn't walk away, but she didn't smile at him or encourage the conversation. But of course, Yuk imagines the worst.

Virginia Wilson then materializes out of nowhere and remarks to Lucien, "she's an exotic bird." This is the same phrase she said to Maura in scene 1. For viewers today, it's a cringeworthy sentiment, since Virginia is clearly making Ling into an object to fetishize. And that might have been how Lucien already thought of her. After all, why is he so fascinated with her?

Virginia asks him for a light and Lucien obliges. She continues to make chit chat but Lucien seems very put off. She mentions the honeymoon doesn't seem to be going well, and he wonders how that's any of her business. Fair, Lucien. We already know that Virginia wants to get in everyone's business, though. She then asks if he's the kind of man who might enjoy a distraction. His face curls into a cruel smile, and he says even if he was, he wouldn't be that desperate. But she calls him ridiculous and says she didn't mean herself – only the exotic bird. Lucien takes this in. So now we truth about Virginia: she's a pimp and wants to trade Ling's company for money. If we had any questions about Mrs. Wilson's motives, the image of her as a kindly patron has now disappeared. She's out to make profit.

Jérôme leaves a token  

We now find Jérôme holding a note. The note reads: Lucien Room #2101. It's labeled: Private Mail "Kerberos" Southampton, New York. Jérôme walks down the ship's hallway, looking for this room number. He finds it and just walks in, no blue beetle needed. He pulls out a military-looking medallion from his pocket, with red cloth attached. He lays it on the desk. Now, the question is, who gave Jérôme this note? It's on Kerberos stationary. To make this stranger, Jérôme is a stowaway, and we know he hasn't met that many people. Did he have this note at the beginning or did someone give it to him?

Of course, Clémence chooses this moment to come back to her room, causing Jérôme to need to hide under the bed. She's wearing a pair of ruby red boots (ruby red slippers?) and takes them off before going into an adjoining room. This offers Jérôme time to escape the room. When Clémence came into the room, she did see the medallion but chose to toss it into a drawer. If Jérôme left it for Lucien to see, we have to wonder how long it will take him to find it.

Andreas Pietcschmann as EYK in 1899

You don't come back from something like that  

Back in the bridge, Sebastian, Franz, and other crew members are wondering why the company has asked them to sink the ship. And how do you even do such a thing? Franz, in particular, is commenting on Eyk's suitability to be captain. He mentions that the company should have replaced him by now. That you don't recover from something "like that." It's then that we find out that the captain's wife set their house on fire with herself and their children in it. The captain's vision now makes more sense. He is haunted by this event. The crew seems to be low-key insinuating that perhaps the captain is not in a good place to be a commander.

We now shift attention to Captain Eyk inside his cabin. He's looking at the picture of his loved ones and also at the envelope with his name, Eyk, on it. He then hears the creepy song again and walks out of his room into the hallway. The noise gets louder. At one end of a hallway, a flash of white can be seen. It's a girl in a white dress. The captain follows the girl and finds a door ajar that creaks open, beckoning him closer.

The captain enters the room and finds himself in his family home. His wife and girls are sitting near a fireplace. We can see that his daughter Nina is wearing the blue floral ribbon he found on the Prometheus. So this ribbon from his dead daughter was on the Prometheus. A fire ignites in the fireplace. Nina begins singing the folk song. The wife looks unhappily at Eyk and tells him that it's late and the girls have been waiting. She tells the girls to go to bed, and everyone gets up but Nina. The wife goes into the kitchen to heat up his supper.

At her departure, Nina tells Eyk that the dreams are back. But not to worry because she will get better. Eyk looks very distressed and states that she's not real. Nina seems hurt he would say such a thing. She touches his face gently, and he looks shattered. She then shares that her mom is very sad when he's gone, but she has told her mother that Eyk can't be shackled. That if she can let go, Eyk will wash back with the tide. He just cries and hugs her. He misses his family so much. It's then that Nina's dress lights up on fire, and the force of the flames pushes Eyk back into a wall. The room goes black, and Eyk is now alone. 

He stands and calls for Nina again. That's when he sees the iridescent beetle. He follows the beetle across the room. There are strange bell tones again. He finds an opening through the fireplace and comes to a ladder in the wall. He pushes a panel open and discovers he's under a bed. And it just so happens to be that he has arrived back in his room. The wooden panel has the triangle symbol with a line through it, the symbol of Earth.

[L-R]: Fflyn Edwards as THE BOY, Emily Beecham as MAURA in 1899

A story about Maura's childhood  

Back in Maura's room, she examines the boy with a candle, testing his reflexes. He seems fine with this. He trust her to an extent. He likes Maura and knows she won't hurt him. She tells him a story about a time when she was little. She was in the woods bird hunting with her father and got lost. She ended up spending the night alone in the woods. When morning came, she discovered she wasn't indeed lost at all. Rather, her father had purposefully left her by herself and watched her to see what she would do. He had told her that you don't know what kind of person you are until you are alone. But Maura shares that she resented that she thought she was alone, and he took that moment away from her by watching. She thought she had one moment when she wasn't being watched.

I will say that her father isn't coming out looking too good. First we see this image of him at the beginning where he allows his daughter to be locked up and now we discover that he once abandoned his children out in the woods as a rite of passage. Her brother went through the same ordeal. While she's sharing the story, the boy's face begins to crumble. Somehow, Maura's story has triggered something in him.

She continues her exam and looks at the back of his neck. There is a tattoo of the black triangle with the line on his neck. She starts to ask him, "What is that?" But the boy surprises all of us by grabbing her wrist in mid-air and giving her the shush sign. Eyk then bursts through the door. After watching this scene a few times, I feel certain he did this because he could hear or sense that Eyk was about to come in the room. He does not trust Eyk yet.

The captain pays the boy a visit  

And perhaps she shouldn’t, because Eyk continues his crazy behavior streak by grabbing the boy and pushing him against the wall. He's done being patient: What happened on the Prometheus? What's wrong with that ship! Tell me!" Maura is taken aback but quickly recovers and shoves him out of the room, protecting the boy.

Eyk finally chooses to confide in her that he is hearing his daughter's voice and that he saw her on the ship. He is convinced the boy knows something and he needs to know. The conversation comes to a halt as Daniel comes up on the pair. There's also a strange ticking sound. Eyk apologizes and takes his leave.

Now Daniel and Maura are alone. She's about ready to go back into her room when Daniel seems to be fishing for information. He says, "Maura is an Irish name, but you're not Irish." She avoids all conversation by just opening her door and saying, "No, I'm not." When she opens the door, the boy and Daniel make eye contact.

Mathilde Ollivier as CLEMENCE in 1899

Jérôme and Clémence  

Now, we're back on the balcony and this Jérôme and Clémence have a talk. Oddly, he uses the same conversation opener as Lucien: "Spooky, isn't it?" She asks him if he's part of the crew but also chooses to make a judgment: "You don’t look like part of the crew." Then she suggests it's a bad practice to judge someone by their appearance. But it's also impossible not to do. She speculates that he probably made his mind up about her as soon as he saw her. She's wearing those lovely red upside down triangle earrings. She is a vision of red and white.

She mentions it must be hard to working on a ship – it must feel like a prison. Jérôme says that even birds in the air are in a prison of sorts. They can only be what they are. This conversation feels very deep for two people who just met. She then moves closer and asks if they have met somewhere before. She tells him her name and he reciprocates. She then leaves the deck.

Aside: I'm going to say something a little weird now, and I could be wrong. I can't help but feel like the action on the ship almost feels like one of those point & click adventure video games. The characters all seem to have their conversations in the same place. Maura and the captain keep meeting on the deck of the boat. Different "couples" meet on the first-class balcony, and the dialogue seems very similar. Maura asks Daniel if they have met before; Clémence does the same thing. Lucien and Jérôme start their conversation the same way. It almost feels mapped out.

Lucas Lynggaard Tonnesen as KRESTER in 1899

Do you know what we do with stowaways?  

We follow Jérôme back into the hallway, He is confronted by Franz and some extra crewmen. Franz accuses him of stealing clothes and calls him a stowaway. They give chase and catch him, but Jérôme is a fighter and manages to evade capture for a good while. Finally, they get the best of him. Franz threatens him by saying, "Do you know what we do with stowaways?" He then just punches Jérôme in the face, rendering him unconscious. And that's the last thing we see of Jérôme this episode.

Back in his cabin, Ramiro wakes up. Now we switch to Krester, who is still caressing that cigarette case. He can't stop staring at it. Tove comes upon him again and tells him that Ada has been missing for hours. It was Krester who told her to go away and bug someone else. He doesn't mention this. She then grabs for the cigarette case, but he tries to keep it from her. She asks him why he accepted the gift. He says "because it was nice he gave it to me." This further supports my suggestion that Krester doesn't feel he has much he can call his own. She points out that rich people always want something in return, and he of all people should know this, hinting at yet another secret about Krester. She holds out her hand for the case, and he finally gives it to her. She walks away, and he looks a little weepy about the whole matter.

Ángel and Ramiro  

Back on the deck (the conversation spot), it's Ángel's turn to look at the Prometheus. Ramiro comes up. They talk a little. Ramiro is very worried. He hoped the ship was a dream. Now he's worried that they haven't moved and wonders if the police will be called. Ángel awkwardly tries to comfort him. He mentions there are thousands of people missing and that everyone has more pressing things to worry about. Well, Tove comes up to throw Ángel's cigarette case back in his face. She threatens him to stay away from her brother.

Ramiro looks pissed now, but Ángel doesn't take any of his flack: "Don't you dare judge me. I've never pretended to be anything I'm not. " The sound of bells can be heard. Ramiro storms off.

The captain and Olek   

Back in his room now, Eyk looks down into the large hole now in his room where his bed once sat. He climbs down the ladder again with a candle, so he can see better. The walls look like shiny black subway tiles. He's going to explore more, but there's a knock at the door.

The knock turns out to be Olek, who reports back about the coal situation. There's 3,000 tons of coal left. The bunkers are only half-loaded, and two are almost empty. He then gets up the courage to ask the captain when they will resume the journey. The captain just closes his door in response.

Please come to the dining hall for an announcement  

Back in her room, Maura is holding the envelope addressed to Henry and crying. The boy comes over to her. He seems sad she is crying. She tells him that her brother has been missing for four months. But she knows he's not dead because he sent her a letter. She show him the envelope with the same triangle symbol that's on his neck. She tries again to ask him questions: "Why do you have that?" What happened on the Prometheus? The bells are ringing again.

This time, the bells are real, though, because the crew are ringing bells to indicate that everyone should come to the dining room for an important announcement. Maura leaves the room and tells the boy to get some sleep.

[L-R] Miguel Bernardeau as ANGEL, Jose Pimentao as RAMIRO in 1899

The wolf and the lamb  

Everyone is moving towards the dining room except Ángel. He strides purposefully into the room. He knows Ramiro is upset. They start to argue. Ángel now reveals what we already considered: that they aren't brothers and Ramiro is not a priest. In fact, Ramiro is a Portuguese servant. But Ramiro shouldn't worry because people are too preoccupied with their own crap to worry about him. On this ship, this is very true.

Ramiro fires back that his mother was right. Ángel just uses people and doesn't care about anyone. Ángel gets pissed but leans in to taunt Ramiro. He accuses him of being jealous. Ramiro is angry, but he grabs Ángel and kisses him. The two of them have rough sex. Ángel seems to take a dom position and insists that Ramiro just lie there. When Ángel takes off his shirt, we can see a back full of scars. Whether these marks are the results of lovemaking or beatings, it's hard to tell.

At one point, Ángel literally bites Ramiro's cheek and makes beastly animal noises. The camera then pans to a painting on the wall of a wolf and a sheep, reminding us of the line in episode 1: "Have a chat with God and ask him why he made you a sheep and me a wolf."

The Wolf and the Lamb, painting by Jean-Baptiste Oudry

A couple of points here. We just found out that Ramiro is a hired servant. Since he mentions Ángel's mother, perhaps Ramiro is actually a family servant. If that's the case, then it makes Ángel's interest in Krester even more icky. I want to believe the best about Ángel. However, it seems like he has a fetish for lower-class people. His upper-class position of power possibly allows him to collect these poorer people without repercussions. They may feel flattered by his interest and money. But if he is cheating on Ramiro, he could easily do so with Krester.

Also, the painting in their room is quite interesting. The painting is called "The Wolf and the Lamb" by Jean-Baptiste Oudry. Oudry, who was a French Rococo painter, created it as part of his series based on La Fontaine's Fables. In the story, a hungry wolf comes across a sheep drinking from a brook. The wolf explains why the sheep deserves to be eaten, but the sheep refutes every reason. In the end, the wolf eats the sheep anyway. The point is that when tyrants want to do something, they will justify it. You cannot reason with tyrants.

I'm so sorry  

We leave the couple for the moment and catch up with Daniel in the hallway. Daniel has also ignored the call to the dining area. He takes the beetle from his pocket and puts it on the ground. The beetle begins to crawl purposefully, and Daniel follows it. The carpet has the triangle symbol on it. The beetle is intercepted by Ada, who sees the beetle and also follows it. Everyone seems fascinated by this beetle.

The beetle leads her to a pair of shoes, and the pair of shoes belongs to Daniel. He tells her, "I'm so sorry." And Ada looks very scared. We don't see what happens next. There is a very eery musical track here called "Initiating Shutdown" by Ben Frost. The scene is very cinematic and memorable.

I have decided to turn the ship around    

We leave them to find out what's going on in the dining hall. The captain tells everyone the bad news. He had decided to turn the ship around and tow the Prometheus back to Europe. There isn't enough coal to make it the other direction, so he has no choice. Everyone is outraged, especially Mrs. Wilson, who informs him that he can't just ignore what they all want. The captain ignores her complaint. The decision is final. Also, there are 1612 passengers on the Prometheus. During the last half of this exchange, Daniel comes up and stands creepily behind Maura.

The captain strides out of the hall. Maura follows him, and the two have another meeting on their upper deck. He tells her that he won't change his mind. He chooses to confide in her again. She still hasn't done so. She has confided in the boy, but not the captain. He shows her the orders from the company "sink ship" and the letter addressed to him. He tells her that the envelope arrived as part of a package. The package contained the letter, a picture of his family, and a newspaper clipping. He tells her needs to find out what happened.

[L-R] Emily Beecham as MAURA, Fflyn Edwards as THE BOY in 1899

I can't go back   

He then says, "Have you ever lost someone? It's like you're dying with them. They get to move on, but you're stuck." It's a heartbreaking line. Maura takes this in but doesn't say anything. She gives him the envelope back. He starts to walk away, but she grabs his wrist roughly. It feels a lot like the way the boy grabbed her wrist. She tells him that they can't go back, and she can't go back. He just says, "I'm sorry." Her statement doesn't make him question his decision at all. There's warbly music with static noises.

We get our last scene with Maura and Daniel. She comes back to her room, and Daniel is there again. He tries to start up a conversation. He thinks the captain is wrong, and they shouldn’t be doing this. He tries again to get familiar: "You don't seem too keen to go. You must have family." She tells him she doesn't and goes back into her room. He looks crestfallen.

We now see that the ships are towed together. Sebastian, Franz, and another crewman are watching the operation and complaining. I sense some dissent going on. Franz also looks bloodied up from his fight with Jérôme. He walks off and finds something. We are guessing it's Ada but they don't show what he finds.

The final shot of episode 2

The cliffhanger  

Back in his quarters, the captain hears another knock at the door. This time, it's Franz coming to show the captain what he's found. The ending is a mixture of several scenes coming together. Maura holds her medallion close. Daniel picks up a picture, and it's of Maura. The telegraph is now receiving a signal of just triangles in a row. Nothing else. Lastly, the captain is shown Ada's body. She's lying on her back, as if she's looking a the Prometheus. The captain looks straight at the camera.

It's then that we pull back and see that his image is being watched on a TV screen. There are, in fact, nine television screens. Each screen has a different face on it: Lucien, Sebastian, Maura, The Boy, Daniel, Mrs. Wilson, Jérôme, Ling, and Eyk in the very center. The ending track is "Child of Time" by Deep Purple.

Whew! What a humdinger of an episode. So much to speculate!

• Did Daniel kill Ada and, if so, why? How did he do it?
• Why does Daniel have a picture of Maura? I guess they do know each other.
• Is the boy electively mute or terrified of someone? Or is he actually mute or with a tongue cut out?
• What happened to brave Jérôme?
• Why does the company want to sink the ship?
• What did Krester promise Tove and why does he know bad thing about rich people?
• Most importantly, who is watching the TV screens? Maura already told us her father liked to watch people when they thought they were alone. That's how you know what you are made of. Is the father watching all of the passengers?
• Will Eyk's coat come back?
• Will Lucien take Mrs. Wilson up on her offer?

Until next time, shipmates.