1899 Episode 7 Recap: The Storm

Daniel and Maura

It's time for episode 7 of 1899. To see all of my 1899 recaps, go here.

In the last episode, we finally learn Tove's back story and how her baby – and Krester's facial scars – came into being. The captain orders the survivors to split up, which creates some new and surprising character interactions.





Episode 7: The Storm

As the episode opens, Daniel and Maura are in the throes of passionate lovemaking. They kiss and hug each other, enjoying the moment. We see the wedding ring on her hand. He tells her, "I love you. Never forget." This seem to corroborate that Daniel's story is true. Maura wishes she moment would last forever.

They begin to engage in the type of pillow talk that nerdy scientists enjoy. Daniel tells her that the moment is right there stored in her memory. Reality is in the mind. It's right there, whenever she wants it. Maura marvels that Daniel does listen to what she has to say. He teases her that he does listen; he doesn't always agree.

Daniel believes that reality isn't just neurons in the brain. Reality is on the outside and not just the inside. Maura counteracts that none of this would exist without the mind to experience it. She poses the question: "Are stimuli caused by reality or a construct of one?"

He accuses her of being a hopeless romantic. Maura is now starving and gets up to search for food. Instead of a silky bathrobe though, Maura slips into a hospital gown. The camera pans out to show they are inside a large spacious bedroom that looks as if it's decorated in very 1970s aesthetic.

As she leaves the room, we hear deep vibrations. Air sirens begin to go off, similar to what we heard during episode 5, The Calling. Daniel looks concerned and gets out of bed, calling after Maura. He leaves the room. His reality looks like an alternative version of Maura's reality, with all the color washed out. He begins to look around. He finds the hospital gown on the ground. Maura's voice tells him to wake up.

Daniel wakes up in the room with the scary chair in the hospital. He bangs on the door and asks to be let out. We see Maura on the other side of the door, listening to him. He begs to be let out. Says that he needs his device. The shutdown has started and they don't have much time. Maura stares at the door, labeled room 1011, the same room number she had on the ship. Daniel looks at the camera, and we cut to the credits.

The Awakening

After the credits end, we see the ship on the water, with the storm raging outside. Inside her cabin, Maura climbs up the ladder, back into her room. We see the book on her desk, The Awakening by Kate Chopin. She runs to the ship's deck and to the big windows. She grabs and holds her medallion necklace.

Note: The Awakening is a work of fiction published in 1899. The story is about Edna, a woman struggling with the expectations of society. She falls for Robert, and they have an affair. Robert flees to Mexico, knowing he will be the ruin of her. Edna longs for Robert and freedom. Her husband, Leonce, fears for her mental faculties. The book ends with her drowning herself in the Gulf of Mexico. That is the only type of freedom available to her. It's an interesting book, seeing that Maura had a mother with mental illness. Maura herself seems to be battling with society's expectations. The book really fits and seems like the kind of book Maura would find invigorating.

A real Babel situation

Inside the bridge, the group tries to communicate what they should do about the storm. Tove wants to find the captain. Iben thinks the storm is God's revenge. Ramiro thinks they should warn the others in the engine room. Also, he thinks that maybe Franz – the brute – will know what to do. Everyone agrees they need to find help. But because of the language barrier, no one understand they are all saying the same thing. Everyone leaves except for Virginia, whose hand is now completely black. She tells them to go and leave her behind. She's rifling through all the drawers looking for something and getting aggravated that she isn't finding anything.

Daniel starts exploring the space

Back in the hospital, Daniel tries to find another way to escape the room. Maura isn't showing signs she will let him out. He goes to the panel that Eyk opened earlier that leads to the ship's hull. He pries open the panel with a metal pole. He's facing a tunnel of wires. He begins to crawl through the tunnel. He seems to know exactly where to go.

Maura looks for the captain    

Back on the Kerberos, Maura and Sebastian cross paths. She wonders if he's seen the captain. Sebastian wonders if she's found the boy. Neither of them is anxious to share what they know and instinctively guard the information they have, while trying to coax what they can from one another. They go their separate ways.

Maura finds Virginia on the bridge. Maura sees her black hand and wants to help. Virginia warns her not to touch it. She tells Maura that she will probably die. She had hoped Maura could tell her what the cause was. Maura tells her, "Just think of it as a bad dream." She then sets off again to find the captain. Virginia calls after her plaintively and begs Maura not to leave her. It's natural that she would not want to be alone, but Maura has her own problems.

Sebastian gets to the sick bay and opens a drawer. Like many places on the ship, the drawer has a secret panel, which holds a different type of device. When Sebastian looks at it, the screen looks like a type of gps. He uses it to try and find the boy's location. Perhaps everyone has a tracker on them.

Are you lost?   

Maura goes into Eyk's memory world under his room. She climbs down the shaft and comes to his house. She enters tentatively, calling for Eyk and notices the portrait of his family. Her search for Eyk is interrupted by his wife, who enters the room and approaches Maura. At first, we wonder if the wife feels invaded by this stranger entering her home, but she acts like a nurse bot. Asking Maura if she is lost or unwell. Maura gets frightened and pulls away.

Daniel crawls through the tunnel of wires. He comes out in a different dream world. We see a well and hear church bells ringing. This isn't a world we have seen before. There's a rosary on the ground. He picks up the rosary. He then notices a faint glitching in the scenery and walks towards the well. He begins to climb down the well. We see that Henry is watching Daniel with interest.



We won't drown! We will freeze!   

He's also watching the group in route to the coal room. The group finds a supply closet. Ramiro begins to hand out life jackets as a precaution. Anker tries to keep his patience with Ramiro. He tries to tell him that putting on life jackets is pointless. "In this water, we will freeze – not drown." Tove tries to take control of the group and encourage them to continue and not waste time arguing.

Everyone moves on except Iben, who decides she is going to stay there and not move further. She tells Tove that whatever happens is God's choice. She also no longer wants to follow Ramiro or Clémence because she thinks they are of ill repute. Tove tries to talk sense into her mother. "God will not protect us. We have not been chosen to follow him. This is not God's miracle child." Anker tells Tove to go on. He hugs her close and says goodbye because he has chosen to stay with his wife. Tove leaves her parents behind.

Anker goes to stand next to his wife. She hugs her husband gratefully and asks Anker to pray on their behalf.

Daniel is back in the tunnel of wires. He comes to another world, covered in snow. We see a trail of blood leading to a shack. A picture of the Statue of Liberty lays on the ground. This must be Olek's world because that looks exactly like the picture in his possession. He finds another panel and slips inside. Daniels is just traveling through these dream portals as if he owns the place. Is he moving on instinct or has he done this before?

A reunion  

Inside the coal room, the shoveling stops as the group finally finds their friends. Clémence hugs Lucien as Jérôme watches. Ramiro and Ángel embrace. Tove tells Franz that there is no one steering the ship. Instead of going up to the bridge, Franz sends Olek. Ling Yi chooses to stay with Olek. Franz sets off the close the bulkhead doors to stop water from getting in. Tove wants to help Franz with that job. This leaves Ramiro, Angel, Clémence, Lucien, and Jérôme to shovel coal – not a job any of them have done before. This is the part where we begin to question the group's ability to make decisions.

Meanwhile, Maura is still trying to figure out what to do. She's still holding Daniel's device. Looking at that seems to trigger her to go check out Daniel's room. While we don't know exactly what she's thinking, we know she's still trying to make sense of his reveal that they are married. She figures that maybe she can find some clues about his story by visiting his dream world. She finds her picture on top of the hatch.

She climbs down and finds the bedroom we saw at the beginning. She begins to see flashes of her with Daniel. She sees all of the pictures on the bedside table of her, Daniel, and the boy together. They look happy.

It's a bedroom, not a tomb  

Meanwhile Daniel enters Maura's memory world. She walks towards the cross on the grave at the top of the hill. It turns out that the grave is actually the entrance to a secret bedroom where the boy waits. The room is decorated with non-electronic toys.

The boy looks relieved to see him and then annoyed. He demands to know where Daniel has been. They hug. Their demeanor seems emotional and affectionate unlike the way it has been up to this point. The boy wants to know if Daniel has found the code yet. Daniel tells him not to worry: "We will get her out so she can end this loop once and for all."

The boy begs him to find the code and gives Daniel their wedding ring as a good luck, which he has been carrying. Daniel leaves Elliot alone once again.

Meanwhile Sebastian locates the boy on his device. He gleefully sends a message, reporting that his mission is accomplished.

Olek and Ling Yi arrive on the bridge. The steering is turning wildly, with no direction. They pull on it together, trying to get control of the ship.

I'm sorry you had to find out this way  

Daniel climbs out of Maura's world and goes back to his room. He is horrified to see the picture of Maura on the ground and his panel open. Expecting the worst, he comes down and finds Maura in his room. He apologizes that she had to find out in such a shocking way.

He tells her the boy's name is Elliot, and he's their son. Maura tries to make sense of this. She knows she can't have children. But Daniel tells her that's a false memory. She wanted to forget that she had a son to get rid of the pain. She doesn't see how it's possible she doesn't remember her own child.

Maura rebels against this idea. She pushes away from Daniel. She believes he's just a memory her father put there to confuse her.

But Daniel tells her that she's trapped in there. That just like they used to talk about, this is just a construct of reality. "This isn't real. It's a simulation." He compares it Plato's cave allegory: "You are watching the shadows on the wall and thinking they are the reality. If you would look over your shoulder, you would see who is causing those shadows. You forgot what's real. You have to remember and wake up, or there will be nothing to wake up for and your consciousness will be trapped in here forever."

Henry watches everything  

Back on the ship, the storm continues. The ship is tossed by the waves. Virginia makes her way into her bedroom. She opens the box and finds her letter. We don't see what's in the letter. Maura's father watches her on the TV monitor. His countdown clock reads that it's 21 minutes until shutdown. Henry Singleton takes this all in his evil overlord Bond lair. He seems to be loving every minute of the chaos happening on the ship.

His messenger comes in to relay the message that Sebastian has found the boy. Henry sits back, satisfied.

Sebastian comes into Maura's bedroom, knowing that's where Elliot is hidden. He climbs down into the panel and walks straight to the grave.

Remember the code    

Daniel helps Maura stand up. He tells her there is a code that is the key to waking up. She needs to remember what it is. That she hid it to make herself forget. It can be any object at all – a key, an object, a door. Maura pulls out her locket, opens it, and finds a key inside. Daniel seems taken aback that Maura had this on her the whole time. Maura tells him that she received it in her envelope. Daniel takes it from her and tells her she will wake up soon. He makes a promise that it will be so. They grab hands and leave the bedroom together.

Back in the coal room, Lucien starts to have a seizure. Jérôme and Clémence run to his side. Lucien doesn't have any of the vials with him, so Clémence asks Jérôme to help carry Lucien. Together, they lift him and start moving towards his room. This leaves Ramiro and Ángel to shovel coal.

Daniel and Maura run in the ship's hallway. They carefully avoid the crystals, which are growing rapidly. The arrive at the sick bay, and he pulls out the same device that Sebastian was messing with. He asks for his device back. Maura gives it to him, and he plugs the two together. He explains that there are hidden cheats and shortcuts inside the simulation.

He explains what will happen: "Once they flush us out, the simulation will start again, and this room will go into the archive just like the others. But this time it will be different. I'll anchor us to it so we will go through the same port." With that accomplished, he takes her hand and they set off to find Elliot.

Ling Yi on the deck of the Kerberos

Olek washed aboard  

Ling and Olek are still doing their best to steer the ship. Ling hears her mother calling outside and follows the voice to see if her mother is real. Instead of doing the wise thing, Olek goes after he. He can't help himself. Once Ling gets outside, her mother disappears. Ling falls to the ground, terrified. Olek helps her up and promises she won't die today. Just then, a giant wave washes over the ship and pushes Olek so hard that the railing breaks. Olek falls off the ship, knocked over by the force of water.

Clémence and Jérôme finally arrive at Lucien's cabin, looking for the vials. But as they arrive, Jérôme notices that he's already gone. It's too late for Lucien.

Down in the coal room, the structure begins to crack. There's a crash and dust flies everywhere. When Ramiro recovers, he finds Ángel with a beam on top of him. Ramiro is unable to lift the beam. He runs to Angel's side, but all he can is watch him die. Ángel confesses that Ramiro is too good for him. He never understood why Ramiro fell for him. The two weep together.

We cut to Anker and Iben. They hold hands as the water rises. Iben reiterates that she wants to obey the Lord's will. Anker feels angry, but he will never leave her.

Tove and Franz arrive at the bulkhead doors. The try to close the first one, but the water is too powerful. They move to the second door, but there's no handle to close the door. In the end, Franz chooses to stay behind so that he can close the door, hoping it's not too late for Tove. Tove doesn't approve and tries to get back in to help Franz, but he's already made up his moment. A moment later, we see Franz floating in the water. He has drowned.

Their silly emotions  

Henry is watching all of these tragedies play out. But he is interrupted by Sebastian, who has brough Elliot to stand in front of him. Henry talks to Elliot. He tells him how silly the others are – that they left emotions cloud their judgment. "Every time they make the same mistakes. And every time they die. Because they can't get rid of their emotions. But that's what makes them weak. It's human nature's ultimate flaw. One shouldn't base a choice on love, anger, or hate. They are just silly feelings that cloud the mind." Henry seems to want to instill a new value system in Elliot. He wants Elliot to see his way as better. That's it's better to not form connections.

Daniel and Maura arrive at her room, in pursuit of Elliot. But they find the hatch down to her dream world closed off. It no longer exists. Henry's voice comes over the loudspeaker. He compliments them for getting so far this time but affirms that they have failed again. He will spare the boy if they come to him.

He tells Maura that she needs to bring the key to him. In return, she will keep her son.

Daniel tells Maura that he knows how to fix this. He asks her for the wedding ring and for her trust: "I love you. Never forget."

Back in his quarters, Henry opens the pyramid. Inside, is a keyhole. He tells Elliot that once he has the key, this will finally end. "The Kerberos will be moved to the archive." Elliot blinks back tears. He doesn't know what to think anymore.

We will move the Kerberos to the archive  

On the deck, Ling Yi tries to recover after Olek's demise. She sees a giant whirlpool open up in the sea. The ship goes down into the whirlpool and travels through a cave of water.

Eyk sits at his desk on the Prometheus. He's days drinking again. He hears a rumbling outside and gets up to see what's happening. The ship then comes up out of the whirlpool into calm waters.

The two ships now sit parallel to one another. The group gazes at each other across the water. Eyk is the only one on the Prometheus. The survivors still on the Kerberos are Maura, Jérôme, Clémence, Virginia, Ling, Ramiro, and Tove.

The ending song is "The Wind" by Cat Stevens.

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