Netflix 1899 recap guide: All 8 episodes explained

1899 episode 2 recap: “The Boy”

Similar to the premiere, the second episode opens up with a dream. This time, it’s Eyk’s, as we see him out in the woods when he hears a child singing a song in German. He calls for someone named Nina as he sees a house lit up with flames with a woman and a young girl standing in it. When he awakens, he’s holding that ribbon he found in the Prometheus. Later on in the episode while some of the sailors are talking about Eyk behind his back, we learn that his wife set a fire to their house and she died, along with their daughters.

As Maura begins looking after the boy from the Prometheus, sailors on the Kerberos are alarmed when they receive a message from the ship company that reads: “Sink ship.” They know there’s something wrong with the Prometheus but they don’t know exactly what. For whatever reason, the company wants them to hide what they’ve found.

Maura and Eyk reconvene and realize they have way more questions than answers, wanting to know where the boy came from and why he doesn’t speak. After their trip to the Prometheus, Eyk has been seeing and hearing things, which is disturbing to him. He asks Maura if she’s been experiencing anything strange since getting back but she doesn’t say.

Maura encounters Daniel the stranger who boarded the Kerberos at the end of episode 1, and she tells him he looks familiar. He doesn’t introduce himself to her, however, and instead just says he heard noises coming from her room. Inside, Maura tries to get the boy to eat but he doesn’t, and he looks really sad. Wanting answers, she asks what happened on the Prometheus but he doesn’t respond, instead handing her that pyramid again. Maura is understandably frustrated and doesn’t understand what he’s trying to tell her.

Down in the lower-class cabin, Ada washes Krester’s hair as they talk about the boy and their plans for America. Their parents want to build a church when they get there, though Ada says she wants to go to school and become a doctor. Later on, Ángel and Krester see each other again, though it’s hard for them to communicate as they speak different languages. Ángel gives Krester a silver compact case, and they’re interrupted by Tove who walks in. When Ángel leaves, Tove questions Krester on what that was all about, but Krester says it’s nothing.

Later on in the episode, Tove confronts Krester again when she sees him holding the compact case. She reminds him that rich people don’t give things out for free, taking the gift from Ángel.

The passengers start to feel restless as they question who the mysterious boy is and what finding the Prometheus means for their trip. Eyk speaks with one of the sailors, asking if there was anything peculiar about the last sale of the ships. He needs to make an announcement to fill everyone in, but he really doesn’t have much to say.

Characters who are just meeting one another continue to interact and in one scene, we see Lucien approach Ling Yi. He talks about the Prometheus and what he knows of Japan, but their exchange is cut short when a woman named Virginia Wilson (Rosalie Craig) interrupts. In private, she says tells Lucien that his marriage to Clémence doesn’t look happy, asking if he’s in need of a distraction, hinting at Ling Yi.

Meanwhile, Jérôme has something for Lucien, sneaking into his room and placing some sort of military medal on his desk. We don’t know how these two men know each other yet, but we’ll find out. Later on in the episode, Jérôme starts a conversation with Clémence and is then caught by some of the crew members who are after him for being a stowaway.

Eyk continues to hear singing through the hallways of the ship and he decides to follow the voice as he calls for Nina. He walks into one of the bedrooms and sees a fire in the fireplace and his family sitting around, sewing and reading. He’s understandably freaked out by what he’s seeing and his wife tells him that he’s late. His daughter Nina tells him that her mom’s dreams are back but she should be better soon. Eyk tries to tell himself that none of this is real, and when he eventually wakes up he’s in a hidden room under one of the floorboards. No one else is there, except one of those strange beetles. It’s not known at this time whether or not it’s the same beetle or if there are multiple. Curiously, the floorboard has a triangle drawn on it.

Speaking of triangles, Maura discovers the boy has a small triangle tattooed on his neck, and though she continues to ask questions he doesn’t give any. Instead, when she sees the tattoo he grabs her arm and makes a shushing gesture with his index finger to his lips. Eyk bursts in and demands to know what happened on the Prometheus, though as expected, the boy doesn’t talk. Maura walks Eyk into the hallway so they can speak more freely, and Eyk explains that he just somehow saw his dead family.

Eyk decides to investigate the secret room but before he finds much, he’s interrupted by Olek at his door. Earlier on in the episode, Eyk asks Olek to find out how much coal they have left in the bunkers and to make sure no one knows he asked. Now at his room, Olek tells Eyk that the bunkers are halfway loaded and asks when they’ll be back on course, but Eyk responds by closing the door on him.

We learn a little bit more about the mysterious letter Maura received while she opens up to the boy. He notices that she’s crying, and she explains to him that she’s looking for her brother who’s been missing for four months. She believes he was on the Prometheus and now knows she’s dead, saying he sent that letter to her. When we see the letter again, we can see there’s a triangle on the envelope just like the boy’s tattoo.

Secrets are uncovered during a scene between Ángel and Ramiro in their room when we learn the two are not really brothers and Ramiro is not really a priest. According to Ángel, Ramiro is a Portuguese servant, not even Spanish, and he doesn’t believe any of the passengers believe their act. Their heated argument turns sensual as they start kissing and making out. We see that Ángel’s back is full of scratches and scars.

The passengers are called to the dining room, while Daniel places a beetle on the floor in the hallway. It’s then we can see the carpet’s print has triangles all over it. Ada eventually finds the beetle and begins following it, and it leads her to Daniel, who picks up the bug and puts it in his pocket. “I’m so sorry,” he tells her.

Over in the dining room, Eyk announces to everyone that they’ll be turning the ship around so they can tow the Prometheus back to Europe. As expected, everyone’s really angry, but Eyk explains they don’t have enough coal to tow it all the way to their destination. As we’ve noticed, the passengers are really determined to get to America and for no reason want to go back to where they came from. This is proven again during this scene when characters like Lucien yell at Eyk for his decision.

In private, Maura also pushes back on Eyk’s decision to go back, but he explains that there’s something wrong with the Prometheus and the fact that the ship company is trying to cover it up is very concerning to him. He gives her the letter he received, asking who could’ve sent it and what the Prometheus has to do with his family. Maura is, of course, alarmed to see the same letter she received, but she doesn’t tell him about hers at this time. Instead, she urges Eyk to rethink, and though he apologizes to her, he says he’s still turning the ship around.

The crew openly talks with one another about how much they disagree with Eyk, questioning if they should just sink the Prometheus themselves. One of the sailors, Franz (Isaak Dentler), sees something concerning and goes to talk to the captain. They’ve got a new telegram and the message is just triangles over and over. Eyk walks out on the deck and sees passengers gathered around Ada, who is laying on the floor dead. In his room, we also see that Daniel has a photo of Maura, meaning his connection to her is bigger than it seems.

As the episode comes to a close, we watch as Eyk looks up and the frame changes, revealing someone watching several of the characters on multiple TV screens. Before we can see who’s watching them, the screen cuts to black.

The second episode of 1899 does a great job advancing the plot as we continue to learn that everyone’s got secrets and aren’t exactly as they present themselves. Daniel is clearly watching Maura, just as someone is watching the entire ship and all the passengers. Perhaps it’s the ship company watching to see if they sink the Prometheus? At this point, there could be so many convincing theories.

Written by Natalie Zamora