1899 ending explained: Finale twists and Maura's fate revealed

However, when they collide with their missing sister ship, which has been lost for four months, the series soon devolves into horror.

With mystery layered upon mystery, multiple fans have been left scratching their heads.

If you’re wondering what really went down, don’t worry: we've got you covered. Read on to have the ending of 1899 on Netflix explained - although be warned, spoilers lie ahead!

1899 ending explained: Did the passengers get off the ship?

The penultimate episode of 1899 ended with the Kerberos and its remaining passengers travelling through a whirlpool to the ship graveyard, which we already know is the simulation archive. Here Maura (Emily Beechem) and the other passengers were reunited with Eyk (Andreas Pietschmann), who had previously been trapped here alone, aboard the Prometheus.

Now with both ships in the archive, Eyk boards the Kerberos and questions Maura about the situation. Only six other passengers remain at this point: Jérome (Yann Gael), Clémence (Mathilde Ollivier), Ramiro (José Pimentão), Tove (Clara Rosager), Li Ying (Isabella Wei) and Mrs Wilson (Rosalie Craig).

Maura reveals to Eyk and the other passengers that Daniel (Aneurin Barnard) is her husband and that Elliot (Fflyn Edwards) is their son, despite having no memory of them. She also admits that Henry Singleton (Anton Lesser), the owner of the shipping company, is her father. The passengers, especially Mrs Wilson, doubt the validity of Maura’s claims. However, Maura then asks if any of them remember actually boarding the Kerberos and much to their dismay, none of them does.

She admits that at first, she thought the simulation was just about her, revealing the letter from her brother, Ciaran, but now believes that all of the passengers are here for a reason. In turn, everyone else produces the letters that they have received. However, the origin and significance of these letters are not disclosed in this finale.

Later, Maura reveals the key from the locket that came with her letter, explaining that she thinks it's the way out. Despite this, the passengers still struggle to believe that their experience is a simulation, with Mrs Wilson again being sceptical because of Maura’s family connection to the shipping company. Subsequently, everyone but Eyk leaves Maura, favouring a plan to use a lifeboat to escape the Kerberos.

Maura and Eyk attempt to get back to the mental hospital from Maura’s memory, but the trapdoor leading to the tiled shaft in her cabin is no longer there. Instead, they use the trapdoor in Daniel’s cabin to travel to his memory.

Here Maura suggests that all of the passengers' memories are connected, with this simulation mirroring the way the human brain holds memories in different areas. After removing a panel of the wall in Daniel’s memory the pair travel through another tunnel in the hope it will lead them back to the mental hospital.

Meanwhile, Daniel has been using his handheld device to hack into the mainframe located in the ship’s engine room. He opens a hatch above the wiring and connects his device. As a result, the black metallic substance (the virus designed to delete the simulation) that has already been spreading through the ship begins to grow at an even more accelerated pace.

This eventually corrupts the entire simulation and deletes the Kerberos. So, the remaining six passengers left aboard do not make it off the ship. They are deleted along with the vessel after the total collapse of the simulation. But remember this isn’t reality, so are they really dead? We’ll come to that.

What is the secret behind Maura’s forgotten memories in 1899 on Netflix?

Meanwhile, Henry has taken Elliot to room 1011 of the mental hospital and reveals that the simulation doesn’t exist to keep Maura trapped, instead it’s to keep Elliot trapped. Henry injects Elliot with a white substance that causes him to relive a memory.

Here he sees his mother and father argue about his health, revealing that he was terminally ill. In the memory, Maura injects him with a black substance to make him forget and send him into the ship simulation. She does this so that Elliot doesn’t have to die and their family can remain together. Elliot rejects this truth claiming that Henry has planted a false memory in his brain, however, he later comes to believe it.

Meanwhile, Maura and Eyk arrive at the mental hospital after travelling through Daniel and Tove’s memories. Here they are intercepted by the first mate, Sebastian (Tino Mewes) who is working for Henry and demands the key from Maura. She reluctantly gives it to him and then he uses his device to kill Eyk.

He then takes Maura to Henry’s office, reuniting her with Elliot. Her father then uses the handheld device to take them all to room 1011 and has her restrained in the chair. He reveals to Maura what we already know: that the whole simulation is actually her design and that it isn’t him who is the Creator, but her.

Henry injects her with the black substance in order to make her forget the truth and send her back into the loop, while he plans to escape using the pyramid and key – previously revealed to be the only way to leave the simulation.

Henry returns to his office, takes the key and inserts it in the small black pyramid. However, when he turns it nothing happens. This is because Daniel changed its code when he hacked into the simulation mainframe, meaning Henry has no way to escape.

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Did Maura escape the loop in 1899?

Instead of waking up on the Kerberos in the loop after her injection, this time Maura wakes up at the site of the grave from a different memory. Maura enters Elliot’s hidden room below the grave, followed by Daniel, who travelled here via the cabinet on the Kerberos before its deletion.

He says that his plan has worked as the loop didn’t reset and their current location is the first simulation the couple ever created. Daniel reprogrammed the coding of the syringe that Henry injected Maura with so that instead of making her forget and sending her back to the ship, it brought her here.

He explains how he swapped the power of the pyramid her father has with a toy one in this simulation, meaning that they now hold the power to escape. He also programmed the exit code into Maura’s wedding ring, meaning the ring can be used to escape rather than the key.

Daniel tells Maura that her brother, Ciaran, has taken over the whole program while she has been stuck in the simulation and it’s he who is actually controlling everything. He tells her that the situation is much bigger than she knows and she has to leave now to stop him, or everything will be lost. She puts her ring in the pyramid and leaves the simulation.

Maura wakes up attached to a large machine and disconnects from it. In the same chamber, she sees the other passengers who died on the Kerberos are also connected but are in a deep sleep.

She looks out the window discovering that they are in orbit aboard a spaceship called the Prometheus. Many other chambers like the one she’s in can be seen as part of the ship, suggesting there are numerous other simulations happening too.

She approaches a console which has a piece of paper stuck to its screen. Written on it is the phrase “May your coffee kick in, before reality does,” exactly like in the pages of the books on the Kerberos.

A digital message then appears on the screen that says "Project Prometheus". Details of a survival mission appear including the number of passengers (1423) and crew (550). It also gives the date which reveals that Maura is actually in the year 2099, not 1899 as she previously thought. A final message from Ciaran is received which reads "Hello sister. Welcome to reality."

So yes, Maura did escape the loop. However, it’s hard to say whether this 2099 space 'reality' is exactly what it appears to be or not. Considering Ciaran is in control, this could be another simulation that Maura will have to escape as well. From steamship to spaceship, it seems Maura still has some way to go before solving the full mystery...

Reacting to the last scene, Yuk Je actress Gabby Wong recently shared her theory with Metro, revealing: "I don’t know if it’s that wild a theory, but every single person that you see in the final scene is there for a reason.

"Even though you might not have gotten any answers or any elaborate elaboration of it in season 1, every single person in that room is there for a reason."

1899 is streaming now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £6.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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