Summary
Tove’s backstory provides a heartbreaking new dimension to the lower deck characters and allows for a master class in acting. Meanwhile, the mysteries continue to mount up in the present timeline too. Fans will be manically piecing together their own theories as we speak.
We recap the Netflix series 1899 season 1, episode 6, “The Pyramid,” which contains spoilers.
Each installment focuses our attention on a different character. In “The Pyramid,” it is the turn of the pregnant lady called Tove (Anton Lesser). We get her heart-wrenching backstory and continue to explore the strange mythology of the show in more depth. Maura’s father starts to play a bigger role in the proceedings and the cast starts to uncover more of this mysterious world. As always, the show is beautifully crafted with some top-notch acting on display.
1899 season 1, episode 6 recap – what is the strange, black material?
Episode 6 starts with Tove running through the countryside after her sister Ada. The younger sibling hides behind a tree and Tove goes to fetch her. Unfortunately, a creepy man is waiting for her instead. Tove wakes from this nightmare on the Kerberos amongst the remaining survivors. She threatens Maura with her shotgun, demanding to know where the boy is. Tove’s finally come around to her mother’s way of thinking, the boy is to blame. She lost her brother and sister on this boat, and that nightmare is a nasty reminder of her unrivaled pain — she needs a scapegoat to pin all her anger upon.
The survivors manage to calm her down, but they have bigger issues at hand. They are stranded in the middle of the ocean, and the engines are down. Daniel admits that if they don’t fix this problem soon, they will die here. Eyk reassumes command and makes some orders. He asks the men to go to the engine room to get the engines fired up once again. Whilst the ladies search the ship for any survivors. The two priests will send out a distress signal on the telegraph and Eyk will look for the boy with Maura. Everyone has their duties, but very few speak the same language or trust each other for that matter.
The ladies walk the eerie corridors in the dark, looking for passengers. Tove starts to succumb to the ship’s haunting qualities. She hears voices and sees figures in the shadows. Meanwhile, the men (and Ling) come across a black, alien material growing on the walls. Daniel warns them not to touch this strange material, as they don’t know what it is or what it does. The men enter the engine room and begin to feed the engines.
Maura takes Eyk to explore her vision via the portal. Eyk believes this insanity must be a dream, but Maura is also experiencing the same things at the same time – is this a shared nightmare? She explains that the mental hospital is the very same place where she grew up as a child, but it feels different now. Her father built the place when her mother became unwell. She started to forget things, their names, and then Maura and her brother altogether. Henry became obsessed with the human brain and repairing her mother’s ailments. They return to room 1011. Eyk opens a window and discovers that the view is blocked by a material that looks very much like the ship’s hull. Behind another board is the very same hull.
The strange black material begins to spread throughout the ship, growing and expanding. Mrs. Wilson touches the material and it spreads across her fingers and hand. Tove sees Krester wandering the corridors in the dark and follows this ghost. There is a glitch and Tove finds herself within an ultra-realistic vision. This one centers on a traumatic event from her past. A man that Krester worked for, held him at gunpoint. Tove tried to protect her brother, but the man shot him anyway. She managed to deflect the shot, which skims Krester’s face, causing his disfigurement. Later, Tove is thrown back into the vision. The gunman accuses Krester of touching his son and taking his innocence. In retaliation, he starts to rape Tove, but she fights back and kills the rapist.
Lucien apologizes to Jerome while they shovel coal. He admits that he is dying, which explains why he is desperate to reach America in the first place. Lucien was to meet with a doctor, who was going to experiment on his brain, hopefully to save his life in the process. Jerome thought Lucien got everything he ever desired, but karma seems to have balanced the playing field. The men’s hard labor is rewarded, they restart the engines and bring back electricity to the ship.
The first mate ditches the two priests and teleports out of the simulation via the cabinet door. The two priests decide to try and steer the ship now that the engines are working once again. Anker flicks through the many books on the shelf looking for instructions and Ramiro uses the map to find the nearest signs of land. Anker makes a terrifying discovery within the books though. They all say the same sentence over and over again, “May your coffee kick in before reality does.”
1899 season 1, episode 6 ending
Henry and the suspicious first mate meet in a desolate land to discuss their next move. The first mate states that the transfer will be complete in two days’ time. Henry wants the boy finding as he has his magic pyramid artifact. The Creator talks about people being oblivious to reality, happy to take things for granted. As the camera pulls back, it is revealed that those black structures are here as well and the pyramid can be seen in the distance again.
The black material has made its way into Maura’s vision as well and Daniel is here too. This in itself raises many suspicions. Eyk and Maura instantly turn on the man. He begs Maura to remember her past and offers to explain everything to her. Eyk points a gun at him and the two men tussle. Daniel uses his device to teleport Eyk away from this vision. Maura takes his gun though and forces him into room 1011. Daniel states that they were married for twelve years and that he loves her. She refuses to believe his stories and takes his device, locking him in the room.
Maura exits the building and curses her father, screaming toward the sky. As she has predicted, he is watching her from a TV screen. In anger, she throws the gun and it hits an invisible wall, creating a crack in the structure. She touches this invisible wall and peels off a sheet. The ship’s hull is underneath this invisible wall too. Maura repeats her mantra, but cannot fathom this impossible situation. Is she going mad? Her reality, it would seem, is disintegrating before her very eyes.
The females find themselves on the top deck, realizing that there are no more survivors. They watch in disbelief as a thunderstorm takes shape in the distance. 1899 season 1, episode 6 ends with Eyk crawling out of the tiled shaft to find himself on the Prometheus. As the shot pulls away it is revealed that he’s in a ship graveyard of sorts, surrounded by many other grounded boats. Are these all the other failed experiments?
What did you think of 1899 season 1, episode 6? Comment below.
