Who died in the Netflix series 1899 season 1? We explore the magnitude of deaths in the complex series. There are spoilers, so be warned!
The multi-lingual masterpiece, 1899, involves a hell of a lot of death. This is a show with a dangerously high death count, which depicts many different ways of killing off its unsuspecting cast members. The passengers aboard the Kerberos do not know what fresh horrors await them on the abandoned ghost ship, the Prometheus, out in the Atlantic Ocean. As the series progresses, it becomes clear that the whole setup is an elaborate simulation of some kind, which means with all that death, no one actually dies in the real world. Even though that nifty little plot twist kind of undoes all the significance of what comes before it, the deaths still feel real at the moment and do affect the narrative overall. Here’s a breakdown of everyone who died in 1899 who is of any importance to the plot. If we missed anyone, please comment below.
Who died in 1899 season 1?
Ada
The first sacrifice aboard the Kerberos comes from the sweet Danish girl Ada of the lower decks. She is entranced by Daniel’s scarab beetle and follows the bug into his deadly path. Daniel apologizes before committing the act, but the audience doesn’t get to see what happens next. The doctor concludes that she died from a heart attack, although in the end, it is revealed to be a product of Daniel’s device. This device deactivates the individual, taking them out of that particular simulation, but not out of the whole system. It’s never really explained why Daniel deactivates her, but it upsets the guests and leads to an inevitable mutiny. Ada is the first death on the ship, but Daniel continues to kill passengers, with Franz discovering six more in the next episode. By episode four the pile of bodies is growing even higher still.
Flashback characters
Most of the main cast get their own specific flashbacks and an exploration of their backstory. In these backstories, there are numerous deaths. Eyk’s wife and daughters are burnt to death when his wife loses her mind. Angel and Ramiro are responsible for killing a priest, which leads to them going on the run in the first place. Lucien stole a dead lieutenant’s identity. Ling accidentally poisoned Mei Mei and stole her identity. Tove killed her rapist, who shot Krester in the face.
The boy
One of the show’s greatest mysteries is the mute boy found aboard the Prometheus. When he swaps over to the Kerberos, passengers start to die in unusual ways. To protect himself, the first mate suggests that the boy is the reason for all this death. Iben and her army hunt him down and she throws him overboard in “The Fight”. It’s probably the most iconic death of the series, but the boy miraculously reappears only moments later, teleporting into the dining room with his trusty pyramid.
Nearly everyone aboard the Kerberos
Episode five, “The Calling”, is a game-changer in the series, opening up the plot to many of the show’s secrets. Henry initiates a ticking siren, which hypnotizes nearly all of the individuals on the Kerberos. The passengers enter a zombie-like trance and march out of their cabins and then proceed to jump overboard. Yuk Je (Ling’s mother) and Krester are among these hypnotized people, who jump to their death. By the end of this massacre, over a thousand people have died, and very few remain. These survivors await even harsher tests inside the simulation though. During this chaos, Daniel is attacked by a laborer and has to deactivate them as well.
The survivors
As the simulation intensifies, our intrepid survivors are faced with an almighty storm. Olek is swept out to sea whilst trying to save Ling. Lucien has another seizure and dies before they can administer his life-saving vials. Angel is hit by an iron girder and dies. Franz, Iben, and Anker all drown in the lower decks. Those that survive this initial attack are then deleted from existence when the simulation restarts in the finale.
Eyk
The ship’s captain is the only person who believes Maura’s crazy theories and helps her to hunt down Henry’s office. In the finale, “The Key”, Maura and Eyk search the mental hospital for hidden portals. The first mate arrives to take Maura’s key and he deactivates Eyk in a heartless fashion. The heroic Captain doesn’t really get the send-off that he truly deserves, although technically he is still alive and unharmed in the real world. In the end, the only people that don’t die within the simulation are Maura, Daniel, Henry, the first mate, and of course Elliot. But no one dies in the grand scheme of things, they’re all just floating in deep space.
And that’s everyone who died in the Netflix series 1899 season 1.
