Summary
“The Masterplan” reveals many truths and brings things together nicely, but it succumbs to the usual trend of not really being an ending but a setup for a second season.
This article contains major spoilers for the Netflix Punjabi series CAT season 1, episode 8, “The Masterplan”, including an open discussion of the CAT season 1 ending.
The new eight-part Netflix series CAT is a story of crime and corruption in the state of Punjab in both the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Fronted by a sturdy performance by Randeep Hooda, the thriller is full of twists, turns, and complicated powerplays, so we’re on hand to give you a lowdown on what’s what.
Broadly, the story revolves around Gary, or Gurnam Singh, an ostensibly regular guy with a past working undercover for the Punjab Police to expose the separatist group who murdered his parents. After reinventing himself he’s drawn back into a double life by the same policeman, Sehtab Singh, who enlisted him as a youth. After Gurnam’s brother, Sunny, is arrested for selling drugs, Gurnam is strong-armed into helping Sehtab and fellow officers Babita and Chandan to take down Madam Aulakh, one of two players – the other being an idealistic Jaggi Pradhan – fighting for a seat in the legislative assembly.
CAT season 1 ending explained
Gurnam begins to infiltrate Aulakh’s inner circle and depose her closest associates, starting with Laadi, whom he is forced to kill (Sehtab and Chandan help to cover up the killing.) He subsequently targets Shamsher, another of Aulakh’s close associates, and manages to get him out of the way too using his son Monty and his sketchy intentions towards Madam Aulakh’s daughter.
Gurnam manages to win Madam Aulakh’s confidence, but his real identity is never far from the surface.
As we cycle through flashbacks, we see more of Gurnam’s history, trying to bring up his siblings as a youngster, witnessing the death of his parents, and blaming contract killer Baljit Singh Rajpuria and his uncle, Mastaan, whom Gurnam kills in a fit of rage. Rajpuria re-emerges within the story as a contact of Madam Aulakh. Sehtab allowed Gurnam to believe that Rajpuria had been captured and killed, but the policeman really took a bribe to allow him to escape. As it turns out, Sehtab has always been lining his own pockets, and in the finale, it is revealed that it was actually Sehtab who shot and killed Gurnam’s father after he reported Mastaan and Rajpuria trying to smuggle weapons over the Indo-Pak border. Those two did kill Gurnam’s mother when she came looking for his father, though.
Sehtab killed Gurnam’s father to ensure his own personal advancement, and to continue to line his own pockets. This is the motivation throughout basically all of his decisions throughout the season.
Of course, eventually, Sehtab orders Gurnam to be killed. But Babita isn’t willing to go through with it, and Gurnam bribes Chandan with Madam Aulakh’s money, so the two of them fake Gurnam’s death and report it to Sehtab, who is on his way to Canada with Rajpuria. The series ends with Gurnam shaving his beard and cutting his hair, resolving to pursue his nemesis to Canada and get his revenge in whatever way he can.
You can stream CAT season 1, episode 8, “The Masterplan” exclusively on Netflix. What did you think of the CAT ending? Let us know in the comments.
