Summary
The finale of Copenhagen Cowboy blows the plot’s potential wide open, suggesting all kinds of possibilities for what the show might become.
This recap of the Nicolas Winding Refn Netflix series Copenhagen Cowboy Season 1 Episode 6, “The Heavens Will Fall”, contains spoilers. We also openly discuss the Copenhagen Cowboy Season 1 ending.
Sprung from the obviously rather demented mind of Nicolas Winding Refn, Copenhagen Cowboy is a deliberately confounding show, a kaleidoscopic, macabre dreamscape that doesn’t play by the usual rules of genre or basic storytelling structure. We’ve already recapped the first five episodes, but here, in our summary of the finale, “The Heavens Will Fall”, which opens the story up to surprisingly wide proportions, we’ll attempt to round up and explain the show’s plot and visual motifs as succinctly as possible.
Of course, a lot of this is open to interpretation and most of it is left deliberately unclear, so there’s a fair helping of speculation going on here, but we’ll do what we can.
Copenhagen Cowboy Season 1 Episode 6 Recap
So, the basics. Miu is considered a good luck charm, or a witch, or an alien, depending on who you ask. We meet the short-haired, often badly-dressed young woman when she’s purchased by a woman named Rosella, who runs a sex-trafficking operation exploiting illegal immigrants – otherwise called illegal aliens, which will come to matter later – with her violent brother. Rosella wants a baby but isn’t willing to pay the asking price for one. When she seemingly falls pregnant and then seemingly miscarries, she becomes fearful of Miu and passes her off to her brother, Andre.
It is through Andre’s escort service that Miu becomes connected to the sinister Nicklas, in a couple of different ways. For one thing, Miu befriends one of the girls, Cimona, whom Nicklas subsequently strangles to death on a pig farm. But through the picture of Miu that Andre is using to advertise her, Nicklas becomes fixated on her, and their paths are destined to cross sooner rather than later.
After escaping Andre, Miu gets involved with some other nefarious types, but her primary conflict is with Nicklas, who quickly emerges as a rival to her power and supernaturalism. Even though when they collide Miu is easily able to best him, Nicklas doesn’t go away very easily. He undergoes something of a rebirth, and explicit parallels are drawn between him and his oddball family and Miu herself.
While Copenhagen Cowboy is spare with backstory, it makes it clear that something’s up with Miu. Her powers are real, though her nature is mysterious. All theories are viable, from an avenging angel giving human form, to a witch and an alien. The latter is, perhaps, the likeliest, and would make the most thematic sense, but there’s a chance not even Refn knows at this point.
Nevertheless, Nicklas is wary of Miu’s power, and so goes about reviving his sister, Rakel, with a weird, Oedipal blood ritual involving his seductive mother. In this way, Rakel is brought back to life, and through finding sustenance she is returned to full, supernatural strength, though the show is similarly cagey about her own nature. Nicklas has some of Rakel’s power, but not the same kind of experience or control. Immediately, she is a threat to Miu and a being of obvious villainy and power. She wants to destroy Miu out of the gate and reveals to Nicklas that she is “one of many”, an idea we see visualized when we see her walk into a forest and meet with several girls who look very similar, all dressed in blue. Are these facets of Miu’s identity? Her coven? Aliens from the same planet? Nobody knows for certain, but the idea that there are many versions of Miu with similar powers, and beings like Rakel who oppose them, widens the scope of the story considerably.
Copenhagen Cowboy Season 1 Ending
Throughout the series, Miroslav, a lawyer with a connection to Miu’s past, is our primary source of backstory. In the finale, he facilitates a cameo from Hideo Kojima, of all people, the beloved creator of the Metal Gear Solid series, who refers to Miu as a “spirit” and advises Miroslav to seek the help of the Giants, as they are the only ones who can fight Miu.
We know nothing about the Giants. It might be anything from a secret society to a race more powerful than the one Miu belongs to. But, given this information is relayed by Kojima, who knows a thing or two about unbelievably weird and convoluted storytelling, I don’t imagine it’s anything simple. After a full season of Copenhagen Cowboy, simple wouldn’t really cut it.
You can stream Copenhagen Cowboy Season 1 Episode 6, “The Heavens Will Fall” exclusively on Netflix. Do you have any thoughts on the Copenhagen Cowboy Season 1 ending? Let us know in the comments.
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