This article contains spoilers for the ending of Dear Child Season 1 Episode 6.
The Germans aren’t exactly known for their good humor, and the Netflix original series Dear Child reinforces that idea across six grim episodes about the bond between a mother and her child even after years of trauma, abuse, captivity, and sexual violence.
The plot revolves around a woman ostensibly named Lena who has been held in captivity for 13 years, forced to raise two children, Hannah and Jonathan, under the sadistic, watchful eyes of their “Papa”. When Lena is able to escape, she becomes the victim of a hit-and-run and ends up in hospital with Hannah.
Officer Gerd Buhling of the state police informs Matthias and Karin Beck, Lena’s parents, that she has been discovered. While they acknowledge that this woman has a striking resemblance to their daughter, they know she isn’t Lena. As it turns out, the woman’s name is Jasmin, and she has essentially been forced to cosplay as Lena for 13 years while raising Lena’s children.
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Buhling and Detective Aida Kurt, the lead investigator on the case, try to determine who Jasmin’s disfigured captor is and how many more victims he might have claimed, while Hannah continues to believe that her Papa will come to save them and reunite the family.
Dear Child Season 1 Ending Explained
How did Jasmine escape?
Jasmin was able to escape after smashing her captor in the face with a snow globe. She fled, but Hannah told Jonathan to remain behind and clean up for when Papa woke.
Jasmin was subsequently hit by a car. When the driver checked on her, Hannah knocked him out with a tree branch. Papa disfigured the driver in order to throw the police a red herring, believing he was their captor all along, while ringing Jasmin an ambulance after Hannah begged him to save her. The idea was that Hannah would accompany Jasmin to the hospital until the time was right, at which point Papa would reunited them all as a family.
Why was Jasmin kidnapped?
Jasmin was essentially kidnapped as a replacement for her previous victim, Lena Beck, who had died due to a postpartum infection after giving birth to the third of her children, the second to be sired through rape by her kidnapper.
Jasmine had a striking resemblance to Lena, who herself at been kidnapped because of her resemblance to the kidnapper’s mother. He was trying to build a version of the family he had been deprived of by force.
Who is Papa?
“Papa” turns out to be Lars Rogner, the head of security company Rogner and Son, which he had inherited from his grandfather.
Lars’s biological mother had abandoned him when she was still young, and Lars had made repeated attempts to try and replace her through his various kidnappings and long-term abuses.
How does Jasmin kill Lars?
After leaving the hospital, Jasmin is able to fool Papa into believing she is still under his indoctrination by continuing to cosplay as Lena and join him and Hannah in the mobile home.
Everything about this was a ruse, including Jasmin arming herself in a way that she knew Lars would be privy to. Believing himself to have disarmed her, he wasn’t aware of the shard of glass from the snow globe that she was hiding in sanitary towel. After tricking Lars into giving her some privacy while she relieves herself, Jasmin fatally stabs him in the neck, finally freeing herself from his oppression.
While Lars is dying, he reveals the location of where he buried Lena so her parents can finally achieve closure.
You can stream Dear Child Season 1 Episode 6 exclusively on Netflix. Do you have any thoughts on the ending of Dear Child Season 1? Let us know in the comments.
