Summary
The finale of Kaala Paani brings many intricate subplots together with great clarity, though leaves enough unresolved that the temptation of a second season may prove too much for fans and Netflix alike.
Kaala Paani, a seven-part Netflix original series created by Sameer Saxena and Amit Golani, exists in the long shadow cast by the COVID-19 pandemic. India’s first “survival show” is about a deadly epidemic in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and expertly crafts a narrative around the origins, deadly results, and potential ramifications of a superspreading disease. As with the rest of it, the ending of Kaala Paani Season 1 is a deft, intricate affair, so allow us to lay out the finer points of Episode 7, “Darwin’s Bay”.
Needless to say the following contains enormous spoilers for the entire season. First, a quick rundown.
The key points of the series are the development of a water pipeline on the islands that’ll displace the native Oraka tribe, and the sudden spreading of a water-borne disease, Leptospiral Hemorrhagic Fever (LHF-27), that causes black rashes initially and death shortly after. A tourist festival has brought many holidaymakers to the island, so the panic and subsequent lockdown wildly exacerbate the difficulties of trying to contain a public health event while also trying not to damage anyone’s vital bottom line.
Emerging from this are a couple of key ideas: A safe haven island called Huxley purchased by the ATOM – the company handling the pipeline – CEO, whose infected wife Mrs. Shaw is the key to an island-wide evacuation, and the potential cure for the disease synthesized from the now-extinct plant Andamani Echinacea, which the native Orakas have been consuming for generations.
Kaala Paani Season 1 Ending Explained
Why does Santosh kill Jyotsna?
When Jyotsna goes to drop Kaddu off at the evacuation center, the latter is finally reunited with her father, Santosh. However, this emotional moment is undermined by the revelation that Kaddu is infected – something that Jyotsna thinks should be revealed to the authorities for the safety of everyone. Distraught and irrational with grief, Santosh strangles Jyotsna to death before she can reveal Kaddu’s condition.
While tragic on its face, this is even more problematic since Jyotsna has already made a connection between the cure for LHF-27 and the plant she saw in the journal of the Japanese doctor in Basu’s house. However, she’s killed before she can reveal the coordinates to Ritu, whom she had agreed to meet later.
Does Ritu find a cure?
While able to find Basu, Ritu is unable to contact Jyotsna and decides to look for the plan with no clear plan, map, or coordinates, using decades-old data and not accounting for the devastation that has occurred in the area in the meantime. It is highly unlikely that Ritu will be able to locate the plant, but one supposes it’s the thought that counts.
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What happens to the Oraka tribe?
The native Oraka tribe are central to the plot of Kaala Paani, since they’re naturally immune to the disease and thus hold the key to it being cured.
However, their utility in staving off the epidemic does not make them expendable, especially since they were never left alone in the first place. Kaala Paani makes a clear and explicit connection through the Orakas that messing with the natural order is never a good idea.
Through the tribe, the enduring theme of the many versus the few is also explored, with it being determined eventually that their sacrifice would be worth it for society’s greater good. However, the Orakas, having pre-empted such a sacrifice and their lack of complicity in it, rise up against the cops who encircle them at the end of the season.
Will Kaddu die?
While Kaddu makes it to the ostensibly safe haven of Huxley thanks to the rash actions of Santosh, she remains infected and will likely die without a cure, although the show leaves her fate uncertain.
The cruel irony is that Kaddu is unknowingly in possession of a leaf of the plant that would save her, taken from the pot Jyotsna had planted a child with Vinayak.
