The Boy (episode)

## The Boy

**The Boy** is the second episode of the first season of the Netflix original multilingual mystery thriller, *1899*. It was released on November 17, 2022.

## Synopsis

The captain experiences unexplainable flashbacks. A strange man follows Maura to her cabin where a boy is hiding. A bug leads to a tragedy on deck.

## Plot

Eyk awakens in the middle of the woods, surrounded by darkness and fog. He follows the jaunty singing of an old German folk song to a clearing, where his house once stood. He watches as his daughter Nina and wife burn in a house fire. Eyk then awakens from his sleep to a voice in his head telling him to "wake up," clinched in his hand is the white ribbon he found on the Prometheus. After getting a drink, he is alerted by Sebastian that they received a message from the company that simply says "Sink ship." He tried to establish further contact, but they did not respond. With this recent development, they head to the bridge, where Sebastian reveals that all of their compasses are ticking frantically and without direction.

Maura has decided to take the boy in and watch over him as he sleeps. After giving the pyramid another glance, she begins looking through his coat pocket, where she finds a wedding ring. Maura gives one last glance to the sleeping child before leaving the room, at which point, the boy opens his eyes.

Olek shares his encounter on the Prometheus with the other coal workers. They question what could possibly kill over 1,000 people, with one possible scenario being that they killed each other, but another worker, Landon, argues it could've been wolves or a giant wolf, possibly even the boy they recovered from the ship being the wolf. But the senseless theorizing comes to an abrupt conclusion upon the captain's arrival. Eyk secretly orders Olek to find out how much coal they have in the bunkers and report back to him.

Eyk asks Maura about the boy and why someone would lock him in the cabinet. More importantly, he's wondering who sent the signal. Unfortunately, she has no answers to offer as the boy refuses to speak. He then asks if she experienced anything strange on the Prometheus, but she didn't. Eyk briefly becomes distracted by what sounded like a child singing, same as when he was dreaming in the woods.

Anker leads a prayer session, informing the passengers in third class not to fear the Prometheus and assuring everyone that God will protect them.

Maura returns to her room to find Daniel trying to get into her cabin, claiming that he could hear someone whimpering inside. Maura asks if they had met before, as Daniel somehow seemed familiar, but he is doubtful they had. Maura then enters the room to find the boy awake, but otherwise silent and motionless. She inquires about the other passengers from the Prometheus, but he remains silent. Rather than speaking, he grabs the pyramid and hands it to Maura once more.

While washing Krester's hair, Ada speaks of the boy they found on the Prometheus and expresses sympathy for him, wondering what will become of the boy when they arrive in America. When they do arrive, Ada plans to convince their parents to allow her to finish school, but Krester argues they'd never allow her. Instead, they'll have to help build the church. Ada believes God wants her to finish school so that she can become a doctor, but what of Krester's calling, she wonders, though he appears irritated by her questioning, and so she storms off. Her exit is followed by Ángel's arrival. He slowly approaches Krester and gifts him his silver cigarette case, placing it in Krester's pocket himself. Tove interrupts, and Ángel sees his way out. Tove questions what he wanted, but Krester claims that he doesn't know. Nevertheless, she reminds him of the promise he made to her.

Eyk asks Sebastian if anything struck him as odd when the ships were sold a couple of months ago, but he was just relieved they kept half the crew. Eyk reminds him that they are barely carrying any freight, just like the Prometheus. Their cabins also aren't fully occupied either, meaning that the company is traveling this route without making any profit. And now they want to sink one of their own ships. Eyk can't help but wonder why that is. But Sebastian, as well as the rest of the ship's inhabitants, have questions regarding the boy and why they havn't moved yet.

Lucien approaches Ling Yi on the deck, both intrigued by the ship across the way but unable to communicate due to speaking different languages. Lucien always wanted to go to Japan, given how fascinating it looked. He hoped he'd have the opportunity to see it some day. Yuk Je intervenes, pulling Ling Yi away. As she is escorted back to her room, Virginia approaches Lucien after having taken notice of his distant relationship with his new wife. She had an offer, a transaction really, involving Ling Yi, who she often refers to as an "exotic little bird."

Jérôme breaks into Lucien's room, unaware that Clémence is making her way back, forcing him to hide under the bed after carefully placing a war medal on Lucien's desk. When she enters, she immediately sees the medal and places it in the desk drawer. After she enters the bathroom, Jérôme climbs from under the bed and exits the room.

Sebastian and Franz question why the company would want them to sink the ship and how they would even go about doing so. Franz is also concerned about Eyk, who he argues the company should've gotten rid of, as he never fully recovered from his wife setting herself and their three children on fire.

Next to a bottle of alcohol and a gun, Eyk opens his drawer to revisit the letter he received, but he is once again distracted by the sound of a young girl singing. He follows the sound into the hallway, where he briefly sees his dead daughter walking the halls. He follows her into a dark room, where upon his entry, the once dark room turns into his family's living room, where his wife and three children await. His eyes are filled with tears as Sara heads to the kitchen. Eyk slowly approaches his daughter Nina, who informs him that her mother's dreams were back. Despite being all but certain she wasn't real, Eyk is still overwhelmed with emotion. Nina suggests he talk to her mother, as she didn't like it when he was gone. That's also when the shadows would come out. Eyk embraces his daughter just before she goes up in flames. A ball of fire comes hurdling towards Eyk, knocking him against the wall and back into reality. He now finds himself in the burned remains of his old house, calling out to Nina without response before noticing a green bug, similar to the one on the Prometheus. He follows it into a vertical shaft with ladder rungs on the wall. He climbs up to find a hatch, which opens up under the floorboards of the bed of his own cabin. On the hatch, there is an inverted triangle with a horizontal line, identical to the design debossed on the letter he received.

Maura shares with the boy that when she was his age, she once got lost in the woods whilst she and her father were bird hunting. She spent the whole night out there until her father returned the next day and revealed that he left her there and watched her the entire night, as he had done with her old brother before. He said that being alone like that showed what type of person she was. She wasn't mad because he lied to her or left her there, she was mad because he took away the one moment that she thought she wasn't being watched. While performing a physical exam on the boy, she discovers a triangle tattooed behind his ear. He grabs her wrist abruptly and places his finger over his lips in a shushing motion. Someone then knocks on the door. It is Eyk. He forces his way inside and slams the boy against the wall, demanding to know what happened on the Prometheus until Maura intervenes and shoves him outside, where he reveals he saw his dead daughter. After taking a moment to calm down, Eyk apologizes and leaves just as Daniel turns the corner. Daniel notes that Maura is an Irish name, but that she doesn't look Irish. She replies that she is not. As she opens her door to head back inside her room, Daniel sees through the opening that the boy is inside.

Jérôme introduces himself to Clémence on the deck. He is dressed as a crewman, but he doesn't exactly look like a crewman, Clémence remarks. Admittedly, people shouldn't judge by looks, but it's impossible to do so. She's certain that he had made his mind up about her before he even approached. But assuming he is who he says he is, Clémence compares working on a ship to being in a prison, to which Jérôme replies that they're all in a prison one way or another. She asks if she knew him from somewhere and formally introduced herself before scurrying off, but not before Jérôme confesses that she was right and that he had made up his mind about her from the moment he saw her. Jérôme makes his way back inside, where he is confronted by Franz and several sailors. Cornered, he is left with no one option but to fight. Jérôme holds his own against the four attackers for a while, but is ultimately overcome and knocked unconscious by Franz, who had learned that someone stole a crew uniform the day prior.

While searching for Ada, who has been missing for hours, Tove discovers Krester with a silver cigarette carrier, coming to the conclusion that Ángel gave it to him. She questions why Krester accepted it and what he had to do in return, as nothing in life is free.

Ramiro joins Ángel on the deck, fearful that the police may come to investigate, but given the disappearance of over 1,000 people, Ángel is hardly concerned that the police would pay them any attention. Still, Ramiro can't shake what little time he spent on the ship, and even recalls the terrifying look the boy had in his eyes the night prior. Tove interrupts to return Ángel's cigarette case, throwing it at his feet and telling him to leave her brother alone. Ángel then turns around to his brother's judgmental glare of disapproval. He warns Ramiro not to judge him and says he never pretended to be something he wasn't.

Eyk makes his way down the tiled shaft under his room, but the pathway to the room where he encountered his daughter is no longer there, and he doesn't have time to investigate as Olek comes knocking at the door. He informs Eyk that the bunkers are half-full, two of them almost empty, roughly 3,000 tons remaining. Olek then asks when they'll be resuming course, but Eyk simply returns to his room.

Crying over her brother's letter, Maura pleads with the boy to speak to her, revealing that she was looking for her brother who was likely on the Prometheus and has been missing for four months. She doesn't believe he is dead, as he sent her the letter, which bore the same symbol of a triangle that the boy has on his neck. Again, she asks about the triangle and what happened on the Prometheus, but he doesn't respond.

Ángel returns to his room, where he questions Ramiro about his fear, specifically the fact that he was neither a priest nor Ángel's brother, and he doubted anyone actually believed the latter, as Ramiro isn't even Spanish. In reality, Ramiro is a Portuguese servant. Ramiro remarks that Ángel's mother was right about him; he doesn't care about anything or anyone but himself, to which Ángel replies that Ramiro is simply jealous. Overwhelmed with sexual tension, the two proceed to have sex in the cabin, with Ángel removing his shirt, exposing a back full of partially healed welts and wounds.

With most of the passengers in the dining room, Daniel releases his green bug onto the ship, allowing it to roam freely, at which point, Ada comes across the bug, dropping her doll and following it to the upper deck, where Daniel awaits. After putting the bug back in his pocket, he expresses his reluctance to harm the girl, but it seems he has no choice.

With the crew and passengers assembled in the dining room, Eyk announces that he will be turning the ship around and towing the Prometheus back to Europe. Lucien is outraged, and Virginia questions exactly how many people are aboard the ship. Including passengers and crew, there are a total of 1,612 occupants, to which Virginia replies that 1,611 of those inhabitants are against his decision. Eyk stands firm with his decision and leaves.

Eyk returns to the main deck, where he reveals to a pursuing Maura that the ship company is trying to hide something regarding the Prometheus. He shows the "SINK SHIP" note. Also, he believes that someone wanted him to find the ship, producing the letter in with a picture of his family, though he has yet to discover the connection between the ghost ship and his family. Eyk is determined to find out what happened on the Prometheus, but Maura grabs his arm and exclaims that she can't go back to Europe. As sorry as he is, Eyk has no choice but to turn the ship around.

Outside her cabin, Daniel tells Maura that he disagrees with Eyk's decision to turn the ship around. Over 1,600 passengers aren't simply going to stand by and allow it to happen. He noted that Maura didn't look too keen to go back either.

With the Prometheus rigged to the Kerberos, they set their course back to Europe. Sebastian and Franz are very much against the decision, as Eyk is acting against the company's decision. And for it, they will all bear the consequences. Franz suggests they sink the ship themselves. Sebastian agrees, but Wilhelm doesn't seem so sure. It is then that Franz discovers Ada's lifeless body on the upper deck, for which he alerts Eyk. Meanwhile, back up in the bridge, Sebastian is receiving a message from the telegraph, however all of the characters are triangles, upright and inverted.

Daniel goes back to his room, where he produces a photograph of Maura.

Eyk arrives on the main deck, where his crew shows him Ada's lifeless body, leading him to suspect that the Prometheus may have somehow been responsible. Unbeknownst to Eyk and the rest of the passengers, they are being watched through video monitors by an unknown figure.

## Cast

### Starring

* Emily Beecham as Maura Franklin
* Aneurin Barnard as Daniel Solace
* Andreas Pietschmann as Eyk Larsen
* Miguel Bernardeau as Ángel
* José Pimentão as Ramiro
* Isabella Wei as Ling Yi
* Gabby Wong as Yuk Je
* Yann Gael as Jérôme
* Mathilde Ollivier as Clémence
* Jonas Bloquet as Lucien
* Rosalie Craig as Virginia Wilson
* Maciej Musial as Olek
* Clara Rosager as Tove
* Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen as Krester
* Maria Erwolter as Iben
* Alexandre Willaume as Anker
* Tino Mewes as Sebastian
* Isaak Dentler as Franz
* Fflyn Edwards as Elliot
* Anton Lesser as Henry Singleton

## Co-starring

* Vida Sjørslev as Ada
* Cloé Heinrich as Nina Larsen
* Alexandra Gottschlich as Sara Larsen
* Niklas Maienschein as Wilhelm
* Alexander Owen as Landon
* Ben Ashenden as Darrel
* Jónas Alfreð Birkisson as Einar
* Heidi Toini as Bente
* Joshua Seelenbinder as Eugen
* Robert Cawsey as Porter
* Richard Hope as Dr. Reginald Murray