[Henry Singleton] "Your mind might not remember what happened in that room, but your body does."
Episode 1 of 1899 opens with the character Maura Franklin reading the first two stanzas of the
Emily Dickinson poem “The Brain—is wider than the Sky—”. The idea behind that is that even
though the human brain and the mind that exists within it are much smaller physically than the
sky or the ocean, it can contain them. it's about the magnitude of the mind's capacity to create,
or to imagine, or to perceive, or to remember. the new show from the creators of Dark uses its first
Eight Episodes to examine what the mind's capable of and the way it connects us to our perception of
reality. as the story unfolds there are several references to Plato's allegory of the cave to
drive this point home. very simply put that is about how what we perceive to be real from
our experience can be totally different from true knowledge or understanding. the series starts out
as what feels like a direct homage to the show Lost. it puts a bunch of people who don't know
each other together in a crisis situation and then slowly reveals details through flashbacks
about what shaped them into being who they are at that moment. it examines how they choose to
present themselves, what secrets they decide to keep hidden, and who they would decide to
be if things were to get crazy. it's not just that by any means. 1899's characters don't end
up on an island after a plane crash. instead, they're on a steamship en route to Fresh Starts
in the new world. it's a large cast of Mostly Europeans who are diverse in culture, class,
and the languages they speak. the catch is that by the end you're left scratching your head as to
whether anything we learned about these characters was true and we will come back around to that at
the end of this video. but before I get into what happens I do want to address the idea of things
taking place in a simulation because I think it'll be divisive. I'm a big fan of sci-fi and all the
imagination that goes along with that. which means that over the last few years of making videos
about TV shows, especially ones where it's obvious things aren't exactly as they seem, one of the
first theories that always pops up is that they're in a simulation. every time I see it my internal
response is "oh please don't let it be that" because in theory when you end that way it kind of
diminishes everything that happened on the way to get to that place. here I'm still willing to give
the creators the benefit of the doubt. I think this could be a creative decision that comes from
a place of understanding that and looking at it as a challenge they could take on. we'll have to
wait and see but the more I sit with this ending the more I like that possibility at the same time
it does make my job a little more complicated in relation to recapping the first six and a half
episodes were there an amazing amount of details that will likely be important going forward if it
gets picked up for a second season absolutely are any of those crucial in understanding the
ending of season one it's hard to tell all if the present is 2099, and that's a big if in a story
that is obsessed with our relationship to reality, then all of the memories that take place in the
19th century are almost certainly false or tied to something that happened to these characters
at a different time altogether. also, Elliot, Daniel, and Henry all exist in the simulation.
they appear to understand what's going on there after being through it so many times but they're
all noticeably absent in the final scene in the spaceship so there's no telling if any of them
are still alive or even exist in the present. what we do know is that the characters in 1899 are in
a simulation that takes place on a ship called the Kerberos making that Journey to the United States.
the thing that they all seem to have in common is that they're trying to leave their past lives
behind in one way or another. they all seem to be running from something. we'll learn later that
they're actually stuck in a loop that forces them to experience painful memories with Maura being
the exception since she seems to have forgotten hers. she believes her father Henry did something
to make her forget and we see a recurring memory surface of her being strapped to a chair and given
an injection in her neck. over time it's revealed that there are three passengers who know more
about what's going on than everyone else. Daniel, Elliott, and the ship's first mate Sebastian. that
last one is working with Henry while the other two appear to be working against him. the first
mate is there from the beginning pulling some strings behind the scenes while Daniel makes his
way onto the ship from the Prometheus when they go to investigate that and Elliot is discovered
there as well. Daniel tells Maura he's her husband and that Elliot is their son but she doesn't have
any memory of their time together. we do get to see some of their memories though and it's worth
noting that she's in them. I guess I should say that because it's a simulation that everything
was created, the ship and everything contained within is a manifestation of code. while that
means it's not real it doesn't mean that it won't turn out to be symbolic or even crucial
to understanding the truth of what's Happening down the road. for a quick example of how that
works think of the two syringes that are in room 1011 in the mental hospital. initially the white
one makes you remember and the black one makes you forget but when Daniel starts messing with
the code the black one sends Maura to the chamber under the grave instead. so while it's all made up
it may just turn out to be a place Mara's brother Ciaran is trying to keep everyone for eternity I
don't think we should write off all the potential clues that exist in all of the episodes that take
place in the simulation. even if we take it at face value that Ciaran is a person that exists in
reality that has different motivations than Maura and has co-opted the simulation she designed, that
doesn't tell us much about why she decided on the specifics of the simulation the steamer traveling
to the new world centuries in the past or for that matter why she tried to erase her memories in
the first place one of the show's big twists was that despite the reveal of the modernish looking
monitors at the end of episode 2 and the needle drop of Black Sabbath the wizard at the end of
episode 5. Henry was not the simulation's Creator I'm guessing most of what Mara says about his
experiments and his past are based in reality but according to what Daniel tells her at the end it
appears that they are the ones who were creating the simulations Apparently at some point in his
childhood Elliot started to die and Mara looked to technology for a way to keep him alive forever
they never come out and say it but the grave and the fact that she seems to be trying to forget
something traumatic appear to indicate that Elliot did die with Daniel and Henry it's a little harder
to tell as I mentioned neither one of them were present in the spaceship when Mara wakes up and
the simulation Daniel has knowledge about things outside of it he wanted Mara to wake up because he
said her brother had taken over the simulation and he hinted that there was more to that when he said
this is bigger than you think the one thing that makes me think that he might be dead or that he
may only exist in the simulation is that when she asked if he'll be there when she wakes up he says
always which sounds a lot more like a reference to their conversation in his memory when they
were talking about how everything you've known or experienced is all in your brain somewhere it
sounded like he was saying that he would always be in her memory rather than him saying that he
would be there in the next pod down the hall or whatever Henry on the other hand was actively
trying to get the key so he could wake up and with nothing else to go on Beyond his fear of
being stuck in there at least for now I'm guessing he does exist in reality regardless if Daniel is
still out there somewhere in the real world he's able to create a virus to corrupt the simulation
which is represented by those black growths that start popping up everywhere and ultimately rewrite
the code to stop Henry's attempt at waking up and allowing Maura to do that first as far as we
understand at the end the simulation is destroyed or at least it didn't complete the loop to start
over like it had in the past what that mean means for those who were left behind is a big question
going forward I brought up the Emily Dickinson poem in the beginning and I find it interesting
that she doesn't read the third and final stanza which says the brain is just the weight of God for
half them pound for pound and they will differ if they do as syllable from sound that brings to mind
the idea of a Creator the idea that the brain has the same capacity to create that God does and with
the simulation you can't help but think about playing God we can mostly piece together that
Mara tried to use what she knew about the mind to create a place where she could forget and be
rid of the pain she was experiencing Henry tells Elliot that this is impossible as much as we try
to forget what we don't want to remember we'll never be able to delete our memories entirely
they're a part of who we are woven into our very fabric he goes on to tell him that even if they
delete the memories in this simulation their senses are still reacting to the same triggers
the Mind might not remember what happened but the body does he explains that the simulation isn't
a prison that his mother is trapped in but one that was built for him and he makes it explicit
that Elliot is trapped in this simulation so his mother can keep him alive and while I don't think
we should accept everything he says as truth we don't know what his motivations are Beyond trying
to get the key and he did seem kind of shady once he had it but this all does seem to track with
Daniel's memory of the conversation he had with Mara in episode 7. he Echoes that same idea that
one's whole reality is actually inside one's mind that none of what we know as reality would exist
without the Mind experiencing it we'll never know if the stimuli in our brain are caused by reality
or a construct of one and when you start to talk about it like that you start to get into the
territory of what is the difference of living in reality or in a simulation in both conversations
the idea of Plato's Cave is brought up and Henry tells Elliot that his mother's world was turned
upside down by the idea that our knowledge has limits what she came to from reading the
allegory and that we can never know if things truly are how they appear he uses the example
of God being the creator of our reality and her response to that that if that were true then the
world that God lives in would be the real one and we're just his doll's house in their conversation
Daniel tells her that in the simulation she's like the prisoners in Plato's Cave looking at
Shadows on the wall and he wants her to be able to look over her shoulder and see where the light is
coming from by the end Henry helps her to do that even if she doesn't believe him he gets
the key and he tries to start the cycle of her for getting over again and learns that Daniel rewrote
the code Mara is transported to the child's room beneath the grave which he tells her is the first
simulation they created together everything about it seems consistent with them losing their child
and wanting to have a place to remember him but it doesn't really tell us anything about how they got
from there to what is happening on the Kerberos in that traumatic Loop either way for now she
seems to have broken free from that she wakes up inside a chamber in a spaceship that appears to
house several identical ones most of the important characters she met on the ship are there with her
she sees a card with the phrase may your coffee kick in before reality does which sounds like
something your uncle might have printed on his favorite coffee mug and that phrase being printed
in all the books was one of the clues that they were in a simulation before that was revealed
on a not very futuristic computer screen we see the name project Prometheus we learned that the
date is October 19 2099 and that there are 1923 passengers and crew on what is described as a
survival Mission she reads a message from her brother welcoming her back to reality and the
look on her face doesn't exactly scream okay now I remember what's going on and we see the
repeated motif of the triangle or the pyramid in her eyeball as we zoom in and the season ends
right there there are a lot of obvious parallels between the Kerberos and this survival Mission
and the same way I had the knee-jerk reaction of don't let this be a simulation on the first ship
I immediately thought don't let this be another layer to the simulation I guess it's just the
way I think but after making peace with that first choice I almost have to just strap myself in for
the ride now that we're here could it be reality could this all be taking place on a spaceship
in 2099 absolutely on the surface it's just a long-haul transport that puts passengers in stasis
so that they can survive on a trip that would last hundreds of years this is something that you read
about in sci-fi quite a bit they would just have to connect a few dots to explain how Mara's desire
to create a place to remember Elliot got tied into this seemingly unrelated Endeavor but if what
Daniel said about Kieran taking over the project for nefarious purposes was true then I would say
it's a 50 50 chance that he's lying to her about being awake in reality the one item that might
support the idea that everyone is on a survival mission to escape a dying Earth or something along
those lines is the repeated use of the symbol of the triangle pointing down with a line through it
this is the alchemical symbol for Earth and we saw it all over the place in the design of the
simulation and the marketing materials for the show and the last scene we even see that she has
a tattoo of it behind her ear just like the one she found on Elliot that's enough to add to the
mystery but I can't help but think about that line from dark what we know is a drop what we don't
know is an ocean and we're probably still not asking the right questions which should make for
some fun theories while we wait for season two so I did really enjoy the show maybe not in the same
way I enjoyed dark when I first discovered that but but I haven't been able to stop thinking about
it I think the shows introduced their mysteries in very different ways dark had The Disappearance
of Erik and Mikkel something that was grounded in the characters and how they were connected in
that little town and then it expanded from there 1899's characters are connected in their desire
to run from something but not by much else other than they're in a confined space together they all
have secrets and they're naturally suspicious of each other and that's before you factor in their
inability to communicate I know the creators were really excited about making a truly International
show with these different languages and I like the idea but in practice you do lose some of
what you can do with them since so much of their interactions are just not being able to understand
each other it creates some interesting Dynamics like at the end none of them could talk to each
other really but when you add in that idea that these memories we've watched them revisit are
probably false like the things that made them who we thought they were leading into the finale it
does start to feel like you're taking some risks but I don't think there's anything wrong with that
if you have a plan that you think you can pull off as much as I love dark I want to see what
else they can do and I would rather see creatives air on the side of Taking Chances there's a chance
that it might not work but you also get a better reward when it does I wasn't pulled
into this world in the same way I was to win then but these characters are starting in a different
place it's a different feeling it's asking a lot of interesting questions about how we perceive
the world around us how there is so much that's outside of our control even when we understand
what's going on and how hard it can be to let go of things even when you know it's the right thing
to do as a TV show I think it's impressive on a few different levels the cinematography Direction
and The intentional writing are things we already knew they could do and those are all still there
and the performances came came through when the situation called for it the emphasis on the puzzle
made it so that some of the characters didn't have much to do but they all had some things that they
can build on in future Seasons I thought the score was a little dialed back compared to dark I mean
that show had so much atmosphere but I thought that gave it more weight when it did kick in one
thing that I really liked was the way they went about revealing things they kept the audience on
the same Pace as the characters and putting the viewers in a situation where you pretty much know
what's going on but you just don't want to believe it yet felt very deliberate and just a great touch
if you're planning on turning things on their head I do have a lot of questions so many that
I think I'd rather get into those in a separate video there are also a lot of details I want to
go back and take a closer look at so be on the lookout for some more videos this week we're
in the same place as the main character right now we don't know how much of what we're experiencing
is real or what to believe I guess not in in the exact same place because if we can believe Henry
and her turn at playing God she tried to create a place where she could do the impossible and forget
there's probably a lot more going on and I'm looking forward to finding out and I think that's
a great place to leave things let me know in the comments what you thought about the season what
was your favorite episode I think I probably got hooked in at the end of episode two I was a little
disoriented with things maybe for the first couple but from there I was pretty much like okay I want
to figure out what's going on here the simulation effect is a little bit strange considering how
important every single detail felt in dark like I said I don't love this idea I'd be happy to
be proven wrong and I would be impressed if they looked at this as a challenge they thought they
could tackle and they do manage to pull it off please like this video If you enjoyed it please
subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and thanks for watching I'll talk to you soon