1899 – Season 1 Episode 6 “The Pyramid” Recap & Review

The Pyramid

Episode 6 of 1899 starts with another eerie flashback, this time paving way for our rabble of survivors to gather together on the bridge. Tove starts to lose control, desperate to know where the boy is. Daniel urges them all to keep it together, pointing out that they need to find land otherwise they’re going to die out on the open water.

For now, they need to split up, with Mrs Wilson heading off to search for survivors, Eyk looking for the boy and the others looking for a way to get the engines back up and running again. The only way to survive this is to trust each other.

Tove is continues to hear voices. There’s also a bizarre harrowing black mass that seems to be spreading throughout the ship too. And naturally, Mrs Wilson ends up getting curious and reaches out, shocked as her finger is pricked and it appears to be spreading across her hand like some sort of virus.

Speaking of spreading, Eyk and Maura head back down the hatch inside Maura’s cabin and end up in front of the mental institution as before. Maura deduces that the boy could well be inside, especially if Henry Singleton is pulling the strings. As they press on, Daniel isn’t far behind.

Maura explains that her father built the hospital as a way of finding out what happened to her mother, who slowly started to lose her mind. This behavioral science appears to be a big part of the experiment we’re seeing involving Project Kerberos. Maura can’t actually remember what happened inside this hospital but it definitely involves that huge room and the chair.

Now, the windows appear to hold another clue, as the wood behind is hollow and seems to be hiding the ship’s hull. There’s also another panel, with more of the ship’s metalwork behind. Is there a ship inside another ship? Is this shipception?!

There’s a good deal of chatter in this episode about identity and belonging, which is really fascinating to watch play out because most of the characters here are wrestling with this. Ling-Yi heads down to the bowels of the ship with Olek and tells the latter he’s different from other men, proceeding to kiss him.

Back in the hospital with Eyk and Maura, the latter brings up the last words the boy said about the Creator, believing that he may be onto something. Although Eyk immediately jumps to the idea of a deity, it would appear that this “Creator” may actually be Henry himself. AS they continue exploring the hospital, Maura points out that a room that should house her father’s office is just a wall.

This appears to ring true with Tove, as we see more of her visions of the past. Specifically, we see how his scar came to be, with a bounty hunter after the family and determined to make them pay. He wants Tove as retribution for Krester taking his son’s innocence. He proceeds to rape her in front of the family as they try to look away.

Tove eventually gets retribution though, shooting him dead. This explains her family’s wretched backstory and also just why Krester’s sexuality has been frowned upon by his mother, given it tore the family apart.

Speaking of tearing apart, the Priest and Anker end up as the only ones on the bridge. Anker confides in Ramiro, telling him that he’s lost his faith and doesn’t believe in God. Clutching his hands, Ramiro tells him that God will forgive. It’s a really poetic moment between a man losing his faith and getting that faith returned, by a man who’s not actually a priest.

When the engines do get back up and running again, the pair are happy… until they realize they need to try and steer the ship. As they grab a bunch of books and cycle through, they realize the writing is all the same. The same sentence repeated constantly: “May your coffee kick in, before reality does.”

Back at the hospital, Eyk and Maura continue to search but this time, they find some of that strange black stuff spreading. Daniel stops them from touching it, and implores Maura to remember who she is. He tells them they don’t have much time and a lot is riding on Maura remembering her past. “I’m not gonna leave you again.” Daniel says, as he wrestles with Eyk, knocks him down and inexplicably teleports him to the woods.

As for Maura, she’s left with Daniel who reveals that he’s actually Maura’s husband. They’ve been married for 12 years and everything around them is not real. Maura refuses to accept this reality, and eventually locks him in room 1011. “Please, wake up.” He says, before she rushes away.

As for Maura, she heads outside and throws the gun into the air… and straight into glass that cracks. It seems like the illusion of this being a large, open area is just that – an illusion. Peeling off a panel that’s on the glass, she finds the outside of the ship and immediately whispers to herself “This can’t be real.”

As Eyk heads out and looks out the window of the Prometheus, he sees something shocking. The camera pans out and shows off the water around them… which is absolutely teeming with other ships, each abandoned and destroyed.

The Episode Review

This episode really lifts the veil and shows some of the cogs in the machine behind the scenes. So it appears that Henry is in charge of this big operation and he’s testing these individuals for reasons still unknown right now. There’s also the subject of the other passengers, who all seem to have something in common -they’re lacking a sense of belonging.

Seeing how all these characters are affected by their past, and the way this ties into the attitudes and behaviors of the various people together, makes for a really deep and refreshing watch.

It’s nice to see a series allow us to draw our own conclusions as to what’s happening rather than spelling it out. Krester and his family, for example, are haunted by Krester’s actions in acting on his sexual impulses, and that explains why they frown upon him getting close to Angel. These sort of instances -which we’re not outright told – is partly why this works so well.

The ending to this certainly leaves the door open for the next episode, which promises to be quite the intriguing watch.