Full Circle – Season 1 Episode 6 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

Essequibo

The finale of Full Circle begins with the task force preparing the raid and Harry meeting Savitri right before the festivities begin. It turns out that a lot of money is due to Harry from Savitri’s side. She assures him everything will be paid to him in due time.

Cuneo nervously makes his way around the room before meeting Savitri. They exchange pleasantries before she begins the ritual of redrawing the circle again. Before Harry joins them, he informs Xavier to bring his family to the plane and asks the siblings to steal the painting as well.

What comes of the raid for the Mahabir family?

Willoughby begins the rituals by drawing a circle with rice. Agent Roan Jessup notices that Cuneo is getting dangerously close to busting his cover and orders the raid to fall into action. The authorities break in and arrest most of Savitri’s men except Harry. Manny goes after him through the backyard.

Harry calls Xavier for help as he gets into his house. Manny reaches the house as well, calls for backup, and ventures inside with his gun pointed forwards. Xavier is hidden in the shadows, waiting for him to make contact. He strikes and Manny falls to the ground.

Harry shoots him in the head and escapes through a secret hallway in his house with Xavier. It is a tunnel from the Prohibition days, similar to what we saw in the Netflix series The Watcher.

The siblings make a plan to steal the painting: Nat will create a distraction and Louis will slip past the doorman in the lobby. He manages to do it and catches Samantha on her way out. Louis only has eyes for the painting and as Samantha breaks out of the struggle and reaches for her gun, he tries to dislodge the painting from the wall.

Why does Samantha let Louis go with the painting?

She points it towards him and Louis tells her the truth about everything. When she learns he is from Essequibo, Guyana, she lowers the gun and helps him take the painting. Guilt from the past years surfaces and Sam lets him go.

Mel follows the cart and reaches the apartment where Savitri is hosting Willoughby. Mel gets her hands on his passport and his flight tickets. His real name is Melvin, as opposed to Coledra. She also finds Joseph Clarence’s ID in the apartment along with evidence that confirms the plan for the kidnapping.

Roan informs Mel about the raid and that they weren’t able to get their hands on something tangible to implicate Mahabir. As she is leaving the apartment, Willoughby walks in and she holds him at gunpoint.

Why does Xavier spare Louis and Nat?

Jeff narrates the entire incident of the kidnapping to Clarence at the hospital. This gets him very anxious and Clarence has a stroke.

The siblings reach the exchange point as Harry prepares to shoot them. But Xavier kills him before that, as a sign of loyalty to them. Xavier lies to Annabelle that Harry will meet them in Suriname and also gives Louis some money. He watches them take the flight back home while he is stranded in this jungle of crime and indifference. Xavier feels guilty about betraying his best friend, who has been nothing but good to him.

The siblings’ plan to save Nicky’s life by endangering their own also brought some good karma their way and it certainly influenced Xavier’s decision. 

What happened 20 years ago in Essequibo?

Samantha goes to the hospital and meets Derek and Charisse. When the nurse comes to call the parents, she urges Derek to check in on Nicky. Mel reaches the hospital as well. All of this is not merely a coincidence, for those who believe in “the circle!” She informs Sam about Manny’s death and also reveals what actually happened 20 years ago.

We learn Ranwell Mahabir was a politician. He was involved in a scan where he rewrote zoning laws in Essequibo along with other politicians to defraud people of their lands. They took bribes to get things like The Colony built (in Essequibo) – profiting out of the misery of other people. That was the Series A investment that Sam used for Jeff’s business. One of the only people who refused to leave the property was Clarence Joseph. Ranwell got his grandson kidnapped and when he refused to pay the ransom, Ranwell killed his grandson.


Ending Explained: 

Mel beseeches Sam to help her with the bank names and routing numbers that were used to make the bribes so that other people like Savitri Mahabir can be brought to justice. She thinks that Gene is holding on to the list with that information in order to protect Sam.

The couple comes back home to find Jeff and Kristin waiting for them. Jared will be arriving shortly. Sam brings up the incident from 20 years ago and cites it as the starting point of this mischief. Roan and Detective Sanders interrogate Savitri about the routing numbers and bank names. She isn’t forthcoming and learns from them that Aked is dead.

The next day, Derek helps Nicky move back to Charisse’s place. Sam seems to be really affected by the last revelation and proposes to Derek that they sell the apartment and move to some place of his liking. She goes to meet Gene at his house and discusses the past incidents. She asks him for a copy of the list that she has destroyed on Manny’s instructions. Sam makes sure that the information becoming public wouldn’t affect him or Jeff in any way. Gene hands over the list and Sam apologizes to both of them, which is followed by a warm hug between Sam, Cindy, and Gene.

Sam meets Mel in a bar, who is now suspended and cannot reapply for any post in law enforcement for a year. Sam asks her what would happen if Sam turns in the list to the authorities. Mel posits that the worst sentence Sam could get with a plea of responsibility is 2 years. The best-case scenario is that she is let off the hook entirely by the FBI.

Before we can learn what Sam decides to do, we see that Louis and Nat have landed back in Guyana. The episode ends by showing them walking onto the property where a huge board of The Colony is affixed to the ground. All we can see are abandoned buildings and a whole lot of mischief for nothing. 


The Episode Review

The final scene at The Colony proves why a film camera is so deceptive and revealing at the same time. Putting everything into perspective of that “ghost land” shows us how revolting and devastating greed can be. Episode 6 also gave a lot of opportunities for redemption and introspection to the characters. This stands in contrast to how the characters were shown at the start of the show – self-centred, narcissistic, and wholly incapable of thinking of others. Soderbergh couldn’t help but leave us with hope and optimism. 

The renewed lens through which we see Full Circle in hindsight has been carefully put together in the second half of the show. Episode 6 proves to be a satisfying end to the compelling chain of events that did not yield anything productive for the participants, except the mending of ways for some, while endorsing nothing but dissatisfaction for the others.

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You can read our full season 1 review of Full Circle here
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