1899 Season 1: Our Biggest Unanswered Questions

The mind-bending tale 1899, from showrunners Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, continues their flair for exploring the outer limits of human knowledge. The Netflix original series follows the crew and passengers of the Kerberos as it departs from Europe and travels across the ocean to New York City carrying more than a thousand people. As the episodes go, we discover that the Kerberos is not a typical ship and that all of its passengers are participants in an odd experiment. As if this weren’t exciting enough, we soon learn that the ship doesn’t exist and that everything is a computer simulation.

Even though 1899 doesn’t hold back in providing answers to some of our most pressing queries, there may still be some unanswered questions after the series finale. Only after Netflix gives the show a second season renewal and gives Friese and Bo Odar time to finish their gripping sci-fi story will we fully comprehend what transpired at the Kerberos. Here are the unanswered questions that will keep us up at night while we wait for Season 2 of 1899.

1899 Biggest unanswered questions

8. Why is the simulation set in 1899?

It is evident from Season 1 of 1899 that the ship is a component of a virtual reality. In addition to the ship not existing, all of the crew members and passengers had their memories changed so they would fall for the deception. It’s understandable to question why someone would decide to lock people’s minds inside such a device because it provides a unique level of control over life. What is more perplexing, though, is the simulation’s designers’ decision to use a build that is set in 1899.

Although one could argue that the Kerberos’ voyage through the sea is similar to Project Prometheus’ voyage through space, there doesn’t seem to be any justification for sending the prisoners aboard the spacecraft back 200 years. There may be less similarity between people’s memories and their actual lives because of the temporal distance, making memory tampering easier. If that’s the case, though, why not venture even further back in time? We anticipate finding out more about this artistic choice made within the context of the 1899 universe when the show, ideally, returns for season 2.

7. What exactly is the simulation virus?

The Kerberos is just the last iteration of the simulation that repeated the same journey the passengers of Project Prometheus underwent dozens of times. A virus starts to spread across the ship as the simulation is about to end. This virus is dangerous for anyone who touches it, but we never learn where it came from. Daniel (Aneurin Barnard), one of the few people aware he’s inside a simulation, tries to avoid the virus at all costs. But Henry’s (Anton Lesser) crew also steers away from the corruption paths.

Therefore, it is safe to conclude that this virus poses a threat to human mind. But did the simulated loop cause the infection to manifest? Was it brought about by any outside force? Was it brought on by Daniel tampering with the simulation? Most importantly, what happens to those who came into contact with the virus? When the Kerberos simulation was destroyed, Virginia (Rosalie Craig) is known to have been ingested by the virus. Does that imply that she’ll undergo some sort of shift in the upcoming loop? Season 2 of 1899 should get deeper into the simulated virus.

6. How much influence does Henry has over the simulation?

While Henry was a prisoner inside the simulation, he had a particular place inside the computer as he watched each iteration of the spacecraft fail to reach its destination. To some extent, Henry also altered the Kerberos simulation, contributing to its doom.

However, since Henry did not create or manage the simulation, how important were his actions to the Kerberos and all the ships that came before it? Was Henry simply observing someone else’s experiment and attempting to find his way out? Or did he construct the loop within the larger simulation for his own purposes? 1899 season 2 must explain how much influence Henry has over the virtual world.

5. Did the surviving passengers retain their memories?

When a Kerberos passenger dies, their memory is reset. And they are ready to enter a new iteration of the simulation, oblivious of what occurred previously. All passengers on the Kerberos will eventually die, as a cycle keeps their bodies asleep inside Project Prometheus and their consciousness confined inside the machine.

However, Daniel modifies the simulation’s architecture at the conclusion of Season 1, leading to a shutdown while individuals were still alive. This raises the question of whether these survivors will recall what took place within the Kerberos when they return to a new simulated iteration. Will their recollections be preserved? Will they fight to regain consciousness and return to reality? Or even worse, is there a real-world threat to these people’s consciousness? We can only hope that some of our favorite characters avoided a tragic end.

4. Why did Ciaran seize control of Maura’s simulation?

While Maura created the simulation, she is also a prisoner within it. And, as revealed in the season finale of 1899, Daniel is attempting to rouse Maura so that she can reclaim control of the simulation from her brother, Ciaran. Ciaran never shows up, but his father, Henry, depicts him as someone who is not interested in finding answers.

So, why would he seize total control? And why would he run a simulation that alters people’s memories, causing them all to have traumatic memories? Ciaran is the most enigmatic figure on the show at the end of season 1, and season 2 needs to spend some time in the real world so we can understand his motivations.

3. Is Elliot alive?

We know that Maura created the original version of the simulation in order to save her dying son Elliot. We also know that Maura erased some traumatic memories from her own past. The grave that eventually leads to Elliot’s hiding place is seen in Maura’s memory chamber inside the simulation.

Everything points that Elliot is dead in the real world. How would that affect the boy’s consciousness, though? Why would Maura remove her own memories if Elliot’s mind had already been preserved in the computer? Season 2 must provide a definitive answer about Elliot’s current situation in the real world and explain why Maura did what she did.

2. Why and where is the spaceship going?

There are plenty of surprises in Season 1 of 1899, but none are as startling as the realization that Maura and the other Kerberos passengers are actually travelling in a spacecraft. A survival mission is taking the ship Project Prometheus to the coordinates “42.043240 – 44.375760.”

We still don’t know where Project Prometheus is going, unless some 1899-loving astrophysicists can shed some light on the matter. We have no idea why this survival mission is even necessary. The events of Season 2 need to be explained, along with the spaceship’s destination and the reasons why all of the spaceship’s passengers are being plugged into a simulation.

1. Who really are the passengers of project Prometheus?

We have some understanding of who Daniel, Henry, Maura, and Elliot are in reality. However, we were only able to access the fictitious memories of every other Kerberos traveller. We don’t know whether their fabricated recollections relate to their real lives or even originate from the nations represented in the simulation.

Most significantly, we are unsure of their involvement in Project Prometheus. We learn certain things from Henry and Daniel, who claim that every Kerberos passenger voluntarily elected to be there and had their memories erased. That doesn’t explain why so many volunteers for this strange experiment, and Season 2 has to delve more into the characters of 1899’s real-life history.

With that said, do you think Netflix will renew 1899 for a season 2? And also let us know in the comments down below if you any answers or theories to the above questions.