🤐 MAJOR SPOILER ALERT 🤐

Mind still blown by that out-of-this-world ending to 1899? Dozens of questions swirling around your brain about what actually happened? Fear not, Tudum is here for you. We asked creators Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar as many of those questions as we could.

Although the show begins as the story of international immigrants on a steamship headed to America at the turn of the 20th century, by the end of the season we learn that the ship was a simulation, and our protagonists are actually on a spaceship in the year 2099. (!!!!)

Read on to find out what the pyramids and triangles mean, and which Easter eggs you might’ve missed.

Go Behind the Cutting-Edge Technology of ‘1899’See how the filmmakers used ‘Volume’ to create a story at sea.

What is the meaning of the year 1899?

Jantje Friese: What we really liked about 1899, not 1898 or 1897, is that it’s on a threshold. You’re crossing into a new century, stepping from something that feels old school to something new — the future. There was something fascinating about exactly that moment in time. What happened in that period is that modernism clashed with old beliefs. More scientific-oriented thinking started [influencing society] while you still had very religious beliefs [also prevalent], and those two things pulled on each other, old and new. 

What do all the triangles and pyramids mean?

Friese: When we started to research games, simulations, constructing virtual realities, [we learned] the way that content is created is that you use tetrahedron structures to basically build everything.

Odar: That’s the purest geometrical form you use to create all the other forms.

Friese: Also, we love objects that have multiple meanings. Obviously, a pyramid already gives you so much mysterious context. Then if you know something about simulation or content creation in that space, maybe you do understand what that means in our context. The reoccurring triangle symbol itself represents the element earth. And I don’t want to spoil the meaning of that yet.

What other Easter eggs did you plant throughout the season?

Odar: We always wanted to plant computer wording. For example the room number 1011 is binary code.  All these hints subconsciously or consciously trigger something in your head. 

Friese: Kerberos, for example, is a computer authentication protocol. And Prometheus, obviously, is also a little wink to the ending of Season 1.

Odar: Every episode [when] someone wakes up, you hear almost like a computer voice.

Did the actors all know about the ending? 

Baran bo Odar: We told them from the get-go; it was already in the script. We also decided to shoot that scene on the very, very last shooting day. It was a very magical moment. To be honest, we had them all in these pods; they couldn’t move. Finally we could do whatever we wanted with them. [Friese laughs] I played weird music the entire day and it became this very weird experience for everyone. They always knew where it would go, but they recently watched the last episode in the cinema and they were like, “oh my God!” 

Why did you plant so many clues?

Odar: We don’t play with the audience and treat them as fools and idiots; rather, the opposite. Here are all these hints — who will figure out [what] at what moment? Some will in Episode 1 understand it’s a simulation. Others will take more time because they might think it’s about the Bermuda Triangle or whatever. That’s the fun of it. That’s how we appreciated Lost, and completely got lost in that mythology, Googling everything about these numbers and trying to find out “what does it mean?”

Now I can spoil it: There is already a hint in Episode 1 when everyone is raising their teacup at the same moment. We added a glitch to it. Ling Yi has a digital glitch in her arm, so clearly it’s something digital [at work on the ship]. That’s already in minute 10, 11. We planted it everywhere, but no one saw it yet.

How do you keep everything straight?

Friese: I don’t know. I stick to a very weird process, which is that everything needs to fit into a book of [a certain] size. Everything is planned in that one holy book. That’s where character development goes. That’s where plot structure goes. There are different sections in there — in the beginning, I just put Post-its in so I can still rip them out again. Then at some point, when I feel stronger or happier with what’s there, I put it down in pencil. In the next phase I actually put it in pen. After that, it goes straight to the computer. In the first season of Dark we still had stuff on the walls, but no one ever looked at it. It just looked pretty.

Odar: There’s still a lot of Post-its.

1899 is now streaming on Netflix.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.