- Netflix's new show The Abandons has a true cliffhanger ending, and we're here to break it down.
- One of the love stories of the season does get a (kind of) resolution.
- Did [SPOILER] and [SPOILER] survive the fire at the very end? Here's what we know.
At the end of The Abandons, the new Western series on Netflix starring Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson as powerful matriarchs with very different families and leadership methods, one family is fractured, and the other is more or less united. Constance Van Ness has lost her son and the support of her daughter. Meanwhile, tragedy unites Fiona Nolan's scrappy band of orphans against the Van Ness dynasty and they forget their differences. Whose life hangs in the balance? Who gained a powerful ally? Here's what you need to know about the season finale of The Abandons while we wait for news about season 2.
Both of the matriarchs had big secrets that came to light in, or just before, the finale. Constance has a secret militia called the "Red Masks" that has been enforcing her power grabs across the territory. They'll murder anyone to get what they want, to the chagrin of Fiona's family "the Abandons" as well as her daughter Trisha. Meanwhile, it comes to light that Fiona fed a dead soldier to wild wolves so that her adopted daughter Dahlia wouldn't be caught and convicted for the murder of Constance's eldest son Willem. To add insult to injury, Fiona turned down Constance's offer to buy their land and mine it for silver. A showdown between these two women was bound to happen.
Are Trisha and Elias together?
Constance comes up with an elaborate plan to drug and commit her daughter to an insane asylum so that she won't expose their criminal activity. Trisha breaks out of her locked room and tries to make a run for it. Her mother is oddly unbothered, and lets her go. But before she does. Constance tells her daughter that her new boyfriend Elias–one of Fiona's adopted boys–helped cover up the murder of her brother Willem.
So Trisha goes to confront Elias. He tells her the truth, that Willem raped his sister and he'd help cover up the death again. They part ways before the explosive final countdown, leaving the rest of their star-crossed romance for season 2. As for the other sparks flying on the show, Trisha's other brother Garret tells the shy Samara Alderton that he discovered her father is secretly an outlaw. He uses their brief flirtation to blackmail the family, who has respect and pull in town, and get them to support the Van Ness side. As of the finale, the plan seems to have worked. Albert, meanwhile, does not see the girl he's been talking to in the finale. Pity!
Why does Fiona burn down the Van Ness house?
The militia kidnaps Dahlia and take her to Constance to answer for killing Willem in the pilot and stabbing Garret in the finale. Fiona and her titular "Abandons" rally to avenge Dahlia. At dusk, Fiona arrives at the house alone, surrenders her rifle, and tries to take responsibility for Willem so that Dahlia will be spared. Constance doesn't buy it, and tortures Dahlia in front of her. While this is happening Elias, Albert, and Lilla Belle are busy taking out Constance's men and readying a flaming wagon and launching it right towards the austere mansion. Then, once Dahlia is safe with her brothers, Fiona walks into the fire to get a few more licks in at Constance.
Do Constance and Fiona survive the fire?
We don't know! Ahhhhhhh!! In the final handful of shots, Elias stares in fright at the burning house, waiting for his mother to emerge. We see at least one shadowy figures in the doorway, and then it cuts to black. You gotta love a true cliff-hanger ending.
It's unlikely that Trish or Garrett Van Ness were in the house when it burned, given that at least one of them was majorly PO'd at the family and the other was not involved in the big showdown. But we can't say for certain. Hold your horses until we hear whether or not The Abandons has been renewed for a season 2 on Netflix, because a lot of things are up in the air.
