‘Treason’ Ending Explained: Who Is Really After Adam and Kara?

Welcome to the Ending Explained for Treason, a new Netflix Limited series coming out this weekend on the streaming platform. The series is the brainchild of Matt Charman, who was also the writer of Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies. The series tells the story of an MI6 deputy who suddenly rises up through the ranks to become the chief of control and the most powerful man in the British intelligence agency. The series stars Charlie Cox, Oona Chaplin, Olga Kurylenko, and Ciarán Hinds.

Coming from the pen of Charman, Treason feels very much like a classic tale of spies trying to find out the truth, only to realize that the truth is not really what they wanted to find out. The series offers clever twists and turns that will keep audiences engaged for its five-episode run. However, like in many spy stories, some information comes and goes in the blink of an eye, and some very important facts are basically throwaway lines. You really need to pay attention here, or you will be completely lost. The action sequences also feel a bit half-baked.

The following paragraphs contain spoilers for Treason. Read at your own risk.

How Does Adam Rise To The Top Of The MI6?

The MI6 is the highest entity of British intelligence, but unlike the secret organization depicted in the world of 007, here in Treason, the organization is depicted just like any other intelligence agency. A place filled with bureaucrats and lots of backstabbing as it becomes harder and harder to know on which side someone is. Adam Lawrence, our main character, is the deputy for the director of the MI6, also known simply as C, or Control. Adam is young, in a nice family composed of two kids and a new wife named Maddy. Maddy was also a soldier.

We also get the introduction of Sir Martin Angelis, the current Control. We see him having a meeting with the president of the Supreme Court. Angelis reveals that he has some serious information that could become a scandal for the president. It is revealed that Angelis has this kind of information on basically every member of the establishment and that he has used it to maintain himself in office. However, Angelis’ lunch is cut short when he is poisoned by a woman named Kara, passing for a waiter.

Kara is an ex-Russian agent who is now working independently. Kara also has ties with Adam, as they were lovers in the past. Angelis is taken to the hospital, but the prognosis is not favorable. It is at this moment when Adam rises from a deputy and becomes the new Control. However, things become complicated for Adam as well when he receives a call from Kara. She reveals that this was all planned by her so that Adam could become the new Control and help her get information that he can now access, thanks to his new office.

Adam is baffled, but he understands that he is in trouble. Kara informs Adam that every piece of intelligence that has helped him in his career has come from her, and if she talks, he could be considered to be compromised and just a puppet agent for the Russians. It is revealed that Kara is looking for her team’s killer. She is looking for vengeance, and Adam is just a tool to get there. Things take a turn when Adam’s daughter is kidnapped. Kara says she has nothing to do with it and helps Adam rescue her, but it seems there is a third party involved in the entire affair.

Who Is Really After Adam and Kara?

Later in the story, we start focusing more on Maddy. Adam’s kids come from his previous marriage, but she is doing everything in her power to become part of the family, and she seems to be successful as the kids trust her. She makes contact with an old friend from her military days called Dede. It is revealed that Dede is part of the CIA and that she and her team have Adam as an objective. The CIA has been tracking Adam’s rise through the MI6 ranks and believes that he has been compromised.

The worst happens when Vangelis comes back from the hospital and throws Adam under the bus. It seems that Vangelis believes that Adam’s rise also comes with him becoming a traitor, and he has sanctioned Adam’s murder at the hands of the CIA. Kara, Adam, and Maddy join forces to expose Vangelis as the blackmailer he is. They join forces with Audrey Gratz, a woman running for the position of Prime Minister. She has been affected by a leak from Vangelis’s files, and now Adam makes a deal with her through Maddy. They will give her back the files on her if she assures him to give him immunity after she becomes Primer Minister. She accepts.

However, things are not that easy. Dede manages to put her hands on Adam and demands that he give her all the Vangelis files. Adam doesn’t have them, Maddy does, and when she tries to save her husband, Dede shoots Adam, killing him. Maddy and Kara run and give the files to Gratz, who exposes the information to the public, while Vangelis is trying to expose Adam as a traitor to the nation. Vangelis is outraged and soon arrested, but not before Maddy informs him that the real traitor is an agent named Patrick. The man who is responsible for Kara’s team’s deaths.

Kara kills Patrick by poisoning him, fulfilling her vengeance. Angelis is arrested, and Dede goes back to the States, not before getting a call from Maddy announcing her revenge against her. Kara returns to Russia. The show ends as Maddy returns to her kids to inform them that Adam is dead and that the family is just the three of them now.