Who Is the Real Villain in 1899? Shocking Truth Revealed

We all knew that there were going to be plenty of mysteries in Netflix’s new series called 1899, as it was created by the same people that brought us the sleeper hit called Dark. However, what we also realized in this series was that there were a lot of mysteries hiding under more mysteries, as neither we nor the characters in the storyline even understood what was happening to them or who they were fighting against. But while Maura and Eyk had an initial antagonist that they wanted to confront, the truth was deeper than we thought it was. So, who was the real villain in 1899?

The real villain in 1899 turned out to be Maura’s brother Ciaran, who she had been searching for almost the entire series. She initially thought that her father had done something to Ciaran, but the truth was that it was her brother who was actually in control of the entire simulation from the outside world.

There are a lot of deep truths and mysteries in 1899, and Ciaran’s whereabouts were the biggest mysteries the entire time, as it took until the final moments for us to know where he was. We don’t even know what he looks like, but what we are certain of is that the next season of 1899 is shaping up to be a confrontation between Maura and Ciaran. Now, let’s look at this discussion in greater detail.

Who Is The Real Villain In 1899?

The entire storyline of 1899 was a mystery almost the entire time because of the fact that no one could actually explain what was happening to the people onboard the Kerberos or what had happened to the passengers of the Prometheus. This all started when a mysterious boy with a black pyramid in his possession was found on the Prometheus, which is a ship that had gone missing for four months. Things only started to turn weird from then on.

Maura, the protagonist of the series, started to try to learn more about what was happening to them, especially because she believed that the Prometheus had something to do with her brother, to who her father may have done something bad. Meanwhile, the captain of the Kerberos, Eyk, was assisting Maura in unraveling the mysteries behind the two ships, as they soon discovered that this mysterious boy and the pyramid had the ability to allow them to move from one realm to another.

It became clear that the world that they knew wasn’t what it actually was, as there were realms hidden within the ship. That was when Maura thought that the only one that had the answers to her question was her father, Henry Singleton, who was actually the man that owned the shipping company that controlled both the Prometheus and the Kerberos. As such, she tried to get to her father’s location to get to the bottom of the mystery, as Henry was observing her the entire time in the hopes that she would be able to remember where she hid the key that unlocked the capabilities of the black pyramid.

However, Daniel revealed himself to be Maura’s husband of 12 years as he told her that everything was just a simulation and that the boy was actually their son named, Elliot. Nothing in the world that they knew actually existed because it was simply a world constructed in a simulation. And the simulation involving the Prometheus and the Kerberos was one that Henry created.

In that regard, the initial antagonist or villain of the storyline was Maura’s own father, who was in control of the ship simulation because he wanted something out of it. And this was the key that Maura had in her possession, but she couldn’t remember its location.

But the truth is that Henry was not the actual villain of the storyline. After he had already taken custody of Elliot and the pyramid, he was able to get hold of Maura and her key as well. And he revealed that he wanted to get this key because using it on the pyramid would allow him to escape the simulation, as it was clear that he was just as trapped as the rest of the passengers in that artificial world.

Daniel, however, was successful at changing the code of the simulation and allowed Maura to get transported into their first-ever simulation, which was a playroom for Elliot, when the simulation of the two ships had reset. While they were in that simulation, he revealed to Maura that he had changed the code to make the black pyramid useless and to create a new pyramid that could be unlocked by Maura’s wedding ring. This would allow her to leave the simulation and get everyone out of it while she was in the outside world.

That was when Daniel also revealed that the one who was truly behind the simulation was her brother Ciaran, who she had been searching for almost the entire time while she was on the ship. Ciaran was in the outside world the entire time and was the one who had taken control of the simulated world that Maura was responsible for creating. In that regard, he is the true villain of 1899, as season 2 is probably going to set up a clash between Maura and Ciaran.

Who Is Maura’s Brother Ciaran?

While the mysteries in 1899 were steadily and slowly revealing themselves as the storyline progressed, the thing that we were left wondering up until the final second of the series was the identity of Maura’s brother. That’s because Ciaran was never revealed the entire season.

Nevertheless, the very first episode already highlighted the importance of Maura’s brother to the story because of the fact that she was first shown to be in the simulated psychiatric hospital of her father as she was asking Henry what he had done to Ciaran. As such, during the entire season, Maura believed that Henry had done something to Ciaran because he might have discovered what their father was doing to the people of the ship simulation.

In that regard, the mystery of Ciaran’s disappearance was one of the guiding forces of Maura’s entire character arc as she was driven to get the answers to her questions from her father. He was also the reason why she was on the Kerberos, as she believed that she could find her answers if she could get to the Prometheus. 

Of course, the reason why Maura also believed that it was not beyond Henry to do something to Ciaran was the fact that he always preferred his daughter over his son. That was because, in his own words, Ciaran was an avoider who preferred to stay in ignorant bliss. Meanwhile, Maura was a seeker who was always in search of answers to her question. And this was made clear when she actually questioned the existence of God as someone who could also be in a world that He did not create.

As Ciaran is now an outcast, it had become clear to Maura that Henry would do something to him as he hardly cared about him at all. On top of that, after the death of his wife, Henry decided to drown himself in his studies, and that meant that the distance between him and Ciaran only grew to be bigger. And when Maura thought that Ciaran had discovered something about the questionable things that Henry was doing, that was when she believed that her father had done something bad to him to quiet him, as it wasn’t even beyond Henry to actually alter his own daughter’s memories.

But it was revealed in the final episode by Daniel that Ciaran was the one who was running things from the outside. He was the one in control over the entire simulation that Maura created. And the fact that he was a black sheep and an outcast that wanted to stay in ignorant bliss was probably the reason why he was more than capable of keeping people trapped inside a simulation, as it most likely provided him entertainment.

Nevertheless, we know for a fact that this entire series is built on mysteries and twists, and it is possible that the end scene with Maura reading her brother’s message on the spaceship’s console still wasn’t the real world. It is even possible that Ciaran had already been revealed in season 1 but was only hiding in the identity of another person. There are a lot of possibilities in a series that built itself on twists, and we can expect season 2 to provide the answers that we need.