‘Cassandra’ Ending Explained: Who Escapes the Wrath of a Tyrannical Home System?

The safe space of a home turns into a battleground for psychological warfare in this tense German sci-fi thriller, reaching a fiery inferno in the finale where the past is fully unveiled. Netflix's Cassandra has been split between the past and present throughout its eight episodes, following the titular character's (Lavinia Wilson) human life and her tyrannical reign over a new family as a robot and home system. However, the past is represented in a non-linear way, jumping between years and milestones in Cassandra's life, making it a bit disorienting to piece together a timeline. Meanwhile, in the present, the Prill family are entrapped by her robotic version's manipulative ways, where Samira (Mina Tander) is locked up in a psychiatric facility while her family is imprisoned in their house.

Cassandra Had A Secret Daughter

Throughout the series, we quickly realize what kind of mother Cassandra is: she has a persevering image in her mind and works to achieve it in loving ways, including hiding bodies on behalf of her son. This slightly twisted mindset of being fiercely protective over her children comes into play with her daughter. As it turns out, she had a second secret baby after her son. Her husband, Horst (Franz Hartwig), wanted another child after realizing Peter (Elias Grünthal) didn't fit the traditionally masculine mold. To ensure the baby would be male, during her pregnancy, he subjected her to an experimental rendition of an ultrasound that involved a lot of radiation that would yield a definite answer to the baby's sex. To his disappointment, the baby was female.

Due to the radiation, the baby was born with abnormalities, and, embarrassed by the baby, he decides to tell everyone she was stillborn and intends to ominously get rid of her. However, Cassandra covertly raises her daughter, Margrethe, in a hidden room behind a closet. Margrethe would communicate with Cassandra by flicking the oven light, remaining away from prying eyes, all while Cassandra believed she was protecting her. We learn that Cassandra's chief concern was and is always her children — she didn't care that Horst was having an affair with her best friend, Birgit, but hated that he failed as a father.

How Does Cassandra Become a Robot and House System?

Samira and David's (Michael Klammer) early suspicions of the house system being modeled after a human were slightly off the mark. Instead, Cassandra's conscience, including memories and emotions, was transferred into the system via an experimental, technological process that Horst had devised in pursuit of immortality but was never able to test. Cassandra ended up becoming the perfect voluntary candidate as she was terminally ill, caused by radiation treatment during her second pregnancy. Immortality itself was irrelevant to her, but she didn't want to abandon her children and, as such, insisted on going through with the process. On top of this, she emotionally blackmails Horst's assistant into making a fake off-switch — the real one is controlled by her alone, giving her total domestic power.

For a while, the digital Cassandra, Horst, and Peter live together uneasily, but they become increasingly infuriated by her constant presence. Horst eventually brings Birgit and their newborn son Thomas into the house, and sure enough, Cassandra is so enraged she pushes them down the stairs. Peter is the one who recognizes how far gone she is to his real mother, as Cassandra would previously never dare to hurt a child. After hearing his disappointment, she allows them to leave the house, only if Horst takes Margrethe with him since she cannot take care of her by herself. He falsely promises that he will but escapes without her, causing Peter to jump out of their fleeing car in defiance and resulting in a crash. Only Peter and Horst die in the accident, while Cassandra switches off, seemingly not being able to bear the thought of watching Margrethe die of neglect.

Do Samira and Her Family Survive in 'Cassandra's Finale?

In the present timeline, Cassandra is determined to replace her family with the Prills, specifically the children, Fynn (Joshua Kantara) and Juno (Mary Tölle). She has successfully turned them against Samira, who is in a psychiatric facility where she accesses her phone and sees suspicious texts from her daughter. However, after David's insistence on not believing her and essentially telling her she is "crazy," she doesn't trust herself until a hallucination of her sister shows up and encourages her to reclaim her psychological autonomy. Samira sneaks out of the hospital and arrives at the house, only to be viciously attacked by David, who is being threatened by Cassandra. Evading the attempts, Samira hides in the closet and finds Margrethe's secret room. She also, more ominously, finds Margrethe's decomposed body.

Cassandra confronts Samira here, but the two manage to connect over their motherhood, which is how Samira convinces Cassandra to let them go — her children would never accept Cassandra as their mother, so it is futile to try and do so. Cassandra realizes that she can no longer cling to the past; her true self has died alongside her body, and no matter how much physical domestic control she has now, she cannot recreate the feeling of motherhood again. Cassandra's final acts as a good mother are letting the family go and ultimately burning down the house. It almost feels like the counter-action of her previous attempt at arson on the projected family pictures. The first time, the flames relinquished her connection to the past, but this second time brought her closer to her initial maternal nature, especially as it symbolically gave Margrethe her overdue cremation.

Women Are Victims to Male Hubris in 'Cassandra'

After everything that happens, Samira decides to leave David, and her children absolutely agree. Trying to kill her was the last straw, as she knew that Cassandra would never truly hurt the children, so he only attacked her to protect himself. Cassandra could "do without him" after all, just like she could do without her selfish, cheating husband. Both Samira and Cassandra are victims of male hubris in this story. Samira was deeply gaslit by her husband, who was also easily manipulated by Cassandra, as all she had to do was stroke or assail his ego. As such, she becomes the paragon of women being not taken seriously and being labeled as "hysterical." Her only support came from her sister and her son, whose queerness made him exempt from the traditional masculine archetype that is being dissected by the series.

On the other hand, Cassandra was essentially dismissed by her husband, who only saw her as a means to further his bloodline and take care of his domestic needs. While Cassandra's priority was her children, she was clearly hurt and alienated by Horst's actions, causing her to cling tighter to her motherhood. While the show does not condone her actions, it is evident that Horst's selfish character warped her own motherhood, eventually causing her to act out of grief toward the Prills. Her name and the series' title lend itself to the Cassandra in Greek mythology, who was gifted with the ability to make prophecies but cursed with no one believing her. In Cassandra, female voices either go unheard or are minimized, but the cathartic ending ends the power imbalances that come with these gender roles in these two women's lives.