Freud Season 1 finale recap: What did that ending mean?

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Photo: Freud season 1.. Image Courtesy Jan Hromadko, Netflix /

Freud, Poscacher, Kiss, and Fleur attempt to stop the Szápárys from executing their deadly plan in the Season 1 finale of Freud.

Freud wraps up its chaotic first season with a surprisingly anticlimatic hour, although it features several unexpected twists and some lovely character and relationship development. It certainly sets up for a second season, while leaving things relatively wrapped up if the show doesn’t get renewed (but I really hope it does).

We dive into the main conflict of the hour immediately. First, Reidl and the General show up at Freud’s to kill Inspector Kiss. Before the General can pull the trigger though, he’s suddenly like, “well, actually, I think Georg was guilty, so Kiss was sort of right all along.” Reidl is all, “wtf man,” but can’t really do anything about it since the General is his boss.

Kiss takes their moment of deliberation as a chance to interject and warn them that things are about to go down at the People’s Ball, and the Emperor’s life is in jeopardy.

Speaking of the Ball, and the deliciously manipulative Szápárys, their ritual of 12 men from a few episodes back suddenly makes sense. Sophia whispers her Táltos command to the room, and the elegant evening suddenly turns into a bloody blitzkrieg.

The men they hypnotized pull out their swords and begin attacking their fellow soldiers while Crown Prince Rudolf turns his sword on his father. Luckily, the Emperor manages to escape into the giant labyrinth in the backyard (because of course there is a giant labyrinth in the backyard).

Freud and his pals show up at just the right moment to put an end to the carnage. Fleur uses her creepy demon voice to issue a command to all the soldiers to go to sleep and stop murdering each other. As for the Szápárys, well, it is the end of the line for them.

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Honestly, I felt like their death was a bit of a letdown. After plotting and scheming for seven episodes, they die within the first twenty minutes or so of the season finale.

The General orders an impromptu firing squad and boom, Szápárys out. Fleur also vanishes from the scene seeing as her wicked foster parents are out of the picture. She flounces down the hallway, and that’s the last we see of her for a while.

Freud, however, still has work to do. He follows the Emperor into the hedge maze and tells him a command to say to his son to get him to drop his sword.

After a brief sword duel, the Emperor utters, “Táltos orders you to sleep,” which puts Rudolf into a trance, making him docile, for now.

At first, that appears to be the end, but all of this happens very early in the episode’s runtime.

Freud returns to his apartment and tries to find Fleur, but she’s nowhere to be found. Instead, Martha is waiting for him, and the two reunite. Freud can’t help but collapse into tears as he hugs her. The guy has been through a lot, to be fair.

That night, he begins working on a book, The Power of Hypnosis, by Sigmund Freud, which recounts everything that happened to Fleur and everything he learned through her and about the power of hypnosis. He even lets Martha read the book, and she loves it.

It looks like they’re finally getting their happy ending until Freud reveals that not everything that happened between himself and Fleur was written in the book a.k.a. their animalistic sex. Lucky for Freud, Martha is a saint.

“If it’s not in the book, then it’s not important.”

That earns her a smile from Freud, and it looks like the two are set to be wed. They even attend Sabbath at Freud’s parents’ house and announce the good news. Everyone is in a happy and celebratory mood.

Unfortunately, the happiness doesn’t last.

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