The finale of Néro The Assassin brings definitive answers and macabre twists, but also a few wide gaps for a potential sequel. Are there any updates? Everything we know is below.
As the seventh episode closes, the one-eyed witch is sacrificed, and things are looking dire for the cast of characters in the fortress of Ségur. Having barely escaped from the wrath of the archbishop while an army of Penitents takes over, Perla’s voiceover is mulling things to write on her tombstone, as the drought is menacing the livelihoods of the entire area. While alone, she considers the dagger given to her by the one-eyed witch and slices her head open. To her surprise, her blood falling on the floor supernaturally resurrects insects and dead worms.
Horace, having uncovered the conspiracy and been promptly arrested by the archbishop, is taken out by the Penitents to be executed. His last words are to warn the population that the Devil is not coming back and that it is all a lie made up by the Church to consolidate power; he is then beheaded. A Penitent recognizes Perla in the crowd assembled to watch Horace’s execution, and they chase her. Néro successfully escapes with Perla in tow, and, confronted about Horace’s last words by her daughter, Néro dismisses the prophecy by the One-Eyed Witch.
Hiding within the Ségur population, Néro and Hortense, alongside Lothar, Zineb, Perla, and a few rebel soldiers from the Ségur army, assess their slim chances to take back the city from the Penitents. Rochemort, under the threat of death, offers his help to locate a secret passage within the fortress to surprise the archbishop and the Penitents. Danger be damned, Hortense offers to lead peasants as the Princess of Ségur to battle in full armor; it will actually be a diversion to bring the Penitents out of the fortress and let Néro and his crew assassinate whoever is left inside.
As the archbishop is now dead, the Penitents are the sole rulers of Ségur.
Perla insists on fighting alongside Hortense and the peasants, but Néro says that he will try to infiltrate the fortress and support his father in the plan to kill the archbishop. At night, Néro finds Hortense and confesses that the plan will work because Hortense has the gift of leadership and says that “whenever she looks at someone, she makes him want to be a better person”. They then kiss and sleep together. He then discreetly steals a map, which then finds its way into the archbishop’s hands.
The next morning, as they try to execute their plan, Néro and his crew find the neighborhood full of Penitents and realize they have been betrayed. As they suspect Rochemort, who has been in custody, Rochemort actually reveals that Néro was the one who sabotaged the plan on purpose. The reasoning is that the plan would be suicidal, so Néro was the one who warned the Penitents to avoid certain death. “The world is full of tyrants; you and Perla are the only ones I care about”, he then confesses to Hortense. Néro then switches plans and tries to disguise himself as a Penitent to swiftly kill Brother Penitence; his plan fails, and he is captured. As Brother Penitence implores for Néro to kill him, he assesses that “his faith will protect him”. Néro fails to get to him as Penitents use their own bodies as a shield and take fatal blows.
As Néro is being hanged by its feet, Perla crawls up to a nearby watchtower and plants the dagger in her stomach. Néro, observing the scene from afar and powerless, screams as Perla falls to her death. Everything is then stopped as dark clouds abound over the fortress, then thunder strikes, and a rainstorm proceeds to fall over the crowd. Rochemort, Hortense, Zineb, and Lothar, having fled the scene, watch over from afar as they make their way back to Lamartine to assemble an army.
Brother Penitence announces that the rainfall occurred because “God forgave us”; the archbishop claims that, because Perla sacrificed herself in a ritual, the rainfall occurred. It was revealed earlier that Brother Penitence had been welcomed as an orphaned child by the archbishop and raised under his watch. Therefore, a furious archbishop slaps Brother Penitence and calls him ignorant of all things, and that he is nothing in the face of God. Brother Penitence then retorts that he serves God everyday: “What are you doing to serve God?” Then, he pushes the archbishop over the balcony to his death, leaving him as the sole ruler of Ségur.
A freed Néro is seen crying and mournful over the dead body of Perla. He is then struck over the head by a shadowy figure. As he lies unconscious, the mysterious character picks the body of Perla and drags her away from Ségur; we then see her regaining life and consciousness again before the screen cuts to black, as a voiceover from Perla concludes, “I would like written on my tombstone: Her name was Perla, the daughter of an assassin and a whore. She was the last witch alive.”
Will Néro The Assassin Be Renewed for Season 2?
Season 1 concludes with a few loose threads and a non-concluded story: the main question is the identity of the figure abducting Perla from Néro, though we can assume it belongs to the same group as the One-Eyed Witch (Camille Razat). We also do not know whether Rochemort, Hortense, Zineb, and Lothar will safely return to Lamartine. Finally, with Brother Penitence as a lone ruler of Ségur, will he try to extend his power over the land first? And will an unconscious Néro be picked up by Penitents again, or will he escape from Ségur and have a clue that his daughter is, in fact, alive and resurrected?
As of this writing, Netflix has not announced a sophomore season for Néro The Assassin. The creators have also stayed mum about whether they conceived more story, though there is obviously a lot to be resolved. Pio Marmaï has done interviews explaining the grueling physical toll of the shoot, but that it also matched what he needed for his career: in Vanity Fair France, he explains that “I have never been as invested in a project as this one, I gave everything I could to this show”. In Ouest France, he adds that Néro The Assassin “made me realize I only want to shoot projects that make sense to me and where I can be 200% invested in.”
If there is a season 2 order, these quotes guarantee that Pio Marmaï will clear his schedule to return.
Would you like to see a season 2 for this show? What did you think of the finale? Let us know in the comments!
