For hardcore content consumers, every bit of original film or TV show has there a place somewhere down the line. And thus, when I personally sit to watch any new content, I keep an open mind. But as we are all surrounded by the stereotypes instigated by the media itself, it is hard to ignore preconceived notions entirely. Due to this, my general perception of mainstream films or TV shows dealing with relationships becomes so sour that I find them unnecessary banter that whimpers to an end.
Amazon Prime’s new series Mammals is not an exception to that. It maintains all the cliches and genre tropes to get its loose storyline running. Yet, the creators try to do something new by inducing magic realism and plot twists that make it watchable till the end. The actors also have done much to make the characters more interesting, eventually making the show enjoyable. Especially James Cordon and Sally Hawkins nail their respective roles.
This article is intended to talk about the show in detail. So, be aware, as it will be full of spoilers.
Mammals (Season 1) Recap:
The show starts with our lead characters Jamie and Amandine going on a vacation near the ocean. Shortly after, we know that Amandine is pregnant with Jamie’s child. This is the initial part of the show, and this couple seems quite loving and joyful to us. But the drastic turn comes when one-day Amandine injures herself and gets a miscarriage.
Devasted by this, both Jamie and Amandine promise each other to take care of each other and face the situation together. But when Amandine asks Jamie to call everyone to give this devastating news from her phone (as Jamie’s phone goes out of signal and he does not have everyone’s number), he finds out a mysterious person named Paul is texting Amandine. Jamie reads the texts and discovers they have been having an affair for some time.
After some days, Jamie follows Amandine and finds out about her meeting with a guy at a café. Jamie confronts and tells him that he knows everything about him. He threatens him by stating that he will blow up his upcoming marriage if he doesn’t leave Amandine’s life. Shocked by this, the guy tells Jamie that he gets this and will go. But the twist comes when it is revealed that he is not Paul but Dave.
Bewildered, Jamie asks for help from his best friend and brother-in-law, Jeff. He tells him to dig deeper into Amandine’s phone to find out who is this Paul guy. Though initially reluctant, Jeff agrees to help.
Meanwhile, Amandine and Jamie go to a grief therapist to overcome their past tragedy. Amandine tells Jamie that she will try to find her passion from now on. Still shocked by his wife’s promiscuity, Jamie is deeply in love with Amandine. So, he agrees to her on this occasion.
Amandine meets with a new guy named Dan, a violinist. He is assigned to teach violin to Amandine as she thinks it is her passion. Dan and Amandine mingle with each other quite well. Jamie starts getting jealous and subtly tries to move him out of Amandine’s life.
Meanwhile, the relationship between Jeff and Lue, Jamie’s sister, also gets widened. Lue becomes distant and unresponsive in their marriage. One day, she finds a book named ‘Coco Chanel – A Life’. She starts reading it and connects with its characters. She slowly succumbs to a fantasy world based on the book and becomes more distant from reality.
As all this is happening, Jamie is working on his new restaurant. Already very stressed by the workload, he is tense with the newfound relationship that Amandine has with the help of Jeff. They find a video of sexual intercourse between Amandine and a guy in a helmet. When we all think that that this guy would be Paul, surprisingly, it is revealed that this guy’s name is Jason.
This shocking revelation breaks Jamie from the inside. That day Jamie and Amandine go to watch a concert by Dan. After the show, Dan invites them for a drink. While Jamie straightforwardly refuses, Amandine accepts the offer. Jamie returns home, but Amandine is still out till late at night. Angered by this, Jamie smashes Amandine’s ancestorial violin (given to her by her mother).
Jamie explains the incident as burglary and frames that the robbers took the violin and his Xbox. Amandine becomes devasted by this incident. So, Jamie takes her to buy a new violin. Still shocked by the incident, Amandine refuses to take the new violin and dumps it in a dustbin.
Soon, Jamie’s restaurant opens in London. Various friends and family members, along with the press, visit the place. While everything goes well, Jamie is still quite disturbed by the recent revelations about Amandine. So, he reveals to everyone about Amandine’s infidelity and leaves.
The makers then take back 7 years to when Jamie and Amandine first met each other. We know that Amandine was engaged to a billionaire’s son, Jack, and Jamie was interning under the chef on Jack’s yacht at that time. Amandine was unhappy with her engagement as Jack became too obsessed with his hedonistic lifestyle and didn’t spend the necessary intimate quality time with her. Later on, she finds out about Jack’s infidelity too. One night on the Yacht, Amandine and Jamie bump into each other and connected well. Jamie’s simplicity attracted Amandine, and Jamie loved Amandine’s friendliness and non-judgemental attitude. Thus, they fall for each other in no time, and their love story starts.
But as their romance started, Amandine revealed that she was pregnant with Jack’s child. Though it was pretty uneasy for Jamie, he accepted this and named himself the father of the child who was named Greta. At present, he has a loving relationship with Greta.
Meanwhile, Lue succumbs more to her fantasy world and becomes more distant from Jeff. Frustrated by this, Jeff gives her an ultimatum to resolve this in one month’s time. When nothing happens from Lue’s side, Jeff succumbs to booze and attaches to promiscuous relationships.
On the other hand, Jamie finds a video from an old party, where he, Jeff, Lue, and Amandine are cosplaying ‘The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper personas. In that act, Jeff plays the role of Paul. Jamie understands from it that ‘Paul’ in Amandine’s life is no other than Jeff.
Lue also knows this. So, she decides to distance herself from him. But soon, she realizes how much she loves Jeff. Being an infidel, Jeff becomes devastated. But soon, he gathers himself up and reconciles with Lue.
At the show’s end, Jamie confronts Amandine and tells her about finding out about Paul. He breaks down in tears and calls off their marriage eventually. Amandine tries to explain everything. She said that being faithful is just an illusion and that no relationship can be perfect. Everyone has secrets in a relationship. Then she shows Jamie a video clip from one year earlier showing Jamie with another woman.
Jamie gets numb by this revelation while Amandine leaves. Suddenly he hears a loud noise. He rushes outside and finds a giant whale lying on the streets. He sees Amandine catching a taxi, and maybe for the last time, she turns towards him and smiles. After she goes, Jamie calls Jeff stating that they need to talk.
Mammals (Season 1) Ending, Explained:
What is the significance of the whale?
Throughout the series, a whale appears on the screen occasionally. The show is named Mammals, and the whale is the world’s largest mammal. So, in that sense, the whale can have a connection. But it will be pretty unintelligent to think the makers use whale to make a connection with the title. So, why is the whale so crucial in the entire show that it has to appear on screen several times?
The whale is a metaphor for Jamie and Amandine’s relationship. Whenever their relationship gets a drastic turn, the whale appears. When they first met on Jack’s yacht, they witnessed a giant whale jumping into the sea. When Amandine got a miscarriage, Jamie noticed a whale. And when their relationship ends, we see a giant whale on the streets of London. So, it can be interpreted that the whale signifies the different stages of their relationship they had gone through.
For example, when they saw it together on their first meeting, they felt stuck in their respective lives. And during that time, they saw a whale. Now, the whale is biologically mechanized to breathe with the help of its lungs so that it has to come to shallower water levels. Metaphorically this condition of the whale perfectly signifies the situation of Jamie and Amandine during that time. They both found a breath of fresh air in other after their first meeting.
The second time we see the whale is at the time of Amandine’s miscarriage. That time the whale came closer to the shore. Naturally, whales live in the mid-sea, but they get near the shore by drifting mechanisms when they become sick or injured. While bathing, Amandine injured herself, and that became the reason for her miscarriage. So, this situation is also metaphorically signified by the whale’s appearance.
Talking about the final instance, we saw the whale when Jamie and Amandine’s relationship seemed to end. That time, the whale was on the streets, and it had no water to contain; just like Jamie had no Amandine to hold him and vice versa.
Do Jamie and Amandine reconcile?
At the show’s end, it is revealed that Jamie was first involved in an extramarital affair. After this big revelation, Amandine left Jamie, bringing their relationship to an end. But the last time we saw Amandine, she was going in a taxi and smiled back at Jamie while winking at him. So, here comes the question – Is there any chance of reconciliation between the two?
In my opinion, there is a chance of reconciliation between them. In the last scene, we see a giant whale on the streets outside the water. Now I talk about how the whale is a metaphor for the relationship between Amandine and Jamie. So, as the whale can’t live without water, Jamie and Amandine can’t live without each other. So, it is inevitable that they will eventually reconcile.
Also, in the last shot, we see Jamie calling Jeff and telling him to meet for a conversation. This indicates that Jamie would confront Jeff about his relationship with Amandine. It suggests that Jamie is still in love with Amandine and will fight till the end to get her back in his life.
Whatever it will be, it will be interesting to see Jamie and Amandine’s relationship in the next season.
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