Woman of the Dead is a Netflix show which released on January 5, 2023. The show stars Anna Maria Mühe, Felix Klare, Yousef Sweid, Shenja Lacher, Robert Palfrader, Simon Schwarz, Gregor Bloéb, Michou Friesz, Gerhard Liebmann, Hans Uwe Bauer, Sebastian Hülk, Andrea Wenzl, Wolfram Koch, Britta Hammelstein, Romina Küper and Peter Kurth.
The show is directed by Nicolai Rohde with six episodes, each lasting around 45 minutes and is written by Barbara Stepansky, Wolfgang Mueller, Benito Mueller, Mike Majzen, and Nicolai Rohde. Barbara Stepansky, Wolfgang Mueller and Benito Mueller have created the series
The show chronicles the life of our protagonist Brunhilde Blum after she loses her husband, Mark in a tragic accident. As she digs deeper into the incident, she realises it is not an accident at all.
Woman of the Dead Ending Explained
In the beginning, we see Blum grieving and coming to terms with her husband’s death. However, after the police’s lack of investigation into this matter and their ambivalence about his death, she takes matters into her own hands and starts investigating. She finds that there has been some merchandise placed in her husband’s police jacket. Using this as a lead, she travels across the valley and comes to find a girl named Dunja. Blum’s husband helped her out of a rut and was safeguarding her in his cabin on the hill.
After a moment of hesitation and panic, Dunja opens up about her trauma and essentially explains the crimes covered up and the reason for her husband’s death. Following this, she sets out to find the identity of her husband’s killers because Dunja only remembers seeing them all in rubber masks. In digging deep she finds out a set of pictures that lead her to Edwin Schönborn, a perverted photographer whom she kills before hauling him up in her hearse and disembodying him to keep from any rousing suspicion.
Through a coincidence and some sleuthing on Blum’s part, she also found another perpetrator Pastor Herbert Jaunig. Seeing his photograph in Schönborn’s and the brand on both their bodies, she is convinced that he also had something to do with the heinous crimes committed against the young women travelling from far countries to take jobs there. Finally, using Schönborn’s phone, she lures some other people to a chapel in an attempt to pick out the accomplices of the crime.
Here, she also finds Bertl Puch, who shows up and tells Jaunig, that he won’t be coming the next time Edwin calls them. Blum, remembering a past proposition where Puch gave her a favour in choosing the best seat in the restaurant, dresses up nicely for this meeting. It is here when she is stabbed in the thigh and locked in the freezer, however, she does get her punches and a syringe in before this happens. When her colleague and friend Reza shows up at the restaurant, Puch is dead and Blum is seriously injured.
In the midst of this, Blum’s son gets kidnapped by a man named Sebastian Hackspiel, a lackey of the Schönborns and when Blum finds out that he is somewhat connected to all of this, she goes over to his place and asks him to undress so she can scan for the brand. However, before she could do anything, she passed out cold.
Hackspiel, overwhelmed by her courage and the fear of getting charged with abduction, takes her to the hospital. Where, once again, through a texting coincidence and a syringe full of insulin, Blum finds out that Dr. Ludwig is also part of the gang. Managing to crawl to the vending machine and get some sugar in her, she fools Dr Ludwig for a second before he realises and she slings the saline tube around his tube choking him.
All this while, Reza has been a loyal lieutenant to Blum saving her life when necessary and covering up the crime beautifully. A misstep in the Puch murder, however, leaves Blum exposed to an investigation but thankfully, Officer Massimo covers up for her and invites her to his house for a meal. Here, she finds out that Massimo is the fifth person in the group and the man who killed Mark.
He then reveals their full plan since the beginning and their first victim, Gerda Thiele. They have since burned her body and branded themselves to form a group committing unspeakable acts against innocent women, staying a step ahead of the law at all times. It was only until Mark’s death that everything blew up. The use of masks for anonymity, the insider police officer for no trouble with the law and the doctor and chef for drugs and food to sedate them. All in all, it took all four of these people to commit a crime.
Let’s not forget that Blum is also operating above the law committing an act of violence by killing her parents first making this whole ordeal a lot simpler than she could have ever expected the lack of police intervention in her activities also lent to the perfect revenge. Truly making her the woman of the dead.
Also Read: Woman of the Dead Review: Twists That Move Towards an Underwhelming End
Woman of the Dead Episode 6: Final Thoughts
Blum has a very clear goal throughout Woman of the Dead and doesn’t stop for anything, a character quality that sets her apart because it never introduces the narrative trope “refusal of the call” where she turns away from the opportunity of revenge. A saving grace for the structural ineptness of Woman of the Dead.
Woman of the Dead is streaming now on Netflix.
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