The Cage (القفص) is a romantic comedy series from Kuwait, released on Netflix globally on 11th October. It is produced by Abdullah Boushahri and directed by Jasem Almuhanna. It will follow the highs and lows of a couple’s marital life in 8 episodes, with a runtime of about 35-40 minutes and aims to offer a fresh take on how marital challenges are portrayed in Arab drama.
The cast of the series includes Khaled Ameen, Hussain Almahdi, Rawan Mahdi, Lamya Tareq, Shabnam Khan, Hessa Alnabhan, Shawq, Mai Albalushi, Ahmed Mossaed and Zaina Mahdi.
The official synopsis of the series reads, “A marriage counsellor tries to dissuade his warring clients from getting a divorce while juggling his own romantic dilemmas.” Dr Nasser is a marriage counsellor, who is working with a married couple, Zaid & Rawan, to address their differences and better understand each other’s perspective to save their marriage.
The Cage Ending Explained
In the series, we see that shortly after the wedding on an ominous day, August 2, 1990, when Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait; Zaid and Rawan decide that their relationship will transform war into love – but soon experience their first disagreements. As newlyweds, Zaid and Rawan struggle to meet each other’s needs and become disillusioned with marriage.
On the other hand, Dr Nasser gets closer to Dr Hanan without knowing about her friendship with Lamia. This makes her lash out at Dr Nasser over dinner, who can’t seem to recognise her feelings. So much so that Lamia meddles in Dr Hanan’s life by contacting her separated husband, at an ambush dinner.
Through more sessions, we get to know that good news in the form of pregnancy, usher in a period of happiness in Zaid and Rawan’s marriage, but the celebratory mood is short-lived. Although Zaid seems to care more about his wife but also smothers her with his care, by not letting her even get out of their room, in case something wrong happens to the baby.
At present time, Rawan and Zaid have an emergency session at Dr Nasser’s home, where they discuss becoming first-time parents following the birth of their son. It turns out Rawan struggles to take care of their son, while Zaid refuses to help in even changing the diapers. Hoping to find some empathy at her maternal house, but she only gets taunted by her family.
While Zaid’s sister is slowly settling down with his best friend, we see that as much as Rawan’s sister brags about her fabulous life, owed to their mother’s advice. Their father seems to be cheating on their mother and even gets secretly married to a department store salesgirl. And before anyone, Zaid gets to know about it, when he is called by the father-in-law to bail him out of jail.
Over the family dinner, Zaid pokes fun with his newfound knowledge which eventually leads to a fight between the couple, where he spurts out the secret to Rawan. The word gets out to everyone and her parents get divorced. This leaves Rawan traumatised and makes her fear that her own marriage might end up like that.
When Dr Nasser gets to know the whole story, he instantly tells them that this is the sole reason for their problems. They subconsciously think that they will get divorced eventually and that leads to their other actions. They don’t have trivial issues among themselves, as much as other people’s opinions create troubles between them.
At first Rawan gets angry at his observation, but later comes back and agree to his statement. They decide to not pay heed to the third person in their own relationship and focus on loving each other. Meanwhile, Lamia tells Dr Nasser that his practice has made him fear commitment, after listening to all the marriage issues.
She ends up leaving him, while Hanan tries to make a move by bringing him a cake, in the middle of his counselling session. This makes Nasser angry and he end up turning her down. After he reaches a breakthrough with Zaid and Rawan, he ponders about his own fears and decides to go back to Lamia, and probably get married.
The Cage is currently streaming on Netflix.
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