War Sailor ending explained explores what happened to Alfred, his family & Sigbjørn in the end. Written and directed by Gunnar Vikene, the series is produced by Maria Ekerhovd, Karsten Stöter, Pierre Ellul, and Anika Psaila Savona.
The cast of the series includes Kristoffer Joner as Alfred aka Freddy, Ine Marie Wilmann as Cecilia, Pål Sverre Hagen as Sigbjørn aka Wally, Henrikke Lund Olsen as Magdeli, Arthur Hakalahti as Braathen, Téa Grønner Joner, Siv Torin Knudsen Petersen, Armand Hannestad, Daniel Berg, Noah Nygård, Oskar Hallaråker Hellesøy, Leon Tobias Slettbakk as Aksel, Alexandra Gjerpen as Hanna and others.
War Sailor Ending Explained
Alfred Garnes is a working-class sailor, who has recently become the father of a third child. He and his childhood friend Sigbjørn Kvalenaka Wally are working on a merchant ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean when World War II breaks out. They are unarmed civilians on the front lines of a war they never asked to join. The two men struggle for survival in a spiral of violence and death, where at any moment German submarines may attack their valuable vessels. The war sailors have one goal: to survive–and to return home.
Meanwhile, Alfred’s wife Cecilia struggles through the war alone in Bergen, raising three children on her own, not knowing whether she will ever see Alfred again. When British aircraft attempted to bomb the German submarine bunker in Bergen, they instead hit the primary school at Laksevåg and civilian homes at Nøstet, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths. When the news reaches Alfred and Wally in Canada, they wonder if they have anything left at home to return to.
Also Read: War Sailor Review: Heartbreaking Tale of Friendship and Survival
In the year 1939, despite his daughter’s desperate plea to stay, Alfred and his friend Sigbjørn set out on an 18-month assignment on a merchant ship headed to New York. On the ship, he meets Hanna, Braathen, Monsen and Aksel who become like his family on the ship but with each year and another bombing of the ships, they start to lose their crew members.
As vessels sink and allies perish, Alfred and Sigbjørn brave the German navy’s imminent threat as their involuntary participation in the war drags on. But their ship Falkangler sinks and his crew members barely survive, as we see Alfred and Wally on a wooden raft with another man. They try to save Aksel but his one leg had been amputated in the blast.
They come across an ally ship that gives enough morphine for Aksel but they are not allowed to let them come on board & leave them to fend in the open water. Terrified and traumatised by what happened, one of the survivor crew members tries to kill Wally, blaming him for everything but trying to protect everyone Alfred ends up choking him to death. Also, Aksel loses his life after days of sailing with no medical care & is dropped in the water.
Trying to keep alive, the two friends sail on the raft for many days until they are found by a rescue ship which takes them to Canada and they get treated in a hospital. Simultaneously, Alfred’s family get the news that the ship sank & he was presumed dead with others. While Alfred gets the news that his family has died in the bombing which accidentally blew apart the school & residential area.
Alfred was regaining his health slowly but the news of his family’s demise breaks him & he runs away as his life has no purpose left. While Wally gets better & on getting discharged, he goes looking for Alfred’s family and luckily finds them all well. He shows them the letter which had the news of their demise & what Alfred wrote to Wally – asking him not to look for him.
With no news of Alfred’s whereabouts, Wally starts living with Cecilia and the kids, caring for them as his friend would. Even Cecilia seems to grow feelings for him and they soon become closer. But one day, Wally gets a letter with the address where Alfred is currently living. At first, he contemplated if he should even tell others about it.
However, he decides to bring him back as promised & we see the same scene from the start of the series, where Wally finds a dishevelled Alfred in Singapore in the year 1948. He gets him back to his senses & sends him home but things aren’t exactly as Freddy had left them. His kids have grown up, and his youngest son who was just a toddler doesn’t recognise him & even is afraid of him.
Alfred finds it really hard to adjust to his previous life after all these years and not even being able to find a job again, as he had run away, doesn’t helps his case. However, he reaches a breaking point and after an emotional outburst, we see him in the year 1972 as an old man. He had become a grandfather, and Maggie’s son is giving him a gift for his birthday.
We get to know that Alfred has a sense of what might have happened between Wally and his wife and keeps it all bottled up. Until, Wally finally shows up on his birthday and without saying much, we can see the pain in both of the friend’s eyes – wanting to have each other’s life. Also, Alfred’s children are all doing well, with Maggie being a teacher, William working in the oil industry & Olav studying in Oslo. The ending shows how life goes on despite everything.
War Sailor is currently streaming on Netflix.