A French series just blew the impact of The Great War wide open, so here is the Women at War ending explained. This show is a period drama starring Julie de Bona, Audrey Fleurot, Camille Lou, Sofia Essaïdi, Sandrine Bonnaire, Tchéky Karyo, Laurent Gerra, Tom Leeb, Yannick Choirat, Grégoire Colin, Vincent Rottiers, Florence Loiret Caille, Maxence Danet-Fauvel, Eden Ducourant, Pascal Houdus, Michaël Vander-Meiren, Stacy Grewis Belotti, Emmanuelle Bouaziz and Bérénice Ouédraogo, among other cast members.
Women at War (Les Combattantes) is an eight-episode limited series with episodes running for about 50 minutes each. It is created by Cécile Lorne and directed by Alexandre Laurent. The show was originally broadcast on channels across Europe before it started streaming on Netflix.
Netflix’s description of the series reads:
France 1914. As the German troops advance and men leave for the frontlines, four women must grapple with the devastating consequences of war at home
Women at War Ending Explained
Imagine the war cry just ringing in your ears. For these four women in France, it was the only reality they knew at the time. Marguerite was newly moving from Paris to Saint-Paulin. Suzanne was escaping prosecution after performing illegal abortions, Caroline was saying goodbye to her husband going to war, and Agnès was overwhelmed by the wounded soldiers coming in like they were on a conveyor belt.
Getting a job as a prostitute, Marguerite sets up her system. She has made herself extremely clear that she will work when she wants to, and the pimp at the brothel seems to have no qualms about it. After satisfying a few customers, she gets the location of the soldier’s quarters and starts visiting them, observing them through her binoculars.
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Suzanne, however, has become a fugitive even in Saint Paulin. She planned to get to Switzerland, but she will have to wait. In the meantime, things have worsened at the convent, and a family’s death on the farm rattles Agnès. Suzanne has stepped in to help the convent, and all her escape plans immediately evaporate when she sees the wounded soldiers. Caroline has been trying to gain the respect of the people working for her, but they are all wary of her talents as a businessperson. She tries her best to reassure them that the factory will be alright.
After the first wave of patients, Agnès comes across a patient on the road. He is deeply traumatised and disturbed. After taking him in and nursing other patients exactly like this, the convent decides to keep them pushing against the soldiers who want to deploy them back. We see Caroline gaining the trust of her workers even after the men have been forcefully drafted, their main order got cancelled, and her brother-in-law is actively working against her.
Marguerite and Caroline have known each other. The latter was also a sex worker along with Marguerite. Their meeting is strained because Caroline left the brothel to get married without telling anyone. Meanwhile, things became difficult for Marguerite after her French maps were discovered. The brothel manager discovers that the man’s picture in her suitcase is her son. He makes things difficult by inviting him to the brothel.
Agnès was suspicious of where Suzanne came from and what she was doing there. She doesn’t believe the whole “I want to escape from Saint-Paulin” story. But seeing her commitment to saving people, Agnès decides to let her be. She has her identity crisis after developing feelings for the German patient she found on the road. Meanwhile, Marguerite gets caught in the crossfire at the soldier’s quarters and has to take her car to the military hospital.
From here, Caroline gets the idea of turning the spare trucks into hospital ambulances. All the girls laid off from the brothel were hired to drive them. Suzanne gets caught lying about her identity when ‘Jeanne’s’ husband comes back. He then uses this to blackmail her into being an accomplice to a crime, namely treason. Caroline has just discovered that her husband has died, but she cannot say anything because her brother-in-law may take the opportunity away from her.
But she can avoid that if she decides to tell them after the four of them get the president’s award. While the award process is going on, Agnès finds out that the Bishop at the church has been assaulting the novitiates in the name of God. At the award ceremony, Agnès can barely look at the Bishop. Marguerite finds out that her son has a massive crush on her and is trying her level best to stay away.
Just after the award ceremony, everyone in Caroline’s family finds out, and they almost throw her out but remember her daughter and decide not to do that. However, the next day when everyone is celebrating the awards, one of the former sex workers, Juliette, sees Marguerite and Caroline kiss and tells Marcel about it. The brothel manager and Caroline’s brother-in-law have been friends. After finding out about her past, the family wholeheartedly kicks her out.
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But Caroline’s daughter is forced to be at home, making her vulnerable. She wanders into enemy territory and almost gets killed, but a German officer takes pity on her, so she remains safe. The attacks have been getting worse now, and soldiers decided to fall back after the gas attacks. At this time, France decides to attack the frontlines again but expecting to lose some land, they evacuate Saint Paulin.
Marguerite stays back to be with her son and gets shot while looking for him at the creek. There is a moment where the mother and son touch each other’s hands. Taking that as acceptance, Marguerite seems to have passed on.
It is never explored whether she regains consciousness or not. But if she did, it would be entirely possible that she and her son had a proper reunion with stories exchanged. Overall, this show explores everyone’s character in deep detail while also maintaining some light-heartedness.
Women at War is streaming on Netflix. What do you think happens after the show ends? Let us know in the comments below.