“Cracow Monsters,” directed by Kasia Adamik and Olga Chajdas, delves deep into the mythological world. It brings to life many folklores and combines them with the contemporary world. So without much ado, let’s understand this world of deities and Gods and decrypt the multiple theories that the characters try to solve, while being on a journey that makes them face their worst nightmares.
See More: ‘Cracow Monsters’ Season 1: Recap & Review – A Chaotic And Muddled Slavic Folklore
Why Did Professor Zawadzki Select Alex To Be A Part Of His Group?
Professor Zawadzki used to conduct an examination for selecting students in his small student research committee. These students were not normal human beings. They were people who had special powers. For example, his assistant, Lucky, whose real name was Lucjan, could see dead people and converse with them. Hania and Basia were the twin sisters who read what was going on in a person’s mind. Birdy always wore gloves because as soon as he touched something with his bare hands, he could see things and give details about them.
So everybody had some skills that helped the professor with his research. When Lucky comes back after invigilating the exam and going through the answer sheets, he tells the professor that there was nobody who interested him. But in that instance, the professor sees an answer sheet with a doodle made on it. That doodle was of Aitvaras, a spirit that had its mention in the Slavic mythology. He does not know what power Alex has, but he is sure that she is also unique like his students. So Alex is given notice that she has been selected by the student research committee, and she relocates to the facility itself.
What Was The Quorum?
Iliana, a member of Professor Zawadzki’s student research group, says for the first time that with Alex joining their side, their quorum is now complete. Professor Zawadzki tells Alex that for some rituals to be carried out successfully, a quorum of nine people is needed. For example, at the end, when the group goes against the evil God Hvor, it was a necessity on their part to have nine people performing the ritual. The professor makes Alex understand that she does not need to be scared and that the lights that she often saw were not as a result of schizophrenia or mere hallucinations. But Alex is still running from herself. She sees things that she doesn’t understand, and she feels that danger is inching towards her.
What Was Triglav?
Triglav was the God who created the world. He had three heads, and each was responsible for the creation of some integral facet of this world. The white head gave way to beauty and fire. The black head gave rise to chaos and despair. Lastly, the red head gave rise to harmony between the good and the evil that coexisted in our world. The boy named Rafel whom Alex had seen getting killed by a creature, was a lesser deity known as Harewit. Death had transformed the boy into a havoc-reigning creature who was responsible for bringing demons like Hollowshee and Winter Spas onto the Earth. Alex was not hallucinating when she saw the boy open his eyes in the mortuary.
Lucky at first thought that the Marcholts were responsible for bringing the boy back to life. Marcholts were low-level demons that inhibited dead bodies. But the contradiction was that Marcholts were never so intelligent like the thing that possessed the boy.
Robert, a man who had become a slave of the possessed boy, Rafel, also found the Triglav statue while carrying out the mining activities. A black liquid flowed from the statue. Robert didn’t understand the real power of the statue, and was completely baffled at what was happening around him.
Other creatures from folklore that played their part in the narrative are as follows:-
- Hollowshee: Female demons that Rafel had created to find Alex. They go to find Alex but are not able to capture her. Rafel gets angry and kills one of them. The other, seeing her identical twin being killed, escapes the scene.
- Pivka: Minor deity of the drunks. She generally made people drink, but in this case, she tells Alex and Lucky not to drink their beer. She had felt the presence of negative energy and had seen that the Hollowshes had mixed some poisonous substance into Alex’s and Lucky’s drinks.
- Winter Spas: An ancient demon that was taken out from a deep and dark abyss by Rafel. It was ordered to spread chaos and make it possible for Hvor to come on earth once again.
Was Alex Reincarnation Of Wanda? Why Were Demons Chasing Alex And Her Mom, Jagna?
Alex was given birth by her mom, Jagna, without any medical assistance at a place called the Axis Mundi. It was the energy center of the Earth. Her mother had committed suicide, and even Alex had almost drowned in the car accident in Vistula. She was somehow saved by a supernatural force. Her mother, before dying, had told her grandmother that Wanda, who was supposedly a good friend of hers, would take care of Alex.
Alex discovers a key from the bag that was found in her mother’s possession, and also a note that says “find the sick one.” It was the key to the Underworld. She goes there to find answers to her questions. She knew the mythological folklore of Krakus, Wanda, and Khors, but she wanted to know how she was involved in the dynamics. Krakus was a king who had a daughter named Wanda. He had declared that Princess Wanda would be married to someone who defeated the dragon, a.k.a. Khors. The name Khora meant the sick one in the old tongue. Nobody asked Wanda what she wanted, so she decided to kill the dragon herself and get done with the ordeal. Alex goes to the Underworld and gets to know that, in fact, she is the reincarnation of Princess Wanda. She realizes that all this time, it was her that the evil forces from the Underworld wanted to kill. Aitvaras, her guardian angel, had always been there since her birth, and even in the Underworld, she rescued Alex and brought her back.
Iliana makes a mark on Alex’s hands, and Alex starts speaking a prophecy in a subconscious manner. In a hypnotic state, Alex speaks out, saying that Cracow was a cursed land and the chaos would allow Hvor to come out of the Underworld. It was said that he would grow in strength, and then history would repeat itself. The group realizes that it is the beginning of the end.
‘Cracow Monsters’ Season 1: Ending Explained: How Is Hvor Defeated?
Iliana tells everybody that the blood moon would be visible at 9 p.m. in the night. Alex was also born at 9 p.m. Professor Zawadzki comes up with a plan. He was of the opinion that if they recreated Alex’s death and tricked her body into believing that she was actually drowning, then they would be able to regress to her previous incarnation.
The process works as Alex hears something. The cryptic prophecy said: “Three faces from which the Gods were born, where the three axes of the world intersect, on the day and hour of the power of three.”
The three faces referred to Triglav. The fifth of January 2022 gave the astrological number of three, and the time 9 p.m., at which the blood moon would be visible, also added up to number three. When Robert, the miner, left Rafel and came to Alex for help, the group got their hands on Triglav’s statue. They realize that even Robert was like the rest of them. He had power but he couldn’t explain how he got it, and he could speak the language of Gods. They reach the axes’ intersections and start chanting the four words that were in the old tongue that their ancestors used to speak.
Alex comes face to face with Hvor, who had possessed Rafel’s body. The chants work, and Hvor is killed. Alex burns the Triglav too. Alex is told by a godly creature that she would pay for her sins as she had killed a God. At the end of “Cracow Monsters” Season 1, Professor Zawadzki sees Lucky, who had been stabbed to death earlier. We later see that he is sitting in a room, and Aitvaras joins him. Either he was brought back to life, or maybe an evil deity possessed him, the explanation for which is not explicitly given in the series.
“Cracow Monsters” Season 2 might explore the motives behind bringing back Lucky to life and how the balance of the world is shaken due to the actions of Alex.
“Cracow Monsters” is a 2022 Polish Drama Fantasy series directed by Kasia Adamik and Olga Chajdas.
