Pirates. There will always be Pirates. And where there are pirates, there is the possibility of treasure. Netflix’s Australian series, Dive Club, follows four teenage girls from a small coastal town, Cape Mercy. After a devastating storm, one of their friends goes missing, and in pursuit, the girls unravel a more profound mystery. The journey turns into a treasure hunt mystery that needs to be solved to find the missing person. Is it worth it? Of course, one life depends on it.
Dive Club Season 1, consisting of 12 episodes of approx 24 minutes, ends on a cliffhanger. Thus, there is the vast possibility of Dive Club Season 2. The Australian series is created by Steve Jaggi for Netflix. Let’s pull the anchor.
‘Dive Club’ Season 1 Plot Summary
Lauren Rose, Anna Volkov, Stevie Harrison, and Maddie are close friends who live in a small coastal town, Cape Mercy. They have formed a diving club called the Dive Club. The story begins with their expedition on their dearest boat, Indy, as they explore the ocean’s depths and extract lost goods/treasure. However, while they cherish their small accomplishment, the weather soon turns violent. The girls sail towards the harbor and reach land safely. However, in a rush, Lauren forgets her phone on the Indy and thus runs back to retrieve it. But she never returns.
Stevie wakes up from a dream, and “missing person posters of Lauren Rose” are lying by her side. She insists on going back to the ocean to find her friend, but Lauren’s father, Jack Rose (also the chief of police of Cape Mercy), dismisses her valiant efforts.
In the meantime, Anna and her mother, Reene (also the mayor of Cape Mercy), welcome structural engineer John Martin and his teenage daughter, Isabella “Izzie.” John is invited by Reene to renovate the storm-stricken town before their oldest annual festival, “Salvation Day.”
After the hefty introduction, the Indy sails back to the shore without any sign of Lauren. Anna, Stevie, Maddie, and the new girl, Izzie, hustle to locate the missing Lauren, but they only find bits and clues in their pursuit. As they follow the lead, slowly and thrillingly, the mystery unravels, leading to revelations that could change the history of Cape Mercy forever.
Brief History of Cape Mercy
According to the Netflix Series, Cape Mercy was discovered by the Romanov family. During the Russian Revolution, the royal family was chased out of Russia by an angry kingdom. No one survived the unrest except one. The youngest daughter of the family, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, fled the country on her royal yacht, “The Standart” (famously known as the Russian Wreck).
In 1918, the convoy led by Anastasia shipwrecked off the coast of an unknown island. When their ship started sinking, Anastasia and other Russians huddled into their tiny lifeboats and made it to an island that was later called Cape Mercy. Since then, every year, Salvation Day celebrates Mercy’s rescue.
In the series, Anastasia’s identity was hidden, and she was recognized as Mercy, who brought life to the island. The secret was revealed later in the series as the mystery approached its conclusion.
The Missing Crown Jewels of Russia
It was rumored the Russian crown jewels were lost during the revolution and had not been found since then until Lauren found one. However, before the mystery could be unraveled, Lauren disappeared. Lauren had hidden one of the crown jewels, the “Midnight Brooch,” in the shoulder pocket of her wet suit, which was later found by Izzie. Later, it was stolen on Lauren’s memorial day, which sparked some flames. The girls consulted treasure hunter Leonid Komarov, who reflected some light on the mystery of the lost treasure.
According to Leonid, Anastasia brought the four crown jewels to Cape Mercy, but they got lost in the shipwreck. The four missing jewels were: The Midnight Brooch, The Meridien Necklace, The Nightingale Bracelet, and the most valuable of all, the Royal Sapphire Crown.
These jewels had untold value and attracted untold evil. The search for these treasures led to the disappearance of Lauren Rose, and other tragedies followed.
Who kidnapped Lauren Rose?
Anna’s grandmother, Viktorya Volkov, sold Anna a myth. She told Anna that she was a descendant of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna and thus was an heir to the imperial throne of Russia. Viktorya gifted “The Nightingale Bracelet” to Anna and requested her to keep her royal identity a secret as many hunters were trailing the royalty and its treasure. It sounded merry, but alas, it was fake.
In “Chapter 12: Queen Anne’s Revenge,” it was revealed that Anna’s family was hiding under the lineage of “Mercy.” In truth, the Volkov family were descendants of a pirate who was the captain of the ship “Nemesis.” The Pirate Captain followed Anastasia all the way to Cape Mercy to steal the Crown Jewels of Russia. However, on the island, Anastasia confronted the Pirate Captain and, before her death, hid the “royal sapphire crown” in her dress. The pirate captain took the Princess’s identity and made a promise to find those jewels.
The Pirate’s successor, Viktorya, continued the legacy of false identity and treasure hunting. Viktorya discovered that Lauren had found a missing jewel, “Midnight Brooch,” and was close to untangling the Pirate Family history. Thus, to safeguard her family’s identity and secrets, Viktorya hired Hayden to abduct Lauren. He locked the girl in the Old Lighthouse, and Viktorya cunningly managed to keep everyone away from the location. Until Lauren sent an SOS signal through Morse code using the Lighthouse’s torch.
The Mystery of the Coin and Pirate Ship “Nemesis”
Since the beginning of the Dive Club, a mysterious coin minted by the East India Company indulged in an uncanny mystery. The girls showed the coin to Leonid, who failed to decode its origin. He sent it to a friend, Pavel Tolstoy, for further scrutiny. Pavel revealed these coins were a gift to naval officers who took command of their vessels. The ship was called “Nemesis,” which was a secret commission by the East India Company. It went missing under mysterious circumstances in 1912 and probably would have been raided by the Pirates.
Maddie dug deeper and got hold of a documentary television series, “Ghost Ships of the Australian Coast.” It informed her about the tragic explosion on a frigate with dark sails near the coast of the small Australian island, Cape Mercy. The tape’s timeline that covered the explosion was marked in Lauren’s diary because she wanted to discuss the mysterious disappearance from Leonid.
The girls connected the dots and concluded that the mysterious ship was “Nemesis,” whose debris lay near the coast of Cape Mercy. They dived into the water and discovered that the ship’s hull was obliterated, but the mast survived. It meant the explosion wasn’t an accident, but it was scuttled. The pirates sank it on purpose because they wanted to settle on the island with a new identity.
Viktorya Volkov, the oldest living pirate, made sure that no one discovered their secret, and thus, from time to time, she took drastic measures. She destroyed Maddie’s grandfather, Sea Dog’s fishing business when he found a “Nemesis” coin in the ocean. Similarly, Viktorya got Lauren kidnapped and locked her in the Lighthouse when she tried to unravel the mystery.
‘Dive Club’ Season 1: Ending Explained
In the last chapter, “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” the girls found Princess Anastasia Nikolaevna’s tomb hidden inside a mausoleum in Cape Mercy Cemetery. In the tomb, they discovered the Royal Sapphire Crown that she hid in her dress. The group learned that the Volkov family were not descendants of the royal family. Instead, they belonged to the family of the Pirate Captain who killed the Princess.
The revelations shook Anna from the core, and she ran away to the dive club to find the truth. The original painting of Pirate Captain sailing towards the island was replaced by Mercy’s Myth by her ancestors. Anna burnt the original painting by accident that later torched the clubhouse.
In grief, Anna tried to run away from everything, but her friends accompanied her to support her in times of need. At that moment, their ship was seized by Viktorya Volkov and her minion, Hayden. Viktorya commanded Hayden to pull Anna from the Indy and fasten the remaining girls to their fragile boat. She speculated about the arrival of a violent storm that would sink the Indy, leading to the tragic deaths of the girls. However, while shackling Stevie, Hayden discreetly hands her a pocket knife to help them save their lives.
In her violent demeanor, Stevie cursed Viktorya that she would never find the Royal Sapphire Crown. The Volkov yacht sailed away from Indy while the girls kept shouting for help from Anna. She stared at the end of her best friends but didn’t dare to help them save her false legacy and identity.
‘Dive Club’ Season 2 Expectations
Viktorya poisoned Leonid, yet he managed to pull himself together and walked towards the harbor to help the girls. His fate wasn’t concluded until the end, and hence, probably in the next season, he would try to save the girls.
Hayden handed Stevie a pocket knife before he left them stranded. Thus, it could be speculated that Stevie would cut off the ropes, and the divers would swim against the current to save their lives. But there is one hell of a storm hovering over them, and the rescue mission isn’t going to be an easy one.
‘Dive Club’ Season 2 will continue the girls’ pursuit of revealing the true identity of the Volkov family to their community. Anna will probably be obliged to choose between her false legacy and her steadfast friends. Her decision will add drama to the fiction.
Dive Club is a 2021 Australian Thriller Television Series created by The Steve Jaggi Company. Season 1 is streaming on Netflix.
