The ending of Families Like Ours is all about new beginnings. To find a beacon of hope in the darkest of hours. The life of every Danish citizen was turned upside down when the government announced that they would have to evacuate the country due to the rising water level. The government made every possible effort to divert the water with drains and dams, but it was an expensive process, and they couldn’t hold the water for long. This was why the parliament unanimously decided to use all remaining funds to help the Danes relocate to other countries. Set in a not-too-distant future, the show centers around Laura, a teenage girl who lives with her father, Jacob, and her stepmother, Amalie. And soon after the devastating announcement is made, Laura, her family, and her relatives try their best to leave their homes behind to find a new place somewhere else. So where do these people finally end up? Well, let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Laura and Elias Will End Up Together
Laura and Elias, the two high school sweethearts, were madly in love with each other. They had initially planned to move to Paris together, where Laura’s father, Jacob, had arranged a job for himself at an architecture firm. However, Laura made a last-minute decision to relocate herself to Bucharest to be with her biological mother, Fanny, who had no one to look after her. And the reason why she made such a decision was that Laura believed her mother would end up dead if she let her go alone. Lucas, a young boy at Laura’s daycare center, had drawn a picture of young Laura riding a sled. It was one of the most cherished memories Laura had, as it likely dated from back when her mother and father were together. But, to her surprise, Lucas, in his sketch, had drawn a person lying on the ground, which Laura thought was her mother, Fanny. Well, long story short, nothing happened to Fanny, but due to a sudden change of plan, Laura did miss the boat leaving Denmark and had to take a private fishing boat to reach her mother.
Things didn’t go as Laura intended, and instead of Romania, she ended up in Russia, from where she made her way to Poland. She went missing for 3 long days and her family and friends started to worry about her. This was when Laura found a phone and contacted Elias. He was still in Copenhagen, and therefore the two lovers decided to meet in Stegna so they could travel to Bucharest together. Unfortunately, Elias didn’t have a visa for Poland and therefore he crossed over on foot, but owing to bad luck, the locals reported him to the authorities. He didn’t have his passport on him, which was why the officer arrested him. He got into the police car, trying to convince them to let him go, but none of it worked, so he decided to run away. The policemen, filled with hatred for the refugees, hunted him down near the beach, and assaulted him so badly that he went into a coma. Laura tried contacting Elias, but he wouldn’t pick up. She couldn’t afford to miss the last train and therefore left for Bucharest without Elias.
When Elias’ family and friends didn’t hear from him for a very long time, they believed he was dead. But Laura didn’t share their belief. Something in her heart told her that Elias was alive and that he would come back. She settled down with Fanny in Bucharest, where Fanny resumed her writing and sold some articles to a publication, while Laura started waiting tables at a bar.
Sometime around Christmas, Laura received a text from Elias. He was alive and was in a rehabilitation center in Poland. There was an uncomfortable silence between them. The ex-Danes weren’t allowed to travel without proper papers and visas, which meant Laura couldn’t travel to meet Elias. However, Elias didn’t want Laura to see him either. He was quite embarrassed about his condition and didn’t know if he would ever walk again. Laura was quite heartbroken when Elias sounded so cold and distant on the phone. She wanted to mend her relationship with him and was willing to do anything for the boy who crossed borders for her. This was why she decided to attend Mathilde’s wedding in Finland, as Elias had told her that he would be attending his sister’s wedding as the best man. The authorities had recently started offering visitor visas for the ex-Danes, and so Laura took a solo trip to a foreign country to meet the love of her life. However, when Elias saw Laura in the chapel, he tried to not meet her gaze. He didn’t want Laura to see him sitting in a wheelchair. Maybe he feared things would never be the same between them and hence wanted to maintain his distance from her. There was an unspeakable silence between them, and Laura didn’t know how to penetrate that barrier. Fortunately, later that night, she sat beside him and promised him that nothing had changed between them. She helped him stand on his feet, and the way they held each other was quite suggestive of the fact that they would give each other another chance and eventually build a life together.
Nik and Henrik Are Together
Amalie’s brother, Nikolaj “Nik” Engberg, who worked for the ministry of foreign affairs, was the one who broke the news to the family and told them about the evacuation program. As soon as Nik found out that the prime minister was going to make a public announcement, he told his husband, Henrik, to sell all their properties at a cut-rate price, as it would be impossible to get any buyers after the announcement. The couple had saved up a pretty decent nest egg; however, Henrik wanted to help his homophobic older brother, Peter, from the market crash and tried to hint that he should sell his property, but in his blind ego, Peter didn’t listen. After the announcement, he came begging Henrik for money, but he refused to help him, which was when Peter tried to threaten his brother. Nik intervened and pulled out a shotgun to get rid of Peter, but he didn’t back down. Some days later, some thugs, likely Peter’s creditors, barged into the house and assaulted Henrik asking him for the money. They would have killed Henrik if he hadn’t managed to escape into the woods. Well, both Nik and Henrik were quite shaken by the whole episode, and therefore when an unfamiliar car arrived at their house, they didn’t think twice before pulling out the guns. But while Nik fired shots in the air, Henrik, filled with rage and anger, shot through the windshield and killed the man behind the steering wheel. They weren’t aware of the fact that this young man was their house keeper’s son, Aron, who was recently wedded.
Throughout the finale of Families Like Ours, Henrik couldn’t shake off the feeling that he’d killed an innocent man, and therefore wanted to turn himself in and confess his crimes to Danilo, so that the man would stop looking for his son. He even wanted to give him some money so he could buy back his old farm in Homezh. However, Nik convinced Henrik that it was an accident, and they should leave their guilt behind and start a new life in Reading, Berkshire. The issue was that that tragic night kept haunting Henrik till the very end. He wanted to tell Danilo the truth so that the grieving father could find some closure for his missing son. Now, this was the moment when Nik and Henrik came across Lucas in London.
The young lad was given a football scholarship as he was the best player in his age group; however, his mother, Christel, didn’t come with him as the authorities hadn’t approved her residency. So, Lucas was handed over to a foster family in England, but because the kid was already struggling with anger issues, he ran away and was later found by the police, who informed Nik about it. Nik had just started his new job at the embassy, and decided to help Lucas reunite with his mother in Bucharest, who was living in the same dorm room as Fanny. They brought Lucas to their hotel, where Lucas said something to Henrik that sent chills down his spine. While Nik was away on a call, Lucas asked Henrik, “why don’t you help your brother.” The young boy’s words instantly filled Henrik with the guilt of abandoning his brother and stealing the chance from a father to grieve for his missing son. He wanted to go back to Copenhagen to make things right and therefore left England to visit his brother.
In Families Like Ours’ ending, Henrik finally gave a portion of the money he had saved to Peter so he could look after his kids and wife and start a new life in Norway. In exchange, Henrik wanted Peter to give Danilo his son’s wedding ring so that the father would know his son’s fate. Now, here Henrik wanted to turn himself in, but the whole justice system had collapsed. There were no police stations or any officers left in the country, which meant Henrik couldn’t possibly be arrested. Peter told him that the only option he had was to live with the guilt of killing an innocent man.
In the end, it did seem like Peter told Danilo about his son, though I am not sure if he would forgive Henrik for the accident. I mean, Danilo did seem like a pretty reasonable person, based on which one could assume that he might understand that Henrik didn’t kill Aron intentionally. Danilo knew the things Henrik was going through and how brutally he was thrashed by the thugs, which makes me believe he could relate to his anger and the mistakes he had made. Families Like Ours’ ending also revealed that Henrik and Nik were going to Albania to help Danilo buy back the farm, which further suggests that Danilo might forgive Henrik, as the latter was doing everything to make things right for the family. In short, Henrik not only mended his relationship with his brother but also found a way to atone for his sins.
Lucas Finds A New Home In England
At the beginning of the show, Henrik and Nik had told Jacob, Nik’s brother-in-law, that as soon as Nik started his new job in England, the couple had plans to adopt a kid so that they could start their family. Well, it turned out they did adopt someone, and it was none other than Lucas. It was a perfect arrangement if you ask me. Lucas had secured a spot in the Liverpool FC Academy and Christel knew that her son had the talent to become a popular football player someday, which was why she made an ultimate sacrifice and sent Lucas to England alone. But Lucas didn’t want to live with any English families. Though he had developed a liking for the Danish couple, who felt like home. So, in the end, Henrik and Nik took Lucas under their care so he could focus on his soccer training in London and spend his holidays with his mother in Romania.
In Bucharest, Christel had also found a new vocation. She was helping Laura’s mother, Fanny, with her writing classes. So even though these people were far, far away from their roots, they had built a new home in the foreign lands. They were not together but were still there for each other. And I know someone’s going to ask this question: did Lucas really have supernatural powers? I mean, the show doesn’t really delve into that, but it’s a fictional dystopian drama set in a not-too-distant future, so it could be possible that Lucas can really see the future, or at least fragments of it. Still Families Like Ours doesn’t explore the extent of his supernatural powers, which means we will never find out what Lucas’ true powers are. I think it’s better to just call these two incidents with Henry and Laura mere coincidence rather than searching for logic and reason in something that no one can really explain.
Holger Is Alive
The character of Fanny’s brother, Holger, was my personal favorite, and their short interaction near the docks was one of the best scenes in the show. Fanny never expected someone like Holger would push her to resume her writing career. But in the end, it was he, “an asphalt laborer” who got her the funding and even purchased a laptop for her so she could start to revive her career as a writer. I think this was actually what the series was about: finding light in the places you least expect. Initially, I thought Holger wouldn’t leave the country, but in the end, he did. Though Fanny was still quite worried about him as he was trying to hustle his way all the way to Thailand. But I am sure Holger will be safe. Also, before I forget to mention, Fanny and Laura had moved out of the dorm and rented a new apartment in Bucharest. Fanny didn’t forget to bring her cupboard from Denmark. The furniture had a height gauge chalked onto it that reminded Laura of her childhood. She was happy that her mother still remembered the little things in her life, and didn’t just leave those memories behind. Hopefully, the mother-daughter duo will be able to create some beautiful ones in the new country together.
Jacob and Amalie Start a New Life in Paris
Things hadn’t been easy for Jacob and Amalie. The couple were trying their best to find jobs in the new country so that they could earn a living for themselves and their young kid, Mikkel. Jacob’s old friend, Gilles Benni, tried his best to give Jacob a job at his architectural firm, but things got messy after Laura went missing. I mean, you could blame Laura for kicking off a chain reaction. It was because of her that Jacob impulsively decided to reach out to the authorities to find his missing daughter. And as soon as Jacob involved the police, they started questioning Gilles for giving Jacob a job without a work permit, due to which Gilles couldn’t give the job. Jacob and Amalie’s whole plan for the future came crashing down around their heads after Gilles refused to help them anymore and asked the family to vacate the company apartment. Jacob and Amalie had no place to live. Amalie begged for work all over and eventually bagged a job as a cleaner, but she couldn’t keep it for long as she didn’t have a work permit. I guess their situation got a bit better when the authorities all over the world tried to sympathize with the plight of the ex-Danes and allowed them to find work.
Families Like Ours’ ending revealed that Amalie finally got a job as a receptionist at a hotel, while Jacob started working as a janitor. I mean, they weren’t the most ideal jobs the couple could have hoped for, but maybe it was enough for them to begin the first chapter of their new lives with. Hopefully, these two jobs would allow them to find a decent place to live and send their kid, Mikkel, to kindergarten. One of the larger questions in the finale was, would Jacob and Amalie leave Paris? When Jacob found out that Fanny and Laura hadn’t had much difficulty in securing a job in Bucharest, he entertained the possibility of leaving Paris, but this was the moment Amalie reminded Jacob that it wasn’t about which city they were in. They had already lost their home, and there was no going back to it. It didn’t matter whether they were in Paris or Bucharest. They had to stop running from one place to another so they could start focusing on rebuilding their life. Paris wasn’t really a new city to Amalie and Jacob. They had lived there in the past. It was the same city where Jacob had proposed to Amalie, and she didn’t have any problem accepting it as the place where she was going to spend the rest of her life.
The thing was, Jacob was still pretty worried about Laura, which was why Amalie told him that she was 20 and could look after herself, but Mikkel still needed his parents. They couldn’t keep arguing with each other every night and ruin the young kid’s future. Fortunately, Jacob understood. Later, during the Christmas week when Laura asked if he would be visiting them in Bucharest, he said no. The reason was they’d exhausted their savings, and Jacob had to find a job as Amalie’s wage wouldn’t be enough to sustain the family of three. I guess Laura understood that her father had one more family to look after, and even though he wished to visit his daughter, he was bound by his duties. Well, hopefully sometime in the near future, the father and daughter will reunite with each other in Bucharest, Paris, or somewhere else.
Denmark Is Flooded With Water
Families Like Ours’ ending revealed that the streets of Denmark are already flooded with water. Almost 95 percent of Danes have relocated themselves to a new country, while the UN is helping to evacuate those left behind. It’s quite tragic to leave everything behind and start a new life from scratch, right? I think we are lucky that Families Like Ours is not a true story, but it is indeed a cautionary tale. Some of us still don’t consider climate change and global warming to be real threats, but they are. The ice caps are melting at an accelerated rate, and sooner or later, most of the coastal countries will end up underwater, just like Denmark and the Netherlands in the show. And when this happens, many people living in those parts will become refugees and immigrants overnight. The neighboring countries will close down their borders to stop people from coming into their lands. The world will be in utter chaos, and really no one will be able to help us. The show already gave you a glimpse of the horror that awaits each of us, but fortunately we still have time to make amends, to either stop or delay this environmental disaster. The question is, are we really listening?
There’s Still A Glimmer of Hope
In the penultimate episode, Laura mentioned to her mother that the experts were saying that the water might recede in 40 years. Well, she wasn’t quite sure about this new report, nor did the show explain it any further. Maybe those displaced from their country would be able to return to their homes after 40 years. In Families Like Ours’ ending, when Amalie was leaving for work, Jacob told her that he wanted to go home, to which she replied, “Me too.” So, I don’t know when these people will eventually be able to return to their country. In 40 years, or maybe more. But what I am quite certain is that they will carry their culture, their values, and their memories in their hearts till their death. And until their last breath, they will miss their homes, hoping to return soon.
