Netflix’s new Western action drama series, The Abandons, falls prey to the usual trappings of modern Westerns very quickly, as it tries to take a very balanced approach towards concepts of good and bad and ends up appearing too pretentious and ineffective. The plot is centered around two matriarchs, Fiona Nolan, played by Lena Headey, and Constance Van Ness, played by Gillian Anderson, who face off for their respective families and their very existence in a small silver mining town in the 1850s Wild West. Overall, The Abandons is riddled with unconvincing plot motivations and terribly inconsistent pacing, making it quite a disappointing watch, even for Western fans.
Spoiler Alert
What is the show about?
The Abandons Season 1 begins in the small dusty town of Angel’s Ridge, Washington Territory, where silver mining is the foundation of all business and trade in the early half of the 1850s. Although there is no legal ownership, the town is seemingly in control of the Van Ness family, Europeans who had settled there many years ago and now own most of the silver mines in the area. The family is headed by the matriarch, Constance Van Ness, who has taken control of the business after her husband’s death, and despite the wealth and influence that she holds, she also finds herself in a bit of trouble at present. The silver deposits in the mines owned by the Van Ness are quickly running dry, because of which they are even unable to meet the demands of important clients. Therefore, Constance has been eyeing a large plot of land called Jasper Hollow, which has a mine that is filled with silver deposits. Her plan is to get hold of the property legally, but all her efforts to buy it off the owners have been in vain so far.
This is largely because of the strong resolution of Fiona Nolan, an Irish settler who owns a part of Jasper Hollow, and who is absolutely against handing off the rich silver mines on the property to the exploitative family. In a society that believes only blood ties can make one family, Fiona has settled with four adopted children on the property, with them being a united family of outcasts. Along with her, three other families own property on the same shared land, but other than a Mexican couple, the two other men do not share her beliefs. Nonetheless, Fiona manages to convince them all that they should not sell their land to Van Ness Mines, as it would only mean giving up their agency to the wealthy landowners. Being all too aware of this situation, Constance is desperate to get hold of Jasper Hollow quickly, which is why she has her men set fire to the Abandons’ farm, owned by Fiona and her children, resulting in the death of their cattle. As she tries to file a complaint at the sheriff’s office and notices the clear lack of intent from the authorities to investigate the matter, Fiona Nolan realizes that she must fight against Constance Van Ness and her corrupt ways in whatever way possible.
Why does Walter Paxton finally take a side?
Among the four landowners at Jasper Hollow, Miles Alderton and Walter Paxton are quite tricky to deal with for Fiona, as both men refuse to take any solid stance. Miles plays a proactive role in the upkeep of the farmland and attends all meetings regularly, but he has some genuine problems with taking any action against the Van Ness family. Even worse is Walter, who refuses to be a part of the group or the coalition that is important to curb the unlawful attacks of the Van Ness members. Walter is an aggrieved loner, who is still distressed and sad at the passing away of his family members, whom he has buried under his house, and the grumpy old man does not want any contact with Fiona and the others. His only companion is his beloved dog, Sweetie, and Walter just wants to be left alone by everyone else so that he can wallow in his sadness for the rest of his miserable life. While Walter’s unwillingness to participate in any of the decisions does not really affect the coalition at first, an emergency situation soon changes this and presents a clear need for them to unite.
The situation has to do with Willem Van Ness, the youngest son of Constance, who has a secret fondness for Dahlia Teller, one of the adopted daughters of Fiona. The day after the brutal attack at the Abandons’ farm, Willem approaches Dahlia in town, and the latter humiliates him in public with her intelligence and witty tongue. Although Willem does fancy her, his prideful ego does not let him sit easy with this public disrespect, and after a whole day of seeking comfort in alcohol, his intent to stand up for his family’s pride only takes a vile shape. That evening, he rides to the Abandons farm and approaches Dahlia once more, this time trying to force himself upon her. As the other family members rush to the scene and prevent the act, a major crisis seems to have been averted, until Dahlia stabs Willem with a pitchfork, fatally injuring him, before Fiona kills the hateful young man to support her daughter.
While the act is brave and commendable, it also leaves the family, and in effect the whole coalition, with a dead body to get rid of. With differing opinions among the members, a vote is held to decide whether the body should be buried and the matter be kept a secret, or if they should confess the crime to the sheriff and deal with the consequences. By the end of the vote, it is a stalemate situation, with three votes on each side, and this is when Walter Paxton finally shows up, against everyone’s expectations. Crucially, when the Van Ness family had sent men to search the Hollow thoroughly for any trace of Willem earlier that day, they had mercilessly killed Walter’s beloved dog for no good reason. Thus, Walter now turns vengeful against the family, and he votes in favor of burying the dead body, just a few meters below the grave that he digs to put his dog to rest.
What happens to Father Duffy?
Although Willem’s body is buried at a remote spot on the property, and the matter is suppressed by the landowners, guilt starts to weigh on Dahlia’s mind. Despite her having taken justifiable revenge against a man who had tried to rape her, she cannot accept the fact that she had taken his life in such a violent manner. Fiona’s best efforts to make her understand that she did nothing wrong, and that it was technically Fiona who had ended Willem’s life, go to waste. It is then that she advises Dahlia to confess the crime to the local priest, Father Duffy, so that the young woman can at least get rid of the emotional duress building in her mind, and she follows suit. Fiona is particularly confident that this would not lead to any trouble for them because of her very good bond with Father Duffy, who has been her spiritual guide since her days of youth.
However, a grand betrayal soon plays out when Fiona realizes that Father Duffy’s wealthy lifestyle in recent years could not have been supported by the Church, as she finds letters that claim that the religious institution has been financially struggling in the past few years. This is when Fiona realizes that Father Duffy is actually on the payroll of the Van Ness family, who have been seemingly paying him to ensure that they get to know all the secrets and pain points of the townsfolk in order to manipulate them more easily. Thus, Fiona rides out to confront the priest and luckily stops him right as he enters the Van Ness property, clearly on his way to tell Constance what had really happened to her missing son. Father Duffy does not put up a fight and is swiftly killed by Fiona, who makes it seem like the priest had fallen from his horse and died from the injuries. The Abandons Season 1 tries to add more depth to the tale and the characters from here on by making Fiona appear like a righteous but also murderous woman.
What is the secret from Miles Alderton’s past?
Some time later, Constance makes a deal with a local Native American rebel group, hoping to have them attack Jasper Hollow and somehow have the land cleared of its inhabitants. But for this deal, she is asked to supply numerous guns to the rebel group, which she secures from a crooked Russian businessman in the area. Unbeknownst to her, the Russian had already sold these guns to another criminal gang and had then stolen them back to sell them to her. As a result, this dangerous gang comes to town looking for the Russian and their guns, and a horrific gunfight ensues, in which Miles Alderton surprisingly plays a very important part. Known to be just the bartender at the local bar, Miles surprises everyone, including his own daughter, Samara, by pulling out an arsenal of guns and then killing off the gangsters one after another with impressive shots.
Crucially, Constance’s remaining son, Garret, briefly sees a surprising scene play out in front of his eyes when he sees one of the gangsters identify Miles and refer to him as Winston before getting shot dead by the bartender. This is when Garret starts his own investigation into the matter, knowing that he can exploit any secret he can find, and this is exactly what happens. A distinguished Special Marshal in the military named Adam Winston had suddenly turned against his own unit many years ago, killing eight of his fellow soldiers before wiping out an entire cavalry unit sent to find and arrest him, and had then fled the scene to become a fugitive. There has been no trace of the man in the last twenty years, and as it so happens, Adam Winston has been living a quiet life in Angel’s Ridge as Miles Alderton.
Miles soon explains to his daughter that it was only out of his pure and genuine love for his wife that he had done all the criminal acts, for his superiors in the military did not want him to ever marry, as they feared that he might share the government secrets that he had access to. But Miles had desperately fallen in love with a woman and had secretly married her, and when her superiors threatened to kill both of them if he did not end the marriage, the man abandoned his post. In the next few years, he even got mixed up with some criminal gangs, one of which happened to be the same one that came looking for their weapons at Angel’s Ridge earlier, before distancing himself from crime and violent action completely to care for his wife (who eventually passed away) and their daughter, Samara.
Why does Samara betray the group?
Upon learning this extensive truth about Miles’ past, Garret Van Ness immediately jumps on the chance to make use of this information to blackmail Miles and the rest of the coalition into signing the sale agreement. Garret intentionally approaches Samara almost in a friendly manner and convinces her that if she can get her father to sell off the property, he will use his connections with the law to ensure that all the past crimes of Miles will be pardoned officially. Samara, who has just learned about the gory and dangerous past of her father, is naturally shocked but also convinced that Garret will genuinely help out the family. Therefore, she returns home and tries to change her father’s mind, but Miles remains sure that this is only a trap being laid by the Van Ness family, as he feels that they will not only use the information to buy the land but also hand him over to the law for an extra profit.
Although Miles refuses to buy into the deal, Samara remains convinced, and this is when she decides to betray the group, only out of a genuine and desperate desire to protect her father from any legal trouble. Soon, she goes to Garret and opens up to him about the collective secret that the four families at Jasper Hollow have been keeping for the last few months. She not only tells Garret about how Willem had been killed and buried but also leads him and his posse to the exact spot of the unmarked grave. The men quickly find the decomposing body of Willem and take it back to the family estate, ensuring that the whole scenario changes. We do not get to see whether Garret actually keeps his word, as total chaos ensues after this discovery, and Samara ends up on the losing side either way, as her father decides to take up arms once again, this time against the cruel Van Ness family.
Does Trisha break up with Elias?
In her effort to secure the mines at Jasper Hollow, Constance Van Ness had made a number of crooked associations, first with the Native American rebel group and then also with a gang of outlaws headed by a man named Roache. But these associations end up creating only more problems for her and her family, especially when one of the outlaws in Roache’s gang, Dupar, goes rogue and attempts to rob the family. Dupar had found out about how Constance was using horrific and illegal means to oversee the sale of the land, and so he now tries to use this information to rob the family. Although he is killed by Roache before he can do any harm to the family, Dupar had crucially blurted out about his findings in front of one of the maids at the Von Ness estate, Jenny.
As soon as the crisis is over, Jenny asks Garret whether the accusations against Constance were true, which makes him realize that the maid will surely expose the secrets to the world. Therefore, he asks Roache to kill Jenny and make it seem like she had been killed by Dupar, which is why the rogue outlaw had to be killed. But Constance’s daughter, Trisha, witnesses the whole incident and decides to go against her family’s will. A believer in love and peace more than conflict and family rivalries, Trisha had fallen in love with one of Fiona’s adopted sons, Elias, and had also started a secret relationship with him. Now, she tries to expose her mother’s secrets to Elias but is abducted by her own family before being able to do so.
Constance asks for her daughter to be regularly drugged with a strong sedative, hoping to turn her hysterical so that she can be admitted to a mental health institution, essentially to send her away from Angel’s Ridge to avoid any more problems for the family. Although Trisha manages to free herself from the hostage situation by bringing down the maid appointed to look after her, she is unable to have the feisty confrontation with her mother that she had been hoping for. This is because Willem’s dead body had been recovered by this time, and the mystery behind his death had been solved. Thus, Trisha soon heads back to town and confronts her lover, Elias, instead for having been a part of the conspiracy to kill and bury her brother. Elias admits to feeling bad for Trisha but also plainly claims that he would kill the vile and lecherous Willem once again if he could, which seals the separation between the two young lovers.
Was Dahlia saved by her family?
Frustrated by the lack of action and justice in the lopsided society they sadly live in, Dahlia Teller decides to take matters into her own hands once again, especially when she sees Trisha being abducted from the town and believes that her family is responsible. Soon, Dahlia attacks Garret with a knife and is able to leave serious wounds on his torso. But the injuries do not kill Garret, and he is able to make it home and recover, which means that Constance now gets Dahlia picked up and brought back to the estate so that she can finally take revenge for what she had done to her son. Although Constance had earlier seemed like someone who would understand why her son had met the fate that he had, she now reveals herself as a wounded and vengeful mother who does not care about his crimes and only wants to punish her son’s murderer.
But luckily for Dahlia, her adoptive mother, Fiona, along with the other landowners at Jasper Hollow, had grown too impatient and disillusioned by now, having finally realized that they would have to take up arms in order to survive against the vicious attacks of the corrupt family. Thus, Fiona leads a charge on the Van Ness estate, as she walks into the place claiming to want to negotiate with Constance, while the other men and women prepare for a sneaky attack through the back. Constance does not want to lose the opportunity to hurt Dahlia in front of her mother’s eyes and see Fiona grovel helplessly, but as she starts doing so, the other members launch the attack and ultimately take down each of the Van Ness guards. Thus, Dahlia is successfully saved by her family in the end, as the Van Ness estate is also set fire to, just as Fiona had planned.
Who is the survivor seen at the very end?
As the estate starts to burn horribly, Fiona runs into the house despite having won the battle for now, as she wants to seek revenge against Constance. Fiona seemingly intends to avenge the vicious attacks on Dahlia and also wants to ensure that the Van Ness family will no longer trouble her or her friends in the future. But as she runs into the house and has a fistfight with Constance, the entire place starts crashing down around them because of the devastating fire.
In The Abandons season 1’s ending, we see the figure of a lone woman coming out of the house, meaning that only one of them has survived, but the identity of the woman is not revealed. The Netflix show intentionally holds back this information to build intrigue for season 2, where we will seemingly see more of the fight between the two sides. It is probably more likely that Fiona survives the fight and comes out of the burning house alive, as that would give the creators more scope to continue with the story. Garret Van Ness survives the whole ordeal, as he had been away from the estate at the time, meaning that he can take charge of his family in the next season and possibly try to seek revenge for his mother’s death.
