The Prime Video crime thriller series, The Assassin, rounds up its story quite neatly at the end of its 6th episode, providing a comprehensive conclusion to every subplot, as well as keeping us guessing about what is to come next. The mysterious Marie had managed to tranquilize and abduct Edward in episode 5, with Julie even making a shocking suggestion at the end of the episode—that she might not be Edward’s biological mother. The Assassin’s ending reveals the real identity of Marie and also the mystery behind ‘Chantaines,’ while also suggesting that one of the Cross family members might have gotten away with committing a crime once again.
Spoiler Alert
Who are Edward’s biological parents?
The shocking implication made at the end of The Assassin episode 5, is confirmed quite early in episode 6, as it is revealed that Julie is not the biological mother of Edward. About 29 years ago, Julie had been working as a ruthless and vicious contract killer, taking jobs all over Europe and never feeling any guilt or remorse with regard to her highly violent and immoral profession. She was extremely good at tracking down targets and eliminating them, and the great amounts of money that she was earning kept her happy and did not let her question her choices. However, this situation changed when she traveled to France for a mission and stumbled into an unexpected dilemma.
Julie’s handler, Damian, had assigned her a job to eliminate an arms dealer named Jean-Luc Bertrand, who had been causing trouble for some wealthy and influential clients. Although Jean-Luc himself had a lot of wealth, as well as a private army owing to his profession as a weapons dealer, the job was still quite easy for Julie. She managed to break into Jean-Luc’s house, find the man working in his study, and kill him with a single, well-placed shot. What Julie did not realize was that his wife was also at the house at the time, and as the woman came running to the study, possibly after hearing the gunshot, she had to shoot her as well. To make matters worse, Julie quickly realized that there was one more human in the house—a baby boy crying in his cot.
This was when Julie felt guilt for her actions for the first time in her life, and after much deliberation, she decided to take the boy along with her, since she could not just abandon him. Although Jean-Luc’s money might have ensured that his orphaned son would have a considerably good life, Julie could not bear the fact that she had caused the baby to become an orphan. Thus, she took the boy away and started raising him as her own son, giving him a new identity as Edward Green. She did carry on working as a hitman for many more years, as Edward earlier recalled how his mother would leave on work trips, but the guilt and the fear that someone might come after her too and make Edward an orphan again did catch up to her. Eventually, Julie retired and moved to a small Greek island to live a life of extreme secrecy and protection.
The Assassin intentionally misguides us in this context, as we see a young Julie in 1994 at the very beginning of the series, carrying out a mission in Bulgaria. At the end of this mission, the young woman takes a look at a pregnancy test kit with a positive result, which means that she is pregnant. However, she confirms at the end of the series that she could not ultimately become a mother in 1994, as she lost the baby, most definitely because of her unusually action-filled profession. She did not try getting pregnant after that, but she also could not hold herself back from rescuing Jean-Luc’s baby boy, and so she eventually adopted him and raised him as her own, with Edward never even suspecting that he was not biologically related to Julie.
What is the mystery of the Cross’ project ‘Chantaines’?
The mystery of the ‘Chantaines,’ a word or name heard multiple times in discussions among the Cross family members, is also finally solved. When Kayla, and then her brother, Ezra, hear the word from an anonymous caller, they fear that it is some secretive project that the family business might have undertaken either in the past or at present as well. The mystery is quickly tied to a very personal letter that their mother had written to their father, Aaron Cross, before her death, and most of it becomes clear when Kayla finally reads it. ‘Chantaines’ was no secret project or plan, but the codename that had been used for a dark incident from the family’s history.
When Aaron and his beloved wife, Leila, had started setting up their business, Cross Global Mining, they were in need of sizable funds in a very short amount of time, and preferably without having to go through all the official paperwork. They had met with Jean-Luc Bertrand, who was ready to lend them the money, and had used the borrowed funds to start their business. Aaron and Leila were ready to pay back the borrowed amount to Jean-Luc a couple of years later, but the arms dealer now demanded much more money. He probably threatened to expose the source of the capital used at CGM, which would have been scandalous for the Cross family, and he kept pestering the couple.
Fed up with the situation, and also aiming to ensure that their reputation would not get tarnished, Aaron and Leila decided to hire a hitman to get rid of Jean-Luc, and they got in touch with Damian. Julie was indeed the same professional hitman who had been hired by the Cross couple, and they paid huge amounts of money for her services. Aaron’s plan had to be given a codename while it was being discussed, and certain official transactions had to be made, and so he called it ‘Chantaines,’ after the name of Leila’s beloved pet dog. Leila had gotten the name for her dog from a marmalade brand that she used to like a lot, and this is why only the marmalade brand could be found whenever the characters look up the word ‘Chantaines’ on the internet.
What is Marie’s real identity?
Thus, it is now revealed that Marie, the woman who appears suddenly and looks to be up to some secret plan, is the wife of Jean-Luc Bertrand, whom Julie had shot on the night of the murder of the arms dealer. As Julie got distracted by the crying baby, she did not check whether Jean-Luc’s wife was actually dead, and she just assumed she must be, based on how she had shot her at a very close distance. But Marie had actually survived, even though she was in a coma for several years, and could only return to a normal life many years later. Since the day of her recovery, she has been yearning to seek revenge against the killers of her beloved husband, and she has finally started working on this plan, seemingly using the wealth Jean-Luc had left behind.
Marie had used her resources to track down Damian and pay him enough to spill the beans about who had carried out the murder, and also who had placed the hit on Jean-Luc. Therefore, she placed a hired operative of her own at the Cross family estate, first to keep an eye on the family members, and then to kill Aaron and Ezra. She had also simultaneously placed a hit on Kayla while the Cross siblings were out sailing, and had also convinced Damian, through a fat check, to assign Julie for this job. Marie’s intention was to find Julie’s exact position and have her killed, which she tried doing by hiring one of Julie’s old pals, Pavel, to shoot the woman dead at the wedding party.
Although it initially seems like Marie might have done all of this to both seek revenge and also reunite with her biological son, Edward, the second part turns out to not be true. In reality, Edward, or Florent, as he was called after his birth, was not really wanted or loved by Marie at all. It was only Jean-Luc who had wanted to become a parent, and while Marie did eventually give in, she refused to give birth. Therefore, the couple had used a surrogate mother to give birth to Florent, and Marie never really grew any love for or bond with the baby. Rather, she seems very angry at how Edward had received so much of Jean-Luc’s money and property, through the trust fund, despite being raised by the very woman who had killed his father.
Therefore, Marie does not hesitate to point her gun at Edward, and she even poisons him just to gain the upper hand over Julie. She does not care whether her son dies in the process and instead just wants to watch Edward kill Julie at all costs. As expected, the mother-son bond is completely absent in Edward as well, who realizes that Marie is a horrible person with evil intentions. Thus, he chooses to save Julie by killing Marie, placing his own life at risk. He is saved in the end only because Kayla had already arrived at the scene in the helicopter owned by her family, which is used to fly Edward to the nearest hospital for treatment.
Is Jasper killed in the end?
Jasper de Voogdt, the software engineer who appears throughout the series, had actually played a major bluff on the Cross family after having found some documents with the name ‘Chantaines’ linked with them. Although he had figured out that it had something to do with a family secret, he had no idea what the secret actually was or how exactly it might cause problems for the Cross family if exposed. With this half-knowledge, Jasper had started to blackmail the family, beginning with Kayla and then Ezra, with only the intention to extort money out of them. It is highly possible that he would have already gone to the police or have been even more direct with his blackmail had he known that ‘Chantaines’ actually had something to do with a murder.
In The Assassin’s ending, Jasper admits that he does not know everything about the matter to Julie and Luka, and she lets the latter decide what to do with the man. Instead of killing Jasper, Luka actually helps him stay safe from the Cross’ security agents (for having blackmailed the family) and the authorities (for his outrageous prison break and escape from Libya) by taking him to a shelter somewhere close to Albania.
How does Aaron die?
Aaron Cross is found dead in his study with bottles of pills on his table, indicating that he must have taken his own life. In The Assassin season 1 finale, one of Aaron’s most trusted employees, Michael, confirms that the toxicology report had concluded that the death had been caused by a fatal overdose of lorazepam and oxycodone. The matter is a bit mysterious to Michael, as he knows that Aaron did take lorazepam as part of his daily medication, but he’d never taken oxycodone in his life. What is even more suspicious to Michael is that Ezra actually has a habit of taking Oxycodone, meaning that he always has a bottle in his room, and so he sort of questions how Aaron could have taken the pills. Ezra brushes past the topic by stating that his father must have been confused due to the overbearing guilt of having ordered a murder and also the fear of being exposed.
Although The Assassin leaves the matter at this point, it is clearly suggested that Ezra had something to do with Aaron’s death. It was the son who had probably drugged his father to death by mixing up the pills, knowing that lorazepam and oxycodone would create a deadly combination that would easily kill the man. For his entire life, Ezra had always been criticized and deemed to be not good enough by his father, and the man did not really change his stance towards his son even after he was saved by him. Thus, it seems like Ezra had now finally decided to stand up for himself, especially after learning that his father was not innocent in any sense, and also to seize the opportunity to become the next CEO of the family business.
What to expect from Season 2?
The Assassin season 1 ends with a scene from 3 months later, in which Julie, Edward, and Kayla are seen sailing together, and it is revealed that they are headed towards the address of the surrogate mother whom Jean-Luc and Marie had hired for the birth of their son. Edward is keen on meeting his biological mother, who had toiled to nourish and give birth to him, and so he is on the way to reconnect with her, even though he has accepted Julie as his mother. It is possible that the group runs into more action at this place, with the surrogate mother either being in trouble or herself being someone with criminal ties. But it is more likely that in the 2nd season, Julie will be seen embroiled in some other danger, possibly from her colorful past once again, and Edward will now help her more directly.
On the other hand, the dynamics between the Cross siblings can be expected to change in the next season, especially if Ezra is indeed guilty of having killed Aaron, and if Kayla finds out about this. Kayla had handed over their mother’s letter to Ezra in the end, in which the details about her and Aaron’s plan of having Jean-Luc killed had been mentioned. Ezra did not want this family secret to be exposed, as it could cause trouble for their business, and so he burnt it down and promised to help his sister rescue her fiancé in exchange. However, it might be that Kayla still has copies of the letter, as she had made numerous copies earlier, and she might use them against Ezra in the future. Overall, we can surely expect more action and adventure from the group, with it being certain that Julie, Edward, and Kayla will now stick together and help each other out of trouble.
