'No Man's Land' Season 1 Ending Explained: Does Antoine find out what happened to his sister Anna in Syria?
Spoiler for 'No Man's Land' Season 1
While Hulu's latest series, 'No Man's Land' is predominantly set in a Syria that is torn apart by the civil war, make no mistake: this show penned by two Israeli creators, Ron Leshem and Amit Cohen, is hardly focused on the actual civil war, but rather on the Western characters that form the central parts of the story. Even the few Brown people who are regular characters on the show have European backgrounds, so if you come to this Hulu show expecting an informed, cerebral take on the war that has thousands of casualties and disrupted the lives in an entire nation, you would be hard-pressed to find anything you are expecting.
At best, 'No Man's Land' (from the same writers as 'Valley of Tears' and 'Allegiance') is an espionage thriller. Like most Hollywood shows or movies set in the Middle East, the central characters are White people, with a handful of token Brown people. Of all the main characters, it is Antoine Habert (Felix Moati) who takes us to Syria as he sneaks into the country from Turkey to look for his sister, Anna (Melanie Thierry). While Anna was confirmed dead in a terrorist attack a few years ago, a television program on YPG, the Kurdish female militia fighting against ISIS, convinces Antoine that he saw his sister among them. However, this is a French man who does not know a word in Arabic or Kurdish, so when he first enters Syria, he is nearly taken into ISIS captivity. Thankfully for him, YPG intervenes thinking he is just another European radicalized man. Another French-speaking member of YPG, Sarya Dogan (Souheila Yacoub) is able to talk to him to figure out that he is actually looking for his sister. And so, Antoine becomes a part of the group, joining a few other Western volunteers who have decided to fight against ISIS.
Meanwhile, we also meet three British men, Nasser (James Krishna Floyd), Iyad (Jo Ben Ayed), and Paul (Dean Ridge), who reach Syria because they want to join ISIS. Over the eight episodes of the show, we learn why and how these men have become radicalized. Of the lot, it is Paul's story that seems odd -- for this young white man, just hanging out with Brown kids and reading the Quran (which he calls a "sick" book) seems to be enough to radicalize him, and yet, he is the most radicalized of the lot, perhaps as a measure by the writers to avoid criticism of Islamaphobia and racism themselves given that there are no Muslim writers on the show. It is Nasser who is the more level-headed of the group. Nasser had served in the British army in the past, but he was discharged, which Nasser believes was due to Islamaphobia.
There is also a mysterious man called Stanley (James Purefoy), who is either British intelligence or a humanitarian activist or something else entirely. In later episodes, we see that Nasser did not share the same beliefs as his extremist friends and in fact, only accompanied them to Syria because he was assigned to the undercover operation by Stanley. While Nasser believes it is safer for his friends to be locked up in the UK, Stanley insists that he carries out the mission. However, later, when Nasser and Iyad's group are ambushed by the YPG, Nasser realizes that Stanley might have been Mossad and tells Paul everything. The two then plan to get revenge on Stanley at the end of the season.
Meanwhile, Antoine eventually finds out that Anna is alive, however, before he did so, he decides to stay in Syria (in spite of having a pregnant partner whom he left in a lurch back home in Paris) and continue to fight after everything he has seen. Anna is angry at the decision but eventually understands because she came to Syria for seemingly the same reasons. However, later, we wonder whether Antoine's decision was influenced by compassion or because he was falling for Sarya -- when their unit is ambushed by ISIS, Sarya is severely injured and she is transported to France and Antoine joins her without any reluctance. Back home in France, however, just as Antoine greets his parents -- to whom he lies and says that Anna is definitely dead -- and is set to accompany Sarya to the hospital, two French government officials approach him and tells him that he needs to go with them and talk to the Minister of Internal Security. The season ends before we can find out why.
All eight episodes of 'No Man's Land' are now available to stream on Hulu.