'Signs' Season 1 Ending Explained: Who is the murderer of local women on AXN's 'Znaki' and will Nina survive?
This article contains spoilers
AXN's Polish thriller 'Znaki' or 'Signs' ends on a gritty, disturbing reveal. We find the local holy man Jonasz's (Andrzej Mastalerz) resident ward, Dorota (Paulina Galazka), being used as a murder weapon by the police department's very own Krzysztof Sobczyk (Piotr Trojan) to kill his victims for being 'unclean women'. Copying his former boss Commissioner Jan Dzikowski's (Zbigniew Stryj) crime from a decade ago, Krzysztof decides to punish local women for crimes such as infidelity and homosexuality. His latest victim at the end of the debut season, which just premiered on Netflix, is the protagonist and new Commissioner Michal Trela's (Andrzej Konopka) closeted daughter Nina (Magdalena Zak) who he had assumed was romantically into him. But Krzysztof is very smart with his murders. His murder weapon is a human one, as revealed in the end, and while Nina's fate is something only the second season can positively reveal, we do have the answers for who is committing the mysterious killings.
Deeply religious and having grown up around the local church and its parish priest, Krzysztof takes it upon himself to punish what he calls are dirty, filthy, defiled women. His targets include the unfaithful Patrycja (Alicja Pietruszka), who cheats on her husband with her best friend Ada's (Helena Sujecka) husband, the conniving boxer Martyna for seducing her rival's boyfriend out of vengeance and finally Nina, for being into her friend Agata (Helena Englert). But Krzysztof knows using two bullets without leaving shells or evidence behind isn't easy, so he uses a human weapon to commit the murders.
Dorota is a young woman with the mental growth of a six-year-old; she is hardly a suspect in any of this. She is looked at as a helpless victim in most cases, always at the risk of being sexually assaulted with their small town having no dearth of seedy middle-aged make looking to take advantage of her. But there is an aggression in Dorota, a very violent one that comes out to play only when her foster father Jonasz's safety is compromised. We see her act out when Jonasz is attacked by a man looking to con him off the war weapon plans dug out of the local mines. And Krzysztof seems to have caught on to that. He shoots his victims in the chest twice and then makes her smother them, or that's at least what see happening with Martyna out in the woods along the lake, and later with Nina in the deserted cabin where Krzysztof holds her hostage.
The final scene of season 1 ends with Nina tied to a chair and Dorota smothering her. We don't know whether Nina survives the attack, but it's clear Jonasz too is aware of his ward's tendencies and lets her roam free to aid the actual murderer. Season 2 reveals whether Nina does survive or not, but worry not, we won't spoil it for you.
'Signs' or 'Znaki' Season 1 is now available for streaming only on Netflix.