'The South Westerlies' Season 1 Ending Explained: Does Kate stay with NorskVentus or become a whistleblower?
Spoiler Alert for 'The South Westerlies' Season 1
Acorn TV's newest series is now on the platform and is set in the small coastal town of Carrigeen in Ireland where environmental compliance executive, Kate Ryan (Orla Brady), is sent by her Norwegian company, NorskVentus, as an undercover tourist. NorskVentus wants to set up a wind farm in Carrigeen but the townspeople are mostly against it.
It is up to Kate to infiltrate the town and convince them that the wind farm is in their best interests. While Kate agrees with them at first, she then realizes that NorskVentus may not have given her the full picture. What lies at stake for Kate is a big promotion and the chance to move from Dublin to Oslo and to get a bigger paycheck so she can afford to pay for her son Connor Ryan's (Sam Barrett) education.
The first season of 'The South Westerlies' consists of six hour-long episodes and follows Kate and Connor as they relocate to Carrigeen. Over those six episodes, we learn that Kate has a history in Carrigeen — as does her son, Connor, even though he has never been there.
While Kate is back in Carrigeen trying to curry the favor of the influential people in the town like the local councilor, Michael "Big Mike" Kelleher (Patrick Bergin), and his son, Callum Kelleher (Kevin Ryan), she also reconnects with a few old friends, especially Breege (Eileen Walsh) who still holds a grudge against Kate for not staying touch, and Baz Crowley (Steve Wall), who shares a mysterious past with her.
It does not take long for us to realize that Connor is Baz's son — though Baz himself, who does not know why Kate cut off contact with him, never understands it either. Baz only learns the truth when Connor goes through a near-death incident. Connor, on his part, is able to figure it out himself by the fourth episode's end when he realizes that he looks strikingly like a young Baz with the help of his new girlfriend, Poppy Lawson (Lily Nichol).
While this causes some friction between Connor and Kate, they eventually come to an understanding. Baz and Kate grow closer as well and their future depends on a key decision that Kate must make.
Meanwhile, Kate is precariously holding on to her secret that she is not, in fact, a tourist, but an employee of NorskVentus. She slowly rebuilds her friendship with Breege who herself is going through a crisis as she tries to foster a child while undergoing marital problems. Breege's husband, Stefan (Julian Michael Deuster), informs her that he might be gay.
Kate's attempts to get the town to become acceptable of the wind farm do not go well, which leads her boss, Sigrid Anderson (Amalie Krogh), to try other methods. Meanwhile, Kate learns that someone in the town is secretly trying to get permits for an oil pipeline to be laid underground through the town. She first believes it is Poppy's father, Teddy Lawson (Stephen Lord), whose being British lead the townspeople to immediately accept it.
However, it comes to light later, that it is, in fact, Big Mike who is behind the oil pipeline. However, in another twist of events, it comes out that Big Mike, who remained on the fence about the wind farm when we first met him, actually supported the wind farm and agreed to the oil pipeline ruse with Sigrid in a nefarious deal to get the townspeople to agree to the wind farm.
Now, the decision remains with Kate. She can either reveal everything to the press about the way NorskVentus manipulates and commits fraud to do business or as she discusses with Sigrid, the Norwegian company could agree to her demands for benefits for the town. However, Sigrid has cards up her sleeve as well. She knows Kate needs the money.
She also knows that if Kate agrees to stay silent, she gets to stay with the company and work as their representative in Carrigeen to set up the wind farm -- giving her time to stay in the town where Connor has decided to stay behind to get to know his father. Unfortunately, the first season ends before we find out what Kate has decided to do. Should there be a second season, it's quite likely that Kate will agree to stay on with NorskVentus.
All episodes of Season 1 of 'The South Westerlies' is now streaming on Acorn TV.
