The Ending to Netflix’s “Kaleidoscope,” Explained
*Major spoilers for Netflix’s Kaleidoscope below.*
Seven thieves. Seven billion dollars on the line. Netflix’s latest crime series Kaleidoscope follows one master criminal and his crew who attempt to pull off the biggest heist in history — break into a seemingly “weatherproof, shockproof, and thief-proof” underground vault and steal $7 billion in bonds.
The mini-series is loosely based on the real-life event when $70 billion in unregistered bearer bonds went missing in downtown Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. “After Hurricane Sandy, $70 billion worth of bonds got flooded in the basement of the DTCC, which is a large clearing effort that’s owned by a bunch of the big banks,” Showrunner Eric Garcia told Netflix’s Tudum. “To my mind, I was like, ‘Well, that’s a perfect coverup for a heist!’”
Kaleidoscope takes a non-linear approach to its storytelling, meaning the first seven episodes will stream differently for each viewer. But it all leads to the eighth and final episode, “White: The Heist.”
First, let’s discuss the “Pink” episode, which takes place six months after the break-in and more clearly depicts what happened to each of our thieves following the heist.
Our master criminal, Ray Vernon (Giancarlo Esposito) — also known under the alias Leo Pap — Ava Mercer (Paz Vega), and her aunt Teresa relocate to Ohio after the heist. But Bob Goodwin (Jai Courtney) — who Ray, Ava, and the others believe died in the heist — and two accomplices arrive to take back the cut of the $7 billion Bob thinks they stole from him. After discovering that Stan (Peter Mark Kendall) and his wife Judy Goodwin (Rosaline Elbay) are in Folly Beach, South Carolina, Bob leaves Ray, Ava, and Teresa under the watch of one accomplice, and drives down south.
In an attempt to escape, Ava and Teresa are killed, but Ray survives and kills the accomplice. In South Carolina, Bob spots Stan and Judy, but is killed by the FBI before he can reach either of them. Once Judy notices Bob’s car, she walks over to the empty vehicle and takes the $177,000 Ray gave Bob. Although we don’t see the exact decision she made, it’s suggested that she took the money and ran, leaving Stan alone in South Carolina.
Meanwhile, Ray returns to New York City and finally FaceTimes his daughter, Hannah Kim (Tati Gabrielle) and his new granddaughter, Lily. He also visits Roger Salas (Rufus Sewell), who is serving 20 years in prison for grand larceny. In the final shot of the episode, Ray is walking and is seemingly murdered. We don’t see who the killer is but we hear the gunshot go off once the end credits begin to roll.
We also learn that Nazan Abassi (Niousha Noor), the FBI agent pursuing the crew this whole time, is presumably killed by one of the Triplets, aka the three ultra-wealthy individuals whose bonds the crew tried to steal.
The finale, “White,” puts all of the puzzle pieces together and, step-by-step, shows how the heist went down. The crew successfully breaks into SLS’s underground vault. But a mistake in Judy’s plan to disable the vault’s temperature controls causes the sub-floor to flood much quicker than anticipated. Still, Stan and Bob successfully retrieve the bonds, while Judy and RJ (Jordan Mendoza) load them into the Con Edison truck. However, during a heated dispute, Judy kills RJ.
But why did the crew end up with zero bonds? That’s because Hannah and her sister Liz Kim (Soojeong Son) stopped the elevator before it reached the loading dock, and swapped out the bonds for cardboard paper in the mailroom. Hannah reveals this to her father, Ray, in the finale and explains that she did so to keep him from getting killed by the Triplets. “I tried to protect you from the people you were robbing,” she says. “But you wouldn’t listen.” Hannah mailed the bonds to the Cayman Islands, and the Triplets’ insurance will cover the missing assets and they can write it off as a loss. “The rich get richer and we get to live,” she says.
Of course, Ray can’t help himself and descends back down to the sub-floor to leave one item in Roger’s personal vault — a necklace stolen from their last devastating heist at the Glen Hills Country Club.
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