The final episode of the four-part Netflix drama All The Light We Cannot See wraps up this World War Two novel adaptation, closing the story of Marie-Laure, Werner and the Sea of Flames gemstone.
So far the story has shown as our two lead characters have found their own ways to the besieged town of Saint-Malo, the curse of the Sea of Flames gemstone and the warpath of a desperate Nazi officer who wants it for himself.
Episode three ended with the Americans finally attacking Saint-Malo, so it's the end of the road for this officer, and he'll do whatever he needs to Marie-Laure and Werner.
In this All The Light We Cannot See episode 4 recap we'll re-cover what happened in the final episode, and also answer any lingering questions you might have about the show.
So here's our All The Light We Cannot See episode 4 recap, and of course spoilers ensue — both for the entire run of the show and for real events.
All The Light We Cannot See episode 4 recap
The fate of the LeBlancs
Reinhold von Rumpel (Lars Eidinger) breaks into Marie-Laure LeBlanc (Aria Mia Loberti)'s home as bombs and shells rain down, and she hides. She uses the radio to beg Etienne to come and help her from the Nazi.
However when Werner Pfennig (Louis Hoffman) wakes up from the American shell blast, he's beside a dying Etienne LeBlanc (Hugh Laurie). The Frenchman gives Werner a message to pass on to Marie-Laure.
We see a flashback to four months prior, when Etienne received a radio code from England which alarms him. He tells his sister Madame Manec (Marion Bailey) that the code means an American attack is impending, and they have a lot of work to do. Marie offers to help in their attempts.
Firstly, Marie learns the layout of Saint-Malo using her father's model. Then she helps Etienne summon the courage to leave home for the first time in many years. They start picking up coded messages and spying on the Germans, with Marie writing notes in Braille that Nazi soldiers don't realize is a code. One day, though, they return home and Manec has had a heart attack, which just spurs Etienne on.
Back in 1944, Rumpel tells Marie-Laure what really happened to her father two years prior. Almost immediately Daniel LeBlanc (Mark Ruffalo) was captured by the Gestapo and interrogated and tortured. He didn't give up any information, so Rumpel executed the man himself.
The confrontation for the gem
In the present day again, Marie-Laure has found her uncle's gun, and is blasting away at the door of the study she is hiding in, which Rumpel is outside of. The man has a grenade which he prepares to use to blow open the door, as this will temporarily deafen Marie so he can apprehend her.
While this happens, Werner is running through the streets of Saint-Malo to find Marie-Laure, and he sees the explosion of the door as it happens. He quickly gets to the home and Rumpel starts shooting at him, ignoring Marie.
Marie-Laure uses her knowledge of the floorboard squeaking sounds to let Werner know where Rumpel is, and the boy strips down a radio to find a wire which he uses to garrotte the man. This briefly works, and the two stagger into the model town, but Rumpel gets the upper hand when they fall to the floor. He also sees the gem he's been looking for, which was hidden in the model town.
Rumpel prepares to shoot Werner, but before he does, Marie shoots the man in the head, killing him instantly. He collapses by the gem.
Werner tells Marie-Laure that Etienne is dead, and then they bond over the fact that he was The Professor to both of them. The boy mends the radio, which was destroyed in the blast, and uses it to send a message to his sister to reassure her that he's okay.
Marie-Laure and Werner hug and then kiss. However the Americans have taken over the city, so he knows he needs to get out. They agree to spend the rest of the war using shortwave radio 13:10 to communicate with each other, and when it's over, they can meet up again.
The French girl convinces the German boy to give himself up to the Americans, as she assures him that he'll be treated well by them. He does so, and is taken off to the boos of many French civilians.
Marie collects the gem from the ruined apartment and goes to the seashore outside Saint-Malo. There, she tosses the gem into the ocean.
All The Light We Cannot See ending explained
Let's go through some questions you might have about that finale.
What happened to the Sea of Flames?
You didn't read the end of our episode 4 recap wrong. After her father, great uncle, great aunt and countless more people gave up their lives to protect the Sea of Flames gem, Marie-Laure chucks it into the ocean.
This is presumably a callback to how Etienne reportedly threw all his war medals into the ocean after World War One. However through the story the gem (and protecting it) had been symbolic of France (and protecting that), even down to its red, white and blue colors, so it's an interesting gesture.
Why did Rumpel want the Sea of Flames?
As explained in the show, there are quite a few curses associated with the Sea of Flames. Apparently, owning it makes you immortal, but will inflict terrible injuries and even death on your loved ones.
Since Rumpel is afflicted by a nasty debilitating condition, perhaps cancer, he's hoping that finding this gem will stop the ailment getting worse. Plus, he's one of the men hired by the Third Reich to collect the treasures of Europe and steal them for Germany.
This motivation has some grounding in truth. Some reports suggest that occultism was rife in the Nazi party (although lots of historians argue that this assertion was false, and only created decades after the war), however there's lots of records of Hitler's desire to steal the artwork of Europe.
This is best exemplified in Daniel's attempts to smuggle the museum artifacts out of Paris. You can learn a lot more in the book The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter.
What happened to Marie-Laure and Werner?
Marie-Laure ends All The Light in Saint-Malo, living alone now that all her family are dead. However she's learnt to fend for herself through the four years of the story so she could well be okay.
Werner ends the TV show by being captured by the Americans, with his fate left unknown, though Marie seems to think that he'll be okay.
Was All The Light We Cannot See based on a true story?
No. While All The Light We Cannot See takes lots of inspirations from real-life events and places (the author of the book reportedly took the majority of the ten-year writing period on research), it's not a true story itself.
Is the show the same as the book?
Again, no. The book is over 560 pages long, while the show is only four episodes.
Lots of the events of the book take place before Saint-Malo, which is largely stripped from the show, and the fates of some of the characters is different in the book too. We won't say what, in case you want to read it, and you can find links to buy it below:
