WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for Exterritorial.
The ending of Netflix’s hit bilingual action thriller Exterritorial reveals the truth about Sara’s missing son, Josh, and those behind his kidnapping at the US Consulate in Frankfurt, Germany. After Jeanne Goursaud’s Sara arrives at the US Consulate to apply for a work visa, she briefly drops her son off in a playroom equipped with a PlayStation due to long waiting times. When Sara returns, her son Josh, played by Rickson Cuy da Silva, is completely missing. When she alerts the authorities at the Consulate, she encounters Erik Kynch (Dougray Scott), who ᴀssures her that Josh was never there.
Similar to Jodie Foster’s character in the classic thriller Flightplan, Sara must get to the bottom of a conspiracy that began with the kidnapping of her child. Even though Kynch tries to gaslight Sara and use her PTSD diagnosis against her to make her look delusional, it is revealed by the end of Exterritorial that taking Josh from Sara was only the first step of his elaborate plan that ultimately used Sara as a scapegoat. Kynch also had a direct connection to the worst day of Sara’s life in Afghanistan when she and eight other soldiers were ambushed by the Taliban, resulting in the death of Sara’s husband and Josh’s father.
Kynch Kidnapped Josh To Intentionally Make Sara Look Crazed
Sara Is The Last Person Alive Who Knew Kynch Betrayed His Country
During his climactic villain monologue at the end of Exterritorial, Kynch tells all to Sara, thinking that he can’t be heard by his colleagues waiting outside the safe room where Sara had trapped herself with Kynch’s young daughter. After Sara let Kynch’s daughter go before the safe room ran out of oxygen, Kynch seals himself in the safe room momentarily to explain the elaborate setup involving Sara and her young son, Josh. Kynch reveals that he, along with Sergeant Donovan, had kidnapped Josh and erased all trace that he had arrived with Sara in order to make Sara look crazed.
Knowing that Sara was a fighter and would never give up, he planned for Sara to go rogue in the Consulate, which triggered the Code Red “shoot on sight” protocol.
With Sara’s history of PTSD, Kynch knew he would be able to frame her completely rational outburst as a mental health episode. Knowing that Sara was a fighter and would never give up, he planned for Sara to go rogue in the Consulate, which triggered the Code Red “shoot on sight” protocol.
Making Sara a target would achieve two primary objectives. Firstly, it would neutralize Sara, who was the last soldier alive during an ambush in Afghanistan that Kynch had made happen by giving intel to the Taliban to spite the US military. Secondly, with Sara as a major distraction, he would finally have been able to kill and dispose of Kira, whom he was holding hostage.
Sara Was The Perfect Scapegoat For Kynch To Finally Take Out Kira
Kynch Manipulated Sara To Take Out His Main Target Kira
Kira, the daughter of a well-known yet corrupt German businessman who was ᴀssᴀssinated, has evidence that her father was murdered on a flash drive. Kynch kidnaps Josh and uses Sara as a distraction so that he can have Kira captured and killed, which explains the scene in which two ᴀssᴀssins attack Kira in her guest apartment. After that plan fails, Sara helps Kira escape, telling her to fly to Mexico and enter the United States from the southern border so she can reunite with her mother. This proves to work out successfully as Sara FaceTimes Kira at the end of the movie. The two friends plan to meet again on American soil.
Donovan Set Up Sara’s Interview In The US To Lure Her To The Consulate
Donovan Blindly Followd Kynch’s Orders In Exterritorial
Sergeant Donovan is Kynch’s loyal henchman who follows orders without question. It’s not exactly clear what stakes Donovan had in Kynch’s scheme other than helping him in order to keep his job, even though he knew Kynch was up to no good. Donovan’s biggest contribution to Kynch’s plan was setting up Sara’s work interview in the United States, which searched for ex-soldiers who wanted a fresh start. Apparently, Sara never contacted the interviewer directly and discovered that Donovan had sent the initial e-mail to vouch for Sara’s candidacy. The job prospect was the bait that brought Sara into the US Consulate in the first place.
How Kynch Connects To Sara’s PTSD & Past As A Soldier In Afghanistan
He Set Sara Up In Afghanistan & At The US Consulate
Kynch thought he could try to kill two birds with one stone by setting Sara up and taking out Kira in the process. Kynch knew that Sara was on psychiatric medication and often had flashbacks of that tragic scene in which she was ambushed and lost her fellow soldiers, including her husband. Kynch gaslighted Sara into thinking she was having a psycH๏τic break and that she hadn’t actually arrived with Josh that day.
What Sara didn’t know until she looked at the pH๏τograph that a journalist sent her was that Kynch had tipped the Taliban off one day before the ambush. Kynch tries to rationalize his betrayal by complaining about how the military didn’t look after him following his years of service and gave him an uninspiring desk job. Sara captures Kynch’s confession on his daughter’s toy recording device, exposing him and sending Donovan running.
What Happened To Kynch & Donovan At The End Of Exterritorial
They Are Both Brought To Justice By The US Judicial System
Even after Kynch sH๏τ Sara in the abdomen, her resilience holds strong as she unlocks the safe room in the nick of time to play the recording of Kynch’s confession on his daughter’s toy phone. Kynch tried to make it look as though Sara sH๏τ him first in the leg, but after Sara exposed him, US soldiers placed him under arrest. Donovan starts running away but is eventually apprehended.
Josh is found in a supply closet, Sara survives her gunsH๏τ wound, and Kynch and Donovan are both detained in the United States.
Exterritorial ends in a satisfying way in which the heroes prevail and the villains are met with fierce consequences. Josh is found in a supply closet, Sara survives her gunsH๏τ wound, and Kynch and Donovan are both detained in the United States.
The Real Meaning Of Exterritorial’s Ending
A Man Like Kynch Should Never Have Held That Much Power
Like Flightplan before it, Exterritorial is a demonstration of a mother’s strength through adversity in finding her missing child, particularly overcoming psychological manipulation. Kynch is revealed to be a truly despicable man and national traitor. Donovan, even though his motivations aren’t ever really addressed, appears to be partially the victim of following the absolute orders of a corrupt leader.
Kynch’s abuse of power speaks to a larger insтιтutional issue that revolves around an irrefutable chain of command, while real soldiers like Sara are often handed the short end of the stick and are left with permanent, life-altering traumas. Kynch may have been an American soldier at one point, but his indignant behavior and betrayal defy the duties of the role he initially signed up for. Although he feels mistreated, Kynch has no excuse for his duplicitous actions and for framing Sara in Exterritorial.
