Episode 7 Recap
Revisit the adrenaline-fueled finale of World on Fire Season 1, with its multiple love-infused reunions and a cliffhanger that leaves two major characters’ fates in the balance! Then make sure to sign up for the MASTERPIECE Email newsletter to be among the first to know about the World on Fire Season 2 premiere date, casting, episodes, and other breaking news!
Klaus Rossler refuses consolation from his father at Hilda and Claudia Rossler’s funeral. But when Nancy tells him about the euthanasia program and his parents’ efforts to keep Hilda safe, he’s even further devastated because he’s fighting for the Nazis’ cause. Nancy tells him he doesn’t have a choice, but he says that he’s too weak to make the right one. Later, Nancy reveals to Mr. Rossler that she has a grown son! As she packs her suitcase to leave Berlin, she hides some papers inside.
Harry’s training for his parachute drop continues and his mission is revealed: dropping equipment and explosives, and returning with a group of key resistance fighters. He’s advised to should put his affairs in order before leaving, so he tells Lois that he’s made her the sole beneficiary of his estate, for the baby, if he should die. She’s unmoved.
Harry survives his jump and at a checkpoint, he ends up having to shoot two Germans to avoid being exposed. He is now an efficient and expert killer. Without further incident, he arrives at the barn in the forest where the resistance fighters are hiding.
Kasia’s old humanity briefly returns when she and Tomasz share a tender moment before she suggests that they follow and take down one of the officers in the café. But when Kasia has the soldier trapped and she waits for Tomasz to make the kill, he’s discovered. They’re separated and taken away at gunpoint. Soon after, as she’s led to her cell, she horrified to see Tomasz hanged, with a sign around his neck saying “Jew and Traitor.”
Later, she’s taken out to be executed and as she approaches the scaffolding an explosion rings out. In the confusion and scuffle, Kasia is rushed away by the resistance.
During a performance, Lois goes into labor and gives birth to a baby girl in the nightclub’s dressing room with Connie by her side. When Robina tells Harry about the birth, they have a fight about his behavior. He accuses her of hypocrisy, since she doesn’t intend to see the baby, and she says it’s because doing so would break her heart. He wounds her by asking, “Since when did you grow one?”
Robina does visit Lois and the baby, confessing that she’s worried that Jan, who worships Harry, will find out that the baby is his. Lois says she’ll keep Harry’s secret and Robina sincerely offers money to Lois, who finally accepts. Harry drives to Lois’ but doesn’t go in. Douglas tells him he pities him for his choices, and now he’ll have to live with them. When Harry returns to Robina, he apologizes. They will part with a new warmth in their relationship.
Lois’ next visitor is Vernon, who proposes marriage, saying, “You don’t have to love me. You just have to let me love you.” He will wait for her answer.
Robina summons Douglas for help dealing with a letter sent to Jan, notifying him that Grzegorz is being treated at the local asylum for shell-shock. Douglas is willing to take him, and at the asylum, where Douglas suffered terribly after his war, Jan and Grzegorz meet again in a moving reunion. But Jan doesn’t understand Grzegorz’s suffering. Douglas does, and tries to help Jan understand.
Webster visits Albert, who tells him that he could never understand what the Jewish, black, and gay people are going through. He tells him never to come back.
Nancy arrives in Paris and visits Webster at the hospital, sees the pain he’s in, and understands what Albert means to him. She will see if Schmidt will help. But Schmidt wants something from Nancy in return that she is not willing to give him. The price not just for his help, but for her safety, he implies, is sex. She threatens him and leaves the restaurant. But when Webster takes his frustration out on Nancy, she breaks down, uncharacteristically, into tears. She reveals to Webster that she’d been raped in Portugal, early in her career. Before they part, Nancy warns Webster to be careful. She will return to Berlin, and he will stay in Paris.
More resistance fighters arrive at the barn and shockingly, one of them is Kasia. She and Harry, both numbed in disbelief, embrace. But she wants Harry to know that she’s forever changed. She explains that she’s paid a price for the choices she made for her family, her people and her country: the Kasia he fell in love with is gone.
Lois goes to the airbase to refuse Vernon’s proposal in person, but discovers that he hasn’t returned from his mission and his radio has gone down. She waits, terrified for his safety, and when he finally returns, she’s so overjoyed to see him alive that she changes her answer, exclaiming, “Yes, I do! I want to marry you!”
A truck arrives, presumably their ride out of Poland, but when the three resistance fighters go out to greet it, Germans emerge from behind the canvas mow them down with machine gun fire, while commandos leap out and pursue Harry and Kasia, who flee into the forest. Harry tells Kasia he’ll meet her at the hilltop. They split up, running to survive, and the season ends as Kasia, gunmen in pursuit, looks up at Harry at the top of the hill!
Discover more about World on Fire:
Learn about the Battle of Britain, the heroic RAF, Churchill’s super-secret SOE, and more real history from the World on Fire Season 1 Finale!
Get the inside scoop on everything we know right now about World on Fire Season 2!
Hear more on Season 2 and the Season 1 finale from World on Fire‘s writer & creator Peter Bowker and actress Zofia Wichlacz (Kasia), on the MASTERPIECE Studio podcast.
Like the music of World on Fire? You’ll love MASTERPIECE’s playlist that rounds up Cole Porter, Billie Holiday and iconic artists whose songs appear in the show!
