The End Of Letter for the King Comes With An Extremely Promising Twist

There are only six episodes of Netflix's YA fantasy series The Letter for the King, but there was plenty of action in those 45-minute installments — including the bananas final 15 minutes. A lot of craziness went down as young knight-in-training Tiuri (Amir Wilson) attempted to finish up his delivery of the titular item at the end of The Letter for the King.

One of the biggest revelations actually came at the end of the fifth and penultimate episode, when Tiuri, who'd spent his quest to deliver the letter to King Favian (Yorick Van Wageningen) with the resourceful Lavinia (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis), realized that the person who'd been harnessing magic throughout their journey wasn't him. His birth father was a shaman, but it was Lavinia who was able to fulfill the mystical prophecy they'd heard in their travels.

And while it was clear to literally any person except Prince Viridian (Gijs Blom), the power-hungry conqueror who'd been hoarding magic from the people he killed, that he wasn't the person who'd bring lightness to the kingdom — dude was pretty much the definition of darkness — it still took until Tiuri and the rest of the young novice knights got to the castle in Unauwen and delivered the letter to find out the full scope of Viridian's evil. (On the way, Jussipo succumbed to his injuries and Iona double-crossed them again.)

Tiuri completed his quest, but the person who actually saved the day as prophesied was Lavinia, the actual "Great Mage of the North." The letter revealed Veridian's treachery, and instead of defending himself he went on a rant about how the world would have peace at last once he was in charge. His valiant older brother, Iridian (Jakob Oftebro), stabbed him. But he wasn't dead — his body floated up in some crazy black liquid and smoke until he turned into a giant golden figure. Lavinia, encouraged by Tiuri, fought back as everything was covered in a black cloud. When the smoke cleared, Veridian was gone and Lavinia had saved the day.

To thank them for saving her kingdom, Queen Alianor (Emilie Cocquerel) knighted the young novices as Lavinia looked on.

So while it appeared Tiuri was prophesied to save the kingdom, it turns out he was actually just the messenger — though a brave one who led his fellow novice knights on a dangerous journey — and Lavinia was the one who saved the day from Veridian's evil magic.

It's a welcome change from the book, especially since the original story had Lavinia relegated to a small, assistant role. Now she's the HBIC. It's an especially exciting twist, should the fledgling series get a second season on Netflix.