Posted by A Girl and an Astronaut is a Polish TV series released on Netflix in February 2023. The show is an exciting mix of love story, space missions, sci-fi, and international espionage. It has sparked the viewers’ interest because of the intricate plot, which is parallel between 2022 and 2052. The spectators had many questions about what happened to Niko, Marta, and Bogdan at the ending: in this article, you’ll have all answers explained.
You can find the official trailer for A Girl and an Astronaut here on Youtube.
A Girl and an Astronaut: the plot explained
It’s 2022. A group of elite pilots in Poland is selected in the context of a special partnership between the Polish military and the mysterious Russian corporation SkyCom, which just reached an agreement with the Polish government: the best pilot in Poland will be sent into space for a special mission. Niko and Bogdan are the two best elements of that group, always in competition with each other, and they are both in love with Marta, who prefers Niko.
While the plot progresses, we understand that this is not a simple space mission: the mission’s first goal, the official one, is to test the stealth system of the capsule sent into orbit. But behind this mission is a second, more important goal: to experiment with sub-hibernation on a human in space, trying to get promising results in the cure for cancer. The head of this project is Professor Davidov, who took his research on stem cells and cancer as a life mission because he wants to save the life of his granddaughter, Nadia.
Niko is selected for the mission, but something goes wrong. In the first episode, we discover that Niko was declared dead, leaving Marta alone on Earth. Marta will marry Bogdan, they will have a daughter, and they will live together until 2052 when suddenly Niko and his capsule show up again. What really happened is explained in the last episode of A Girl and an Astronaut: during the sub-hibernation process, Niko felt water flowing on him and panicked; he mistakenly set the timer for the de-hibernation to 30 years and accidentally activates the stealth mode. The connection with Earth is lost, and Niko stays hibernated for 30 years. In 2052, Niko wakes up, his body didn’t age, and he returns to Earth. The capsule is collected by SkyCom, and a grown-up Nadia studies Niko.
The series A Girl and an Astronaut alternates events in 2022 and 2052, showing the evolution of the love story between Niko and Marta, Bogdan’s attempt to conquer her heart, and the circumstances around Niko in 2052. The return of Niko, 30 years later, is a big thing: SkyCom is still hoping to find the cure for cancer from his body, but the Russian government is worried that more details about that mission will be revealed publicly: Russia wants to kill Niko and erase any risk, but Nadia is protecting him, hoping for a cure for her cancer. We will discover what happens to Niko, Marta, and Bogdan at the ending of A Girl and an Astronaut: let’s have it explained separately.
The ending explained: what happens to Marta, Niko, and Bogdan?
When the men sent by the Russian secret services discover the digital note of Professor Davidov, they are not happy: the professor explains that no positive results were found in his research. Hence, his plan to send Niko into space had no effect. For the Russian government, this means that Niko is not worth anything. Just the opposite, he represents a threat to Russia if he reveals what happened to him. For this reason, they want to kill him. Meanwhile, Niko escaped and managed to reach Poland, where he met Marta.
In the last part of the series, we see Niko and Marta loving each other again, despite Marta is now 30 years older and married to Bogdan. While Niko and Marta are enjoying time together in the van area where Marta spent her childhood, the Russian secret service (with the help of Nadia’s personal guard) discovers their location from Marta’s daughter and finds them. Niko is brought outdoors, and the spy is ready to kill him, but Nadia lands with her helicopter and saves him, killing her guard. The Polish army arrives, protecting Niko.
What happens then to Nadia, Bogdan, Marta, and Niko at the ending of A Girl and an Astronaut is explained in this way: Nadia is resigned to the fact that there is no cure for her cancer, but she still cares enough to save Niko; Bogdan, in poor health conditions, wants to stay Marta’s husband and has no intention to let her go with Niko; Niko is young and alive, and wants to restart his relationship with Marta from where they left. Marta still has a decision to make, and we see it in the very last scene of the series: between Bogdan and Niko, she decides to “choose herself” and “signs off.” Marta takes her own life, unable to determine how to go on with the presence of the man she truly loved, Niko, and the one with whom she spent her whole life, her husband, Bogdan.
In a short, sad ending, we discover that Marta dies, and Niko and Bogdan are alive, grieving the loss of the woman they both loved.