If you’re watching Kaos closely, you’ll have the whole thing spoiled for you in five minutes. And if you’re reading this article, you’ll have the whole thing spoiled for you all over again.
In the first episode of Charlie Covell’s Netflix series about the Greek myths, Eurydice (Aurora Perrineau) meets Cassandra (Billie Piper) at a supermarket, exchanging a few words with her in the cereal aisle. Moments later outside, Riddy sees Cassandra being apprehended by a security guard for shoplifting, a situation Riddy deescalates by paying for Cassandra’s stolen cat food. But if you listen to what Cassandra says at this moment, she basically spoils the whole show.
“Everyone steals,” she hisses. “Even the gods. Especially the gods. They’re stealing our souls.”
Problem is, no one ever listens to Cassandra. It’s her whole thing.
‘Kaos’ review: Can Netflix’s Greek myth series go the distance?
The prophet and Trojan princess of Greek mythology is said to have been pursued by Apollo, the sun god. He granted Cassandra the gift of prophecy, but when she didn’t want to go on a date with him (ugh, entitled men), he added a cursed proviso to her talent. Though Cassandra would be able to warn people of what was coming, no one would believe her prophecies. “She shrieked and shouted out through all the city,” Homer writes in The Iliad of Cassandra warning the Trojans about the coming sacking of their city. Turns out, the Ancient Greeks already knew the agony of women not being believed.
In this moment in Kaos, when Cassandra tells Eurydice the gods are stealing human souls, it’s absolutely accurate, as the series reveals later. Hades’ all-important Frame in the Underworld doesn’t generate Renewal (reincarnation) as people on Earth are told it does; instead, their souls are sucked up into Olympus’ water supply, to be drunk by the greedy gods for their restorative powers.
And though it takes the entire series for Riddy and her newfound fav Caeneus (Misia Butler) to figure it out, Cassandra tried to tell us all along. “Nobody wants to know!” she cries. “Why won’t anyone listen?”
How to watch: Kaos is now streaming on Netflix.
