Abhiroop Das
Co-created by Piet Matthys, Nico Moolenaar, and Bart Uytdenhouwen, Netflix’s ‘Amsterdam Empire‘ follows the perspectives of Jack Van Doorn, the legendary founder of The Jackle cofeeshop chain, and Betty Jones, a former pop star. While the two of them once led a happy life together, Jack’s affair gives way to an irreparable rupture, and what follows is an all-out war that threatens the destruction of everything they hold near and dear. As the story progresses, Jack’s legacy begins to buckle under the weight of his own secrets, and Betty pays the price for playing with fire. The problems of sustaining their cannabis business take a backseat, giving way to doubts about whether they would survive to tell the tale in the first place. The finale of this Crime Drama series capitalizes on the seeds of mystery sprouted throughout the season, resulting in a series of hairpin twists that recontextualize the entire story. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Amsterdam Empire Plot Recap
‘Amsterdam Empire’ begins with Jack Van Doorn, a giant in the cannabis industry and the owner of the coffeeshop chain, The Jackal, being shot in the middle of Amsterdam‘s Red Light District. From there, the story dials back one month, where we learn that his affair with television personality Marjolein Hoffman has just been discovered by his wife, Betty Jonkers. Once an iconic popstar, Betty now leads a quiet life with her husband, but Jack’s betrayal ignites a full-on battle between the two. Although he seeks to resolve things quickly by giving up his house and half of his wealth, Betty aims higher and demands control of The Jackal, much to his disagreement. The situation worsens when she learns that Marjolein is pregnant with Jack’s child, and the couple is planning to tie the knot sooner rather than later. Enraged, Betty begins employing a number of stealthy tactics to bring down Jack’s business, along with his relationship with Marjolein.
Betty’s first act of rebellion turns out to be the most ghastly one, as she leaks the exact location of Jack’s illegal cannabis farm to the police. When Jack encourages his co-partner Guido to run away, the latter refuses, resulting in a fierce fight that ends with Guido dead. Jack craftily stages the death as a suicide and returns to his regular life, with Betty being the only one who is suspicious. From there, she redirects her rage towards Marjolein and makes news about her affair and pregnancy public. Going one step further, Betty breaks into Jack’s phone and leaks an intimate video of Marjolein to the public. Jack, who is losing all of his strongholds one by one, decides to seek help from a shady gang of cannabis farmers, known as the Tichelaars. Although his daughter, Katya, advises against this, Jack doesn’t bat an eye and freely delves deeper into the world of organized crime.
As Betty probes deeper into her bag of tricks, the Tichelaars deem her a problem that needs immediate resolving. However, in the last minute, she manages to sway them on her side, promising complete control of The Jackal. In the court battles that follow, both Jack and Betty bring their arguments forth and eventually reach an impasse. However, the Tichelaars continue to grow impatient, forcing her to get crafty. After extensive research, Betty tracks down some of the largest shareholders in The Jackle and urges them to partner with her in a plan to bring Jack down. She gets the closest when talking to Shanti, Jack’s ex-partner and the mother of Katya, but just when things seem to be going somewhere, the Tichelaars reveal that they have other plans in place. With both the police and the mafia leading a two-pronged charge, Jack is trapped in a seemingly endless cycle, and so is Betty.
Amsterdam Empire Ending: Who Shot Jack? Does He Live or Die?
Towards the end of season 1 of ‘Amsterdam’, we learn that Jack was shot by none other than his former allies, the Tichelaars. Specifically, Noud, the criminal gang’s enforcer, is the one who pulls the trigger, while Gijs orchestrates the entire scene. Though the shot doesn’t immediately kill Jack, he goes into a coma, and a tense battle between life and death ensues. In the finale, titled ‘Fire,’ Jack regains his consciousness at last, but that comes with the realization of impending doom. Without wasting a second, he uses every ounce of his energy to redirect the attention to his daughter, Katya, and the Tichelaars, who are likely still after him. With Marjolein by his side, Jack then prepares for a long road to recovery, where every minute is precious. Notably, the assassination attempt brings many of the narrative threads into perspective, and both Betty and Katya seemingly pause their ongoing rivalry with Jack, realizing that there is a larger enemy at play.
While the Tichelaars start as Jack’s business associates, things turn sour when Betty’s ploys begin actively hampering the production and sale of cannabis. In an attempt to nip the problem in the bud, Gijs sets out to kill Betty, but changes his mind when he hears her counteroffer. Flipping the script on its head, Betty reveals a way through which the criminal gang can assume complete control of The Jackal, and Gijs doesn’t think twice before switching sides. However, when all of Betty’s elaborate schemes fall short of winning her the court battle for ownership of The Jackal, the Tichelaars grow impatient and decide to take matters into their own hands. The assassination attempt on Jack is the direct result of this twisted turn of affairs, and Betty’s presence in that moment becomes the basis for her change of heart. Given that Betty’s attack on the cannabis farms is the reason the Tichelaars got involved in the first place, her later resisting them brings the story full circle.
At the start of the story, Katya is the first to try to steer Jack away from his collaboration with the Tichelaars, and yet numerous other scenes in the show suggest that Jack has been involved with the criminal underworld for quite some time. His ruthlessness in dealing with those who come against him is most evident in how he disposes of Guido, who was once his closest friend in the industry. As such, the Tichelaars’ attack on his life reiterates the tragedy that is inherent to the lifestyle he has chosen, and his healing process becomes as much a psychological journey as it is a physical one. Although his relationship with Marjolein is seemingly damaged beyond repair, Jack gets a much-needed reality check and finds new appreciation for both his family and the people who have supported him in these trying times. The fact that Betty is one of these people complicates things a notch further and reflects Jack’s inability to separate pride from his decision-making.
Who Gets The Jackal: Betty or Jack?
With Jack steadily recovering from the gunshot wound, the story returns to its primary conflict concerning The Jackal’s ownership. In the end, both Betty and Jack agree to sit down and discuss a settlement deal, and yet things don’t go quite as he expected. The scene mirroring their negotiations in episode 1 is intentional, as here too, Betty confirms her unflinching commitment to getting total control over the coffeeshop chain. Aghast, her ex-husband decides to go on the offensive as well, but that turns out to be his critical mistake. When Jack threatens to create a fiasco in court, Betty reveals her trump card: Guido’s lighter, which she found lying near Jack’s cabin. At the start of the story, we see that Guido has marked his lighter with his name to avoid it being stolen, and that detail comes back in the finale to unravel Jack’s darkest secret: that he murdered his business partner.
In the end, Betty gains complete control of The Jackal by threatening Jack with a full-blown investigation into Guido’s death. Although the lighter does not incriminate the cannabis magnate by itself, it is enough to bring the police’s attention to him, which makes it only a matter of time before some form of proof shows up. Knowing this, Jack realizes that he is trapped between a rock and a hard place and that the only way out is by submitting to Betty’s demands. The final sequence of the show takes on a dreamy look, as Betty, victorious at last, walks into the original outlet of The Jackal. Notably, prior to this, the only time we see her enter the coffeeshop, or talk about it, is in relation to Jack, and that creative choice comments on how she has been denied participation all this time, despite being a major player in The Jackal’s success. As such, her victory lap comes with a new chance in life to regain her independence following a toxic lifestyle.
Betty taking over the coffeeshop also has symbolic relevance pertaining to the name, “The Jackal.” The last scene of the season brings back a past interview that Jack gave to Marjolein, in which he explained the meaning behind his company’s name and icon. Despite jackals being carnivorous animals that are traditionally associated with images of hunting, Jack has a different perspective and considers the jackal to be among the cleverest animals ever. He draws attention to their hunting process, stating that, unlike the larger canines, jackals prefer to blend in with their surroundings and patiently bide their time. By doing so, the animal both outlasts its enemies and surprises its prey at the moment they least expect. While Jack believes himself to be the embodiment of these traits, in the end, it is Becky who proves herself to be a master of the craft.
Is Gijs Dead? What Happens to the Tichelaars?
Betty’s success story is not without risks, and besides Jack, the Tichelaars stand as her most fierce opponents. To begin with, Betty’s attempts to take over the coffeeshop originally start out as a desperate bid for survival, as Gijs only lets her go on the condition that he becomes The Jungle’s owner. However, when that doesn’t seem to be a probable future, he changes tactics, instead planning to pick Jack’s family apart one by one. In the end, Betty joins hands with Katya and Shanti and hatches an elaborate plan to bring the criminal gang down for good. Shanti takes the initiative by hiring an assassin, named Henry, to abduct Roud and bring him in for questioning. Following this, Betty tortures him, both for retrieving his phone’s password and for attacking Jack. Noud soon relents, giving Betty and her crew complete access to the Tichelaar network, which they use to bait Gijs out to the cabin.
Although Henry is tasked with taking out Gijs and the rest of the Tichelaars before they can even set foot in the cabin, the plan falls short, and Gijs proves himself as the criminal leader by slaughtering Henry’s entire gang on his own. However, with nobody on his team still alive, he is left in a vulnerable state, and that gives Betty, Katya, and Shanti the upper hand in the final showdown. After accidentally killing Noud, an enraged Gijs nearly defeats all three of them, but Betty burns his face to a crisp, giving Katya the opening to impale him with a fire iron, which swiftly takes his life. With this, the entire Tichelaar gang is wiped out in one go, and the trio confidently heads back to the hospital, knowing that all of them are now safe from criminal eyes. Gijs’s connection to both sides of the argument helps highlight the shortcomings of both Betty and Jack, and to that end, his role as their common enemy helps bridge the gaps in the narrative.
Read More: Is Netflix’s Amsterdam Empire Based on a True Story?
