Aahana Swrup
‘North of North’ is a Netflix sitcom that follows the story of a modern Inuk woman who is trying to find her footing as a recently single mother in a town where everyone is involved in everyone else’s business. When Siaja makes the whirlwind decision to leave her husband, the sweetheart of Ice Cove, to make her own way in life, she isn’t quite prepared for just how hard things can get. Nevertheless, with professional aspirations of working under the resident Southerner in authority, Helen—and a place at her trainwreck of a mother’s house—is ready to take on the world. That is until someone from her mother, Neevee’s past, makes a reappearance, adding complex family dynamics to Siaja’s increasingly complicated life. Thus, as her story progresses, it leads to the unraveling of past mysteries and the potential future to come. SPOILERS AHEAD!
North of North Recap
As Siaja’s daughter, Bun, makes her foray into kindergarten, the mother decides to expand her own horizons by finally entering the workforce. After getting married straight out of high school and becoming a mother in her 20s, the woman had always made plans to have a career of her own eventually. However, as she tries to turn her volunteer gig at the local community center into a full-time position, Helen, the manager, makes her disinterest known. As it turns out, zero work experience in the middle of an underfunding doesn’t make for a perfect match. Still, Siaja manages to convince her to give her a chance if she manages to corral enough petitions showcasing interest in her cultural programming plans for the community. However, her lobbying at the festival is interrupted by her husband, Ting, who demands her last-minute help with the seal hunting competition.
While out on the water, the couple inevitably get into a fight once Siaja brings up her career plans, only to realize Ting has already made plans for them to adopt a second child. As their conversation is cut short by a seal sighting, the woman accidentally falls into the near-freezing ocean. During her impromptu dunk into the sea, she gets a vision of the Sea Spirit, Nuliajuk, which only furthers her resolve to take back control of her life. As a result, she gets drunk at a friend’s party and makes out with a Southerner stranger. Later, back at the festival, when Ting tries to gloss over their issues, she finally dumps him—in a public spectacle that is unfortunately embarrassing for her. Worse yet, afterward, a run-in between her mother, Neevee, and the Southern stranger, Alistair, leads to the upsetting revelation that the latter is Siaja’s estranged father.
Although Siaja tries to avoid Alistair from then on by focusing on snagging the job as Helen’s assistant, she inevitably runs into him again—-this time at the office. As it turns out, he is the contractor who is here to survey the town’s legibility to be the location for a new Research Lab. Furthermore, his estrangement from his daughter’s life turns out to be a result of the fact that he had never known she existed. However, finding a footing with her apparent dad isn’t the worst of Siaja’s troubles. From setting fires at dumpsters to accidentally sending elders of the community to their deathbeds, her professional efforts consistently put her in a tough spot with Helen.
Even so, it isn’t as if Siaja’s newfound role as the manager’s assistant doesn’t come with its upsides as well, since her intricate understanding of the community allows her to see to their needs better. On the other hand, her love life remains equally tumultuous as she continues pursuing the wrong guy—including Ting, for a short period of backsliding—instead of giving a chance to her tentative romance with Kuuk, Alistair’s colleague. Inversely, the father himself has no such problems as he tries to return to Neevee’s life and ends up back in her bed. Still, the woman remains distant from him, unwilling to talk about their past and why she pushed him away without informing him about her pregnancy. Ultimately, things come to a head when Alistair realizes Neevee had hooked up with another man in the wake of their argument in an effort to further distance herself from him.
North of North Ending: Why Did Neevee Never Tell Alistair About Siaja?
While all the thundering complications of Siaja’s life inform her story in crucial ways, her relationship with her parents perhaps remains one of the most pressing mysteries. All her life, she grew up with the belief that her father left her mother after she got pregnant with her. Neevee would tell her tall tales about her father’s identity, and she would buy into them, at least enough to stop truly caring about him. Therefore, when Alistair enters her life, he’s anything but what she would have expected. For one, he seems to genuinely care about Siaja and her daughter as his family once he actually gets to know about them.
Additionally, Alistair’s romance with Neevee reveals itself to be much more complicated than what the latter had made it out to be. As it turns out, not only had the woman kept her pregnancy a secret from the man, but she also encouraged him to leave Ice Cove and walk away from her life. The same, paired with her repeated possessiveness over Siaja, raises some pressing questions. Nonetheless, Neevee is unwilling to answer these questions and instead tries to push Alistair away once again by hooking up with a random guy. However, this time around, her actions lead to unintended consequences when her daughter, Siaja, learns about them.
During Alistair’s time at Ice Cove, he and Siaja manage to build a somewhat reliable relationship that could bloom into something beautiful. Moreover, seeing her mom with the man instilled hope in the daughter that perhaps she could have the parents in her adult life that she missed out on in her childhood. Therefore, Neevee’s betrayal hits that much harder for her. For the same reason, Siaja decides to leave her mother’s house, which leads to an eruptive argument between the pair. In this confrontation, the former pulls no punches, letting out years of resentment at her mother’s immature and irresponsible behavior. In turn, Neevee acts rationally and kicks her daughter out of her house even more adamantly.
Nonetheless, the aftermath leaves Neevee hallowed out, especially when her daughter chooses to crash at her father’s place momentarily. As such, she wanders around town aimlessly, letting her shop dissolve into chaos, thanks to plumbing issues. Eventually, Siaja arrives at her aid despite their complications, and Neevee finally decides to be honest with her daughter. She reveals that before Siaja, the woman had another daughter. At the time, she was 16, and the father of the child was a significantly older white man. Initially, he had only taken their daughter away to visit his family.
Nonetheless, over time, the father never returned, effectively stealing Neevee’s baby away from her. This incident left a lasting mark on the woman, only heightened by the generational trauma of the theft of Indigenous kids through residential schools. For the same reason, when the woman got pregnant with Siaja, it triggered her fight or flight response. She was scared that, much like the previous man, Alistair would also try to steal her daughter away from her. As a result, she drove him away and chose to look after Siaja alone so that her daughter could be only hers. In the end, the revelation of this monumental secret strengthens the mother-daughter duo’s relationship tenfold, finally establishing a much-needed understanding between them.
Does the Town Get the Research Center Funding? Does Alistair Stay in Ice Cove?
Although Siaja’s arrival at her mother’s flooded shop is a significant moment for her character, it arrives by stepping on the toes of another monumental event. By coming to her mother’s rescue, the woman willingly misses out on the big presentation she’s supposed to give with Helen to the Research Center committee. This presentation will make or break the committee’s decision on whether they want to open their center at Ice Cove or its neighboring town, Tuktukalik. Despite having recently won a lot of infrastructural funding—in a game of Walrus Dick Baseball—Ice Cove still has to put up a fight to earn its spot.
When Neevee helps Siaja show up for the presentation—late and a bit sloppy, but in attendance all the same—the town’s fighting chance increases. After working with Helen for the past few months, Siaja has honed her skill of knowing what the community wants and how to best give the resources to them. Therefore, she knows the perfect way to make a case for Ice Cove to receive the research center funding. Alas, at the end of the presentation, her impassioned speech only makes so much of a difference. Apparently, Tuktukalik has already bought over the committee through subtle bribes, such as better restaurants and tourist spots in town. Thus, they end up choosing the other town over Ice Cove.
Yet, all hope is not lost. Thanks to Alistair and his powers of persuasion, he managed to convince the committee to put down a satellite station in the town. Even though the funding for it will be significantly less, it’s better than a complete loss. Furthermore, another upside to this contract remains the fact that Alistair can stay in the town for even longer. Nonetheless, his decision to do so is influenced solely because of his desire to become closer to his daughter and granddaughter. After consistently fighting for a relationship with Neevee, he has finally reached the end of his bandwidth. Consequently, the future of the duo’s relationship remains precarious and would require much work from Neevee if she wants them to have another chance.
Do Saija and Kuuk End Up Together?
The Satellite Station’s contract not only extends Alistair’s stay in Ice Cove but also compels Kuuk to cancel his flights back home. Despite amazing chemistry and friendship, Kuuk and Siaja have an immensely complicated relationship. Even when it is clear that both individuals have developed feelings for one another—over shared chess matches at the old age home—they’re reluctant to dive into a romance. Siaja convinces herself that the recent end of her marriage means that she should pursue some flings before looking for something more serious. However, by the time she realizes the pitfalls in her logic, it’s already too late.
After a failed hookup attempt with a Southerner photographer, Oliver, Siaja rushes to make a grand romantic confession to Kuuk at the local bar. Unfortunately, moments after kissing the man, she realizes that his old girlfriend, Alexis, is back in his life. Alexis and Kuuk had left things off in an unfinished manner after he decided to travel to Ice Cove for work. Nevertheless, she has now returned, willing to support him in his dreams instead of only demanding the same from him. Thus, the man effectively finds himself in an awkward position.
Kuuk’s feelings for Siaja have grown since he has known her. Yet, he isn’t sure enough about his feelings for Alexis—especially in the wake of her arrival in Ice Cove—to make a firm decision about the future of their relationship. Once he decides to stay in the town due to the Satellite Station contract, his girlfriends decides to stick by his side. Therefore, a love triangle seems to be incoming at Ice Cove now that Kuuk, Alexis, and Siaja consistently run into each other. Although this overcomplicates things for the Kuuk and Siaja, only the future will tell what it means for a possible romance between them.
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