Ewan McGregor made his return to television with Showtime’s A Gentleman in Moscow, a thriller miniseries based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Emor Towles. The series premiered on March 29th on Paramount+.
Apart from McGregor, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Leah Harvey, Johnny Harris, and Paul Ready play key roles in the historical drama, and directors include Tom Harper (Peaky Blinders), Sharon Hugff, and Ben Vanstone, who also shares screenwriting credits with Nessah Muthy.
The final episode of the show premiered on May 17, concluding Alexander Rostov’s (McGregor) incredible tale. The season finale entails Rostov’s, Anna’s (Winstead), and Sofia’s (Beau Gadsdon/Billie Gadsdon/Anna Madeley) scheme to help Sofia defect while she is in Paris for her tour. (She is on the tour because she wins a piano contest in the seventh episode). The objective is to send Sofia to the U.S., where Rostov and Anna are expected to join her, using stolen passports.
However, the plan is put in jeopardy when Leplevsky spots the fake passports in Rostov’s room. This incident leads to a tussle, and Rostov chains Leplevsky in the hotel boiler room to avoid getting arrested. In parallel, Sofia is able to escape her chaperones by the skin of her teeth by putting on a disguise. Meanwhile, Anna decides against Glebnikov’s advice to board the train to Helsinki by herself, with the chances of Rostov joining her at the station being slim.
At the very end, Rostov gets to know Sofia has safely made it to the U.S. embassy when all the phones in the hotel lobby ring up simultaneously (Richard Vanderwhile’s signal), after which he breathes a sigh of relief and steps out in the night. Voiceover takes over from that point, as Sofia narrates that she didn’t hear from Rostov or Anna, but she would like to believe that they were happily together.
The ending is left ambiguous and up to the viewer’s interpretation, as it is not shown what happens on the other side after Rostov has stepped out of the hotel. Rostov and Anna are shown living on a small Finnish farm in the end, but that is most likely Sofia’s imagination. The major takeaway from the final episode of A Gentleman in Moscow is both Rostov and Anna’s sacrifice for their surrogate daughter, Sofia, who is able to escape from Russia to build a bright future for herself. A Gentleman in Moscow, like the majority of art around us, is about love, and in the epilogue, the protagonist’s selfless love shines through.
A Gentleman in Moscow is available to stream on Paramount+. However, to access the series, interested viewers will have to purchase the streaming service’s upgraded “Paramount+ with Showtime” plan.
