The Abandons Finale Explained: The Truth About Constance’s Fate
Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson collide in Netflix’s The Abandons, as outlaw matriarch Fiona Nolan defends her makeshift family of orphans from ruthless mine baron Constance Van Ness, igniting a brutal land and power war on the frontier.
If you like your Westerns with two power players staring each other down across a blood-soaked county line, Netflix has one for you. The Abandons builds to a nasty feud between Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson, and by the end of Season 1 it goes full fire-and-gun-smoke with a cliffhanger that practically dares you to pick a side.
The setup: two women, one battleground
Headey plays Fiona Nolan, the de facto matriarch of a chosen family of orphans and outcasts who have carved out a life on a contested ranch in Jasper Hollow. Anderson is Constance Van Ness, a wealthy silver magnate who wants to expand her mining empire and sees that land as hers, end of discussion. They each lead their camps into a slow-burn fight over power, territory, and whether people like Fiona’s crew even get to exist.
What lights the fuse
The uneasy standoff turns into open war after a heinous act by Constance’s son pushes Fiona’s family from self-defense into retaliation. That’s the tipping point. The season keeps turning the screws until, by the finale, both sides stop pretending and declare what this is: a war for Jasper Hollow.
The finale: masks, gunfire, and a silhouette in the flames
When the Red Masks snatch Dahlia and haul her to Constance’s estate, Fiona rides in for the rescue. Constance meets her not with fear but with a jab meant to cut deep:
"You will never know what it is to lose a real child. You never had one."
That cruelty sets off a classic Western blowout: a family-on-family shootout that devolves into a bare-knuckle brawl between the two women at the center of it all. The final image is a tease — one figure emerges from the fire, but the show does not tell you who it is. Constance’s fate stays up in the air: maybe she survives, maybe she falls, maybe she slips away, and even if she lives, her power and land could be slipping through her fingers.
So... who is the hero here?
The show bends toward Fiona as the moral center — or the closest thing this story allows. She is not chasing gold or glory; she is defending a home for people nobody else wanted. Survival, protection, loyalty. That’s her code. Constance’s is expansion at any cost, which makes the contrast pretty stark.
None of that makes Fiona a saint. She lies. She kills. She covers things up. But her reasons come from a place that feels human and protective, not predatory. Even if Constance somehow holds onto her title and her mine, the narrative verdict leans toward Fiona and her abandons.
Where Season 1 leaves everyone
- The final showdown is drenched in blood, betrayals, and broken trust; the Van Ness legacy of silver money and control takes a real hit from people who refuse to be trampled.
- Dahlia comes out of the chaos unnerved and powerful as ever — yes, an odd combo, but that’s where the show leaves her.
- Elias and Trisha are done romantically.
- Fiona vs. Constance ends on that one-silhouette-in-the-fire reveal, so who survives (and who still holds land or leverage) is intentionally unclear.
It’s a purposely messy, arguably overblown finish — the kind of ending that keeps its cards facedown so a future season can flip them for drama. For now, in a story built on ambition, revenge, and land, there’s no neat justice and definitely no clean endings.
The Abandons Season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.