Family Secrets is a Polish romantic comedy-drama about a couple’s wedding where everything goes horribly wrong as they begin to uncover the lies and secrets that connect their two families together. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Kaska, a medical student, will soon wed Jan, the son of a successful plastic surgeon. While people are waiting for her at the church on the day of the wedding, a pregnant Kaska is frantically searching the town for Pawel, whom she first met five years prior.
Flashbacks show Kaska and Pawel meeting at a party and later both attending the same medical school, where their romance blossoms.
Kaska is still not over Pawel’s sudden disappearance from her life. After being persuaded by her sister Alicja, she arrives at her wedding one hour late but she declares she won’t get married unless her mother is present.
Jan comes from a wealthy but dysfunctional family where his father frequently cheats on his mother and the parents constantly argue as a result. Robert, a friend of his who works as an architect, is seeing Kaska’s sister Alicja. He met Kaska in this way and fell in love. The flashbacks include his encounters with Malgosia at Emil’s office and Emil later consoling a hysterical Kaska outside the clinic.
Malgosia and Marek, Kaska’s parents, split up due to an argument over moving to another city. While Emil decides to bring Malgosia to the wedding, with whom he had an affair in the past, Dorota recalls her past with one of her students, Pawel, and her crazy obsession with him.
When Kaska’s mother, Malgosia, finally appears at the wedding, she is shocked to discover that Kaska is pregnant. However, nobody knows whose baby Kaska is carrying—is it Jan’s, Pawel’s, or someone else’s? Additionally, Kaska keeps the crucial information about her pregnancy a secret from everyone, which leads to some uncertainty and arguments.
Malgosia recalls her affair with Emil and how he broke her heart, but she also believes Kaska is dating Emil. She throws Kaska out of the house, and she hasn’t spoken to her since.
Presently, they make their way down the aisle to exchange vows. Malgosia informs Dorota that Emil might be the child’s father. Dorota then flees the wedding, further causing strife amongst the families.
Kaska recalls Dorota kissing Pawel in class and begins to suspect Dorota following Pawel’s abrupt disappearance, but Emil seizes the chance to grow closer to Kaska by keeping her in the dark about the truth.
Family Secrets ending explained in detail:
Where does Pawel disappear to?
Dorota decides to divorce her husband and live her life on her terms after growing tired of his extramarital affairs. She approaches Pawel, a student of hers who is also Kaska’s lover, on purpose and threatens to fail his girlfriend in the semester examinations.
When Dorota tells Emil she’s having an affair with Pawel, Emil confronts the director and asks for a transfer. A frantic Dorota meets Pawel and makes an effort to win him over. He leaves her in the car alone after threatening to file a complaint about stalking and molestation of a student. Dorota runs over him out of rage after being rejected. After the incident, Dorota calls Emil, but they both abandon Pawel in the ditch to die.
When Jan follows his mother that evening, he witnesses the incident and takes Pawel to his place to treat him. Upon his recovery, Pawel decides to return to his previous life, but Jan deceives him by claiming that Kaska is her fiancé. Instead of taking on the strong couple who destroyed all the evidence of the incident and protecting Kaska from harm, Pawel chooses to move to another medical school.
Do Kaska and Jan get married?
The chaos at the wedding exposes everyone’s true nature. Jan admits his mistakes after deceiving Kaska and hiding the truth about Pawel’s disappearance from her. He recounts the accident and how he lied to Pawel about Kaska’s engagement.
After telling Jan that she doesn’t love him, Kaska comes to the realisation that she never got over Pawel and had been sitting around waiting for him to save her from everyone all along.
Jan confronts his parents with the details of the accident and how he saw everything happen. He cancels the wedding after admitting that he only did this to get even with his parents.
Who is the father of Kaska’s baby?
Following Jan’s confession, Kaska reveals that Pawel is actually the biological father of her child.
The truth about Pawel’s whereabouts in another city and how her mother asked him a few months ago to reconcile with Kaska are disclosed by her mother.
Before it’s too late, Jan calls Pawel and invites him to the wedding. Pawel finally gathers the courage to make the decision to go to the wedding. In the meantime, Emil admits to lying to Kaska about Pawel having feelings for Dorota.
Kaska is relieved to learn the truth about his disappearance and gladly walks away from the wedding. Pawel sees her on the other side of the road, but before they can meet, he is involved in an accident.
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