‘Go Ahead Brother’ Recap And Ending Explained: Is Sylwek Dead Or Alive?

Some cool action can’t really make up for a messy plot, bad acting, and a drab narrative in Netflix’s latest Polish series, Go Ahead, Brother. Nothing great can be said about the show, and my thoughts and prayers are with everyone of you who sat through all six episodes of it. You are here to clear your confusions about the plot and find some closure, so I am going to do my best to provide you with that. 

Spoilers Ahead

What Happens in the Series? 

Police officer Oskar Gwiazda has a panic attack during a tactical mission that ultimately results in the death of his friend and colleague, Sokol. Following the incident, Oskar gets fired from his job after having a violent altercation with his superior, Mirecki. He finds himself in further trouble when his father, a gambling addict, kills himself and leaves him, his sister Marta, and her husband, Sylwek (also his best friend and colleague who’s at the same unit), with a huge debt to settle. Upon finding out their father owed the money to this loan shark, Tomczyk, Marta suggests to Oskar they sell their father’s house and pay off the debt as much as possible. But Oskar is adamant about keeping the house for the sentimental value (although he was literally asking his father to kill himself) and promises to pay the debt off on his own. Sylwek understandably gets mad, but he doesn’t have much of a choice either. With Marta pregnant and them living in an uninsulated house in the middle of nowhere (we need to remember Poland is a pretty cold country where the winter is terrifying), Sylwek’s resentment toward his best friend is only justified.

Anyway, Oskar soon lands a job at the mall as a security guard and takes a liking to mall employee Yeva. One might wonder if he has any ulterior motive behind hitting on Yeva, but it turns out the man is just lonely, sad, and horny. Oskar and Yeva hit it off, but for the longest time, the whole romantic plot seems quite untethered from the main narrative. Of course, there’s a twist as well, which you can see coming from miles away. Yeva and her friend and roommate are working for Tomczyk as well. She is basically Tomczyk’s spy to keep an eye on Oskar, and like what always happens, she develops genuine feelings for this wounded man who’s going through a lot. 

Anyway, Sylwek and the rest of the team go on another mission where they find a man named Georgian dead in a hotel room. What they don’t know is this is the handwork of one Damian Czorny, who was executing the order of this gangster, Bogden. As you keep watching the show, you realize Bogden is the top dog in the underworld of this story. Meanwhile, at the mall, Oskar notices Yeva’s boss, Grzesiek, doing some shady tax fraud and putting away some money. That promptly gives him the idea of stealing from the man, whom he finds to be extremely unpleasant anyway. Luckily enough, he comes across Grzesiek again that night at his house, which has now turned into a brothel (courtesy Tomczyk; this is how Oskar is repaying the debt). Oskar stealthily puts a tracker under Grzesiek’s car that leads him to the man’s house. It doesn’t take much for him to neutralize Grzesiek and his father, Mietek. It is also not surprising that Grzesiek, being shady, would have some able men as his protection. One such man, Oleg, arrives there soon and puts Oskar in a tight spot. But Oskar has to survive, as he is the main character of the story, and who better than his best friend Sylwek to save him? It was only a matter of time for Sylwek and Oskar to form this duo who would get themselves into a huge pile of trouble. We already saw Oskar telling Sylwek that he was going to rob a thief. Unfortunately for both Oskar and Sylwek, Grzesiek just happens to be Grzesiek Czorny, aka brother of Damian Czorny. Upon returning to his house, Damian is infuriated to see his brother and father Miatek in such a defeated state, and he makes it a point to take revenge. He believes Tomczyk is behind this, who’s hurting the Czorny’s because Damian killed the Georgian, with whom the loan shark was in cahoots.

What does Damian do?

Given Damian has zero idea who Oskar is, it only makes sense that he would go after one of Tomczyk’s men and ultimately torture him to death—for absolutely nothing. However, he is clearly not an idiot, so he soon comes up with a plan to use one of Oskar’s trackers (that he used on Grzesiek) in order to lure Oskar and kidnap him. That plan does work out, but while being taken to Damian, Oskar attacks the men who were escorting him, resulting in a car accident. Oskar survives and goes away, leaving one of the men, Cleaver, badly injured. Cleaver is taken to the hospital, where he is kept under observation by the police (who are pretty much good for nothing in this story). So Damian, being a psychopath, decides to go to the hospital by posing as a doctor and then do an unnecessary massacre there just to find out some information from Cleaver about Oskar. All this could have been avoided if Cleaver had just taken a photo of Oskar and sent it to Damian—although the phones that are used in this show are pretty old-looking, so it may entirely be possible that this story is set two to three decades back from our present time. Anyway, now that he knows who Oskar is, he sets up a hidden video camera at Oskar’s house to monitor his moves. 

Why do Oskar and Sylwek rob three houses?

Thanks to the extremely convoluted plot of Go Ahead, Brother, you sometimes forget that Oskar still owes all that money to Tomczyk. And Tomczyk now knows that Oskar has got some money (that he robbed from the Czornys). Bogden is not at all happy with the ongoing dispute between Tomczyk and the Czorny’s, as both of them actually work for him. He calls for a ceasefire, where Tomczyk and Miatek (along with Damian) arrive, but it ends with the two parties shaking hands. However, we all know that is not going to change anything. For the time being, Tomczyk has to pay some money to the Czornys, as Damian has threatened him with photos of him and the Georgian together (remember that Tomczyk has told Bogden and he didn’t know the Georgian). 

So he blackmails Oskar with it, who was already planning to rob some more houses that he has cased already. Oskar takes Sylwek along, and they end up robbing three houses and delivering the money to Tomczyk. Oskar’s debt to Tomczyk is paid, and Tomczyk also manages to pay off the Czornys. But Damian is not going to let things rest. He still got robbed by Oskar, and he now knows that Tomczyk is actually planning to push them out of the business by taking the Georgian’s place at Bogden’s high table. Quite naturally, his next move is to launch a direct attack on Oskar and Sylwek.

Does Sylwek get kidnapped?

Of course, it had to go down this way only. Sylwek, being the smartest character in the show, already knew that his family was in danger. He already set up mine traps around his house. Thanks to that, when Damian and his men attack, Oskar has the chance to take Marta and Yeva (who’s also there) to safety while Sylwek covers for them. He ultimately gets abducted by Damian, and that is followed by a hell of a frustrating ordeal for the viewer to see Oskar and Damian finally coming face to face. Miracki (yes, Oskar’s former superior) becomes a casualty thanks to getting involved in this business, although he was just there to save Sylwek. Anyway, Oskar pretty much lets himself get caught in order to reach Sylwek, and after that, both he and Sylwek get tortured by Damian. Sylwek is now convinced it is all over for them, but Oskar, being the optimist no matter what the situation is, believes they still have hope. For the time being, they survive, as Damian has to go to attend a meeting at Bogden’s. Tomczyk is also supposed to show up.

Does Oskar manage to save Sylwek?

First, let us focus on the meeting at Bogden’s. The top dog has now reached the end of his wits, and he wants to come to a conclusion. Sadly for him, that doesn’t quite happen, as his own right-hand man shoots him during the meeting, only to be killed by Damian. Grzesiek also meets his maker in order to save Damian and also prove that he has some worth after all. Tomczyk is also shot, but he does manage to get away. Damian, who now has zero sympathy for Tomczyk, wants to kill him. But instead of getting his own hands dirty, he thinks it’s best to make Oskar do it. In return, he promises to let Sylwek go. Oskar now has no choice but to follow.

Thankfully, the ending of Go Ahead, Brother is not one with some surprising twist, so it goes exactly how it is supposed to. Oskar does kill Tomzyck and his wife (that was not part of the plan though), and Damian proves himself to be a man of word. Sylwek is free and reunited with Marta, who has unfortunately lost her baby. Oskar and Yeva also have their happily ever after, at least for the time being. Damian can always call him to run some more errands in next season. However, knowing Netflix, Go Ahead, Brother is most likely getting axed so we don’t have to go through that. Also, in case you’re wondering why I haven’t extensively talked about Yeva’s past trauma or Marta and Sylwek’s relationship, the only thing I have to say is that those things really don’t matter in this story.

Final Thoughts

I need to clarify that I am not out here to mercilessly bash the show. In fact, every time I get a new assignment, I keep hoping for it to be rewarding. And crime thrillers being a genre I really enjoy, I actually expected Go Ahead, Brother to be something cool. Sadly, all it was a big snoozefest other than some cool action set pieces that I have already mentioned. The best one has to be the entire hospital sequence where Damian unleashes himself and goes fully crazy. No matter how the rest of the show pans out, that one particular bit is fantastically mounted, where you truly get to experience the thrill. The hand-to-hand combat scenes of the show are also very impressive – the one between Oskar and Oleg (when our hero goes to rob Grzesiek) is my pick. 

I feel where Go Ahead, Brother loses the plot is the shoddy writing. For a show this plot heavy, it is unnecessarily artsy. This is not the kind of story where you need to put your audience under any confusion and then surprise them at the climax, which is a technique that works wonders for many shows and movies like The Usual Suspects (1995) or the very recent Rebel Ridge (2024). But Go Ahead, Brother keeps doing that only, so more often than not, you find yourself lost. This story needed a much sharper, direct approach with crisp editing, but the show in the end turns out to be the opposite of that. With the show that badly written, the characters are also not quite believable either. Even though you are supposed to be emotionally attached to them, you don’t feel anything. Nothing good can be said about the very generic background music and cinematography, where every single frame looks quite tacky. Sometimes, everything terrible is somewhat saved by good acting performances, but Go Ahead, Brother is a dud in that department as well. I needed to get all this out, and after going through this assault of a show in the name of content, I have earned the right.