Germany has been talking about a new German series called “Cassandra”, which was published on Netflix in January 2025 and is about a family living in Germanys first smart home. Even though the series focuses on the use and power of AI and its dangers in our daily lives, people are defending the robot called Cassandra, the woman whose husband turns her into a robot to be immortal only to turn his back and cheat on her. She is left as a control service in the smart home.
In the beginning of the series, Cassandras system is turned off completely until the Prill family – a family of 4 – moves in and restarts the technology, not knowing what is about to happen. They get to know Cassandra, who starts manipulating the entire family into believing that Samira Prill, wife of David and the mother of the two children, loses her mind and pushes her to having panic attacks until she gets send to a mental hospital. Cassandras goal is to have a family of her own after losing hers before she became a robot.
Of course her actions are evil but once you pay attention on her life story, you realize it is all bottled up anger and regret for being treated poorly.
I recommend watching the movie first before reading any further.
Cassandra and Horst
As a normal human being, Cassandra is a nice, gentle and a loving woman dreaming of her own family. She takes care of her child and is generally a vulnerable person. She is married to Horst who turns out to be someone who Cassandra thought he was not. She gets disappointed by him in many ways: Firstly, Horst insults their son for being bad at playing soccer instead of encouraging him to improve and to do better. Due to his disappointment, he demands to have another son with Cassandra. When she is finally pregnant, he does an experiment including lasers on her to find out the gender early enough to abort it if it’s not a boy. This experiment causes her to have cancer, leaving her with only a little time to live. Moreover, she finds out that her husband has been cheating on her with her best friend for a while. Horst even decides to name the baby he fathered with his mistress “Thomas” – the name that Cassandra had chosen for her son with Horst before the baby died. This proves how much of an egoistic man he truly is.
He also convinces Cassandra to give her life up to become an immortal robot, living and controlling their house, so that their marriage and family can still be together despite her having cancer. Eventually he gets tired of it and longs for real physical touch by other women so he chooses to build a life with someone else and ends up leaving his wife. Additionally, he abandons his sick daughter to avoid responsibilities.
Old Marriage and new Family
As the new family moves in, Cassandra takes her chance to scare the wife and mother away to take her spot. She takes care of Fynn and Juno – the children of Samir and David Prill – and acts as their new mother. When she realizes that they also try to get rid of her, she gets angry and locks the doors, taking control over the entire family. This seems to be an attempt to regain what she has lost. At the end, she can’t handle the pressure anymore and sets the family free before destroying herself completely.
Conclusion
This series does not only represent the power of AI and its supremacy, but also discusses behavioral changes, causes for mental instability, belonging and especially the need for human connection. Cassandra seems to be very evil but the more she opens up about her past, the more you understand why she turned out this way.
Have you watched the series already? What do you think about Cassandra? Let me know in the comments!
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