Nemesis Full Recap And Ending Explained: Did Isaiah Catch Coltrane?

A well-made cops vs criminals narrative derives its appeal from the intense ideological conflict, moral ambiguity,  mirror dynamics between protagonist and antagonist, and the cost of obsession. Created by Courtney A. Kemp and Tani Marole, Netflix’s latest eight-episode crime thriller, “Nemesis,” ticks off every single one of these markers and then some, while offering a thoroughly entertaining story of a driven LAPD Detective locking horns with a criminal mastermind. Doubling down on the rivalry with some solid family drama and tight paced action, “Nemesis” crafts a solid cat-and-mouse game between the leads that actually manages to pique viewers’ anticipation the closer it gets to the end.

Spoilers Ahead

Isaiah’s Past And Connection to Manny Shaw’s Death

Son of a notorious former LA gangster, Nightmare, aka Amos Stiles, Isaiah is a dedicated, sharp LAPD Detective whose deep resentment for his old man’s criminal ways has led him to form an uncompromising moral code. Amos’ corruptive guidance prompted Isaiah’s brother, Josiah, to go down the wrong path, and lose his life in a clash with rival gang members, and the incident also led to Amos getting imprisoned. LAPD Captain James Sealey, who arrested Amos back then, took Isaiah under his wing, and at present, Isaiah has become an extremely competent detective whom Sealay wants to recommend for Captain after his upcoming retirement. After Amos’ release from prison, Isaiah pays for his expenses to keep him out of the life of crime, but doesn’t want him in close proximity to his family – his wife, Dr. Candace, and their son, Noah.

Two years ago, a particular case, which Isaiah feels to be still unresolved, got him totally riled up due to the personal stakes involved. Isaiah’s junior trainee officer, Immanuel ‘Manny’ Shaw, was killed while responding to a weed-distro heist committed by a four member masked crew, and a vagrant patsy was framed for the incident. Isaiah, who shared a brotherly bond with Manny, felt the same agony of Josiah’s loss return, and became hell-bent on finding the culprits. Isaiah threw himself into his work, which led to his estrangement from Candace, and their eventual separation. 

The weed distro heist was orchestrated by a certain Coltrane Wilder and his tight-knit crew, consisting of former military sniper, Chris Choi; his good friend and army buddy, Deon Davis; and Deon’s nephew, Darren Stroman. Coltrane, an ex-con, pretends to be a reformed real estate tycoon, has earned influence and sympathy by donating to the community, and is the mastermind of the crew. Coltrane’s wife, Ebony, used to be a part of the crew and worked as a plant in their operations, but after a tragic incident that led to the miscarriage of their first child, Zahir, she stopped getting actively involved. Ebony’s elder sister, Charlie, is a highly influential fixer who arranges scores for Coltrane and his crew, and is extremely caring towards her sister. Coltrane’s father, Tilmon Wilder, was a career criminal, and tried to raise Coltrane and his sister, Ella, by inculcating his toxic ideology. While Ella distanced herself from the life of crime, Coltrane, who has the wits and daring to survive in this cesspool, embraced it  However, adhering to his wife’s request, Coltrane plans to retire for good and settle somewhere safe, but before that he needs to take down two more scores, not for himself, but to feed his crew members, who aren’t as rich or influential as him. 

As the series begins, Coltrane and his crew rob a group of socialites in an illegal poker game organized in mansion in Beverly Hills during Halloween, and Deon, the most insensitive, clownish member of the group, steals a family heirloom watch from the owner of the mansion, Harvey Swanson. After learning about the case, Isaiah feels a strong hunch that this is the same heist crew who were involved in Manny’s death, and requests James to have him assigned to the case, to no avail.  However, not long after, Coltrane’s crew successively loot three jewellery stores within an hour by keeping the forces distracted, and despite them pretending to follow a different MO, Isaiah is able to sense that his hunch was right. Deon messes up again, and his carelessness results in the rest of the crew having to kill two guards on the spot before fleeing with unregistered diamonds. Isaiah, who already feels guilty for Manny’s death for not being able to capture the crew, rightly assesses that, had Jimmy taken his hunch a bit more seriously, these lost lives could have been saved. In the presence of the media, Isaiah gives a gutsy statement, which Coltrane takes note of and recognizes him to be connected with the Manny Shaw case. 

Sizing Up the Adversaries

Isaiah’s partner, Detective Cruz, finds irregularities in the statements of one of the customers present during the jewelry store heist, Bianca Douglas, and upon digging further, learns about her true identity as an ex-con, Anna Kate Walachek. She was a plant in the jewellery store heist, and Isaiah probes further into the Halloween heist to find out a woman named Julia acted as a plant during the illegal poker game hosted by Harvey Swanson. Recognizing the connection between the cases, Captain James finally approves Isaiah’s request to have him lead the investigation, with a task force which includes Cruz, fellow LAPD officers Viggiano, Harper, NYPD Detective Dave Cerullo, and trainee detective Jamal Brinkley. The jewelry store owners, Lenn and Paulina Petri, remain tight lipped about the stealing of unregistered diamonds which they were forced to smuggle by the real owners of the shop, two Parsi gangster brothers, Farid and Amin. Cerullo’s digging reveals the identities of the brother duo, who are brought in for interrogation, and after learning about the stolen diamonds, the connection between both cases seem more plausible than ever. 

One of the surviving guards in the jewellery store had heard Deon, who is a gambling addict, mentioning sports betting during the heist, and using this clue, Isaiah tries to find a connection by seeking help from Ika Matangi, his associate in the Vice division. TyTy, one of Ika’s informants, is able to identify Deon from the intel regarding his bookie, and against Ika’s wishes, Isaiah meets him directly to take his confession. Deon’s link allows the task force to identify the rest of the perps from his known associates – Choi and Stro, both of whom have priors. Going against conventional procedure and despite having no proof to back up his assumption, Isaiah deduces Coltrane to be the fourth crew member and the mastermind of the team. Given Coltrane’s present reputation as a renowned businessman from the Black community, Captain James and rest of the team members find it difficult to back Isaiah’s suspicion about Coltrane. 

Deon’s continual mess-ups draw Charlie’s ire, who asks Coltrane to go with his crew to sell the diamonds back to the Parsi gangster brothers, and asks the gangsters to take down Deon during the exchange. However, Coltrane arrives prepared, setting Choi up to snipe the two Parsi brothers, and before taking off from the scene with the money, Coltrane leaves the unregistered diamonds all over the corpses to make it seem the gangsters themselves set up the whole situation to profit from the insurance payout. Coltrane also learns about TyTy’s snitching and proceeds to kill him, while Charlie kills Anna Kate Walachek to bury another lead and stages her death as a suicide. Isaiah becomes fully convinced that his suspicion about Coltrane is absolutely correct, but he has no solid evidence to back his claims. Isaiah approaches DA Malik, his old friend from college, who agrees to look into Coltrane if the investigation reveals anything substantial to pin him with. The task force members decide to tail the suspects, only to realize that they themselves are being watched over by their adversaries as well. In the meantime, Isaiah’s relationship trajectory with Candace and Noah continues to go downhill. Ika shares his disappointment with Isaiah, whose mindless actions got his CI killed for no reason at all. Noah, who time and again gravitates towards the toxic influence of his grandpa, Amos, becomes disillusioned with Isaiah’s overbearing behavior. 

Candace slowly drifts towards Malik, who used to be Candace’s prospective life partner back in the day, before she chose Isaiah over him. Not so shockingly, Candace and Ebony turn out to be friends, and Isaiah finally meets Coltrane face to face while attending a Thanksgiving gala with his wife. The passive aggressive mood and palpable tension setting the tone of the interaction makes it clear that, instead of a battle of wits, it’s going to be a battle of egos between two men from here on out. Ebony shares with Coltrane that she is once again pregnant, which prompts him to share everything about the situation with Isaiah, and even take Ebony’s help to worsen the relationship between Candace and him. Unbeknownst to Candace, Isaiah too decides to use her friendship with Ebony to his advantage as well, and gets an idea about surveillance inside Coltrane’s place through her bugged necklace. Visiting his place, Isaiah infiltrates and searches for possible evidence, but doesn’t find anything significant. DNA evidence from the jewellery store heist matches the paternal DNA prints of Stro and Deon, and without confirming the final results, Isaiah brings in Stro for questioning, but fails to pry any crucial intel from him. Charlie learns Candace is Ebony’s friend, and keeping her identity hidden, she pays her a visit to confirm it. Coltrane and his crew return the stolen watch to Harvey and threaten him to retract his report, resulting yet another roadblock in Isaiah’s investigation. 

Armenian Job Goes Wrong

Charlie gets an assignment from Andrei Malakian, hot-headed top brass of an Armenian crime family, to steal a truck load of ketamine in exchange for a huge payout. Coltrane decides to make it his last heist before retiring, but things go wrong when, after successful completion of the mission, Andrei refuses to take the product or pay for the job. Unwilling to court any danger, Coltrane decides not to cause a ruckus either way, while keeping the ketamine truck secured in his warehouse. Deon starts acting restless, which prompts Coltrane to arrange the means to send monthly payment to one of his wives, Rena, to ensure Deon’s compliance. However, as a gambling addict, a greedy Deon simply can’t help himself from stealing the key to the warehouse from Choi, and plans to sell millions worth of ketamine like an absolute buffoon. Isaiah’s contact in the narcotics division, Marc, informs him about the upcoming ketamine sale after getting a tip, resulting in Deon getting surrounded by cops inside Coltrane’s warehouse, with a truckload of ketamine. However, even after being cornered, with death or snitching on his crew as only alternatives available, Deon chooses to keep his integrity. To ensure the cops don’t get to make him snitch on his crew, Deon burns the ketamine and sacrifices his life by provoking the cops to riddle him with bullets, refusing Isaiah’s proposal of surrendering. Having the opportunity to properly investigate Deon’s connection with Coltrane and getting a warrant from DA Malik, Isaiah leads the task force to raid  Coltrane’s real estate office, and his home – making it abundantly clear for his colleagues that he is settling a personal score instead of remaining objective as a law enforcement officer. All assets and accounts which belonged to Coltrane are frozen, making it impossible for him to leave the city using conventional means. Charlie becomes desperate to ensure the safety of her sister and her unborn child, and suggests Ebony to prioritize her own future first and foremost. 

However, Isaiah’s desperate attempt to find dirt on Coltrane results in failure, aside from some circumstantial evidence, he doesn’t have anything to pin Coltrane down with, and to add to the misery, Coltrane lawyers up to threaten the LAPD with a class action lawsuit. Ebony slyly pretends to be a victim of Isaiah’s personal vendetta in front of Candace to drive the wedge further between her and Isaiah. Coltrane and his crew swear revenge on both Malakian and Isaiah, to honour the memory of their fallen comrade. 

Century City Shootout

Backed into a corner, a desperate Isaiah takes extreme measures to lure Coltrane and his crew out, and uses Malakian, who turns out to be Marc’s CI, as bait. As it turns out, his assignment to Charlie was a trap from the get go, and realizing how things have blown up, Malakian has holed up in his secure penthouse in Century City. Charlie learns about Malakian’s hideout, and to settle their score with him, Coltrane and his crew orchestrate a raid in the penthouse. Meanwhile, Isaiah learns about Malakian’s location from Miguel Alvarez, boss of the Viejo Cartel who helps Isaiah as a gesture of gratitude for previously saving his daughter, Paola, from Armenian gangsters. While the crew get their revenge and take off with the sixteen million stashed in the Armenian’s vault, Isaiah, anticipating their presence, brings his task force to nab Coltrane and his crew red-handed during action. However, Coltrane is revealed to have dealt a low blow to Isaiah by bringing along his father, Amos, as the fourth member of their crew, knowing his presence during the inevitable conflict with baffle Isaiah out of his wits. During a “Heat”-ed shootout in the middle of the road, several police officers die, Choi and Stro get injured and are taken into custody, while Isaiah freezes upon seeing his old man, the only unmasked member of the crew, shooting at the cops. Brinkley gets injured during the shootout, Coltrane is able to flee with the help of Harper – who turns out to be a mole in the task force working under Charlie’s payroll. The catastrophic incident blows up in Isaiah’s face, and Captain James lambasts him for acting on his own and dragging the force down. Isaiah refuses to share his source on the crew’s movements, prompting Captain James to suspend him by taking his gun and badge. 

No matter how much Isaiah hates his father, at the end of the day, he can’t completely turn his back on him, and hopes for him to reform in vain. He decides to look for Amos to warn him before police get to him, as it’s not difficult to work out what could happen to a cop killer person of color with a dangerous set of priors. Captain James and Lieutenant Cruz begin looking for Amos and learn about Isaiah’s activities as well. In the meantime, Coltrane mentions to Charlie that he needs to take Amos down to tie up all loose ends before fleeing the country with her and Ebony. Charlie gets intel about Amos’ location from Harper, who is also able to hand Isaiah’s service weapon to Coltrane. 

Isaiah gets a chance to speak with Amos before he arranges the means to flee to Mexico, and the interaction prompts Amos to pay a visit to Isaiah’s home to pay him back for all the financial burdens he has caused his son. Noah, who has come to know about the truth about his grandpa’s past, tries to convince him to surrender and turn over a new page. Coltrane manages to track down Amos, who hands Noah his gun and asks him to hide for his own safety. Noah witnesses Coltrane fleeing after shooting Amos to death, and not long after, Isaiah reaches the scene. James and Cruz had already headed towards Isaiah’s home after getting tipped off by Candace, and on  suspicion of Amos’ murder, both Isaiah and Noah are taken into custody. Charlie, who is fed up after repeatedly asking her sister to no longer wait for Coltrane, leaves in her private jet. Deputy Chief Holmes starts grilling Captain James for  backing up Isaiah, and IA plans to bury Isaiah’s career. Ebony, who has stayed behind for Coltrane, decides to directly visit the LAPD along with him and their team of lawyers to use legal loopholes and the threat of lawsuits in order to get the authorities off their backs. As if the situation wasn’t miserable already, Coltrane has framed Amos for Malakai’s killing, and has used Isaiah’s own service weapon to kill his father. Even though the evidence is laughably incriminating, there is no way to evade it. 

Did Isaiah Catch Coltrane in the End?

Even though Noah reveals Coltrane to be the killer, Isaiah has courted so much trouble for himself already through his mindless actions and rampant violation of legal principles that it becomes impossible for anyone to actually believe Noah’s words. Cerullo believes Noah, and approaches Isaiah to ask one definitive question which might expose Coltrane. Upon learning of Noah’s statements, Isaiah asks Cerullo to observe Coltrane’s reaction after mentioning his final statement to Amos, and Cerullo relays this to DA Malik. However, Harper informs Charlie about Noah being the loose end, which prompts Charlie to blackmail DA Malik with pictures of him and Candace together, thereby ensuring his compliance as Malik doesn’t corner Coltrane despite having the chance. Ebony proudly leaves with her husband and their lawyers, believing she has taken care of the situation, and Charlie informs her about Noah’s statement to make her realize how foolish she really is. Isaiah is dismissed from the LAPD, burdened with an ankle monitor while he needs to prepare for a legal battle ahead. 

However, Captain James becomes suspicious about Harper after finding a discrepancy in her statement about Coltrane’s alibi, and Cruz too is baffled after realizing Isaiah wouldn’t have had access to his own service weapon after being suspended by Captain James. They realize that, except them, only Harper had access to the weapon, which was inside the glove compartment of James’ car, and looking into CCTV footage of the strip club where Isaiah had met with Amos, they find video evidence of Harper handing Isaiah’s service weapon to Coltrane. Harper has conveniently gone missing, and as it turns out, so has Noah, as he is nowhere to be found in Isaiah’s residence. Charlie has already instructed Harper to kill Noah the first chance she gets, which she informs Ebony of as well. Candace learns about the bugged necklace from Cruz and decides to use it while appealing to Ebony’s conscience and asking her about Noah. A flustered Ebony warns Candace about Noah’s fate, resulting in the cops immediately detaining her for conspiracy for murder upon getting recording of her confession through the bugged necklace. Coltrane, who is away arranging means for safe escape, remains on the run and learns about his wife’s predicament. Malik and Cruz grill Ebony during interrogation, and she makes a call to Charlie to ensure Noah remains safe. By doing so, Ebony further proves she is an accomplice  to Coltrane, and the authorities finally believe Isaiah’s suspicions about Coltrane were true all along. Ebony’s lawyers make her aware about the fact that she will either have to choose her child or her husband, and maintaining her silence about Coltrane will inevitably separate her from her unborn child forever. 

Removing his ankle monitor, Isaiah begins searching for Noah, and he knows his son has vengeful thoughts are clouding his mind. Isaiah finds Noah hanging out with Amos’ friends, who have arranged a vigil in his memory, and Harper, who has tracked Noah down already, is instructed by Charlie not to kill him. Bringing Noah home, Isaiah makes another drastic decision as he approaches Miguel Alvarez once again, this time with the request to have Coltrane killed. Isaiah probably assumed that Coltrane would escape the country, and depending on the law, he would never be able to bring him to justice. He remained unaware at that point that, under present circumstances, he has been reinstated in the force, as Captain James eventually mentions, while a manhunt is about to begin for Coltrane. Candace, who ventured into Ebony’s house in search of clues against Coltrane, finds a picture which suggests she and Charlie are sisters, and confronts Ebony about tricking her all along after she returns to her place. However, the hit put out on Coltrane by the Viejo cartel actually hampers Isaiah’s situation adversely, as the assassins abduct Candace, mistaking her for Ebony, and threaten Coltrane with her life. Charlie had already instructed Harper to kill Coltrane in order to ensure Ebony doesn’t have to make a choice between her child and him. Coltrane kills Harper and calls Charlie, who agrees to help him in rescuing Ebony. Coltrane kills the cartel enforcers and rescues Candace, learning that Ebony has been admitted in the hospital after suffering minor injuries while fleeing from the cartel. Before leaving, Coltrane reveals Isaiah’s actions of putting a hit on him to Candace, who is too terrified and puzzled to return to her husband, and seeks comfort in Malik’s presence instead. 

Charlie sends her crew, including Julia, to have Ebony rescued from the hospital she is admitted to, while Coltrane acts as a distraction to lure Isaiah and the rest of the cops away. Isaiah chases after Coltrane, and as it turns out, Noah has once again snuck out to hang out with Amos’ friends. Viejo cartel enforcers are hunting for Coltrane as well, and chaos erupts during a citywide chase. Noah eventually spots a fleeing Coltrane, and his vengeful instincts take over his mind once again, as he goes after him. Coltrane is cornered by Noah, who intends to put a bullet in him, but gets shot in his leg by a cartel thug. Isaiah reaches the scene, takes care of the thug – and realizes he has a tough choice to make. He can either go after Coltrane, leaving behind his bleeding son, whose injury could prove fatal if he delays too much. Or he could tend to Noah to ensure his safety first, and let the ongoing manhunt for Coltrane run its course. Isaiah has suffered long enough for this man, and in an instant, all the past instances  of Coltrane’s dastardly actions – Manny’s death, Brinkley’s injury, Amos’ death, flash through his mind’s eye. Fortunately, Isaiah makes the right choice and tends to Noah, while Coltrane, taunting his nemesis, flees from the scene as the series draws to an end. It is pretty apparent by the ending that neither party ‘won’ in a conventional sense. Coltrane will not be able to evade the authorities, and it’s just a matter of time before he gets captured. Isaiah’s career and personal life are going to come under fire after his cartel link is discovered, and there is a possibility that he will end up in prison for his actions. Charlie has ensured Ebony’s safety, but both of them are fugitives at this point, who will have to survive by looking over their shoulders in fear of getting caught. 

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