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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
After the first appearance of man and woman, a serpent shall appear. Raised by Wolves‘s Season 1 finale is titled “The Beginning,” written by series creator Aaron Guzikowski and directed by Luke Scott.
Some spoilers ahead for those who have not yet seen this episode or the previous episodes of the show’s first season. If you have not done so, get to that now, then return to this article!
The tenth and final episode of HBO Max’s first season of its end-of-Fall science-fiction drama has offered a great paced story with a fantastic cliffhanger. “The Beginning” follows Mother (Amanda Collin), Father (Abubakar Salim), and Sue Drusus (Niamh Algar) taking the children away from crazed human zealot Marcus Drusus (Travis Fimmel). What viewers see in this finale is an Old Testament tale of humans anxiously wondering about their future.
The children have differing opinions on Mother’s child. Sue believes Campion (Winta McGrath) is jealous of the baby, while Hunter (Ethan Hazzard) thinks it is “divine” and that the children were sent to the Kepler-22b planet to become scribes of the events that had taken place. The Drusus’s Paul (Felix Jamieson) is lured into a cave as he follows his pet Mouse, and there, he discovers cave drawings, one of which depicts a large snakelike creature.
Father is curious behind Mother’s conception of the child, and she reveals that she had interacted with her creator via virtual reality and that she had plugged herself into the humans’ shared simulation system. The male android expresses his “displaced” reaction to this and tells Mother, “Our mission is for us to determine … We taught [the children] to believe in themselves, not a god!” Angered, he leaves but soon returns after thinking matters through. He plans to start anew with fresh memories to create but without any love toward his female android companion, but this seems to fail when such Mother’s deliverance of her child comes sooner than expected. The two androids abandon the rest of the family as a means to save them from something worse than Marcus.
Marcus survives his beating from the previous episode and finds a new group of humans. He kills them and proclaims he is “the king of this world.” As he pleads to the god Sol for another chance to live, his former wife Sue tells their son that God isn’t real. The boy later gets the truth of his parenthood out of her when he aims a gun at her. Sol tells him the truth about his real parents, and Paul calls his so-called mother “an atheist demon”. Right before this happens, Sue discovers something about Mother’s child that has everyone worried.
Proud that Campion stood his ground, Father tells his son he is fit to be a warrior. Like Marcus, the two androids realize there are other inhabitants on the planet. Mother is nearly attacked by a creature, who was in possession of a Neanderthal skull. She and Father learn that the planet may be full of devolving humans, and not only that: Mother’s child is not of the creator but rather someone — actually, someTHING — else. As foreshadowed by the cave drawings, a snakelike entity comes out of her instead of a human/android child and feeds off her milk, and she tells Father that it will soon need blood. They take the snake into the humans’ lander ship and fly into a pit toward the planet’s hot core. The good news is Mother and Father jump out of the ship before its impact onto the ground. Unfortunately, the snake has survived, grown rapidly, and escaped the ship.
While Mother believes she may be a “creator of death,” there is no doubt she and Father believe Campion has what it takes to lead the humans. As their lives flashed before their eyes, they reminisce about their times with the family. This finale of Raised by Wolves is great, reflecting Adam and Eve’s encounter with the Serpent. Like these Biblical figures, the androids have defied God and now face the consequences, which is evil before their very eyes. Mother and Father learn their biggest mistake yet: neglecting exploring the rest of the planet. As the series closes its first season, we have yet to wonder what is to be found on Kepler-22b, which has, as Father says, “[A] history I fear we are dangerously ignorant of.”
“The Beginning” indicates a Genesis-esque introduction to the series and that there will definitely be much more to come.
What do you think of the series? Have you seen the show yet? Let us know! For more science-fiction, drama, HBO Max, and Raised by Wolves-related news and reviews, follow The Cinema Spot on Twitter (@TheCinemaSpot) and Instagram (@thecinemaspot_).
Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
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