Raised by Wolves, HBO’s barking mad, sci-fi epic ended its first 10 episode season last week, and rather than wrap up some of the many, many mysteries the show raised over the course of the season, the final two episodes went ahead and opened up multiple fresh cans of worms (and snakes!) for audiences to chew on. With HBO Max having already renewed the show after just 3 episodes (do you think they knew about the snakes?) here are 20 questions we really need answered in Season 2 (and beyond?).
Spoiler Warning: This list contains spoilers for the entirety of Season 1 of Raised by Wolves.
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1. Is Kepler-22B Straight-Up Haunted?!?
From the moment human life, artificial, fetal, and otherwise, first set foot on Kepler-22B, there had already been weird spooky goings on… going on. From the odd, apparently bottomless, heaty holes dotting the landscape, to Campion’s visions of his dead siblings, to the voices that have been providing Marcus with handy pointers to becoming the next space pope, the planet has seemed, for lack of better word, haunted.
Are the voices actual ghosts? Is there some Star Trek-style energy based or psychic life form living on the planet? What do they want?
What’s doubly perplexing is that while we’ve seen Campion’s visions and heard what the spirits were saying to Marcus, when it comes to Marcus’s “son” Paul acting under their influence, we don’t get to see or hear what they say to him.
Is Paul acting of his own will? Is he just a secret asshole? Did the voices really want Campion to kill himself? What do they want with mother’s “baby?”
On this show, anything is possible, but we really hope it doesn’t end up like the smoke monster on Lost, where nothing was explained satisfyingly.
2. What’s With the Mithriac Scriptures?
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While the Mithraic first appear to be a weird future offshoot of Christianity, who are clad Monty Python and the Holy Grail meets Space Marine cosplay, the show has dropped multiple hints that their beliefs and scriptures are very different from any religion we know.
For one, their scriptures somehow contain encrypted information on how to build the Necromancer androids, and on the “dark photons” that power them. It’s even stated in the show that the Mithraic don’t quite understand the technology.
I might have missed it in the show, but according to this Collider interview with show creator Aaron Guzikowski, Kepler-22B “was selected in the first place by the Mithraic based on their scriptures.” Who wrote these scriptures, and to what end? Is this a Prometheus situation? Did this version of humanity originate on Kepler-22B, somehow bringing the scriptures with them?
3. Who Is the Orphaned Boy Who Dwells in an Empty Land?
Speaking of the Mithraic scriptures, one passage the show keeps returning to, is that of the “orphaned boy who dwells in an empty land.” Apparently this boy will be a “prophet who will discover the Mithraic mysteries.” Throughout the show, Campion, Marcus, and finally Paul, have all been identified as this prophet – although it’s never clear if any of them are correct.
Considering how much importance the show places on these scriptures, the final candidate for the prophet must have a large part to play in whatever story the show is telling.
Could the snake be the orphan “boy?”
4. What Was Marcus’ Vision All About?
While camping at the Serpent Skeleton Camp (Episode 5, “Infected Memory”), Marcus experienced a pretty trippy vision, with the huge snake skull above him twisting very oddly, as Sue appeared covered in blood, apparently from Mother’s scalpel in his hand. Unusually for a TV show, this vision didn’t come true by the end of season 1. Was this because Marcus tried to stay away from Mother’s scalpel whenever he came across it? Was it just a metaphor for Sue leaving him with the children? Will it come into play in Season 2 or be completely forgotten about?
5. What Is the Temple?
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As the Mithraic searched for their kidnapped children early in the season, they came across a regular dodecahedron shaped object in the middle of a desert. Seeing as their scriptures have got a thing for the number 5, they dubbed it “The Temple,” and used the warmth that it emanated to survive the night, but what is it?
It seemed to respond when the voices talking to Marcus needed it to – burning Ambrose as if on command. It also produced fire much later when Marcus needed it, so what is it? A machine of some sort? A life form? Initially, I thought it might be some kind of egg for those snake creatures whose bones are scattered all over the planet, but I guess not, seeing as we know where they come from now?
I’m guessing that this isn’t the last we’ll see of the Temple either. Justina quoted the scriptures as “you will know them by their shape and number,” so I’m guessing there should be five more temples dotted around the planet. Each one containing plot points.
6. How Did Otho End up Draining Mother’s “Blood?”
This may seem pretty far down the list of questions, but seriously, how did the rapist Otho manage to reverse the “blood” transfusion from Mother, and not only survive, but grow stronger? Almost as strong as Mother? Is this a thing that’s supposed to be possible? Is it something anyone else can do to turbo charge their strength?
Will Marcus be affected after Lucius shoved one of Mother’s eyeballs into his mouth?
7. Who Was the Parkour Alien?
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I’m assuming the alien/human that Mother killed by the hole in the final episode, the one carrying the so called “Neanderthal skull” with them, was the same one that Marcus, Mary, and the Mithraic solders came across at the camp in the Giant Serpent Skeleton back in Episode 5. Are there more of these more “evolved creatures” around? How do they relate to the more devolved creatures? How does one devolve and still leave more evolved relatives around? Is it climate change?
It looked like the creature wanted to hurt, or at least incapacitate, the expectant Mother. Does this put them in opposition to the voices? They seemed pretty adamant that Marcus let her live.
8. Why Didn’t the Bomb Go off ?
When Marcus and the Mithraic troopers had Mother pinned down by the dark mirror, why didn’t the bomb go off? Was their equipment damaged in the crash? Was it simply bad luck, divine will, or was something else protecting Mother?
9. What’s With All the Fluff?
Not since Sir Ridley Scott’s own Legend has there been so much dramatic fluff committed to the screen. How does anyone breathe on Kepler-22B?!
10. What Were the Cards All About?
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At the Serpent Skeleton Camp back in Episode 5, Marcus found some sort of tarot style cards. Were these the same ones that mother found later, and that Paul destroyed in the last episode?
While the cards appeared unremarkable to Marcus, they appeared like advanced technology to Mother, providing her with the vision of the android in the dodecahedron shaped box/birthing chamber. Are they remnants of whatever civilization previously existed on the planet? Did Paul destroy all of them? Why did Paul destroy them? Does someone want to keep the new colonists in the dark regarding the past of the planet?
Why?
11. Does Not Looking at a Necromancer Save You From Her Scream?
When Mother first started… um… exploding Mithriac with her necromancer powers, Marcus urged Campion not to look at her. Does this somehow negate her weapons? How come she had to swap her weaponised and non-weaponised eyes in and out after this? Just in case she shreds the children in a fit of rage? Or is there more to it?
Does ignoring her make her go away? Seems like a pretty big flaw for a war machine?
12. Why Isn’t Tempest the Main Character of the Show?
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Seriously. Tempest rules.
13. Are All the Mithraic Such Jerks?
Look, we know that they’ve been having a bit of a tough time of it lately as most of the Mithraic were wiped out by a psychotic android along with most of their supplies, scuppering their plans for a “civilized colonisation” of Kepler-22B. But between all the infighting, petty disagreements, leadership challenges, and murder attempts, how on earth did enough Mithraic manage to work together long enough to build a spaceship? Every five minutes it seems one of them is declaring themselves as exalted. Even after the crash, even as the last remnants of humanity, they have no issues killing each other.
Despite all their talk of faith, they seem to throw out any leader as soon as they disagree with anything they say, even if said leader has produced an apparent miracle or two, and have no issue trading a farmstead as soon as they arrive on a new planet.
Hopefully the new arrivals on the planet fare a slightly better.
14. Has All This Happened Before? Will It Happen Again?
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While awaiting the birth of Mother’s “baby,” Paul wandered off after Mouse (AGAIN!) and found some cave paintings, clearly depicting the ship Mother and Father arrived on. The paintings also depicted Earth and the snake creatures. According to Aaron Guzikowski, these were created “several hundred thousand years ago,” but depict events only 13 years prior to Paul finding them. How can this be? Will time travel come into this, or did the original inhabitants of Kepler-22B initially send life to Earth with two androids (Adam and Eve)? Is this a Battlestar Galactica scenario, where all of this has happened before and will happen again? Is “humanity” doomed to repeat the same cosmic cycle?
15. What Was Marcus Fighting When He Fought “Himself”?
When Marcus decided to go against the urgings of the voices and tried to cast Mother down into a pit, he ended up facing off against a version of himself, before he had the plastic surgery, when he was still Caleb.
Was this a manifestation of the voices? While it mirrored Marcus’ every move, resulting in him hitting it and himself, repeatedly, in the end it did managed to slash him. Did he slash himself, or did the vision do it, as we’ve not seen them physically interact with anyone else? If they can do this, then why don’t they take more of an active role in guiding the humans?
16. Who is “Campion Sturges?”
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While we know the real Campion Sturges programmed Mother and Father and sent them on their way, the “Campion Sturges” who Mother encountered in the simulation turned out to not be him. So who was it? The computer running the sim seemed to think of him as a distinct entity accessing the sim, rather than just another program. Was Mother right in thinking that he was a virus program in the sim software (or buried somewhere in her own)? Again Aaron Guzikowski has stated that whatever it was, it was “digitally impregnated with information,” “information about how to build a new being. In essence, Mother is like a 3-D printer.”
Is this virtual Campion an avatar for the voices? Does he even have a physical body? Will we see him again?
17. What Do the New Arrivals Mean for the Future of Kepler 22B?
In the final episode, a new ship full of Atheists, the Mithraic’s adversaries, turned up. How will they fit in with the established groups on the planet? Without her combat eyes, Mother shouldn’t be able to destroy them, although would she want to? Will they be as desperate as the Mithraic were when they arrived? Would they be willing to work with Mother and Father? Will they execute Mary and the Mithraic kids on sight? Either way, the power balance on the planet is due to shift again drastically, but in whose favour?
18. Will We See Karl or Another of His Model Android Again?
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He seemed nice. He made a funny Star Trek reference (“I’m a Doctor, not a blood bag”). The campaign to bring back Karl, or one of his brothers, starts here!
19. What the Hell Was That?!?!?
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If you’ve reached this far then you’ve must have seen the last episode of Season 1 and the reveal that Mother’s baby wasn’t some cute little Android/Human hybrid, but instead, a creepy flying snake thing.
Seriously, what the hell was that???
Based upon the vision Mother saw when she accessed the cards, these snake things seem to incubate inside androids? Now where have we seen something like that before?
It’s yet another crazy idea in a show jam packed with them, but what does it all mean? The snake creature seems to be related to the giant skeletons scattered around the planet, and on the Android’s farm, but is it really?
The jaws on those skeletons look more like normal snakes and not like the rows of teeth, and Remora style mouth, of Mother’s other children. According to Guzikowski in a New York Times interview (he seems to have done a lot of these ahead of the finale), “the serpent can also fly because it has traits that Mother passed down to it. So it’s slightly different than the monsters that have come before.” Which makes it no less creepy.
Despite its sinister look and understandable hunger, is Mother’s fear of it warranted? What does it want? What connection does it have to the voices? Why does Ridley Scott keep getting involved in productions with women birthing monsters?
20. Is the Planet Itself Sol?
As Mother and Father take the lander down one of the holes on the planet’s surface in order to destroy the “snake baby” before it harms any of the children, they pass though the core of the planet apparently without harm, apart from a little heat damage. The apparently hollow planet has what looks like a molten core in its hollow centre, but if you squint a bit, it kind of looks a little like the symbol of the Mithraic God Sol that’s emblazoned on their uniforms. Could the planet itself be alive? Is it somehow directing the others though the voices?
At this point I wouldn’t put anything past the showrunners. I just hope that whatever reveals they have planned for Season 2 and beyond makes some kind of sense, even if just within the crazy rules of the show. I hope the show doesn’t just keep getting weirder and weirder until it collapses under its own weight.
Raised By Wolves
HBO, HBO Go, HBO Max, Season 1, 10 episodes
Showrunner: Aaron Guzikowski
Cast: Amanda Collin, Abubakar Salim, Winta McGrath, Travis Fimmel, Niamh Algar, Jordan Loughran, Felix Jamieson, Ethan Hazzard, Aasiya Shah, Ivy Wong, and Matias Varela.
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