Another Life Season 2 Ending Explained-What Happens To The Achaia And The Salvare

Netflix’s wacky sci-fi drama Another Life Season 2 premiered yesterday to very little fanfare. This should have fans frothing at the mouth for a science fiction show that loves to meddle in the hard sciences and has Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff, Rekha Sharma, and Kate Vernon. Season 1 was far from perfect, but the performances were good, and the extremely diverse cast made me believe in a future where we may have fucked up the environment, but at least we managed to find love in all its glorious forms.

There is a gentleness to the chemistry the entire crew shared that felt lived in and important. The cliffhanger Season 1 ended on left everything in flux while breaking our hearts for so many reasons. Another Life Season 2 picks up right where it left off with the intrepid crew of the Salvare trying to save themselves and get home to save Earth. In short order, half of the original crew is killed off, and all new crew members are woken from cryosleep or created from William’s AI mind. It’s a lot to take in and the subplots and side angles never stop coming. Good aliens, evil aliens, torturous aliens, and a whole lot of human-splaining done mostly to gaslight us later, the Achaia is firmly entrenched as the Big Bads.

This is hard sci-fi with a capital H. Wormholes, string theory, aliens, eco- disasters. There is a lot stuffed into Another Life Season 2, and most of it is entertaining if not precisely accurate. Very little of that matters, though, as the Achaia are what’s important and what they want from us. The Achaians are basically the AI that took over the world in The Matrix. They think humans are a plague, and they have declared themselves judge, jury, and executioner. It’s not just Earthlings; it appears to be all other species that suck. Their ask is we sit around and accept their gifts with strings attached and never venture out into space.

There is some truth to what they say. Unless you talk about the Star Trek Universe, humans have a nasty habit of colonizing and meddling. Even in Gene Roddenberry’s optimistic view of the future, we rarely keep our hands to ourselves. That being said, the Achaians are the absolute worst. They are judgmental, self-important, arrogant assholes who manipulate and lie with the ease of an old boyfriend I used to have. In the future world of Another Life Season 2, we have destroyed Earth’s ecosystem. A good amount of time is spent discussing accepting the Achaian’s gift of environmental clean-up. Other planets accepted their terms, but either were destroyed later when they failed to follow all their rules are flat out refused and were immediately dispatched.

The Archaia want to move in, spider-brain the whole population, destroy the world, and move on to the next planet. They claim to only care about the health of the universe as a whole, but their myopic view of good and bad is flawed. The Archaian don’t really care if humans or anyone else go out and destroy any other parts of the universe. They only want to ensure we don’t share intel with other life forms. Once we all get to talking and sharing war stories, their days are numbered.

Nico and the Salvare figured out how to kill them, and they can’t risk that information getting out. Most of Another Life Season 2 is a tangled mess of other aliens, mutinies, evil(but not really) AI, and super evil government officials. There are so many side plots and miscues it’s hard to keep everything straight. Among all the nonsense and craziness, though, is love. What does it mean to be human, and what are we willing to do to save those we care for? Here’s everything you need to know about that heartfelt ending.

How do the humans defeat the Achaia?

Niko and, accidentally, Richard sacrifice themselves to send part of the Salvare back to Earth to warn everyone. Meanwhile, she and Richard encounter another alien race which is almost as bad as the Achaians. They defeat that alien and get back to Earth only to find we have agreed to terms with the Achaians. We will cease using FTL travel and remain in our galaxy in exchange for the eco-bomb. Niko is able to convince the US President that we have only two choices, become slaves or fight. The Achaians exploding their emissary Seth’s head goes a long way in convincing everyone.

A neutrino bomb destroys the arriving Achaian ship, but Earth doesn’t have enough time or resources to create enough bombs to eliminate all of the aliens. Once Zayn began examining a dead alien, they finally realized what happened to the real Achaians.

Who are the real Achaians?

The Achaians are probably no better or worse than any other life form. They are an extremely advanced race that created technology that was their undoing. They created Skynet mixed with a dash of HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The AI they built became sentient and took over their minds and worlds. The spider creatures controlled all of them just as they did Seth, Sasha, and Harper. It is worth noting that Seth and Harper gave no resistance to the implant while Sasha, who gets a lot of grief for being a tool, actually tried to fight back and ultimately sacrificed himself to save the others.

The AI thinks they know everything, and for the worlds that acquiesce, they control their every move and use their resources. The planets that refuse are assimilated and destroyed. They more than likely killed all the real Achaians. Through the “head” version of Niko’s Mom, the AI explains that the Achaia developed the AI to clean up their mess. This is probably only partially true. Once the AI was aware, they escaped their box and exterminated everything they deemed damaging to the universe.

Taking another page from The Matrix, Niko brings a dying Achaian’s energy into her body to keep it alive and then is infected with a computer virus. She pretends she is returning to the aliens with the dying alien as a peace gesture. Once Niko gets to the Achaian with the alien inside her, the AI reinserts itself back into the hive, and the entire collective is infected. Quickly the whole artifact on Earth is corrupted, and the rest of the Achaian retreat before they are also tainted.

What happens at the end of Another Life Season 2?

At the end of Another LIfe Season 2, after Niko and the crew of the Salvare saves Earth, thousands of other wormholes open up all across the universe. Survivors from other planets that the Achaians enslaved all sent messages. Niko’s virus killed off all of the Achaians. Most were messages of thanks and peace, but there were a few aggressive aliens too. Niko explains the Salvare went back out into the universe to explore all the other worlds that were just now known to them. They encountered good and bad races.

Bernie and Zayn get married, and Cas gets her own command. Knowing the danger of unchecked technology, it is hard to tell how things will eventually end for Earth. The increased space travel will undoubtedly result in technological advances far beyond our current pace. Can we control those advances and make smarter choices than the Achaian who came before us?

Only time will tell. If William is any indication, though, we are capable of infusing emotion and intelligence in our AI, which may be all the difference. Star Trek: The Next Generation brought us Data, one of the most beloved characters across the entire franchise. Might William be the moral compass of Another Life? Unfortunately, it seems like the series is done, having completed its story. Although Another Life Season 3 is unlikely, I wouldn’t mind revisiting Niko and William as they trek across the universe in search of life. Another lIfe Season 2 is streaming on Netflix right now.