Scavenger’s Reign Season 1 Ending Explained- The Garden Of Eden, Adaptation, Human Fraility, The New Ship, And Will There Be A Season 2

Quite possibly, the most moving and beautiful horror/sci-fi series right now concluded this week with a thoughtful whisper. Max’s Scavenger’s Reign is easily the most inventive and immersive story in any genre. MAX has made a name for itself, delivering unexpectedly thoughtful delights with Raised By Wolves and Doom Patrol. Scavenger’s Reign beats them both. It also is awe-inspiring, terror-inducing horror but in a quietly hypnotic way. It is like a surreal nightmare that is as stunning as horrifying.

In many ways, it is the very definition of horror because not everyone has slashers chase them down a street. In fact, very few have had the experience of a wise-cracking zombie camper with pragmatic taste in costuming, and more machetes than forgiveness come after them. Likewise, nobody has been in a strange new world with all the fantastical flora and fauna it would hold.

The existential questions about what truly scares us, makes us sad, or moves us, however, are things we can all relate to. Combining the relatable fears of a planet of deadly creatures we have zero control over with, what it means to be human is magical. It’s a strange kind of fear that sneaks up on you with gorgeous instrumental sequences that fill your ears even as all manner of gore and gunk assault your eyes. Everything has been leading to a final violent end on the planet Vesta for our group of wayward travelers.

Four humans and one robot crash-landed on Vesta when Kamen, one of the four human survivors, made a huge, arrogant error. When they landed, the group was separated into smaller subsets. Sam and Ursula, the most practical of the two, landed together and quickly began finding ways to use what was around them. Azi and the robot Levi landed together, and Levi began a profound change courtesy of alien fungi. Halfway through the series, he is destroyed, but thanks to a symbiotic relationship with his technology and nature, he is reborn, and it is from that rebirth that hope springs in the Scavenger’s Reign finale.

Lastly, Kamen lands alone. He is unkind, selfish, aggressively angry, and manipulative. He becomes even worse when he integrates with the eerily powerful Hollow, a mind-melding creature of inordinate power. It doesn’t help that the creature seems to feed on his worst instincts, memories, emotions, and later on, the very husk of his body. It’s like some futuristic Arthur Chillingsworth, consumed by his guilt, anger, and rage, manifests the demise he deserves. Here is the most flawed of men literally affecting the environment around him for the worse. It shouldn’t go without mentioning that it is his fault they are all there to begin with.

Kamen is being destroyed by guilt because he finally went too far. When he is confronted with something that feeds off of the worst in us, it is a perfect storm of nihilism. It’s a bleak, inescapable cycle. The more pain Kamen is in, the more the Hollow grows. Eventually, he has fed the Hollow so much that he is large enough to consume him, carrying him in his belly like some primordial pouch of pity and pain. It’s not a mistake that the Hollow reacts so negatively to him. It was small before they landed there. It was only after interacting with Kamen that it grew in size and power exponentially. Hollow probably wouldn’t have ever been able to destroy Levi in a heartbreaking and terrifying sequence that shows just how far in over their heads this group is.

A fall from grace in Scavenger’s Reign

They have all had falls. If they aren’t falling off cliffs or rocks or into and onto animals and plants, they are falling in and out of sleep. They needed this fall, some arguably more than others. Levi was innocent and didn’t deserve what happened to it(her). Levi is reborn, and some might argue Levi represents what is good in the world, with Kamen’s rebirth of sorts planting him firmly on the side of evil.

Sam and Ursula meet a native who has learned to live with every aspect of the planet. She is wordless but seems to regard them as ignorant children. We later learn that although she appeared to help Sam, she doomed him. We say potentially our last goodbye to him as we say hello again to old friend Levi. When the new group of Kris, Terrance, And Barry arrive, they also bring a specific aspect of humanity. They are scavengers there to raid the planet and any ships of their resources. They are not sympathetic and are focused on the task at hand. Terrance, the gentler of the two adults, doesn’t last long, and his death is brutal. Those who die could return in Scavenger’s Reign Season 2, however as things have a habit of transforming and being reborn on this planet.

Hollow, Kamen, and Levi

Likely everything that Hollow did was a reaction to Kamen’s influence. Hollow ripped Levi to pieces because it sounded like Fiona and represented a threat to Kamen and itself. When Kamen heard Fiona’s voice coming out of Levi he pulled back ever so slightly from Hollow and that separation must have felt like a betrayal or loss as profound as any death. This little creature had prior only melded with less intelligent and complex lifeforms. Kamen’s complicated and unpleasant makeup made Hollow dangerous.

Levi on the other hand was pure and thus when it was reborn it was an adaptation of neutrality. Levi chose to separate Kamen and Hollow to restore the balance, not necessarily to pick sides. She came back to help Azi because she, “had to”. What that means exactly we don’t know. Maybe because they were friends once or maybe because it was crucial to balance the scales again. It was all stripped away in a sonic wind of understanding and righteous stripping, leaving Kamen and Hollow separated and returned to their former state.

As the crew finds a way to live on and with the planet, baby Levi’s are born. what that means for the bigger picture we don’t know. Who the new people on the ship are we also don’t know but their possibilities are countless. One of the baby Levi’s is on the shuttle with Kris. Is it helping her and how will the new people respond to it? We will have to wait to find out.

The ending of Scavenger’s Reign explained

Kamen and the Hollow are defeated rather uneventfully by Levi, acting as corporeal form for the planet itself, who shoos the psychic creature away like it was swatting a fly. It then detangles it from Kamen and restores order to both. Hollow hopefully learned from its experience and will go back to life as a collaborative part of the ecosystem. Kamen,, I am not convinced, has learned anything. The implication is Hollow would never have evolved the way it did had it not been corrupted by Kamen. This further emphasizes the idea of a Garden of Eden, but instead of God, there is the planet.

The small group will expand to include everyone Ursula was able to wake up. How many make it and what they bring to the group is sure to be exciting. So many lives were lost and the horror of what remains will stick with them for better or worse. If they learn to adapt though all will not be lost.

The entirety of Season 1 has been a literal fall from grace for Kamen. All of our characters fall constantly throughout the twelve-episode arc. The imagery is everywhere. Some need to fall harder to get the message. What that message is can be interpreted in many ways. Although seriously dangerous for humans, the planet is an Eden of natural life. It is the circle of life personified. Humans, with all their bluster and messiness, are inconsequential here. We are nothing more than another food source or a disruptive virus. Maybe the lesson is to leave the planet exactly as we found it. Giving and taking nothing, treating it as a spiritual being worthy of worship.

A second possibility is to continue to work with the planet, taking only what is needed and respecting the spaces we touch. This is obviously the approach Ursula and Sam take until he is infected by a harmful parasite. One final possibility is to love it as a physical being. Maybe learning to revere it and learn from it as we build connections we never thought were possible. Scavenger’s Reign clearly wants us to feel differently than those who are experiencing the horrors of the planet. We see it as a wondrous place that lulls you gently into serenity while hurling gastly images at your face. For Sam, Ursula, Kamen, Azi, and now sentient Levi, it is one long nightmare they can’t wake up from.

For good or bad, connections matter the most

In the end it is the connections they make that matter. Ursula was distrustful of Azi at first but chose to help her because that is who she is. She was rewarded with a hug. That moment of connection made them better. Kris looked out for only herself. Even her relationship with Terrance and Barry was fraught with self preservation. She gets what is coming to her and is left alone on the planet. Kris cant see that those relationships are what saves us. It is why she doesn’t understand that saving those in crysosleep is not only the right thing to do but also possibly the thing that could save them all. Barry’s heartbreak when Kris leaves him is devastating. He trusted her and she let him down because she only looks out for herself.

Theories on the new ship

As Scavenger’s Reign came to an end, a new group of people is introduced. Are they friend or foe? Maybe they were working with the parasistic woman and her husband before they were infected? Could they be like Levi and sentient robots who became something more than the sum of their parts? Close up views of their feet do look like wires are attached. Are they a borg-like species? Do they worship the planet or fear it? As with most stories like this they are undoubtedly harmful to our protagonists. They almost certainly will factor in to season 2 and may be the Big Bad of the next season.

One last possibility I would love to explore, they could be the group Kris is with. Maybe she belongs with them and she acts as their scavenger and servant. It might explain her complete lack of emotion or empathy. with so many symbiotic relationships in this series, having them be reliant on each other would fit thematically.

The human in me wants to draw parallels between what happens on the planet and humanity. Just like the plants and animals on Vesta, we are sometimes monstrous, sometimes kind and thoughtful. We are capable of tremendous good and overwhelming evil, just like the planet. That pattern-seeking part of my brain, the egocentric human in me, wants to make this story all about us. It isn’t. Scavenger’s Reign is about the grand and cosmic Us, which includes us but isn’t about us. The planet isn’t evil despite how scary it is to humans. It simply is alive and it is us that decides wrongly that it is good or bad.

To change is to live. Adaptation is necessary everywhere but especially on this planet. Some grew for the better and others only perverted what was once pure. Vesta is a hellish planet. Ever since the group landed there everything has been trying to kill them, eat them, or exploit them. That doesn’t mean the planet is bad though. It’s nature. It is the way it must be and that is why Scavenger’s Reign resonanates so much with viewers.

We are just a small infinitesimal part of the bigger picture, and this group seems to be learning that. Although some of them get a happy ending of sorts. The surviving members are together again and Levi has taken on an important role.

As Scavenger’s Reign Episode 12 ends though, disaster looms. There has been no word on Scavenger’s Reign Season 2 as of yet, but this stunning piece of art and storytelling deserves more time. I’m not through learning my lessons. Season 1 is currently streaming on MAX.