Welcome To Eden Ending Explained- All The Best Isaac Theories, The Signal, And Greek Mythology

Generally, when something seems too good to be true, it is. It’s one of the earliest lessons my parents ever taught me. Along with sharing and being kind to others, and don’t eat yellow snow, of course. It’s probably also not a great idea to agree to go somewhere with a bunch of masked men who demand you turn over all cell phones and force you to go through a metal detector. Nonetheless, when we are young, we think we are invincible. Netflix’s Welcome To Eden is a complicated mix of a dystopian cult film with possible alien consequences. Here are all the best theories and everything you need to know about Welcome To Eden.

In Welcome To Eden, a group of 100 young adults is invited to a party on a remote island to participate in what they think is an advertising campaign for a new drink called Blue Eden. Everyone has to give up their phones, and the details about where they are and what they are really doing there are very sketchy. Once on the island, all 100 recruits are asked to wear wristbands that light up when it is time for a select group to sample the drink. Unbeknownst to everyone, the group was not chosen at random but was selected for their emotional and psychological baggage. They all have tragedies in their past and psychological traits that make them easily manipulated. Of the 100, five are special and are the festival’s target.

The group is on Eden and the leader is a woman named Astrid who along with her partner Erick and the full time residents who are also previous partiers, work to actively recruit and cover-up what Eden really does. The majority of the recruits don’t seem to be completely aware of what is happening but a few act as executioners which seems to indicate they are fully aware of what is going on and agreeable. Most of the group genuinely thinks Eden is a good place designed to offer support and comfort while making the world a better sustainable place. Bel and her partners are exceptions, actively working against Astrid.

Except for Aldo, who was killed early on after trying to escape from the island, the new recruits are tricked into staying by either romantic entanglement or by the offer of acceptance, which was the case of Mayka and Africa. Zoa begins to have doubts, and Nico shows her Judith’s dead body to scare her into believing everything he is saying. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect, and her resolve to get off the island got even stronger. Throughout their time on Eden, our group tried hard not to drink the Koolade while avoiding detection as rebels.

The ending of Welcome To Eden

In San Sebastian, Zoa’s sister tried to find her sister and located David, who had gone to the party with her. David had stolen his bracelet, and it lit up when Gabi put it on. Presumably, that triggered something back in the computer hub that Mayka monitored because alarms started going off. She also began posting on social media constantly in hopes of getting invited to the next party. Meanwhile, Zoa, Charly, and Ibón hatched a plan to sneak off the island in a boat when the new recruits are brought for the next party. In addition, Africa planned to make herself more valuable to Astrid by orchestrating a party for her anniversary. At the same time, the private investigator that Ibón’s family hired to find him was getting very close to figuring it all out.

Everyone makes plans to escape, stage a revolution, or recruit more kids on the island. However, someone tries to assassinate Astrid, and Erick gets stabbed when they fight him off. They take him to Isaac, a young boy living in another part of the island. He stopped the bleeding and stitched him up while Astrid kept preparations going for the festival. Feeling angry and helpless, Zoa takes a dune buggy and drives south along the island, where Bel finds her and convinces her to come back. Bel tells her she will help her escape. It is not entirely clear, though, if Bel did this to save Zoa, realizing she would probably be caught. On the other hand, Zoa would not be killed if they thought she snuck away to have sex with Bel.

The Edeners who live on the mainland track down David, who gave his smuggled bracelet to Gabi, and kill him after learning who he gave the bracelet to. The PI who pickpocketed the bracelet from Gabi hacked into the chip and located the signal source. She arrived on the island simultaneously with the new crop of recruits. Our group launches their plan at the festival, and Zoa almost gets killed by Ulises but is stopped at the last minute by Ibón.

Mayka sees Charly escaping on the boat but doesn’t report him. In Astrid and Erick’s house, Africa finds a hidden door leading to a massive bank of supercomputers. She hits a button and inadvertently triggers a satellite to move at Isaac’s place. The message says sending the signal to outer space, and Africa gets trapped in the room. Zoa swims to the boat, but before she reaches it, she sees her sister being taken to the festival and knows she must stay to save her.

What it is Blue Eden?

The blue drink is a hallucinatory cocktail that unlocks past trauma and memories making everyone more susceptible to the cult and more pliable to their teachings. Based on the obsession with the blue powder and the blue flowers and liquid seen throughout the opening credit sequence, we can assume this is a derivative of a native plant on Eden harvested and condensed into a drink and possibly other things.

Eden is a cult

Eden is a controlled group with specific rules, ideology, and hierarchies. New recruits are called flowers and encouraged to grow spiritually on the island. If they refuse to abide by the rules or question things, they are treated as weeds and eradicated. In Episode 5, Astrid says as much about Zoa when she is reported for bad behavior. The recruits are manipulated into joining Eden by “linking” them with a romantic partner that will provide an anchor to Eden and hopefully make them forget about home.

Everyone is tattooed with stars which denote their standing in the group. The more stars, the higher they are within the infrastructure. They only kill people using Brenda’s bolt gun, and blue powder is rubbed on their arm before death. A ritual marking their commitment to joining the cult involves drinking the hallucinatory beverage and walking across hot coals. After the initial linking, relationships are discouraged, and pregnancy is prohibited.

Eden is not like Jonestown or the Heaven’s Gate cult in that they aren’t interested in mass suicide but something more esoteric. They channel energy using breathing exercises and are unnaturally concerned with lightning storms. Their purpose seems to be environmental consciousness and dedication to worshipping Astrid, although those seem very generic for as structured as everything else is. Perhaps in Welcome To Eden Season 2, we will get a broader understanding of their core beliefs.

Greek and religious mythology and symbols

There is a lot to unpack in Welcome to Eden. The creators were definitely fans of Homer. Like Odysseus, who becomes trapped with his men on the island of the Lotus Eaters, Zoa and the other recruits are trapped on Eden by forces beyond their control. The lotus stripped the men of any desire to do anything but eat more of the fruit while Blue Eden melts away the recruit’s common sense. They are vulnerable, to begin with, and drinking the cocktail makes them even more so. It is tantamount to psychotrophic drugs being used in mind control.

Although the place is called Eden, it is not Heaven or even close to it. Like the painting Charon Crossing The Styx, which is recreated incorrectly in Astrid’s house, everyone gets to the halfway point between the two places and must decide where they are going. Charon is looking towards Hell in the actual painting, indicating he has chosen or feels he deserves to be there. The artwork in Astrid’s house has Charon looking backward toward Eden, indicating either he longs to be there despite heading in the wrong direction or planning to turn around. However, the fallacy with this is that by drugging and manipulating the children, they do not have free will to decide where they choose to go.

The head of security, Ulises, is pulled directly from Roman mythology. He was known as Odysseus by the Greeks but Ulysses by the Romans. Considering Ulises was last seen floating in the ocean, it is highly unlikely we will see him again. Welcome to Eden has Africa bite into an apple in a deliberate shot that foreshadows her Episode 8 actions. Like Adam and Eve, who bites an apple from the Tree of Knowledge, Africa discovered and set off a chain of events that will change everything forever.

Lastly, Bel denies implanting the “Death to Astrid” message in the anniversary party presentation and says there was a mark of Lilith. Who Lilith could be, we don’t know, but Lilith in the Christian bible is Adam’s first wife who was banished from the Garden of Eden after she failed to obey Adam. She became the original she-demon and the mother of a line of demons. With fifteen years of history bringing people to the island, there is no shortage of people who could be candidates. There is also the possibility that Astrid’s mother, who is never talked about, could be the culprit. Her father spawned this cult, so her mother may be its destroyer. The assumption is whoever is behind Lilith also tried to kill Astrid.

Why do they need recruits?

Like any cult, Astrid wants world domination. Her goal is to kill anyone she can’t control and assimilate everyone else into Eden, where she becomes the de facto Queen of the world. She needs new recruits to replace those who have begun doubting the mission statement and provide fresh meat to use as links. Unfortunately, Eden has a very high burn rate, so frequent parties are necessary to backfill all the people she orders killed. She wants an army of disciples, but the problem is the more people you have to control, the harder it is to keep them happy and in line. The other problem with new recruits and linking is that when Astrid uses Erick to link with Africa, he develops real feelings, which enrages Astrid.

Who is Isaac, and is he an alien?

Isaac is a boy that Zoa sees early in the season and returns in Episode 7 when Astrid drives Erick to get medical treatment. Although he appears to be no older than twelve, he has medical knowledge beyond his years. He lives away from the rest of the cult with another adult. Unlike the rest of the cult, he and his caretaker wear brown clothing. His pod looks like everyone else’s, except it has a computer and child’s drawings. Isaac also has slight reddish markings on his temple, which could be a birthmark or indicative of something stranger.

Like the Heaven’s Gate cult, which believed everyone would ascend to another plane in space after death, Eden might believe they also ascend somewhere higher because they have a real live alien living with them. He could have also brought the blue flower they revere. It would explain his medical abilities and why he was kept segregated from the rest of the group. Astrid and Erick believe he is unique, and they will go to live on “the real Eden” at some point with Isaac. In a picture Isaac drew, there is the same cross-like symbol that all cult members wear in the sky. Could this be a spaceship waiting to take off for Earth?

Another theory posits Isaac is a manufactured human, and the reddish marks on his temple are his attachment to an artificial womb. Given that all the pods look spacey and the message is being sent to outer space, it is more likely that Astrid’s father came into contact with an alien years ago and based a religion on that experience. Isaac is either the result of that encounter or the alien her father first met. He may age slower than humans, which allows for his young age but advanced abilities.

Hopefully, Netflix won’t one and done this series as they have done to so many before. This surprisingly good series deserves better.