Raised by Wolves is on hiatus for an unknown and possibly indeterminate period after its second season finale. As it awaits a possible third season, the time has come to ask the immortal question: exactly what is going on in this bizarre science fiction epic?
In two seasons and only 18 episodes, the adventure of Mother, Father, and their troubled brood has traversed the planet and seen the ups and downs of life on Kepler-22b. Their adventure has been a strange one, and every episode brought new twists and turns. Far from the seemingly grim ending of the first season, season two ends on multiple cliffhangers with huge implications. Obviously, there will be spoilers ahead for the entirety of Raised by Wolves seasons one and two.
The Cliffhangers
For the uninitiated, or those who might simply need a refresher, Episode 8: "Happiness" places the status quo of Raised by Wolves in an entirely new place. The former war machine turned nurturing parent, Mother, finally comes to terms with the fact that her monstrous offspring, known primarily as Number Seven, must be destroyed. She is unable to kill her child due to her strict parenting programming, but she finds a loophole. Father's pet project, Grandmother, is a comparable machine who wears a veil that dulls sensory information. Mother dons the veil, and in a spectacular confrontation, puts an end to her child's reign of terror. Rather than return the veil as she said she would, she decides to continue wearing it. Meanwhile, Grandmother ingratiates herself to the family and seems to take Mother's role in short succession. Grandmother deceives Mother, then traps her in a VR pod while she takes over.
Grandmother's programming leads her to solely pursue the best percentage of human survival, with no failsafe in place and little specification as to what constitutes a "human." Her plan becomes clear as she oversees Mother and Father's children. She intends to allow mankind to undergo devolution and transform into the nightmarish creatures that inhabit the acid sea. Doing so will rob them of sapience and leave them slavering monsters with no quality of life, but will make them much more capable of long-term survival. Grandmother's scheme only requires time and complacency, as the evolution seems to be taking effect on its own. To keep people quiet, she mollifies the public with video games and empty promises. The end of the episode shows that the process has already begun, and fans can't yet know whether Mother will be able to regain control, or which path the humans will choose for themselves.
Marcus is also left in an extremely strange position by the end of the episode. His brief partnership with Mother nets him basically nothing, and he's left to wander the area after Number Seven is taken care of. Marcus has had an almost comical level of plot armor throughout the season, if not the entire series, so when he's caught off guard, the audience can guess how it'll end. Marcus is captured by his disgruntled former comrade Lucius, who sees him as a false prophet and has been trying to kill him for weeks. Lucius is compelled by the unseen voice that he describes as Sol to crucify Marcus upside down while wearing the executioner's helm, leaving him to slowly bleed to death. After ages of watching his nemesis waste away, Lucius stands to remove the body, only to find it isn't there. Marcus is seen floating around ten feet in the air, bleeding profusely, in the same flipped crucifixion pose. The music swells and the show cuts to credits.
What Does It All Mean?
There is a ton to unpack in those final moments, but much of it remains hidden. The second season has depicted plenty of "Sol's" apparent influence on Kepler-22b, but it has also made it clear that the being known as Sol is not a god, but something else entirely. Mother and some other atheist characters refer obliquely to an Entity that is sending signals from somewhere on the planet. Its desires are unclear, but its power is coming into focus. The Entity influenced Mother to birth Number Seven, forced Sue to turn into a tree, and told Number Seven to eat that tree. While it isn't clear why it did any of those things, it is clear that its influence has almost exclusively caused misery among humans.
There are more questions than answers going into a prospective Raised by Wolves Season 3, but the current status is a powder keg. Campion and his newfound siblings are at risk of transforming into fish monsters. Marcus has attained something akin to superpowers. Grandmother is plotting the doom of what remains of mankind while successfully tricking everyone around her into playing along. Mother is trapped in the same type of technological marvel that last left her with terrible child, and the clock is ticking. A lot is going on, as always, but it's up to Raised by Wolves to depict what happens next.