With the release of its first season, “Pacific Rim: The Black,” the animated series was quick to capture the hearts of its fans. Set in the same universe as the movies, the series provides a closer insight into the lives of the survivors after monster-like creatures take over the entire world. Created by Guillermo del Toro and Travis Beacham, directed by Hiroyuki Hayashi and Jae-Hong Kim, and developed by Greg Johnson, Craig Kyle, Paul Giaoppo, and Nicole Dubuc, Season 2 of “Pacific Rim” is back with a bang to give out more information after Season 1 served the audience with a colossal cliffhanger. Season 2 was finally released on Netflix worldwide on April 19th, 2022, after a year-long break.
See More:‘Pacific Rim: The Black’ Season 1: Ending, Explained – Into The World Of Jaegers & Kaijus
‘Pacific Rim: The Black’ Season 2: Plot Summary
Previously, in Season 1 of “Pacific Rim: The Black,” Taylor and Hayley were saved by their parents during an invasion of creatures named Kaiju. The Kaijus wreaked enough havoc to trigger the emergency alarms to ring all over the world. This distress caused Brina and Hunter to lose connections with the other Yaegers, and they had to relocate the kids to Shadow Basin, which had enough food and water to last them till they got help. Five years later, and still no sign of adults, all the teenagers tried to fend for themselves. Hayley discovered Atlas Destroyer, a jaeger, but unfortunately, the activation alarm on the jaeger called for the Kaijus. Shadow basin and its occupants get destroyed by the Kaiju, spurring Taylor and Hayley to find help. They set their course towards Sydney Base and meet Boy and Mei on the way. They ultimately find out that Boy is actually a human that can transform into a Kaiju. Mei leaves Shane and his group to join Taylor, Hayley, and Boy.
Season 2 begins with Boy learning to transform back into his human form. Boy now has a scar that shares insight into his true form. While trying to save the siblings from Kaijus, Boy runs into The Sister, a cult that worships Kaijus. They attack with a poisonous ladybug infecting the boy. The Sisters, however, leave because they do not want to be discovered when Hayley rushes to find the boy. Hayley’s heart breaks to see Boy suffering from the poison. The siblings go back to Mei, who leads them to a Kaiju tamer who apparently houses an anecdote. The Sisters intervene, and ultimately, the Tamer is killed by his Kaijus. The small group, with the help of Loa, the AI of Atlas Destroyer, rushes to escape the Sisters and tries to reach the Sydney Base to finally find a safe haven.
What Happened To Taylor And Hayley’s Mother?
In the first episode, the boy gets infected due to the sisters’ attack. This leads to Mei making up with the siblings and setting out to find the antidote for Boy. They arrive at a place crawling with Kaijus. Mei explains to them that this is where the Kaiju tamer lives and that he is the only one with the antidote. They meet him, but before he could hand the antidote to them, he gets killed by his Kaijus, who were distressed due to the interference of The Sisters. The Kaijus then start attacking Atlas Destroyer, and they have to rush to escape, yet they are led straight to the Sister’s lair. While escaping their lair, Taylor, Hayley, and Mei get divided on what to do with Boy when it becomes apparent that the sisters want Boy. Taylor makes the decision of handing Boy over to them as a means to guarantee a safe route for all of them. But, the Sisters make sure that the Kaijus attack them and kill them to prevent them from escaping. Shane, who was following them, did catch one sister and helped save them. Turns out, the sister in his custody was Taylor and Hayley’s mother, Brina, who was brainwashed and had lost her conscience to the High Priestess when she became a sister.
Shane offered a trade-off to the group, but was rejected by Mei, and instead did a last favor for Mei. He offers to scour Brina’s consciousness for her lost soul and bring her back to Taylor and Hayley. He pairs up with Brina and, with the help of Loa, enters her mind. He does find Brina, but he loses his soul trying to save her. Brina resurfaces after being under the mind control of the priestess, but Mei loses Shane forever. Brina then helps all of them to save Boy, but in the process, gets injured. Brina reaches the end of her life after exhausting her mind and soul trying to keep the High Priestess at bay and from accessing their location. Taylor and Hayley strap her into the pilot’s harness, and Loa plants a memory of all of them reaching Sydney Base safely and being reunited with Hunter. This memory served as the best send-off they could give to their mother. They gave Brina and Shane a proper burial before eventually leaving the perimeter with Boy still unconscious. They started running Atlas Destroyer to make it to the Sydney Base before The Sisters set more Kaijus on them.
Was A Boy Able To Escape The Claws Of The Sisters?
Taylor made a huge mistake by handing over Boy to the Sisters without putting up a fight. He earned the ire of his sister Hayley and also of Mei. They were then attacked by Kaijus set off by the Sisters, only to be saved by Shane, who had come to save Mei from trouble. Shane took a sister hostage and killed the other two present there. The captured sister turned out to be Taylor and Hayley’s mother. This bought them time to plan how they would save the boy. After Shane saved their mother and lost his life in the process, they got to know that the Sisters were treating Boy like the Messiah and were planning to attack the other bases via him. He had begun the transfusion of their blood with his to cleanse his mind and soul of any memories of Hayley. His attachment to Hayley had prevented him from being turned completely into a weapon. Hayley, Taylor, Mei, and Brina devised a plan to attack the sisters from inside and stop the transfusion from being completed. While Brina had the high priestess’s attention, Mei stole Boy from right under her nose, and they ran back to the Yaeger. However, the Sisters made the Kaijus attack Brina. She killed them, only to be hurt in the process. With her and Shane’s burial in place and with everybody back in the jaeger, they set off towards Sydney Base again.
This time, trouble came in the form of a boy. After he gained consciousness, he transformed into a Kaiju and began attacking Atlas Destroyer. They could not hurt the boy, but he was continuously attacking them while being egged on by the prayers of the Sisters. Help did come to them eventually, and it came in the form of Apex, a mech Kaiju. Apex had formed a bond with Boy and was the one to offer them a replacement arm after they had lost it in the fight for their survival. Apex also had the ability to scan for memories and also help a person who had been forced to forget their memories regain them. The boy contacted Apex through their bond while being helpless and in immense pain during the transmission. Apex reached its peak at the peak time and held off Boy from attacking Atlas Destroyer again. He forced their bond and tried to help the boy remember his memories of Hayley and him. He had almost succeeded, but his efforts were thwarted by the increased prayers of the Sisters. It made the boy snap and attack Apex. The Atlas Destroyer held Boy before he could fully kill Apex, and they together helped Boy to remember and escape the Sisters’ clutches. However, Apex lost his life, and Boy was heartbroken, yet he could not dwell on it because The Sisters’ were gaining momentum on them with their Kaijus. The Sisters were very annoyed that Boy had escaped their brainwash and that it would be even more difficult to get him back and also to turn him back into a mindless weapon to do their bidding.
‘Pacific Rim: The Black’ Ending Explained – Were They Finally Able To Reach Sydney Base?
Boy had finally escaped the clutches of the cult of The Sisters with the help of Apex and his little group that had become his family. The Sisters, angry that their Messiah was no longer in their grasp, led the group on a merry little chase. They set off different Kaijus at intervals to slow them down, only to release a Category VI Kaiju to kill them all. Atlas Destroyer and Boy fight valiantly and defeat Kaijus so that they can reach the perimeter of Sydney Base. They reached the perimeter but, after sending a communication request, were welcomed with missiles. The Sydney Base thought of them as hostile units due to Boy being in his transformed form and a category VI Kaiju chasing them. After they had established contact by revealing their identity and relationship with their parents, the missiles changed their trajectory and focused on the Kaiju. The sisters urged the Kaiju to attack them, and the missiles were no help to them. Finally, Loa could not sit by and witness her pilots being hurt, ejecting them out of the Yaeger safely so that she could kill the Kaiju by self-destructing. The only AI with an emotional chip sacrificed her life so that Taylor, Hayley, Mei, and Boy could make it to the base safe and sound. All that was left of her was a crater with Yaeger parts strewn all over it and the Kaiju erased from the realm of the earth.
Meanwhile, the boy, after being defeated by the Kaiju, had transformed back to his human form. Mei rushed to get him when she was confronted by the High Priestess, who had revealed her true form and had also rushed in to collect Boy’s lying form. The Priestess, engrossed in trying to manipulate Mei to hand over Boy, had completely missed him waking up and charging for her. The Boy killed the High Priestess and put an end to her reign. Mei then rushed to pick him up and get cover to escape the impact of the Atlas Destroyer’s self-destruction.
The group was welcomed by Marshall, the head of Sydney Base. He greeted them and provided the poor boy with some clothes and shoes. The transformations always take his clothes away from him. The group was then surprised by Hunter’s rolling in to greet his kids. Hunter had apparently escaped and had repeatedly tried to get help for the kids and his wife, to no avail. The little group finally found their respite in Sydney Base and informed their father about their mother’s demise, asking him to give her a memorial service. The season ends with them settling down and feeling safe after a long time.
This is, unfortunately, the final season of the series, “Pacific Rim: The Black.” The rich plot of this series, set in the same universe as the movies, had us transfixed. The entire series is worth a rewatch with their complexities and thrilling apocalyptic atmosphere. The visuals of this series share some similarities with the movies, and the animation was very smooth and detailed. An enjoyable watch, the series should be given another spin, but alas, too much of it might turn it sour. Here’s to hoping Netflix releases another animation to rival the intriguing plotline set by “Pacific Rim: The Black.”
