The Eternaut’s ending was all about Juan, Favalli, Omar, Franco, and Mosca trying to figure out how the beetles from outer space had gotten humans to betray each other and kill their own. During the penultimate episode, the snow that was killing people as soon as they came in contact with it had stopped. When Juan and all the other survivors had come out of the mall where they were taking shelter to bask in the sun after what seemed like ages, some random shooters appeared out of nowhere and began firing at them, leading to a lot of casualties. Juan, Favalli, Omar, and all those who had any kind of arms in their possession managed to kill the attackers, barring one who apparently went into whatever hole the alien beetles were living in and was accepted like he was a part of their group. Juan even recognized one of the killers but couldn’t exactly figure out where he had seen her. Before the survivors could make head or tail of the situation, Lucas arrived at the mall with the Argentine military so that they could shift to Campo de Mayo. After getting there, the next step of their plan was to reach the largest radio tower in Buenos Aires so that they could send a message to everyone and anyone who had made it through the whole ordeal in one piece. In doing so, the army and the survivors ended up playing into the invasive alien beetle race’s hands. What was the aliens’ endgame? Did Juan and the rest figure out a way to defeat the aliens? What can we expect from Season 2 of The Eternaut? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
The Mural in the Mall
In the beginning of The Eternaut’s finale, Juan was seemingly hallucinating (something that he was doing a lot throughout the show) a conversation with the woman that he had killed at the mall back when the alien invasion hadn’t happened, the mall was still intact, and both of them were looking to find a gift for their respective children. They were standing in front of a mural that, at first glance, looked like one of those edgy art pieces that are usually found at stores for skating products. But, upon closer inspection, it was filled with elements that had already featured in the show and stuff that was probably going to show up in the near future. Here’s a list of things that I noticed: a skeleton, the moon, a beetle, a stairwell, a tower on fire, a man with a gas mask, a train, a vinyl record, the infinity symbol, a single-headed snake, a two-headed snake, a flashlight, a jeep, a crucifix, a radio-plus-cassette player, palm trees, a pair of hands in the praying position, and St. George.
So, the beetle (the aliens), the tower (the one that was used as a distraction to get the survivors of the church to safety), the gas mask (everybody was using one), the flashlight (also something that was being used by everyone), the vinyl record (there was one in Favalli’s house), the jeep (maybe Inga’s), the crucifix (at the church), and various kinds of retro music or radio systems were stuff that had appeared in the show until then. But what about the train, the skeleton, the moon, the snakes, stairwell, the infinity symbol, and St. George? The train is used, later on in this episode, to get to the radio tower. The skeleton probably symbolizes death, because there’s a lot of that going on. The moon is probably where the aliens were staying before they decided to head to Earth. The infinity symbol is a hint that the world is in some kind of a time loop, which is somewhat indicated later in the finale by Juan, who said that he had lived through this sequence of events before; hence, his persistent feeling of deja vu. A statue of St. George was present at Campo de Mayo, and his story of killing a dragon that was terrorizing a city is similar to Juan’s mission to defeat the aliens and save his daughter; so, I guess that’s why he kept seeing it. Snakes usually symbolize treachery, and since the aliens have gotten humans to turn against each other, I suppose that’s what that means. As for the cryptic staircase, maybe it’s a map of the underground facility that the alien beetles have built for themselves? Well, your guess is as good as mine.
Humans Siding With Aliens
The Argentine army planned to reach the largest radio tower in Buenos Aires, by using a train to ram through the blockade that had been created by the alien beetles, so as to send a message to all the survivors out there that help was available at Campo de Mayo for all those who needed it. Since Favalli was an electrical engineer, his expertise was required. After some initial hesitation, he decided to go on the mission with Juan, Omar, Lucas, Pablo, Inga, and more who were ready to put their lives on the line for the sake of the country. The original group of survivors from Favalli’s house was divided into 2 groups. Pablo had to go with group B, while Juan, Favalli, Inga, and Omar stayed with group A on the train, which managed to get through the barricade and reached the building near the radio tower. There, group A got split up again. Inga had to go with Moro while the rest went to the topmost floors of the building to tell everyone who was listening that the people of Argentina hadn’t given up and were still battling the alien beetles.
While that was undoubtedly cause for celebration, things started to go wrong as soon as the survivors started to think they were in the clear. The squad under Moro was seemingly abducted by a bunch of mind-controlled humans. The stadium near the radio tower began emitting a massive blue light. Lucas turned against Juan, Omar (he was stabbed by Lucas too), and Favalli and plummeted to his death after saying some cryptic stuff. And then Moro’s squad, as well as a bunch of other mind-controlled humans, attacked all the survivors in the building. Omar, Juan, Favalli, Franco, and Mosca somehow got back on the train they had come in and escaped. Juan and Franco got off near the stadium, with the intention of figuring out the source of the blue light and finding out where Franco’s partner, Grandote, was, while Favalli, Omar, and Mosca headed to Campo de Mayo to warn the people about the fact that humans could be turned into the aliens’ foot soldiers.
Clara’s Mind-Controlled Clone
In The Eternaut’s ending, Juan and Franco saw hordes of mind-controlled humans and alien beetles working together, seemingly worshipping a human-alien hybrid with far too many fingers, while hundreds more dropped from the sky and onto the Earth. In addition to all that, Juan claimed that he had lived through some iteration of these events before. So, what was that all about? Here’s the simple explanation. It’s basically Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Bob even did the pointing thing that the 1978 remake is so famous for). The aliens arrived on Earth during a time of great conflict amongst humans with the intention of turning them into a hive mind organism, thereby bringing an end to all conflict. No, they weren’t eating the humans. They were putting them into cocoons, creating a mind-controlled replica of them, which were likely linked, via a lump in their head (which was something that Juan had noticed when he was reunited with Clara), to that human-alien hybrid, whose creation was probably the result of some beetle-human fornication or fusion. As for the snow, it was used to segregate humanity into groups, making it easier for the aliens and their human minions to target them. The verdict is still on whether the snow actually killed humans, or it incapacitated them so that they could be captured by the aliens and turned into mind-controlled human replicas.
Now, some of these replicas were completely robotic, while others, like Lucas and Clara (Juan’s daughter), retained the original person’s memories but could only use that to inform their actions until a certain point. After that they’d “bug out” and do something erratic. Lucas’ purpose was to get the soldiers and survivors in Campo de Mayo to come all the way to downtown Buenos Aires and broadcast the message of the camp being a safe haven. Once that was done, his mind began to fracture, and he chose to die by suicide, or was compelled to do so by the hybrid. As for that final shot of Clara firing a rifle, it was a clear indication that she was a mind-controlled clone. Her purpose is still a question mark. Maybe she’s there to indoctrinate the survivors and the soldiers to the cause of the hybrid or to stop Juan, or people who are aware of the aliens’ plan, from creating any obstacles when the beetles put the folks in Campo de Mayo in their cocoons. The Eternaut’s ending frame perfectly captured Juan’s devastation as he realized that his biggest enemy, after the aliens, was his own daughter, or a clone who wore the face of Clara.
Unlike the “pod people,” the mind-controlled clones in the show were pretty violent, as they stabbed humans, and even used guns to kill them. Maybe the aliens knew that people like Juan, Favalli, and Franco were impossible to convert; hence, killing them was the only option. Or they only wanted to kill Juan because he was an anomaly. I suppose that the aliens had put the planet in some kind of a time loop. In every iteration of the loop, the aliens try to take over Earth, and every time, maybe Juan is the one who stops the invasion from being a complete success because of his dogged determination to be one with his wife and daughter. Hence, they need to kill Juan before he manages to find a timeline where he has saved Clara and Elena, while focusing on capturing the rest of human civilization and turning them into robotic clones because they are not as resilient as Juan. Now, it’s time for the complicated explanation.
Hector German Oesterheld, Dirty War, and Falkland Wars
Based on my cursory research of the writer of The Eternaut and the circumstances in which the original comic strip as well as the 1969 remake were written, the whole show was an allegory for the political history of Argentina. The show didn’t make any explicit references and deviated quite a lot from the graphic novel’s storytelling tools so as to make the alien invasion and humanity’s fight against them seem as generic as possible. But maybe that was intentional because Oesterheld had to use aliens and other sci-fi elements to bypass the censorship laws of General Pedro Aramburu and voice his support for Juan Peron, who had been ousted from his presidential post and exiled. Now, while it was necessary to be cryptic about one’s criticism of right-wing politics back in the ‘50s to the ‘70s in order to stay alive, what’s the point of being cryptic now, though? Well, look what kind of a party is in power in Argentina currently. Sure, there’s no military dictatorship, or National Reorganization Process, in the country right now like they had back then, but if you take a look at the kind of support the government has shown for genocides being committed all around the globe, the parallel between the aliens and government officials doesn’t feel that far-fetched.
Coming to the use of mind control to turn humans against humans, Peron’s reemergence from exile, in 1973, was something that was welcomed by leftists and right-wingers. But his return was sullied by the Ezeiza massacre, where the right-wingers opened fire on the leftists, thereby bringing an end to whatever alliance the two sides of the Peronists had. Soon after that, Peron himself announced his support for the right-wingers, and after his death, the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance was formed, which was essentially a death squad that hunted down leftists, namely the Montoneros. That was followed by Operation Condor, where right-wing dictatorships in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru (you can see a Peruvian plane in the final episode), Uruguay (Favalli made contact with someone from Uruguay, who in turn was connected with someone from Brazil) were allegedly supported by the USA, France, Venezuela, and Colombia in the erasure of leftists from South America. I guess the underlying meaning of the aliens using humans to hunt down humans, shooting them down at malls, residential buildings, and on highways, is apparent now. I know that I have said before that the aliens have probably arrived on Earth to end all forms of conflict. However, as shown in The Invasion of the Body Snatchers or The World’s End, are the aliens really making humanity conflict-free if they are robbing them of their free will? Is a society truly free if everyone thinks alike? You tell me.
Meanwhile, I will turn my focus to Juan’s involvement in the Falklands War. Yes, that armed conflict between Argentina and the United Kingdom happened in 1982, several years after Oesterheld’s alleged custodial death; however, I guess it has been incorporated into this adaptation of The Eternaut because of its cultural impact. In that war, Argentina not only lost to the UK, even though the Argentine Air Force got support from the United States in the form of C-130s (something that you see lying in the middle of downtown Buenos Aires), but a year later, the Argentine junta fell, which caused a domino effect and led to the downfall of several South American dictatorships. How does that factor into the story? Well, for starters, Juan wasn’t talking about time loops or time travel when he said that he had lived the conflict between the alien beetles and humans before; maybe he was talking about a repeat of the Falklands War. Back then humans were forced to fight humans by humans, and now the driving force is aliens. Also, maybe Argentina’s loss in the war being a blessing in disguise, since it brought about the end of dictatorship in South America, might be an indicator that the humans probably have to lose the battle against the alien beetles to win the war. Who knows? Maybe when the aliens see that they can’t take over the minds of all humans, they’ll admit defeat?
Coming to “the Resistance,” it was mentioned several times during Mosca’s message, which was probably a reference to Oesterheld’s support for the Montoneros, how he refused to bow down despite taking several hits in his personal and professional lives, and the contribution of the Resistencia Libertaria. Juan Salvo’s relationship with his daughter, Clara, and how it had been severed by the aliens, was obviously an allusion to the fact that three of Oesterheld’s daughters were abducted by the fascist regime in power and the fourth one was killed during an abduction. Last but not least, if the prominent use of old cars by Ford and Mercedes-Benz seemed like blatant product placement, well, it wasn’t. During the Dirty War, representatives of Ford were killed. Isabel Peron’s raids affected companies like Ford and Mercedes-Benz. Several executives of Ford and Mercedes-Benz were also complicit in acts of state-sponsored terrorism during this period. At one point, the Ford administration even urged the US government to grant military aid to the junta. So, even though the presence of retro cars made by these companies in the show must’ve seemed like a nice bit of nostalgia, it wasn’t. It was a reminder that capitalists always benefit from conflicts as their tools are used by both sides, unless there’s a total boycott or something, which can’t happen in the case of the show because these old automobiles are the only things that are functional. I am well aware of the fact that I have merely scratched the surface of the historical allegories packed into the show. Hence, if you want to add to it, feel free to use the comments section below.
Season 2 Theories
The Eternaut clearly ended on a cliffhanger, meaning that the creators intend to turn this adaptation of Oesterheld’s comics, which did have several sequels over the years, into a multi-season narrative. So, what can we expect to see in them (even though we have no confirmation from Netflix yet that a second season is being made)? Since Juan and Franco have promised that they’ll rescue Inga and Grandote, we’ll probably see them infiltrating the camp that’s being run by the aliens and the mind-controlled clones to look for their friends. The chances of Juan and Franco finding a non-mind-controlled Inga and Grandote are zero to none. If they have somehow managed to avoid getting cocooned and cloned by the aliens, I’m sure they’ll have a story or two to tell to Juan and Franco, which they can then convey to the survivors in Campo de Mayo.
Speaking of those survivors, they are definitely unaware of the fact that they have some mind-controlled clones in their midst, with Clara being the most obvious one. I am not sure if Favalli, Omar, and Mosca will be able to reach the military camp in time and alert the authorities about this update. I am afraid that Favalli, Omar, and Mosca have escaped from one massacre and are heading straight towards another one. If all the protagonists somehow manage to survive the next phase of the attack that’s being orchestrated by the aliens and the mind-controlled clones, they have to put an end to the message about Buenos Aires being a safe haven that’s being aired to all of South America through radio waves. Instead, they have to warn the people that nowhere is actually safe and their ranks have probably been infiltrated by mind-controlled clones of their friends and family.
In addition to all that, I suppose we’ll get a better look at the alien-human hybrid that’s supposedly controlling the beetles and the clones. To further the political and historical allegories, I suppose we’ll see a failed attempt at diplomacy between Juan and the hybrid. Maybe Juan will ask the alien to free Clara and take him instead, and the alien will probably force Juan to choose between the enslavement of Clara or the rest of humanity. Of course, much like Joel in The Last of Us, Juan will decide to save Clara, thereby dooming the entire planet. If Franco somehow passes on the information of Juan’s betrayal to Campo de Mayo, he is going to become enemy number 2, with number 1 still being the invasive aliens. Juan already has a chip on his shoulder for being a part of a losing conflict, the Falklands War, and his guilt will be exacerbated by opting to save his daughter instead of the rest of human civilization. So, maybe the next season or the next few seasons will be all about Juan trying to redeem himself by defeating the aliens. Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the ending of The Eternaut and my expectations for a potential Season 2. What are your opinions on the same? Let me know in the comments section below.
