[Spoiler Alert] The second season of Netflix’s Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft introduced a new villain, Mila, the founder of a private tech company named Pithos, who at first seemed a sane and level person, but you know how villains are, right? Mila talked about saving the world and ethical archaeology, but her mask of deception slipped very quickly. It was Mila and her right-hand woman, Fig, who had kidnapped Lara’s childhood friend, Sam Nishimura, to trick Lara. Lara’s late father, Richard Croft, had an ancient mask in his collection, and Mila wanted Lara to give it to her so she could return it to its rightful owner. But the truth was, this fabled mask made from a powerful meteorite had magical powers over nature, and Mila wanted to harness these powers to remake the world in her own image. But thankfully, Lara and her friends stopped Mila before she could fulfill her sinister goal. But how did she do that? Well, allow me to take a detailed look at the ending of Season 2, which, by the way, ends on a cliffhanger, like the previous season, but there’s no point fussing over it, as the show has already been shelved by the streaming platform.
Eshu Kills Mila
So, the show tried really hard to explain Mila’s real motives behind collecting the magical masks, but I think what she actually wanted was to become invincible and immortal. And to fulfill her desires, she took up the cause of saving the planet, which was nothing but a mere excuse for her to play God. Yeah, just another antagonist with a savior complex. Mila’s grit to collect all the magical masks was the same as Marvel’s Thanos collecting those Infinity Stones in order to decimate half of all living creatures to bring balance to the universe. Back in the day, when Mila was a young archaeologist, she came across Ogun, an Orisha, a god of the Yoruba people, who likely told her about the masks and their powers. However, as soon as Ogun learned Mila’s true intentions, he killed himself, thereby destroying his mask so his powers wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands. And since then, Mila had been obsessed with locating the remaining masks and killing their rightful owners so she could steal their powers. Over the course of Season 2, she had killed Oko, Kehinde, and Babuluaye, and in the end, she wanted to steal the mask of the most powerful Orisha, that is, Eshu, the god of evil and the bringer of death. Eshu had the ability to mimic and spread the powers of other Orishas, and with his powers Mila could bring death upon every human on the planet, thereby making her the most powerful deity to have ever existed. As soon as Lara, Sam, and Eshu figured out Mila’s endgame, they devised a plan to bring Mila and her army to the Lost City, once hailed as Eshu’s sacred kingdom.
In The Legend of Lara Croft season 2’s ending, Eshu, Lara, and Sam, along with Eshu’s Orisha siblings Yemeja and Taiwo, put up a fight against the all-powerful Mila; however, even her incredible power was no match against Eshu’s trickery. The god of evil used his teleportation power to take back the Orishas’ masks from Mila and, in the end, used their powers to bury her six feet under. In the past, when the British Imperial forces attacked the Yoruba to steal their lands, Eshu had failed to protect his people. He got so frightened that he deserted his followers to save his own life. It was something for which his siblings and he himself never forgave him. But by defeating Mila, Eshu eventually won back the faith of his subjects and the love of his siblings, making them believe that one could conquer any evil in the world if only they had the courage to overcome their worst fears. In the end, Eshu returned the masks of his fallen siblings to his father, who told him that the time to rebuild has come. I guess what he meant here was that even though he wouldn’t be able to bring back the dead, with Eshu’s help, he could find the right people who deserved these masks so they could spend their lives in the service of humanity.
Lara Returns the Rare Artifacts
For a moment, we can consider the fact that Mila had the right intentions in mind; however, her methods were extremely brutal and barbarous, which made her no less evil than the ones she was fighting against. She wanted to save the planet by erasing humanity, or at least a part of it. But by doing so, she would have robbed humanity of its chance to redeem itself. I mean, take Lara for example. The big words and the grand philosophy Mila threw at her transformed her into a better person, and she started to see things from a different perspective. In Season 2, Lara realized that her late father, Lord Richard Croft, was no less than a raider who stole rare artifacts to either add them to his collection or sell them to the highest bidder. And even though she loved him and respected him, she could no longer be a part of his flawed legacy. In season 2’s ending, she contacted her friend, Camilla Roth, an Interpol agent, and informed her about Mehrak Darvish, who had been stealing rare artifacts from the Old Mosque in Morocco. She even donated the rest of her father’s rare relics to the people or culture they actually belonged to, therefore marking the end of an era. Lara’s approach to correcting her father’s mistakes stood in direct contrast to Mila’s methods. Lara didn’t end up hating her father or burning his legacy to the ground to achieve her objectives. Instead, she simply returned the items that didn’t belong to him, and maybe we as humans can learn something from such an act. We should not try to see ourselves as different or superior to any living creature on Earth. We should learn to coexist with nature without exploiting the planet for its resources, and maybe this simple tweak will make a huge difference in the long run? So, from here on out, Lara Croft will no longer work as a tomb raider or a treasure hunter but as a caretaker of these relics. She will build a legacy of her own and embark on missions to stop people like Mehrak Darvish from stealing rare artifacts for their personal gain. I guess, the way Camilla called Lara “Detective Croft,” it wouldn’t be wrong to imagine that Lara would join or might already have joined Interpol to help the authorities catch these notorious smugglers. But there’s no way to find out because, as mentioned earlier, the show has already been canceled.
A Pointless Cliffhanger
The Legend of Lara Croft season 2’s ending sets up the antagonist for the third season of the animated show, which sadly won’t be happening. But who’s stopping us from discussing and theorizing what the scene implies, right? In the closing sequence, we saw a Black woman, likely someone from Lara’s past, looking at a photograph of two young girls in school uniform. I believe the white girl in the photograph could be Lara Croft. However, the young girl’s hair is a slightly lighter shade than Lara’s dark brown, so I am not sure, but I think those of you out there who have played the video game might know better, so please do enlighten me in the comments, because there’s no other way for me to find out.
The other girl in the photograph seems to be the younger version of our new antagonist, and it can be theorized that she might have had some kind of falling out with Lara while growing up and therefore yearns for revenge. Maybe she blames Lara for the death of one of her close ones; who knows? She had other pictures of adult Lara with her eyes removed, hinting at the fact that she wants to leave Lara blind or helpless, or something like that. In the last shot, we saw Fig visiting this new antagonist at an archaeological site in the desert. After Eshu defeated Mila, Fig and the rest of her army ran for their lives. During the battle sequence, Lara had told Fig to be careful who she put her faith in the next time. But Fig didn’t learn her lesson and joined hands with another of her rivals, who had been digging up a large dial or a wheel-shaped structure that seemed like the Buddhist Wheel of Dharma or an Egyptian relic, but I could be wrong. But no matter what this rare relic is, it’s clear that Lara’s sworn enemy wants to harness its power to take Lara down, and with Fig on her side, she is already aware of Lara’s weakness, which is her friends. However, we won’t find the answer to any of these questions because there won’t be a third season of the show. So do let me know in the comments what you think of this season and who this new antagonist can be if you guys have any idea.
