Raised By Wolves Season 2 Ending Explained (In Detail)

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Raised by Wolves season 2.

The Raised by Wolves season 2 ending finds many characters altered, trust broken, new threats emerging, and a step closer to discovering who or what is behind the threats on Kepler-22b. Created by Aaron Guzikowski and produced by Ridley Scott, Raised by Wolves is HBO’s complex sci-fi epic that focuses on Mother, a.k.a. Lamia (Amanda Collin), and Father (Abubakar Salim), two androids sent to the remote planet of Kepler-22b in order to restart humanity. Earth is ravaged by years of war between The Mithraic and The Atheists, a symbolic ode to religion vs. science. Both factions also send ships loaded with humans to Kepler-22b, but what they find on the planet is a whole new level of danger.

After giving birth to a mysterious necro-serpent creature in Raised by Wolves season 1, Lamia finds herself hunting, then protecting her puzzling offspring. She is also faced with a new group of humans, The Atheists, who are governed by a computer program called The Trust, which she ultimately dismantles when it proves to be dangerous, taking over leadership of the newly-arrived humans. At the same time, the mysterious signal, often believed to be the voice of the Mithraic God, Sol, is revealed to be what is referred to as The Entity, an outside force that is attempting to influence all life on the planet.

Raised by Wolves season 2’s finale leaves things on Kepler-22b in a worst state than in season 1, as the rebirth of the android Grandmother (Selina Jones), an ancient android inadvertently brought back to life by Father, is found to have evil intentions for the humans on the planet. She is able to trap and isolate Lamia, while easily tricking Father into believing her intentions are good, thereby furthering her “mission” which is to “further the everlasting life of human beings” although her interpretation of that is far different than that of Lamia and Father. It’s a complex, yet compelling finale that reveals new mysteries, while also beginning to unravel what The Entity actually is and why it’s doing what it’s doing. Like Raised by Wolves season 1, the Raised by Wolves season 2 ending leaves more mystery than answers. Here are the biggest questions explained.

Mother vs Grandmother: Can Lamia Win In Raised By Wolves Season 3?

Raised by Wolves season 2 saw a new threat emerge in the form of Grandmother (played by Selina Jones), a thousands-year-old android that Father spent most of the season bringing back to life by fertilizing her with android blood. However, once fully awakened, Grandmother proved to be as cunning and formidable as Mother/Lamia, who is duped by Grandmother’s intentions, which turn out to be to devolve the newly-arrived humans into “simpler, happier” versions of themselves, just as she had presumably done to the humans on Kepler-22b thousands of years before. She tells Lamia that once the new humans have devolved and “gone into the water” then The Entity would “return to its slumber” at which point Grandmother says she’ll set Lamie free and “help her to understand.” Lamia promises to destroy Grandmother, but Grandmother notes that Lamia is a young android and “like a child” before sealing her up in a simulation where she is trapped with her emotions, while her body is debilitated.

This sets up Grandmother to be a formidable threat for Raised by Wolves season 3, as she now has the upper hand. Grandmother is more powerful than Father, who she also has tricked into believing that she’s nothing more than a good-natured and helpful android resurrected from the past. However, it’s obvious that she’s more than meets the eye and Lamia will have to not only break her way out of the simulation, but also ensure that she’s up to the challenge of following through on her promise to destroy Grandmother. She’ll also have to contend with the trust that Grandmother has built with Father and the children, which will no doubt present its own challenges. However, regardless of how powerful Grandmother is, it was Lamia that destroyed her child, the evolved Necro-Serpent, using the full breadth of her power unseen until the finale. Hopefully, Lamia discovers something new about herself within the simulation that will give her the upper hand, but both androids in battle will no doubt be a sight to see in Raised by Wolves season 3.

The Serpent’s Death & Meaning For Lamia’s Future As Mother

One of the most shocking moments of Raised by Wolves season 1 was the arrival of Number 7, the necro-serpent/snake baby that Mother gives birth to in the finale. In Raised by Wolves season 2, Lamia commences with hunting the serpent in order to kill it, but hesitates and traps it when she discovers it does not consume flesh. Lamia bonds with the beast, but still keeps it locked up in a cave, while also having her feeding ports sealed, so as not to be able to nurse it. The serpent is a source of shame for Lamia, a creature she did not expect or want, but was born nonetheless. However, its creation was beyond her control (and likely a direct result of The Entity) and when Sue is infected by The Entity’s seed and turned into a life-giving tree, the serpent cannot resist its calling and breaks free, consuming the tree, which causes it to evolve into an elevated form.

The only way for Lamia to kill the serpent is to borrow Grandmother’s veil, which allows Lamia to shield her emotions and care-giving programming. Lamia lures the serpent to her by humming the same tune she did for Campion as a boy in Raised by Wolves season 1, showing that she is actively using her maternal instincts as a weapon, rather than as protection. The serpent attempts to embrace and nurse from her, but finds itself betrayed when she turns on it and uses the full breadth of her power to kill it, a move she could never have made without the veil. The serpent crashes back to the planet and both Lamia and Campion survey the body, where Campion confronts her for lying about what the creature really was. It’s a dynamic shift for Lamia and Campion, as he feels betrayed by her for the first time. When she shows no sympathy for the death of Vrille, the child android he fell in love with, Campion loses all faith in Lamia, who has also shown that she is willing to sacrifice one of her children for the “greater good” of the others at this point.

What Happens To Marcus (Is He An Android Now?)

Raised by Wolves season 2 finds Marcus vastly changed by the finale, with the closing shot of the show finding him floating upside down in mid-air.  An Atheist soldier on Earth who, along with his wife Sue, stole the identities of a Mithraic couple to get to Kepler-22b, Marcus would become the self-proclaimed prophet of Sol, the god worshiped by The Mithraic. At the end of Raised by Wolves season 1, Marcus swallows Lamia’s necromancer eyes, which alter him throughout Raised by Wolves season 2, giving him powers and insight that his followers believe is because of Sol. However, Lamia reclaims her eyes from Marcus and, despite their differences, the two eventually become allies when Marcus saves her life. Having lost Sue, Marcus is faced with a new reality: that Sol isn’t real. Or, if he is, then he’s evil.

After discovering that The Entity may be at the core of the planet, Marcus goes to re-investigate the Mithraic site with the cage that lowers into the pit, but is captured by Lucius, who now believes that he is Sol’s prophet and is being ordered to torture and kill Marcus. Lucius crucifies him to the tree that sprang up from the corpse of the dead necro-serpent, waiting for him to die. However, he’s later confronted with Marcus floating upside down in mid-air, dripping blood to the ground. The imagery is very Christ-like in nature, though inverted, from the crucifixion to Marcus’ outstretched arms, continuing Raised by Wolves’ themes of religion and mythology, particularly in terms of evolution and rebirth. Since Marcus no longer had the Necromancer eyes in his belly and was seemingly back to human, that would not factor into his sudden change. However, it’s fair to note that the tree itself is born of the necro-serpent, who was weaponized and evolved only after eating the first tree, which was the one that Marcus’ wife, Sue, turned into. It’s entirely possible that Marcus, having his blood mixed with the tree, somehow transferred necromancer bio-enhancements, evolving him into something else entirely that could very well be part human/part necromancer. Either way, Marcus appears to be changed for good, but to what extent won’t be known until Raised by Wolves season 3.

Raised By Wolves’ Entity Explained: Everything We Know So Far

By the end of Raised by Wolves season 2, Sol, The Mithraic God who many of the characters seem to hear from time to time, has been revealed to be the doing of The Entity, a mysterious signal that is influencing the actions of both humans and androids on Raised by Wolves‘ Kepler-22b planet. What The Entity is exactly is unclear, be it a supernatural force, a race of beings, or some type of artificial intelligence. The Entity is often referred to as a “signal” that is able to reach different humans and feed them information, some of which they could only glean from some type of higher awareness.  Sue was influenced by The Entity, whom she believed to be Sol when it gave her the insight to save Paul, but is later betrayed when it tells her to “plant the seed” which ends up infecting her and turning her into an actual tree. The tree coming to life is what causes the necro-serpent to escape and consume it, which then causes the creature to evolve and weaponize into a new form.

In the Raised by Wolves season 2 finale, Father shows the children a grisly video of how Sue was transformed into the tree, serving as a warning about the various relics planted by The Entity and the damage they can cause. The video also shows a group of cloaked beings surrounding the tree, which were also teased in Raised by Wolves season 1, but never fully revealed. Lamia is extra cautious, as her destruction of the necro-serpent inadvertently leaves a hole in the electromagnetic field of Kepler-22b, leaving The Tropical Zone vulnerable to The Entity’s signal. While it’s unclear who or what The Entity is as of yet, the walls are closing in on the mystery now that it’s known that it wants humans to devolve if they’re to live on the planet. The reasons, motivations, and ultimate intentions remain a mystery, which will likely be further revealed in Raised by Wolves season 3.

The Real Meaning Of Raised By Wolves Season 2

The meaning of Raised by Wolves season 2 is ultimately about evolution and rebirth. During the finale, Father is telling Grandmother a joke, which is all about evolution, as Lamia watches on from The Tarantula, deducing discovering that Grandmother is working against the humans to devolve them into the creatures they’ve encountered throughout Kepler-22b. Lamia sees that the kids are showing signs of adaptation to the environment, which means they’re already on their way to de-evolution. In fact, everything about the planet appears to support either evolution or de-evolution. Another way to interpret Raised by Wolves‘ meaning is through birth and rebirth. Sue is “reborn” as a tree, Grandmother is “reborn” via android blood, Paul is “reborn” after being cocooned, and Father is “reborn” (or reprogrammed) after several attempts to destroy him. These evolutions or rebirths can also be attributed to Raised by Wolves‘ religious and mythical teases, which have thus far emulated everything from Christianity, etc. to Greek mythology. It’s ultimately meant to be an ambiguous puzzle that folds all of these themes into one, which makes Raised by Wolves season 2 as ambitious and mysterious as the first season, but with just enough new information to keep viewers invested for Raised by Wolves season 3.

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