Summary
It’s a bittersweet but loving ending that provokes many thoughts of sacrifice and goodwill.
Our recap of the Netflix anime series exception season 1, episode 8, “gravitation,” contains spoilers and discusses the ending.
With the fate of the traveling sleeping crew in the hands of their reprints, there’s a lot at stake in the finale of season 1 of exception. The ending of season 1 circles the audience back; to bring a sense of purpose, mission, and overarching objective for our characters in the face of unprecedented resistance. This anime series has managed to stay true to its stylistic approach, bringing a formidable end to the story.
exception season 1, episode 8 recap – the ending explained
The finale starts with anticipation. The misprint Lewis (voiced by Kobayashi, Chikahiro), is adamant that stopping the RA bomb is key – Mack sends him on his mission to stop it. Meanwhile, the ship is falling apart, disintegrating.
Patty B (voiced by Tanezaki, Atsumi) and Nina (voiced by Kaida, Yuuko) touch down on the planet, and immediately Patty B threatens her crewmate with a knife, but Nina insists that they do not have time for that. And then it hits Nina; they’ve made it to humanity’s haven — their new planet. But they are losing air. Patty B puts on a suit for oxygen — the only suit remaining, leaving Nina in dire straits, defending for her life. Patty B is willing to do anything for her ideals. She wants the RA bomb to explode, bringing the mission to a tragic end.
Meanwhile, Patty B’s compatriot, Patty A, wants to get to the atmospheric transformer and demands Oscar to get them there. And then there’s hope; Mack saves Nina from her pod and gives her a suit. Mack is relying on Lewis to make it to the atmospheric transformer.
Patty B finds Lewis and tells him that the misprint was her fault; she reveals she fiddled with his tank because she needed more biomaterial. She exposed his tanks, and the radiation from the solar flare caused mutations. Lewis now knows that he was printed this way for a reason, to stop Patty’s plans.
Mack arrives and ambushes Patty B. Lewis asks Patty B where the RA bomb is, but she refuses to answer.
However, Nina figures out the RA bomb is at the Bean Pod. Her suspicions are right. Both Patty A and B arrive to stop the crew. The plan for Mack and the crew is to get it out of the blast range. There’s no way of stopping the RA bomb, so they need to be creative.
Patty B and A end up losing the fight, accepting defeat and staying within the radius of the RA bomb. This wipes out almost everyone in a sad ending to this brief war.
The ending
Nina narrates that she and Lewis were the only ones to survive, but they decided to carry on with the mission. She digs graves for each member of the crew that fell. She stores the biomaterial data and memories of Lewis, showing the woman he loved. Now older, Nina carries out her final job and puts the final touches on the new planet.
The episode closes with the first original human, Kate, walking out on her new planet. She breathes in the fresh air and takes in the nature. The womb is left for new habitants to use whenever they feel like it. In the end, the original Lewis and the love of his life are reunited at their new home. Reborn, and a new chance at life.
It’s a bittersweet but loving ending that provokes many thoughts of sacrifice and goodwill.
What did you think of the ending of the anime series exception season 1, episode 8? Comment below.
Additional Reading
- Will there be a season 2 of the anime series exception?
