Summary
Pantheon’s consistent run continues into the finale as good battles evil in the digital world. It’s a nail-biting conclusion packed with many twists and turns while also hinting at a possible follow-up season.
This recap of the AMC Plus series Pantheon season 1, episode 8, “The Gods Will Not Be Slain,” the ending explained, contains spoilers.
The series finale, “The Gods Will Not Be Slain,” begins with the introduction of a new character, a brave soul named Josephine, who is headed for Mars. The astronaut is unfairly cut from this mission when she falls ill, but she is offered a new role as America’s first cybernaut instead. Josephine represents the good that UIs can achieve, but there are those who wish to use this power for evil and their own gains. Pantheon concludes its first season with an almighty battle between good and evil in an explosive finale.
Pantheon season 1, episode 8 recap – the ending explained
Maddie watches online as the world falls apart around her. Cyber-attacks are growing with the onset of a third world war. Caspian calls Maddie out of the blue to update her on his current circumstances. He explains that he’ll be heading to Norway, to work alongside Pope. Caspian is done running, he is going to shut Logorhythms down and erase all their research. They have already provided him with 30 million dollars, which he has gifted to Maddie for all her help. But Maddie just wants to save her father. Caspian plans to rid the world of UIs, which in turn would kill David too. These two individuals, that were once friends, now seem poles apart.
The gang throws Laurie a symbolic burial, but Cody is still angry after Chanda’s attack. He wants to release Laurie’s confession to the world, like she had originally planned. Maddie thinks it could cause further chaos though. He goes public anyway, appearing on the news later that day. Unfortunately, Cody isn’t taken seriously, and very few people believe him without any hard evidence to back it up. Maddie and David discuss Cody’s bold move, whilst they play each other at chess. David admits that he only has two years left, maybe ten to fifteen if he compromises his own world and returns to text speech like before. He worries he won’t get to see his daughter grow up.
Meanwhile, Chanda is up to his old tricks, stealing the world’s nuclear codes. He heads straight for David’s cyber abode to make his final play. Chanda threatens David, he has ten minutes to hand himself over or a missile will be launched at Sacramento, killing his entire family and many others in the process. Chanda is aware that David has a copy of Laurie’s message and fears he is going to go public. David reflects that it may have been a bad idea to keep a backup copy, but he just wants to be seen, to leave behind some form of legacy. Maddie begs her father to fight back.
Caspian is shown around Logorhythms’ base and then starts to bark out orders. He fires his parents (I bet that felt good) and tells Pope to dump his shares, break up the company and sell it for parts. The others are shocked by Caspian’s demands, but Pope follows them blindly.
David heads into the video game world to fight Chanda, with the clock ticking. The UI gods battle, making up their own rules as they go along. Chanda senses defeat and launches the missile, managing to freeze David’s character within the game, but Maddie promptly reawakens him. David then tricks Chanda and sends the missile crashing into the sea, saving thousands of lives. David decides to sacrifice himself and uploads Laurie’s file to every device and every screen across the entire globe. This act uses an unimaginable amount of power and David’s file is subsequently erased from the cyber world.
With Laurie’s message going global, the companies start to panic and pull the plug on all their servers containing these UIs. Chanda and his UI cronies head for the satellites as their digital world evaporates around them. People protest outside Logorhythms’ headquarters after discovering this ungodly deceit. Waxman admits that it is all true, to which Pope orders for him to be arrested.
The ending
Caspian and Pope debate the fallout of David’s scheme. Caspian believes that this is the end of it all, but Pope thinks it’s only just the beginning. UIs will survive this and then thrive. He confesses that Holstrom only wanted one UI to be immortal in the end, one to control all the others. He offers Caspian the opportunity to decide which UI has their flaw removed. Caspian’s first option is David, but Maddie reveals that he is now dead after releasing Laurie’s message. Pope states that they have a copy of his file and Caspian gets to work on curing the flaw.
The series ends with Ellen returning from the protests to find her daughter sobbing. They are heartbroken at David’s death and hug one another. The power cuts out and a backup generator kicks in. Their house seems to be the only one in the neighborhood to be running on full power and their neighbors head over in the dark, looking for comfort or maybe answers. Meanwhile, Caspian types away at his computer, hopefully uploading David’s consciousness once again to gift him with the power of immortality.
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