Why Arishem The Celestial Doesn't Take All The Eternals At The End

Marvel’s Eternals introduces the title team and their creator, the Celestial Arishem, who at the end takes three of the Eternals with him, and lets Druig, Thena, and Makkari go – but why? The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 4 is doing things differently by covering movies and TV shows, and in addition to continuing the stories of already established characters, it’s introducing new characters that have been changing the well-known Marvel formula. The latest MCU movie to join this universe is Eternals, which ended on a major cliffhanger.

Directed by Chloé Zhao, Eternals introduces viewers to the title team, an alien race created by the Celestial Arishem and sent to Earth centuries ago to keep it safe from the Deviants and help in the development of humanity, though they weren’t allowed to intervene in major conflicts such as wars and even Thanos’ snap in Avengers: Infinity War. With time, the Eternals parted ways and lived separate lives, but were forced to reteam as the Deviants returned and a catastrophic event known as “The Emergence” approached. The team is formed by Sersi (Gemma Chan), Ikaris (Richard Madden), Sprite (Lia McHugh), Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), Druig (Barry Keoghan), Gilgamesh (Don Lee), Thena (Angelina Jolie), and Ajak (Salma Hayek), but not all of them made it to the end of the movie, and the surviving ones had very different fates right at the end.

After Sersi stopped the birth of another Celestial named Tiamut thanks to her transmutation powers (and the help of Phastos’ Uni-Mind plan), through which she turned the Celestial into marble, she stayed on Earth along with Phastos, who had already formed a family, and Kingo, who refused to leave his successful acting career, while Sprite was turned into a human by Sersi and the remaining energy from the Uni-Mind. Meanwhile, Thena, Druig, and Makkari left Earth on the newly-repaired Domo in order to search for more Eternals and share the truth about their origin and real purpose. However, at the end of Eternals, Arishem appeared outside Earth’s orbit and took Sersi, Phastos, and Kingo with him to evaluate their memories and decide if humans deserved to be spared (even if that meant being betrayed by the Eternals), but he let the ones in the Domo escape, and the reason for it might be precisely because they didn’t stay on Earth.

Every member of the Eternals grew attached to humanity after spending centuries among humans and watching them evolve, but some created a stronger bond with them than others. Sersi was the most empathetic of the group and had a strong connection to humans, often helping them in all types of chores; Phastos is the only one who formed a proper family with his husband Ben (Haaz Sleiman) and their son Jack (Esai Daniel Cross), and was initially hesitant in reteaming with the rest as he didn’t want to put his family in danger; and Kingo built a successful career as a Bollywood star for decades, so it’s understandable that they were the ones who chose to stay on Earth. Now, as Arishem’s purpose is to analyze their memories of humans on Earth and through that make a final decision, it makes sense that he took them and not the rest, as they probably don’t have a strong connection to humanity.

However, it still seems odd that Arishem only took the three Eternals on Earth and let the rest go, even more so as the ones in the Domo are on a quest to share the truth about their origin and purpose, which can be potentially dangerous to Arishem and the rest of the Celestials. Eternals isn’t safe from plot holes and inconsistencies, and while Arishem taking Sersi, Phastos, and Kingo makes sense in terms of narrative and setting up a sequel, it still seems odd that Thena, Druig, and Makkari escaped from their supposedly omnipresent creator.

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