WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Lost in Space
The Netflix reboot of Lost in Space ends its first season on a painful cliffhanger, taking its heroes from bad to worse… but we have a theory that the twist doesn't mean what viewers think it does. The misdirection is by design, with the writers of the series pointing all signs to “danger” for the Robinson family, overlooking a star system that the show’s Robot tried to warn them about. Or did it?
The first season of Lost in Space is built on the mysterious interaction between humanity and an unknown alien race. On the surface, the story seems simple: the Robot sent to kill the colonists overcomes its programming, befriends Will, and commits itself to keeping him safe. That includes drawing a diagram of a double-star system and warning Will to keep away from its "danger."
But that message, like the final moments of the Lost in Space cliffhanger when Will and his family arrive at that very star system, could mean something very different than viewers think it does. Here's our theory on the truth, and how the Robinson family may get to play the heroes of Lost in Space season 2.
How The Finale Seems to End
There's enough of a build-up to the final twist for almost all viewers to sense it coming, once the crew of the Jupiter 2 assembles in the cockpit and the alien engine is revealed to be… wewell whatever it's doing in the bowels of the shop, it's up to something. The engine isn't just glowing, but extending tendrils to integrate itself with the frame of the ship, like a creeping weed covering the surfaces around it. Once the tendrils reach towards and into the dead engines, the real magic of the finale begins. Under unexplained, and uncontrolled navigation, the Jupiter 2 veers away from The Resolute, and is pulled through a wormhole in space (like the one that first swallowed up the Resolute and Jupiter ships in the first episode).
Once the blinding light subsides, they realize just how far they have traveled yet again. The ship sits overlooking a strange system of stars or planets unlike any they have seen before. But as most of the Robinson family and their guests are utterly confused, Will Robinson is anything but. Pulling up the video he captured of Robot’s first artwork, he shows everyone the same system drawn in sand - along with the name Robot gave to his masterpiece: DANGER.
The true terror seems obvious: after an alien tried to kill them despite a seemingly reprogrammed, rebel Robot protecting them, an alien engine took them against their will to the location most dangerous for them to be. All in all, one heck of a finale.
Things don't look good for the Robinsons, standing as sudden uninvited visitors in an alien system. A system, some have speculated, that is home to the very aliens the humans stole their own engine from. An alien race humans are now basically at war with, after covering up the explosive event that led to humans attaining the engine (which led to the attack upon The Resolute). Whether you believe that the aliens sent the Robots, or the aliens ARE the Robots, their programmed response to humans is to kill first and ask questions later. Which explains why Will’s robotic friend would warn him never to go to such a home system. But what if that wasn't the Robot's message at all?
The Robot's 'Danger' Was a Plea For Help
It's worth considering that this reading - that the Robinsons have ended up the one place the Robot warned them not to go - is exactly what the makers of Lost in Space want their audience to believe. And considering how often they subverted expectations elsewhere in he series, we're in inclined to entertain a different theory. That Robot wasn't warning Will Robinson away - he was asking him for HELP.
The main reason that the Robinsons' final destination has meaning is due to a scene earlier in the season, when Robot drew the same star and planet system in sand. When asked about its title, the Robot spoke only "Danger" to Will. The first assumption for most viewers will be that the image is a clue to a future danger... but let's revisit that.
Throughout the rest of the show, the Robot's uttering of "Danger" accompanies an effort to protect the subject whose name he also speaks. "Danger Will Robinson" means that Will is in danger - not that Will IS the danger. So it's just as likely that the real message being sent with his drawing follows the same rule. The star system and orbiting planets are not the danger, but in danger.
What the star system is actually modeled after sheds a lot of light on this reading, especially for those with casual interest in binary star systems. To be a bit more specific, the one pictured above looks to be a contact binary star system, defined by the twin stars at its center (so close together that they share material). It boggles the average human's mind, but it's a real phenomenon. There's even one designated VFTS-352 in the Tarantula Nebula, part of the Large Magellanic Cloud 160,000 light years from Earth.
In the case of the binary star system that Robot was apparently aware of - enough to draw it in its entirety - they would be designated as an overcontact binary star system. The stars aren't different sizes, exchanging energy in one direction or another. They look to be different stars of equal size and different composition. And as one might expect, these massive astral bodies can't exist in this state forever.
Sooner or later, the stars are most likely to either combine together before releasing a colossal burst of gamma radiation, supernova, or twin supernova creating TWO black holes instead of one. All of which would be bad news for the five planets circling them. Planets that are in serious danger... which may provide a clue as to the Robot's own homeworld.
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Is it possible that the Robots are not the aggressors, but just as desperate to save their home and people as the humans who stole their technology? Going a step further... is it possible that Will's Robot was, itself, the open-minded and innocent young member of its own family? That might be a little too poetic, but we can't stress enough that Lost in Space fans should weigh that "danger" word carefully.
Lost in Space‘s first season is now streaming on Netflix.