How did The Passage season finale conclude the Fox horror series? Based on Justin Cronin’s novel trilogy of the same name, The Passage was adapted for the small screen by The Orville producer Liz Heldens. The series is set in a not-too-distant future in which scientists at a secret medical facility known as Project Noah are experimenting with a virus that has the potential to be a cure for all disease. Unfortunately, the virus has the effect of turning its test subjects – who happen to be a group of death row inmates – into vampire-like creatures called “virals.”
Like The Passage trilogy, the series follows a young orphaned girl named Amy Bellafonte (Saniyya Sidney) who is “recruited” by Project Noah in hopes that injecting a younger test subject with the vampire virus will help its scientists understand how to isolate its unfortunate side effects. Amy is joined by Brad Wolgast (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), a federal agent tasked with delivering her to Project Noah who has a change of heart and decides she must be protected at all costs.
By the time The Passage season finale rolled around, Amy had been infected with the virus but was able to resist the more nefarious influences of the already-turned vampires including scientist-turned-patient-zero Dr. Tim Fanning (Jamie McShane) and murderess Shauna Babcock (Brianne Howey, The Exorcist). However, the captive virals used their psychic powers to convince Project Noah janitor Lawrence Grey (Jason Fuchs) to help them escape their confines to bring about a vampire apocalypse, leading to an action-packed two-part season finale.
“Stay In The Light,” the first episode in The Passage season finale, saw the virals overrunning Project Noah as Brad, Amy and his ex-wife Lila (Emmanuelle Chriqui) tried to escape. After Lila was bitten, the trio were forced to separate as Brad went to fetch Dr. Nichole Sykes (Caroline Chikezie) who was trapped in a laboratory with the vampire virus cure she’d created. When it became clear the virals would escape the facility, Amy made the difficult decision to detonate a bomb destroying the area of the building that Brad, Nichole and the virals were trapped in. Luckily, Brad was able to make it out in time with the cure although Nichole died in the blast and the virals ended up escaping regardless.
Most of the action in “Last Lesson,” the final part of The Passage season finale, took place around a month after Project Noah had fallen and virals had started taking over the USA. Scientist Dr. Jonas Lear (Henry Ian Cusick) was in Virginia desperately trying to replicate Nichole’s cure before America gets nuked to contain the virus, while Brad and Amy were hiding out in a remote Oregon cabin with the only existing version of the cure hoping the CDC would find them. However, after Brad was bitten by a viral and nearly shot by their well-meaning neighbors Carla and Brian (Elizabeth Sampson and Spencer Daniels), Amy went full-on feral vampire and killed Brad’s would-be killers before injecting him with the cure and running away in shame. A flash-forward set 97 years later showed a still young Amy walking through a post-apocalyptic wasteland looking for the presumably also immortal Brad.
Show creator Liz Heldens had plans to continue Amy ’s story, but Fox canceled The Passage before a second season could happen. However, while The Passage season 2 won’t be happening, The Passage books by Justin Cronin can offer fans some closure.