WARNING: There are SPOILERS ahead for Raised By Wolves season 1, episode 10, "The Beginning."
Aaron Guzikowski's enigmatic sci-fi series Raised By Wolves introduces viewers to the strange new world of Kepler-22B — a distant planet where it appears the laws of life and death are different from on Earth. The HBO Max series premiered on September 3, 2020, and concluded with episode 10 on October 3, 2020. The finale, ironically named "The Beginning," revealed the true nature of Mother's "pregnancy," as well as what lies at the bottom of the mysterious pits; however, for all the questions that were answered, many more were raised — such as why death seems to abide by different rules on this planet. In fact, it would appear that in Raised By Wolves, characters may not die at all.
The thought-provoking sci-fi series is heavily inspired by the filmography of Ridley Scott, who directed the first two episodes and serves as an executive producer. Themes like the nature of life and death, faith and atheism, and good and evil are key aspects of the HBO Max series, which follows the exploits of various parties trying to forge a new life for themselves on a far-away planet, after a war between atheists and the primary religion in Raised By Wolves, the Mithraic, rendered Earth uninhabitable.
Like many of Ridley Scott's movies, Raised By Wolves is unafraid to tackle big ideas, while simultaneously challenging expectations. From the very beginning of the season, the series defied genre norms by killing off almost all of the children the audience had just been introduced to; however, based on clues throughout the first season, these children may not be dead at all; they're simply on the "tropic" side of the planet — or worse, they've become the human-like deformed monsters.
Campion Died In The Raised By Wolves Premiere
In the first episode of Raised By Wolves, Mother has six children. She artificially gestates six of the embryos she and Father brought with them to Kepler-22B. The sixth child, however, does not survive the process, and appears to be stillborn. Inexplicably, Mother seems to go against her logic-based program, holding the unmoving, tiny body close to her, with an expression that appears to be grief (despite being an android). She resists Father's insistence that they are to recycle the dead child as nutrients for the others, despite there being no reason-based explanation for her hesitation. Campion then — against all odds and without any medical intervention to explain it — revives.
Campion is deemed "special" by Mother, and is the only child to not get sick when the others do. Eventually the illness is revealed to be the result of eating the radioactive carbos. Already, it was suspicious that the stillborn Campion — who would be assumed to be the weakling of the group, given his troubled start — was actually more resistant to illness than his siblings, but the reveal about the carbos further complicates manners: It doesn't make sense for him to not be harmed by the radioactive food. Even if he had a natural resistance to radiation, he wouldn't be completely immune to it. The reason why Campion can eat the carbos may be because he already died, and was reborn, on the planet, fundamentally changing him in ways not yet understood.
Tally and Mouse Both Fell In The Pit — And Came Back
One of the biggest mysteries left unresolved at the end of season 1 is the identity of the cloaked being calling herself "Tally," the first child to die on Kepler-22B. Tally fell in the pit offscreen (or so the characters believe); yet, she appears to return later in the season, leaving her homemade dolls for others to find and even confronting Campion. Paul's pet Mouse, the mouse, was also believed to fall in a pit, yet returns, seemingly unharmed. Even the androids Mother and Father survived entering the pit, despite the intense heat inside the pod, indicated by steam rising from Father's "blood." They come out the other, "tropic" side of the planet eventually, seemingly unscathed or even possibly reborn, since Mother seemed to have recovered some from her experience "giving birth."
Presumably, Tally and mouse should have died from entering the pit, which not only contains intense heat and lava, but an incredible fall — surely, no organic creature could survive that. While it is possible that the mouse simply landed on a branch and climbed back up, Tally is more difficult to explain. The being claiming to be her has not yet been seen (its hidden under a cloak), and may be a completely different, perhaps not human, creature masquerading as the fallen girl; however, that would not explain how it seems to have her memories. The fact that her face has not been seen suggests she no longer has a human appearance — perhaps the experience has transformed her into something else.
Rebirth is another theme in Raised By Wolves season 1, so the idea that those who die are reborn as something not-quite human does fit the show's general ethos. The pits themselves seem to possess some sort of power over those around them — perhaps they are the catalyst for change. Marcus (Caleb) has been "reborn" numerous times on the show, narrowly avoiding death during his interaction with Mother, thwarting Ambrose's assassination attempt, then miraculously surviving being beaten and having one of the necromancer eyes shoved down his throat — despite the bloody foam suggesting a massive seizure. Marcus spent a night cuddled next to the pit, and then later suspended hanging in it; perhaps he even "died" of exposure and was reborn through the pit's power. After all, it wasn't until after his time by the pit that Marcus started exhibiting strange behavior. Even Paul spent some time in a pit, having fallen into one and landing on a branch, and by the finale he too is hearing "the voice of Sol." This begs the question: what happened to the dead embryos Cambian dropped into the pit? Or the children whose bodies were buried in the ground?
The Creatures On Kepler-22B Are The Other Children
The terrifying "monsters" on Kepler-22B only began to appear after Campion's siblings all perished, and only appear a few at a time. What's more, these mysterious creatures have humanoid features. On a planet with no other fauna, and flora that does not seem capable of sustaining wildlife, the sudden appearance of these large, dangerous creatures is inexplicable. Where have they been all this time? The creatures appear to come from the pit, with some seen eating the moss that grows on the pits' walls. While it's possible that these creatures were in some sort of hibernation, there is evidence to suggest that these creatures are what happen to humans who die on the planet and their bodies are destroyed or are left in the ground. Initially there are just two creatures, but as more and more humans die on the planet, the number of the planet's "native" inhabitants seems to grow.
The mystery remains: why was one of the creatures pregnant? One possibility is that the "fetus" was one of the dead embryos Gabin and Spiria inadvertently killed when they destroyed their status spheres. It makes sense that the embryos — not quite developed enough to be deemed a fetus — would require some sort of gestation in order to be reborn. Mother and Campion threw those ashes in a pit, while the young child poignantly asked, "why do things have to die?" Perhaps the planet on Raised By Wolves has answered, "they don't."