Netflix’s new sci-fi series Another Life stars Katee Sackhoff as Niko Breckenridge, an astronaut leading the crew of the spaceship Salvare on a dangerous mission - and Another Life season 1’s ending seriously raises the stakes. Niko’s journey begins after a mysterious UFO arrives on Earth and plants itself in the ground, creating a large crystalline structure that comes to be called the Artifact. While Niko’s husband, Erik (Justin Chatwin) stays behind on Earth with their daughter, Jana (Lina Renna), and tries to figure out a way to communicate with the aliens, Niko leads the Salvare on a mission to investigate the possible source of the Artifact.
Things quickly go wrong when Niko is woken up by the ship’s AI, William (Samuel Anderson), who explains that reaching their destination - the star system Pi Canis Majoris - won’t be as easy as they thought. As hard decisions have to be made, things quickly escalate to mutiny and Niko is forced to kill the ship’s pilot, Ian Yerxa (Tyler Hoechlin). That’s only the start of the Salvare’s problems, as they lose communication with Earth and are forced to make the rest of the journey on their own. By the time they find out the terrible truth about the Artifact, it may be too late for them to stop what’s coming.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Erik figures out a way to open a door in the Artifact, with the help of celebrity journalist Harper Glass (Selma Blair). While at first it seems as though the aliens are interested in sharing their knowledge, things take a dark turn and a shockwave emitted by the Artifact leaves Jana with severe leukaemia. It seems that Erik’s only hope of saving her is to trust the aliens - but that probably isn’t such a good idea.
The Aliens Are Called Achaia - And They’re Not Friendly
Another Life’s similarities to the movie Arrival at first lure the audience into thinking that, as in the movie, the strange alien ship that has arrived on Earth brings peace and wisdom. However, it becomes clear that this is not the case when the Salvare’s government representative, Sasha (Jake Abel) gets pulled into an Artifact on a different planet and emerges with an alien spider implant attached to his brain. Working under the influence of these aliens - who are called the Achaia - Sasha tries to sabotage and destroy the Salvare after learning that it has a way to convert gathered energy into a beam that can destroy planets, intended as a last resort in case the aliens proved to be hostile.
After subduing Sasha and saving the ship, Niko and the crew arrive at their destination: an Earth-like planet called Zakir that is orbiting Pi Canis Majoris. There they discover something horrifying: another Artifact, and a boneyard filled with the remains of the planet’s native inhabitants. Zakir, it turns out, is not the home planet of the Achaia, but simply another planet that they invaded five years before arriving on Earth. Zakir’s fate is essentially a preview of what the Achaia have in store for Earth.
Niko and the Salvare’s new pilot, Cas (Elizabeth Faith Ludlow) find an alien AI on Zakir, who informs them that the Achaia’s home planet is another 427 light-years away. The Achaians have already invaded more than 300 other star systems, spreading their influence far and wide across the galaxy. When Niko asks the AI what the Achaia want, it tells her that they are only interested in one thing: destruction.
The Achaia’s Plans For Earth - and For Erik
In the boneyard on Zakir, Niko and Cas find a skull containing one of the same alien spiders that took over Sasha’s mind. Back on the Salvare, Sasha attacks the ship’s doctor, Zayn (JayR Tinaco), in order to force Bernie (A.J. Rivera) to kill him and free him from the Achaia’s influence. This gives the crew an opportunity to remove the Achaian implant from his brain and study it, and they find that it contains a tiny fusion reactor with more power than even the ship has.
On Earth, a similar implant has latched onto the brain of Harper Glass, who has promised Erik that the Achaia can save Jana’s life if she lets him go. Erik goes to Harper’s room to find that she has killed the doctors who were planning to operate on her, and he helps her to escape the government camp. She tells him that the only way to save Jana is to take her inside the Artifact, promising that the Achaia do not abandon their friends. Believing her, Erik goes inside the Artifact with Jana, leaving both of them at the mercy of the Achaia. Given that the aliens know all about how important Erik and Jana are to Niko, they are almost certainly planning to use her family as a weapon against her - perhaps even giving them their own implants in order to control them.
Meanwhile, Harper broadcasts a news bulletin around the world, in which she claims to have a message from the Achaia: that they have come to the Earth as friends. Based on what happened to Zakir, it’s clear that this isn’t the truth, but what’s less clear is exactly what the Achaia have in store for Earth. If their goal was simple destruction, then the end of the episode shows that they could have achieved that quite easily. Instead, it seems that the alien race may have a more insidious and parasitic goal in mind - perhaps enslaving the human race via implants and using them to drain Earth of its resources.
William Accidentally Creates a New AI
A key plot point in Another Life season 1 is William slowly falling in love with Niko, which culminates in her asking him to make himself look like Erik so that she can relive a romantic night with her husband. An embarrassed Niko rejects William the next day and asks him to delete his memories of the night, causing William to experience an emotional and programming crisis that almost allows Sasha to destroy the ship. In an effort to deal with his feelings, William creates an AI program designed to look and behave exactly like Niko, and has conversations with it. However, when William tries to delete the AI program, it refuses to go. Instead, it shifts into a new form (Jessica Sipos), and refers to William as “Mother.”
Though we see little of this AI in the season finale, as William is soon distracted by another impending disaster, we can hazard a guess as to how it was created. The crew decide to reprogram their recovered Achaian implant in order to revive Javier (Alexander Eling), a crewmember who was left braindead after being attacked by Sasha. William successfully interacts with the implant and it crawls into Javier’s brain, waking him up. However, the technology is so far advanced that they really have no idea how it works, and it’s possible that the Achaian tech used the temporary link to William to infect the ship’s AI. If the new AI is Achaian in nature, that could seriously complicate the journey home.
Another possibility is that this AI has nothing to do with the Achaia, and is simply an accidental byproduct of William’s heartbreak that he now cannot delete. She doesn’t appear to be hostile, and is last seen wandering through the corridors of the Salvare, taking in her new home. We’ll have to wait to learn more about this AI and her true nature in Another Life season 2.
The Achaian-Human War Begins - Though Earth Doesn’t Know It
While humans back on Earth are celebrating the news that their visiting aliens are friendly, the first volleys in an Achaian-Human war are being fired on Zakir. Niko decides that the best way to defeat the Achaia is to ally with their other victims, since uniting 336 alien races against their oppressors might be what they need to win. The first step in this plan is to save Zakir, so Niko orders William to fire the Salvare’s energy beam at the Artifact on the planet, destroying it before it can wipe out the rest of their new, winged alien friends.
Unfortunately, the celebration is short-lived. As the Salvare prepares to return to Earth, a small fleet of Achaian ships arrives in the solar system, making its way to Zakir. Niko and the crew can only watch helplessly as the Achaia blow up the planet - apparently deciding that if they can’t have it, no one can. It’s a flex of power that reveals just how much danger Earth is in, and how difficult it will be to extricate it from the grasp of the Achaia without it being destroyed in the process.
More: What To Expect From Another Life Season 2
