The Society ending explained: The meaning of the season 1 finale plot twist
13 May 2019, 17:41
Netflix's The Society ends with a massive plot twist but what does it mean?
The Society on Netflix has the wildest ending. Here we've explained exactly what happened and all of the theories about the meaning of it.
Netflix's The Society: Will there be a season two?
It's no secret that teen dramas and dystopian universes make for great television. Netflix's The Society is a mixture of both genres and we're already obsessed. The series is about a group of teenagers who find themselves stuck in an alternate version of their town, without any parents, after they return home from a school trip. There is murder, mayhem and a whole lot of mystery. What actually happened to West Ham though, how did the series end and what are all the theories?
What happened in 'The Society' ending on Netflix?
After Cassandra is shot in episode 3, the entire town is thrown into chaos. She effectively governed West Ham and it isn't able to run in the same way without her. Her sister Allie steps in to replace her and manages to keep things in order for a while. However, she later decides to hold an election so that she can be made a democratic leader. This works in theory but a girl called Lexie decides to run agains her and expose her wrongdoings.
As leader of the town, Allie ignored the ways in which her guards (Jason and Clark) mistreated Lexie (Lexie was arrested on suspicion of poisoning the town and Jason and Clark made her get changed in front of them while on her period). Lexie makes the whole town question their trust in Allie and it's essentially confirmed, via public opinion, that she will become the town leader before the election even takes place.
However, it wasn't just Lexie running against Allie. Harry was running too. Knowing that he will lose, Campbell persuades Harry, Luke, Clark and Jason to take matters into their own hands. He also persuades Lexie that, even if she wins, she won't be able to lead the town without their support and muscle power. Together they frame Allie and Will for voter fraud, arrest them and become joint leaders of the town.
Meanwhile, Grizz, Bean and a team of explorers, unaware of what's happened, find new land outside of New Ham, which is perfect for farming. They return shocked to see Allie and Will being imprisoned. In season 2, they will likely work with Sam, Becca, Helena and Gordie to help free Allie and Will and take down Campbell and Harry. They may even relocate to the farming land they've found.
What does 'The Society' plot twist mean though?
The final scene of the series changes everything. In season 1, Gordie worked out that the teenagers weren't in the actual West Ham because of the placement of the moon, hence Allie calling it New Ham instead. In the last scene, the series suddenly switches to the real West Ham. We see a blonde lady (who is Allie's mum from episode 1) reading to children in a school, next to a memorial with the names of all the teens on it.
In other words, it looks like the teens could have died in an accident on the buses for their school trip and be trapped in some sort of after life. However, that may be too simple. Throughout season 1, there are weird circumstances which suggest that something else is afoot. The smell, the writing on the wall, the mysterious bus driver? It seems like the teenagers are very much alive.
One of the theories seems to infer that the characters are part of some sort of experiment which is probably organised by their parents and the government. There's evidence which implies that Allie's mum at the end was the person who killed Cassandra (you can hear heels in the shooting scene, and her dog appears in New Ham after it happens). Something fishy is going on.
It seems likely that we won't figure out exactly what the parents are doing, and why they are doing it, until season 2, at the very earliest, but we're excited to see it unfold. We also have the mystery of who the father of Becca's newborn baby is (could it be a parent or Campbell?) and whether there are any more teens stuck in the New Ham universe. The possibilities are endless.
