The end of Apple’s Constellation requires some quantum explanation

constellation mixes the horrors of space with quantum entanglements on Earth, which all means: It will complicated. After surviving a disaster on the International Space Station, astronaut Jo Ericsson (Noomi Rapace) finds it difficult to understand the “hallucinations” that invade the false normality of her domestic world. Which also means: It’s a wormhole full of complications.

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for Constellation.]

As we see constellationIn the first season, both Jo and her daughter Alice experience the existential realization that our Jo (the survivor we spend most of our time with) shares reality with the other Jo, Alice’s real mother, who was killed aboard the ISS. swapped. Like a ghost of this world, Jo finds herself in a state of emotional limitlessness and feels disconnected from her new reality and this Alice. Meanwhile, Alice begins to realize that her mother is “there and not there,” both literally and mentally, in childlike terms. The irony is that the closer Jo and Alice(s) get to the borderline between their worlds, the more able they are to carry on and survive in their respective worlds.

With no clear path back home (thanks, Bud), Jo bittersweetly resigns herself to building a life with an unknown Alice and Magnus (James D’Arcy). The bitter part is that she and this Alice understand that they must give in to the pretense of wanting some peace or else incur additional wrath from the meddling space program. The sweet thing about it, at least, is that Jo and this unknown Alice realize that they can embrace their own mother-daughter bond despite being from different places, while Jo’s own Alice finds solace in the fact that her mother lives somewhere else. Presumably, this new dynamic opens up the opportunity for main characters Jo and Alice to come to terms with the personality variations of their loved ones’ alter egos and love them – rather than be confused by them. For Jo, it is better to accept a life of “there and not there” than “not there at all.”

Still, Jo’s acceptance does not erase the loose threads of her world(s). And many things endanger the peace that she learns to find with Alice.

Can Henry Caldera fix this mess?

Image: Apple TV Plus

Whenever they influence each other’s minds, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the two Calderas (Jonathan Banks) act as each other’s malevolent doppelgängers. As we know at the end of the season, Bud was the one who repaired Apollo 18, but the mysterious reality shift left him with a dubious reputation while Henry gained fame and a clearer conscience.

When Bud discovers he can influence the Other Caldera through force of will, Bud is happy to haunt Henry, who inadvertently stole his rightful life, his Nobel Prize, and the universe where his heroism saved Apollo 18. That’s it something It’s understandable – if asshole-like – that when Bud is put back in his timeline, he shoots down Henry Caldera’s CAL capsule to avoid being swept back to the other place (and consequently keep Jo and William Catlett’s Paul out of their proper timelines). ).

Significantly, once back in his dimension, Bud feels the urge to enjoy the high life, grinning that the real Henry will reap the failures of Apollo 18 and the shame that Bud endured for decades. constellation encourages us to ask ourselves how the twist of fate has shaped the respective attitudes of these displaced Calderas and whether they are actually getting their just rewards. How much is Bud’s selfishness affected by the injustice he suffered from losing his timeline? Did a more convenient schedule make Henry a little more honorable? In any case, Henry admits responsibility for his CAL enabling the ISS disaster that killed Paul (another Paul he doesn’t know). Henry is determined to make up for his mistake, but he’s also inherited the crap of Bud’s transgressions and murder accusations that would hinder his efforts. If he can overcome the “madman” label, there’s a slim chance that Henry’s attempt to tell the truth about the CAL could lay the groundwork for this reality’s space program to investigate their own timeline anomalies (such as, that this body comes to life on the planet). ISS). In contrast, Bud has all the resources of the space program, but would benefit most from keeping the secret of chaos in the CAL.

What happened to Paul?

From what we see, the series suggests that the CAL sent Paul, Jo’s fellow astronaut, to his “other place,” where the CAL did not exist and his mentor Henry Caldera is not a chief technician. Out of paranoia about mysterious space noises, Paul floats Other Jo’s body in the space station (more on that later).

As a confused Paul searches for answers in the Other Place, his search escalates when a confused Bud Caldera shoots him. Now that Bud and Henry had swapped again, we got to see Paul briefly (at most) reunited with Henry unpleasant of times). As Paul recovers in the hospital, perhaps the most hopeful outcome is that he can reach out to an imprisoned Henry to understand the CAL disaster – if the space program doesn’t dismiss him as a madman.

What happens to Jo’s pregnancy?

Image: Apple TV Plus

To solidify her decision to stay, Jo also decides to bring to term a pregnancy she fathered with the Other Magnus. Alice asks a good question: “If you come from There [what Alice knows as the Other Place]Where did the baby come from?”

The answer seems to lie with ex-cosmonaut/Roscosmos boss Irena Lysenko (Barbara Sukowa) – apparently the living counterpart of the dead Russian cosmonaut – who recognizes an omen in Jo’s ultrasound. The image of the fetus appears to be doubled, suggesting an anomaly in the fetus and perhaps its nebulous connection to the Other Place. If the fetus were conceived by two beings from different worlds, would it possibly mature into an unknown being that could connect the worlds?

Is Other Jo alive?

The final cliffhanger of the season goes back to Other Jo’s corpse floating in the ISS and seemingly coming to life. Is this body a vessel for a nefarious alien being? (Rapace has been there and done that Prometheus.) Or is it really the reawakening of Other Jo’s consciousness?

Jo’s moving corpse is reminiscent of Irena’s corpse, which appears and speaks in Alice’s dreams. I offer my hypothesis: the souls of the dead are trapped in a liminal presence that allows switching between realities. This gives a dark throwback to the living Irena’s musings from Episode 3: “I always dream of space… orbiting the earth endlessly,” suggesting that she is vaguely aware of her counterpart’s desiccated corpse orbiting the earth. No wonder Irena advises Jo to just be grateful that she’s alive and adapt to her (new) surroundings.

In constellationTo peer into this limited Other Place is to come to terms with one’s own loss and death in another universe. At the end of this season, most of the characters are allowed to close the lid on this Pandora’s Box to calm the disorder for the time being. But the growing temporal disorder threatens to unsettle their realities.