“The Eternaut” Ending, Explained: What Caused the Apocalypse — and Who Is Invading Earth?

The Eternaut has no shortage of shocking moments.

The Argentine Netflix series, which is based on a comic series, follows Juan Salvo (Ricardo Darín) and his group of friends as they try to figure out who or what is terrorizing Earth.

The Eternaut begins when a mysterious snowfall occurs in the middle of summer. People quickly find out that the snow is poisonous, and it’s fatal upon contact. Thousands of citizens are instantly killed, while others are stranded without power or basic necessities.

However, Salvo and his friends learn that humans are able to walk in the snowstorm as long as they wear a gas mask and waterproof clothing. This information is critical to Salvo because his daughter, Clara (Mora Fisz), was on a boat with friends when the snowfall started.

Salvo and his friends set out to find Clara and learn that the snowfall is just the beginning of a series of attacks from extraterrestrial invaders.

So, how does The Eternaut end? Here’s everything to know about what Juan Salvo learns about the apocalypse while trying to stop the invasion and rescue his daughter, Clara.

Warning: The Eternaut spoilers ahead!

How does The Eternaut end?

After the poisonous snowfall begins, Salvo sets out to rescue his daughter, Clara, who was on a boat at the beginning of the attack. He gears up in a gas mask and waterproof clothing and heads into the city of Buenos Aires, which is a disastrous scene, scattered with bodies and people abandoned in shelters.

Salvo and his friend Alfredo Favalli (César Troncoso) are driving to the capital to look for Clara when they’re alerted by soldiers that the area is restricted. While they’re leaving, they see a slew of massive beetle-like aliens attacking the soldiers. Salvo and Favalli flee the scene and hide until the aliens quiet down and seek shelter in a church.

While it initially appears that the beetle-like aliens are the ones invading the city on their own, Salvo begins to notice that everyday people are also acting strangely. At one point, he sees people killing a family, and later, more civilians shooting into a crowd of fellow citizens.

Salvo gets even more confused when his friend Lucas (Marcelo Subiotto) begins exhibiting strange behavior after briefly leaving them. Upon returning, Lucas said he blacked out from drinking too much and woke up surrounded by soldiers.

In the midst of the chaos, Clara mysteriously shows up and finds her family at Favalli’s home. While Salvo is initially overjoyed, he later realizes that she is also acting strangely, as she cannot remember how she got to the house or where she was at the time of the snow attack.

At the end of one of the episodes, viewers see one of the civilians walking into a tunnel and safely strolling past an alien, who doesn’t harm him. Other aliens also step aside and let the man continue walking past them instead of attacking or capturing him. This moment shows that aliens have somehow captured everyday citizens and taken over their minds to work for them.

Salvo begins to realize that some of his friends and family members’ minds have also been taken over after Lucas has a breakdown while they’re hiding out in an abandoned building. Their other friend Omar (Ariel Staltari) tries to talk with him, but Lucas stabs him in the stomach and flees the scene.

Salvo goes searching for Lucas and finds him standing over the edge of a rooftop, claiming that everyone’s phones have been tapped and warns Salvo to “be careful what you say.” Before Salvo can calm his friend down, Lucas sees a light shining on him and jumps off the roof.

Then, Salvo becomes even more determined to figure out what’s going on, so he grabs Favalli and Omar and they find a train to take them to Campo de Maya — the army base — in hopes of warning the rest of the military about the alien attack.

Once they arrive, they see something strange — soldiers forming lines and training younger citizens to use weapons. While looking at the people in one of the lines, Salvo sees his daughter, Clara, holding a weapon and getting ready to shoot her target. He realizes then that, just like Lucas, Clara is being controlled by aliens.

Instead of wrapping the series up after this gut-wrenching realization, The Eternaut ends on a massive cliffhanger. While Salvo was convinced that the beetle-like aliens were in charge, at the very end, he sees a silhouette of a massive alien with several fingers. All the beetles and mind-controlled citizens instantly look up at the mysterious figure when they see him.

Salvo realizes that the snowfall attack and the random killing sprees are just the beginning, and he now has to figure out who or what the mysterious figure in charge is.

What happens to Juan Salvo?

At the end of season 1 of The Eternaut, Salvo has come to the conclusion that soldiers and aliens are capturing citizens and somehow controlling their minds. The first season ends on an ambiguous note, as it’s up to Salvo whether or not he’ll take on the challenge of figuring out who the real alien controlling everyone is.

Another questionable theme that goes unanswered is what Salvo’s visions signify. Throughout his journey, he gets strange visions that lead him to wonder whether he is simply experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder from his time as a soldier or if he’s somehow lived through this moment in time before.

While the visions initially seem minor, at the end of the series, viewers see that the thoughts may be more meaningful, and he may actually be reliving these terrifying events. By the very end, it’s unclear exactly what the visions mean, but Salvo seems to believe that he’s lived this moment before.

What happens to Juan Salvo’s daughter, Clara?

After the toxic snowfall, Salvo set out to find his daughter, Clara, by any means necessary.

However, it actually ends up being Clara who finds Salvo and his ex-wife, Elena (Carla Peterson), at their friend Favalli’s house. The devoted dad instantly begins to notice that Clara is acting strangely, as she’s unable to recall where she was at the time of the snowfall or how she got to the house. Salvo also notices that Clara has a bruise on her head.

The final scene confirms his suspicions that his daughter been taken over by the aliens. He sees her standing in line at Campo de Maya as she’s blankly staring straight ahead and shooting a target.

Who or what is controlling the aliens and civilians?

While Salvo and his friends were initially convinced that the massive beetle-like aliens were invading Earth, he later realizes that one mysterious being is in charge.

At the end of the season, Salvo sees the shadow of an ominous figure with fingers all over its arms. As the creepy creature enters the military base, the aliens and soldiers immediately stop and focus their attention on it.

In the comic book series, the creature is known as “The Hand.” The series’ second season, which was confirmed to Deadline on May 2, may explore this mysterious and dangerous figure.

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