Features

Lost in Space Season 3: Burning Questions About Will, Adler, and the Robots

Lost in Space Season 3 has a lot of answers to provide after that action-packed season 2 finale. Here are our questions.

By Ryan Britt | January 2, 2020 | | 0

Spoilers ahead for Lost in Space season 2.

After 10 thrilling episodes in season 2, Lost in Space on Netflix has officially become one of the best contemporary science fiction series on TV. The show balances nail-biting action without resorting to overt violence, while at the same time setting up series-long mysteries which continue to deepen as new installments give us new robotic bread crumbs to follow.

But where is it all leading? With the conclusion of season 2, fans probably have even more questions than they had at the end of Lost in Space season 1. Right now, we don’t know when season 3 will happen, but while we’re waiting, we have plenty to talk about. Here are eight huge questions posed by the final episodes of Lost in Space season 2, plus, some speculation as to what all of this means for season 3.

Is Ben Adler alive?

After abusing robots and acting shady throughout season 2, Ben Adler suddenly has a change of heart, and sacrifices himself to save Scarecrow. But, did that lighting actually kill him? We didn’t actually see Adler die, so there’s a chance he’s alive. And if Adler is alive, then hopefully he has some answers to the bigger questions, like…

Why did the robots multiply and then attack after Scarecrow was saved?

The weirdest thing about Lost in Space season 2 is the huge amount of new stuff that happens in between the end of episode 9 “Unknown,” an episode 10 “97.” Essentially, the cliffhanger of episode 9 ends with Will watching in horror as multiple red lights appears in the distance, meaning that not only did he and Adler succeed at revitalizing Scarecrow with the alien lightning, but somehow also summoned a whole army of new robots who are super pissed. Clearly this is a little confusing, but it seems like information is being left out on purpose. Because Adler was instrumental to saving Scarecrow, that seems linked to why the robots are so angry.

But why did the robots multiply? And where did the hundreds of robot ships suddenly come from?

Why did Scarecrow switch sides?

After the army of angry robots boards the Resolute, it seems like literally everyone is going to die. And, then, very much like the first robot fighting SAR in the season 1 finale, suddenly Scarecrow switches sides and starts attacking its robot brethren. We’re led to believe this is because Will helped save Scarecrow. Plus, Scarecrow observed Will’s friendship with the OG robot, which suggests that relationship influenced Scarecrow’s decision to help out. From a narrative point of view, the audience needs to believe the robots aren’t all bad, and that the OG robot being nice isn’t an isolated incident. But, from a nitty-gritty, in-universe point of view, Scarecrow’s motivations aren’t totally clear.

Why do only certain people have quasi-telepathic links with the robots?

Why the robots respond to certain people and don’t care about the vast majority of others is pretty muddy. We know Will and Dr. Smith had a “connection” with the first robot in season 1, but it’s never explained why. In season 2, it’s implied Adler thought he had a connection with Scarecrow, but it’s not clear what he means by that exactly.

Further, it’s made very clear that some kind of omnipresent telepathy is clearly happening because the regular robot “sees” events that he’s not present for, I.E. the robot’s cave paintings depict the Robinsons attaching sails to the top of the Jupiter 2 to escape the ocean planet, but the robot wasn’t with them when this happened. So, it’s not just that the robot can communicate with Will, he’s like inside Will’s head. Will mentions a few times that this seems to be a two-way street, but we really don’t know exactly how this works.

Regardless of how this shakes out, hardcore and long-distance telepathy implies that the robots have a deeper connection to humans than has been explained or revealed.

Is Dr. Smith alive?

Obviously, it really looks like Dr. Smith (Parker Posey) seems to sacrifice herself to save everyone on the Resolute. But then, later, the OG robot finds her scarf and the little rubber ball she was holding, tucked away inside of a storage canister. Obviously, this heavily implies Dr. Smith saved herself at the last second, and got inside a storage canister, just like she and Penny did earlier in the season.

But we saw her spacesuit floating empty out in space, so how did she tuck herself away? And how did she get that canister all the way over to the transport Jupiter full of the kids? AND, where is she hiding? On that spaceship? Or on one of the Jupiters that escaped the Resolute?

Why is that one engine so important to the robots?

The army of pissed robots is specifically focused on reclaiming the special engine which allows spaceships to jump across impossible distances. But why do they need this engine so badly? If this engine is technology the robots created, certainly they have more engines like it. Unless of course, they don’t which poses another question: why don’t they have more?

Lost in Space has written the robots in a very specific way: though they are depicted as being more powerful than the humans, the robots don’t necessarily have more resources. We haven’t seen any more intelligent alien life on Lost in Space, out side of the humans and the robots, but what if the engine doesn’t belong to the robots? What if, just like the humans, the robots have just figured out how to use it? And even if that’s not true, the scarcity of the engine is still confusing.

What is the origin of the robots?

This one might never be answered, but it’s worth wondering where these guys came from at all. Generally speaking, murderous alien robots (or cyborgs) have humble origin stories. In the 1978 Battlestar Galactica, the Cylons were robots created by a race of alien reptiles, and of course in the 2003 BSG reboot, the Cylons were “created by man.” It seems really unlikely that Lost in Space will reveal the alien robots were actually created by human beings, but then again, why do the robots know so much about humans?

Why did the robot take the kids to the Fortuna?

Obviously, the huge cliffhanger of season 2 is the reveal that the the OG robot didn’t jump the kids to Alpha Centauri, but instead, to the long-lost spaceship called the Fortuna. From an emotional point of view, this is awesome. Grant Kelly — Judy’s biological father — was the captain of this ship, and its loss — and his presumed death — is why Judy was adopted by the Robinsons. So, dramatically, if Grant Kelly is still alive, this is going to be really interesting.

But, that doesn’t answer the question as to why the robot jumped the kids there in the first place. Plus, if the robot knows about the Fortuna and Judy’s connection to it, that implies the robot — or all robots — know a lot more about human beings than we’ve been led to believe. Which could suggest these aren’t alien robots at all.

Lost in Space season 3 does not yet have a release date on Netflix. Season 2 is streaming now.