'The Eternaut' Ending Explained: What Is Going on With Juan Salvo? (original) (raw)
Published May 6, 2025, 10:00 AM EDT
Julio is a Senior Author for Collider. He studied History and International Relations at university, but found his calling in cultural journalism. When he isn't writing, Julio also teaches English at a nearby school. He has lived in São Paulo most of his life, where he covers CCXP and other big events. Having loved movies, music, and TV from an early age, he prides himself in knowing every minute detail about the things he loves. When he is older, he dreams of owning a movie theater in a small countryside town.
Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for The Eternaut finale.
With only six episodes in its debut season, there's a lot going on in The Eternaut. Netflix's new Argentine sci-fi gem is as tense as it is enticing, wrapping everything up on a huge cliffhanger that sets up Season 2, starting with an otherworldly twist. As Juan Salvo (Ricardo Darín) finds out in the season finale, the toxic snowfall that killed most of humanity and the giant bugs that hunt the remaining survivors are actually the first stages of an alien invasion. As if this weren't overwhelming enough, Salvo also finally understands what his visions are all about, wrapping up Season 1 by saying that he has "already lived" through the freak events of Season 1. How, though? And who is the "true enemy" he mentions?
The Toxic Snowfall and the Giant Bugs Are Part of an Alien Invasion of Earth
An alien hand with multiple fingers in the dark in The Eternaut Season 1
Image via Netflix
The Eternaut clarifies many of its greatest mysteries in the season finale. Salvo and his group send out a radio message telling survivors to join them at the military base at Campo de Mayo, but things start going wrong almost immediately afterward. As they wait the night out before they can return to Campo de Mayo, Lucas (Marcelo Subiotto), who has been acting weird since his mysterious disappearance at the outlet mall, suddenly snaps and stabs Omar (Ariel Staltari) and then jumps to his death in front of Salvo and Alfredo "Tano" Favalli (Cesar Troncoso); meanwhile, in the background, the River Plate stadium is looking like a cauldron of light ready to blow, with dark storm clouds gathering above it.
The group is unable to return to Campo de Mayo, though, as a crowd starts ferociously chasing after them, including people who went with them on that mission. Unable to understand what's going on, Salvo decides to chase after the light at the stadium, while Tano, Omar, and Mosca (Leandro Sandonato) head back to Campo de Mayo to let everyone know what's going on. What Salvo finds is even more terrifying than everything he has fought so far: the people who chased him earlier are all being mind-controlled by aliens, working side-by-side with the giant bugs. Overlooking a park with a gazebo, he sees an alien with many fingers in its hand (the "Hand") controlling people as if conducting an orchestra — "the true enemy," he says.
It becomes clear then that everything that has happened so far was part of an alien invasion of Earth. The toxic snowfall was supposed to kill most of the population and destabilize society instantly; afterward, the bugs set up a perimeter downtown and kidnapped as many survivors as they could find, giving them to the Hand to be mind-controlled. Earlier, Inga (Orianna Cárdenas) and her group were approached by these robotic people when investigating a plane crash, and were probably forced to join their ranks, too. Salvo then remembers that his daughter, Clara (Mora Fisz), has also been acting strange since her mysterious return...
The Threat of Mind-Controlled Humans Has Been Set Up From the Beginning
Clara (Mora Fisz) stares blankly at the camera in The Eternaut Season 1
Image via Netflix
The last shot in the season is of Clara back at Campo de Mayo, practicing shooting while staring blankly at the camera. It's interesting that it's through Clara that The Eternaut wraps up, because it begins with her and her friends on Favalli's boat, too. They see the southern lights just before the snow starts falling, implying that the aliens have already started inverting the Earth's magnetic poles. After that scene, Clara only shows up again a few episodes later, appearing out of the blue in Favalli's house as Salvo was out looking for her. When the family is resting together, Salvo notices a bruise on Clara's head, but his ex-wife, Elena (Carla Peterson), waves it off, relieved to finally have her daughter back.
Throughout the season, Clara experiences moments of mental confusion and memory gaps, and Salvo notices that other people around him are also acting strangely. Lucas vanishes from the outlet mall and shows up later on, having no recollection of how that happened. The gang who shot at the mall, too, are just regular people who no one would expect to raise a gun to harm others. At Campo de Mayo, Salvo notices that Omar also has a bruise on his neck. With all those leads, Salvo connects the dots in the season finale and realizes that the aliens were taking action to control people from the start. From now on, he can't trust anyone anymore, as there's no way of knowing for sure whether they've already been co-opted by the Hand.
There's an even darker implication, however. Lucas reappearing with the army at the outlet mall with no recollection of what happened implies that the military has probably already been co-opted by the Hand. Not everyone at Campo de Mayo is necessarily an automaton already, but, at this point, a radio signal repeating a message telling survivors to go there feels more like a trap than salvation, seeing how many mind-controlled people are already at the base.
Related
Juan Salvo Becomes Unstuck in Time
Ricardo Darín as Juan Salvo in The Eternaut Season 1
Image via Netflix
In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, protagonist Billy Pilgrim becomes "unstuck in time," and is able to experience different moments more than once and in the order he chooses. In Denis Villeneuve's Arrival, Louise Banks (Amy Adams) goes through something similar after learning to speak the language of the heptapods and perceive time as they do. In The Eternaut, Juan Salvo is constantly having visions of things he doesn't understand, mixed with flashes from his past, and he finally understands that he is himself becoming unstuck in time, which also happens in the original comics by Hector Germán Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López.
At first, Salvo believes that what he's experiencing is PTSD reminiscent of his time fighting in the Malvinas War in 1982. A devoted follower of St. George, he keeps reliving those memories and seeing an image of the saint during a battle. But those alternate with flashes of a church on fire, red-hot meteors falling from the sky, and Buenos Aires destroyed, which are certainly not moments from the past. In the finale, he finally understands that he has "already lived" through everything that's going on, although the exact nature of what he's talking about and how he comes to experience this is still to be revealed in future seasons.
Season 2 of ‘The Eternaut’ Is Already Confirmed
As short as it may feel, The Eternaut is currently only in its first season, with a second one already on the way. This information was confirmed to Deadline by Francisco Ramos, Netflix's Vice President of Latin American content, although it comes with a catch: Season 2 is probably going to be the last. As producer Matías Mosteirin notes, they believe that they "will manage to close the whole story in a beautiful way, with probably eight more episodes." That's already two more than Season 1, which ends about halfway through the story of the original comics by Oesterheld and Solano López — although the series does take many creative liberties that expand on the original plot.
The bright lights at the River Plate stadium, for example, are not all that mysterious in the comics; that's where the human army sets up its base to fight against the enemy instead of Campo de Mayo. Clara herself is also very different, being instead a child named Martita who doesn't vanish to become an automaton. More than justifying those differences, however, what is expected from Season 2 is to address all the remaining plot points and lingering questions. Is the Hand the ultimate enemy? Are the survivors at Campo de Mayo headed for tragedy? How did the aliens get their many-fingered hands on so many people? And how the heck does Juan Salvo become unstuck in time?
The Eternaut is streaming on Netflix.
Release Date
April 30, 2025
Network
Netflix
Directors
Bruno Stagnaro
Writers
Ariel Staltari, Bruno Stagnaro, Gabriel Stagnaro
Cast
Dante Mastropierro
Maquinista
Creator(s)
Bruno Stagnaro