It's been a pretty good year for sci-fi TV shows (all things in the real world notwithstanding). We've been treated to the likes of Devs, Picard, and Altered Carbon to name a few. But it's the surprise hit (and #1 HBO Max Original) Raised by Wolves that has sci-fi fans buzzing about what's going on in the show and what will happen in the future. Luckily, Season 2 is a go, but as to what mythology and lore will be explained in that follow-up season is anyone's guess.

Now that Season 1 has wrapped, we have a decent understanding of the world, its characters, and the stakes. Leads Amanda Collin and Abubakar Salim shared a lot of behind-the-scenes info about episodic plot elements in an interview with our own Steve Weintraub here. In a follow-up interview with creator/showrunner Aaron Guzikowski, we learned that "there is a five- or six-season arc planned for Raised by Wolves as a whole, and he already knows how the show will end." But while we're looking ahead, the show may also be looking back, per Guzikowski:

"There’ll be more flashbacks [in Season 2] and perhaps some present day Earth peeks as well to see what might be going on there after everything’s over, because there are still necromancers on Earth. They were left behind, most of them."

Helluva tease, but we've got a lot more questions than that, some of which may or may not be answered in Season 2, a season which is almost certainly going to raise more questions than it answers. Let's knock out a few of them here along with some answers we've received, a couple of guesses based on what we know, and some wild speculation, just for fun. Starting with ...

WTF Did I Just Watch?

This is probably a good time to mention spoilers. If you haven't seen the season finale of Raised by Wolves, back away now or risk falling down a lava tube.

If you're as confused / shocked / astounded by the finale of Raised by Wolves as most people were (myself included), you probably have some questions. Luckily, we have a handy explainer available here. So while it doesn't fully answer or explain all of our questions, it's a nice refresher on the bonkers events of that finale, "The Beginning." It also features more answers from Guzikowski regarding the history of Kepler-22b, the human species / subspecies who live(d) there, the prophecies and how they're connected to human history, and much more. But many questions remain unanswered.

So, Is Sol Real? And If So, Is He the Only God?

There are quite a few nods back to the lesser-known religion of Mithraism rooted in ancient Roman practices, and Sol the sun god is but one of them. You'd do well to at least read up on the wiki to see what connections Raised by Wolves has to the ancient cult practice and maybe tease out some plot points to come. Iconic temples, secret initiations, and ritualistic practices abound in humanity's ancient past, so it makes sense that such practices could be carried out on Kepler-22b in the future... or perhaps they're actually roots to our distant past.

Despite only Marcus / Caleb and Paul being the only characters to hear the voice of Sol (or who they assume is Sol), it's possible that Sol is either a duplicitous deity or that there is more than one such being on this planet. The androids -- Mother and Father -- experienced visions both inside and outside of the virtual reality programming, while Mother experienced some rather invasive and intimate corruption of her own body and code thanks to this false "voice of her Creator." Campion also heard voices and saw ghosts from his past. Could these all be the same powerful entity who's communicating with the new inhabitants of the planet as a means to an end? Or are there dueling deities, each attempting to use mortals to outfox the other? (My money's on a rival Snek God.) Time will tell, we hope.

If nothing else, you can expect to see more of those weird stone pentagonal temples, this time in the tropical zone, according to Guzikowski:

“I can say that there are more of them according to the scriptures. There’s five of them, and in each of them is supposed to be hidden the answers to the sort of the ultimate Mithraic mysteries, the thing everybody’s trying to get to the bottom of. But beyond that, I can’t tell you too much more. Except that we’ll see another in Season 2, and I think we’ll get a lot more kind of into what it is and how it works, and all that good stuff.”

Will Mother and Father Reunite With the Children?

I certainly hope that we'll get to see Mother and Father work out their issues while wandering around the Tropical Zone. But it would be a shame if they didn't get a chance to reunite with their children somewhere towards the end of Season 2. They've survived plummeting through the center of the planet and out the other side; surely they can survive the hazards of the Tropical Zone (including a giant flying hell-snake). It remains to be seen if Campion and the others have what it takes to make it half-way around the world without the aid of a magma-proof whistle-ship

However, there seems to be a lot of predetermined events in Raised by Wolves, all according to prophetic drawings that have existed for millennia. Are Mother and Father destined to reunite with the children, regardless of any hurdles in their way? Guzikowski hints there’s much more to be revealed:

“This is not a virgin planet as we’re coming to discover. There was a civilization here. And here we’re seeing imagery that does suggest on some level that something that we know to have happened 13 years ago, here we see depicted on a cave a drawing that was made several hundred thousand years ago. And how can that be? So I think that’s sort of the question that’s being presented there, but I can’t answer it.”

What Will Become of the Flying Hell-Snake?

I'm team Hell-Snek. Though I understand the knee-jerk revulsion reaction to see an android mouth-birth a flying snake-baby with lamprey teeth that purrs like a 1990s dial-up modem, I kind of want this hell-monster to become the new king of Kepler-22b. Will Marcus / Caleb be able to slay this monstrosity, perhaps fulfilling a prophecy loosely tied to the real-world Mithraic bull-slaying? Time will tell. But I hope Super-Snek reigns supreme.

However, sharp-eyed viewers will likely guess that the now-giant flying snake-baby looks rather similar to the giant snake skeletons featured throughout the season. Guzikowski revealed, that’s no accident:

“It is that [same] breed of a snake with some differences. It’s a hybrid version of that. Yes, there is definitely a connection there. It’s definitely… DNA is in common. But there is a little bit of a difference, because this one comes from Mother, so it has some attributes that some of the snakes that originally existed on the planet do not.”

So we know that these snakes originally existed on this planet, and Mother has birthed a new subspecies of that creature. The curious thing here is that something wanted that specific monstrosity to roam free on the planet's surface, perhaps in an answer to another prophecy, perhaps one followed by the devolved human snake cult. That's a lot of "perhaps", but we can't wait to see how this plays out!

So who really "digitally impregnated" mother? Guzikowski doesn't give away much, but there's a fantastic metaphor for how this abomination came to be:

“I can’t say who. I can say how. I think she was digitally impregnated while she was inside of the simulation. So being that she is as advanced as she is, just by getting basically the instructions for how to build something inside of herself, it’s like a 3D printer. And if she can get the materials — in this case, one of the materials is plasma, human blood — to build this thing, it can be done in a very different way than a human being would create a baby. She could kind of create anything inside of herself if given the proper instructions and given the right materials.”

What Was That New Ship Landing on the Planet?

Marcus / Caleb's story has been about as consistent and reliable as his sanity. He began his life as an orphaned child soldier of the Atheists, only to sneak aboard the arc with Mary / Sue (MarySue, you say...) by killing Paul's parents and taking their faces and identities. As you do. However, being aboard the Mithraic ship for 12 years, existing alongside them in virtual reality, and raising a son has reshaped Caleb's perspective. But the big push (of his sanity off a cliff) came when he first experienced a call from Sol. Season 1 is largely concerned with his descent into madness and his power struggle with his fellow Mithraics.

But there's a twist at the end of Season 1. Caleb, in a bleary hallucination state, happens upon a group of marked Atheist soldiers (whom he quickly dispatches). He calls to a waiting ship full of Atheists who appear overhead. Guzikowski confirmed that the ship is Mithraic in origin but was stolen by Atheists to take advantage of their superior technology:

“We also kind of got the impression that the atheists weren’t as advanced as the Mithraic. The Mithraic had all of these quantum gravity propulsion machines… That stuff was in their scriptures as well. One thing I will say about Season 2 is that this ship was actually built by the Mithraic. It was hijacked while it was under construction on Earth. So the people aboard the ship are in fact atheists, but again, in terms of the technology, it’s more Mithraic stuff.”

Clever way to get the rival faction to the new planet and set up yet another clash, something which humans are very, very good at doing throughout history. But will Caleb let their plans play out? And will he attempt to side with the Atheists by revealing his 'true" face? We doubt it; this boy gon' full crazy.

Will Caleb / Marcus Try to Become a New God?

I think it's pretty hard to come back from Caleb's level of madness (and I'd be very surprised if it wasn't tied into some sort of radiation poisoning coming from the planet itself.) So it just remains to be seen how far he'll go as a Mithraic prophet. (Funny thing about prophecies: They're usually just vague enough so that almost anyone can claim to be the chosen one if it suits their purposes. For Caleb, it suits him well indeed.) Caleb began his life as Marcus, turned into Captain Caleb, overthrew the reigning Eminence (burning him to a crisp in front of the others) and assumed control over the remaining Mithraic group with the support of the soldiers, and then basically killed everyone he came across and declared himself "King of this World." Normal stuff, really.

But where will he go in Season 2, especially now that his face is almost well and truly off? Expect him to "redefine himself", as Guzikowski teased:

“He’s gone as crazy as one can go. So the question is where do you go from there and then what’s the next step? He’s kind of been broken down to nothing. He grew up on Earth as a child soldier. He was completely powerless and he got to this planet and suddenly he was hearing a voice and everyone was worshiping him and he lost his mind, essentially. And in the process, he’s kind of been broken down into his most essential elements, as it were. So I think in Season 2, we’re going to see a sort of rebirth, as it were. He’s going to kind of redefine himself in Season 2.”

But then there's twisty bit from Guzikiowski:

“It’s interesting, Marcus, because he was a little bit crazy when he got [on Kepler-22b]. He was already a former child soldier who then changed his face and spent 12 years pretending to be this religious captain and has all of these issues to begin with, and then he starts hearing the voice and goes where he goes. But I think that’s kind of a clue, the idea that if you really look at it, there is some connection to be made in terms of who hears the voice and when, and how many… Really, I think only one person can hear it at a time.”

Will Season 1 Characters Interact With Settlers in the Tropical Zone?

It's yet to be explained why the Tropical Zone is such an important site on this planet. So let's pull what we know about Kepler-22b from the actual IRL planet: Its radius is roughly 2.4x that of Earth, and it orbits a star (Kepler-22) that is slightly smaller and cooler than our own sun, but its mass and composition remain unconfirmed. It's likely got a higher mass than Earth but may also be an ocean-like planet. It orbits slightly closer to its star than we do to the sun, but that star also pumps out 25% less light, making for moderate surface temperatures; however, a highly elliptical orbit would make for large variance in those temperatures. A potential greenhouse effect could significantly affect said surface temperature, which is where my theory comes into play.

Since Raised by Wolves takes a lot of creative license with the planet's attributes (and takes advantage of gaps in scientific knowledge), pretty much anything goes. We know it's likely habitable, relatively to life on Earth, so it's entirely possible that life evolved there of its own accord. It's also likely that the planet experienced its own extinction-level events like those on Earth. Perhaps instead of global warming, it's experienced a global cooling, a "snowball Earth" scenario, owing in part to the numerous magma-tube vent holes that clearly perforate the entirety of the planet. (An earlier theory of mine was that these holes were artificial, drilled by the sentient life there in an attempt to warm the cooling world. That could still come into play, I guess, but the "pits" themselves seemed naturally formed.) However, the remaining lifeforms could have moved toward the equator of Kepler-22b in search of the last warm and fertile zones on the planet.

Which is where we'll be heading in Season 2, as Guzikowski says:

“We know that this is sort of the most bountiful place on the planet, so everyone believes. This is where it seems like whoever is able to plant their flag and really stake their claim to the tropical zone may become the dominant force on this planet forever kind of thing. It’s like that book Guns, Germs, and Steel about Earth and the idea of where people, just by chance, end up evolving on our planet geographically and what they have there, what materials, and weather, and all of these things that kind of come into play, then thousands of years later, they ended up dominating the planet because of it.

 

And you know, these folks coming to Kepler know that quite well, so they’re trying to stake their claim to the tropical zone. Though of course, tropical zone also has this other weird attribute, which is the electromagnetic field that prevents anyone from landing directly in the tropical zone, which also plays into questions about different sides of the planet and the voice and things like that, and how these things might interact with each other.”

Expect an all-new setting for the second season (and a new shooting location whenever they start up again.). Guzikowski teased the fact that different regions of this planet seems to have different characteristics and properties as well, which could reveal a lot more about the overall story:

“The one thing I can say is that Season 2 will take place in a very different region on the planet. So a lot of the lessons that I learned in [physically making] Season 1 won’t even apply. So it’s kind of like I’ve been in California in Season 1, and now I’m going to Michigan for Season 2. The climate is very different, and the geography and all that good stuff.”

 

“I would say very much like Earth, every region of this planet is very different. So though we know a lot of what there is to know about the region we spent Season 1 in, the rest of the planet is quite mysterious in terms of all that. Also, I think one could imagine that other things in terms of the hallucinations, the voice, so on and so forth, when you moved to another part of the planet, those things are going to shift as well. We’re dealing with things that seem supernatural and maybe they are, but I think everything also has a technological aspect to it that you could apply here in a sort of really calculated way.”

It's looking like Season 2 will reveal more mythology about Kepler-22b and the Earthlings who are attempting to gain control of it. That's fantastic. But what will really drive the second season of Raised by Wolves are the complex and evolving relationships between Mother and Father, the children, the Atheists and the Mithraic, and all the places they intersect. Season 2 can't come too soon!