The Story
Eden takes place 5000 years in our future. AI robots have taken over as the dominant species on the planet while humanity has all but disappeared. The story really begins when two farming robots – E92 and A37 – find a young girl called Sara and raise her in secret.
When she grows up, Sara goes searching for other human survivors. However, she’s hunted by the robot dictator Zero, who’s hell-bent on stopping this human from messing up his perfect world.
What happened to all the humans?
During the years following 2500, humanity ended up at tipping point. Pollution became uncontrollable, the world was choked with toxicity and many humans ended up ill.
Thanks to Dr Field’s Eden Project, 35000 humans were kept under cryogenic sleep in pods buried underground. Despite some initial hostility toward this, the last pockets of humanity eventually went to sleep, allowing the robots to get to work building a better world – and finding a cure.
The last video logs we see are from 2517, so it’s fair to say some time around then humanity closed its eyes and let these AIs do their thing.
The countdown timer we see early on in the show correlates to how long the humans can stay alive before they die. AI Zurich confirms there’s one other human remaining but needs Sara to input the password in order to wake the rest up.
Who is Zero?
Zero is the boss of Eden Three and actually Dr. Weston Fields. This is who Zurich was referencing when the AI mentioned “one other human remaining.” Dr Fields put his subconscious mind inside this robot, taking away the thin slivers of humanity left in him.
Fields wanted to create the perfect world and The Eden Project was Dr Fields’ attempt to try and save humanity. This scientist was inevitably driven mad though, thanks to his wife Ashley dying.
Late on in the fourth episode, Sara manages to reprogram Fields in a way, thanks to audio recordings and her own knowledge that he was once a human. Zero manages to tap into these memories and saves Sara’s life, giving his own in the process. In doing so, he also gives up the password.
What is the password?
Realizing that humanity should be given a second chance, Fields hands over the password. He asks Sara to smile for him before handing it over. Facing Zurich, Sara repeats the three robot rules we heard at the start of the season.
As soon as Sara finishes, the 35,000 cryogenic pods lift out the ground. Sara opens one and finds a baby inside.
How does Eden season 1 end?
Eden ends with a brave new world ahead, with E92 and A37 regressing back to their earlier forms after being reprogrammed by Zero. Their conversation echoes that from when they first met Sara. Sara giggles when a “harmful organic lifeform” (see: caterpillar) lands on E92 and he twirls around. This is, of course, a throwback to the first episode when she was a child.
It seems like Sara may be building a bridge to rekindle what they had before. But will it ever be the same?
So what’s next, will there be an Eden season 2?
With humanity now awakened, the ending is left open to a possible follow-up for season 2. Sara and the robots decide that humanity are worth saving after all and wake them up.
The world is now a utopian haven but numerous questions could be asked about this new wave of humans and whether they really have learned the error of their ways.
Human beings are, by their very nature, a destructive force on this planet and in the time that we’ve been missing, the world has thrived with this robot race. Could we be looking at a repeating cycle of what’s happened before? Or will humanity learn the error of its ways? We’ll let you by the decider on that one!
To read our full thoughts on this series, check out our spoiler-free review HERE!)
Thanks for reading our Ending Explained article! What did you think of Eden’s ending? Did you guess Zero’s identity? Do you think there could be a season 2? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!