Osmosis – Season 1 Episode 8 – The Finale – “Rebirth” Recap & Review

It Must Be Love

With everything hanging in the balance, we begin the finale by finding out Paul isn’t actually unconscious. It turns out the implant may well have mutated due to its use in curing his illness. As Paul thinks about what this means for the project, Martin and the testers continue to be stuck in a coma and unconscious.

With Osmosis hanging on by a thread, their competitors, The Mohicans, take advantage of the chaos and quickly snatch up the majority of parts. It turns out they want Paul to be their CEO but only if he’s willing to give up creative control and allow them to be in charge of the organisation. Paul decides against it and having had enough of the project, quits on his own accord.

Swann and Esther then decide at this point that the only way to save what little credibility the company has left is to get Martin back online. In order to do this, someone needs to implant themselves into the computer but that will almost certainly spell disaster for whoever chooses to do that. Well aware this could be an act of suicide, Esther decides to sacrifice herself for the greater good and takes the risk.

As she slips further down the virtual rabbit hole, she sees Martin who reveals himself to her as Tom. He tells her he loves her and she reciprocates, telling him she loves him too. Adding an extra thematic dimension to the series, Osmosis reveals another tantalizing question for us to ponder going forward. Can an artificial intelligence develop real human feelings?

We don’t get too long to deliberate over this though as the police find Niels and Claire just as the testers all begin waking up from their coma. After waking up, Ana deliberates over whether to press on with the task given to her by the humanists, further complicated by Simon returning to her. She inevitably decides to push him away again, toying with the USB stick she has that’ll plant a virus into the mainframe and shut down Osmosis for good.

Things then shift forward in time to the day of Osmosis’ launch. Paul stands up and gives a heartfelt speech about the project, reflecting on the events that transpired beforehand. He explains that, like life, there are always risks with every choice we make which appears to have convinced the audience for now. All of the audience it seems, except Ana, who decides to go ahead and sabotage the company as she always intended to do.

After a flurry of drama, the virus is planted and in the virtual world, we see Martin collapsing and Esther waking up back in the real world again. The virus itself appears to have worked in a very specific way; if Martin stays active the testers will die. The AI then decides to go offline for good, allowing the candidates to continue on with their lives.

The series then ends with Paul giving the choice to his audience around whether they want to continue with taking the implants or not. At this point Esther shows up, ending the season with her seeing Martin and hearing the crowd cheering their reunion. It appears at this point they all took the implants but whether they really did or not is left up for debate as the series leaves things wide open for a second season.

For the most part, Osmosis does well to deliver a pretty good finale. The unresolved nature of the implants and the way things have been left open for another season is a little disappointing though, especially given the early promise with this one. There are some pretty interesting questions raised throughout this season though and ultimately this is really what Osmosis is going to be remembered for the most. It’s not perfect but Osmosis has been a highly enjoyable, unpredictable show, ending the first season with just enough to make the ride well worth taking.