‘Pantheon’ Recap: ‘The Gods Will Not Be Slain’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

This is a spoiler-free recap of the season finale of ‘Pantheon’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
​
It is definitely safe to say that the AMC+ series, Pantheon, is the smartest science fiction show of 2022. Simply because this series has offered up some powerful commentary on so many topics. Our collective fear of death, our desire to thrive beyond it. And of course, what it means to be human, and what it means to let our technology rule the day. Which has made for some powerful storytelling for certain, the kind that has left us hanging on every word and left us on the edge of our seats. Especially when it comes to the fact that this power is in many ways, in the wrong hands at this point of the story. 

But that many themes do beg the question… what is the overall point that this series wants to make?​Because that’s a lot to chew upon and that’s a lot to explore and how on earth do you bring all those themes together to wrap up such an epic story? Well as it turns out, this series did find a way to do just that. For the season finale of this saga, ‘The Gods Will Not Be Slain’, used some epic moments involving Katie and David and Chanda, and some poignant ones involving Caspian to inform us of what this series really wanted to explore. In that, we are all acutely aware of the fact that technology is a juggernaut right now and that human beings are using it for their own gain and that we don’t seem to be keeping pace with its development emotionally, which is terrifying and concerning.

Since that should indeed lead to the potential disasters we saw in this finale, and that means that there might not be any hope for us in the slightest. Not when men like Chanda and companies like Logorhythms exist in our world. But how this story ended and the wonder we saw take place in the process… made it clear that this series really wanted to hammer home the point… that the answers to our worries and our concerns have been in front of us all along. In that, we don’t demand enough of the technology sector, regarding transparency. We just feed the machine so to speak and demand more of what we fear, when in fact… we can slow it down, we can ask for more and we can help to dictate what people need. 

Not to mention, our belief that evil will take these revolutions and use them for nefarious purposes is also unfounded. Because we always forget, there are guardians out there, and people that want evil to be defeated and they work to keep it that way and maintain balance and in doing so… remind us of our capacity for good. Which has always prevailed even during the darkest or most trying times, and this is a story that also subtly spoke to the fact… that our fears are also what keep us from heading into the brink. Since they drive us to be better and be more and to accomplish wonders so that we as a species do eventually rise. Which may seem like too many themes to put forth… it’s not. Because all of these points actually do bring the story together because they remind us that the human condition is shared and unique and when we hold to that and celebrate it, we unify, and we conquer and make our world a better place.

If anything, this show should be applauded for offering up a complex finale to a complex series, since it speaks to the fact that this story didn’t want to shy away from the big questions it posed and the big problems it explored. It wanted to be as complex and as simple as our own world, so that everyone was able to extract the answer that means the most to them, so they can apply it to their lives and their own worries and well, one does have to wonder if there will be more to this story or not. Because this in some ways serves as a brilliant series finale, one that reflects the sometimes-teetering nature of the world perfectly… but there is room for more, and it would be wonderful if AMC+ commissioned another season of this brilliant series. So, we can once again be left in awe of a story that held nothing back in its quest to really explore the messy beauty of the human condition. 

To learn more about the show’s main character, and the show’s subtext, check out our interview with the  series lead of ‘Pantheon’, Katie Chang.

---

Powered by JustWatch