Lost in Space Ending Explained: Danger, Robinsons

The following contains enormous, life-altering Lost in Space spoilers (obviously).

Here’s something you may have noticed about Lost in Space Season 1. Were the Robinsons ever really lost…in space?

Sure, they crashed on a deserted planet they didn’t know the name to. But they crashed along with several other colonists on their way to Alpha Centauri. The “mother” ship to this expedition was just outside that planet’s orbit and had a pretty solid idea of where all of its missing colonists were.

Lost in Space Season 1’s finale seeks to rectify that though and makes sure the Robinsons, Don West, and Dr. Smith all get as lost in space as it’s humanly possible to be.

In the final episode, the Robinsons embark on two important goals: 1. Get off the still-unnamed planet to the safety of the orbiting Resolute ship and 2. Save John Robinson and Don West, who are floating on some space wreckage, in the process. 

The rest of the colonists on the planet are able to escape into space and to the Resolute at episode’s beginning, using Will’s ingenious discovery of biofuel (a.k.a. monster poop). The Robinsons, however, have to wait for oldest sister Judy to return with their mother, Maureen.

Judy and Maureen make it back to the Robinsons’ ship, the Jupiter 2, but with some unwelcome interlopers: Dr. Smith and the Robot she now controls.

Maureen, Judy, Penny, Will, Smith, and the Robot all take off into the atmosphere. Maureen convinces that they have enough time before the Resolute departs to save John and Don. Smith, who is running the show with her powerful Robot, reluctantly allows Maureen to do so. When Smith gets cold feet, however, Maureen concocts a plan to put the ship into danger so the Robot will quarantine Smith in a room that Maureen promptly seals.

Some typical finale shenanigans then occur: Smith escaping, the Robot going berserk, the Robot not going berserk, yada yada yada but at the end of the day the Robinsons are finally reunited, Don West is part of the extended family, and Smith is finally imprisoned for good.

That’s when the weirdness starts. First – how did John and Don actually make it to the Jupiter 2? Maureen fired a harpoon towards them but it stopped a few meters short because she had to halt the launch sequence with Smith and the Robot bearing down on them. Then in that same scene we see Smith retracted the harpoon altogether.

After John unexpectedly rescues Will and the whole family gets back aboard the Jupiter 2, John thanks Maureen for firing the harpoon a second time. That’s when Maureen realizes that Smith may not be as evil as previously thought. She confronts Smith in her makeshift prison and thanks her for re-firing the harpoon to save John, before adding. “There’s still no way I’m ever letting you out of here.” 

“We’ll see,” Smith responds.

Smith is probably right thanks to the next development in the finale. The Robinsons and West have long given up on finding the Resolute. They took way too much time to find John and Don and the Resolute should have taken off by now. Colony leader Victor, however, has learned a thing or two about compassion from the Robinsons. He didn’t take off yet and instead reaches them via radio to say he’s coming to the rescue.

Woo hoo! The Robinsons are saved! Except: no. Recall the story behind the Robot’s origins. Humanity stole the technology necessary for intergalactic travel from the Robot’s people. So the Robot’s people send him to get it back and kill a few folks in the process. Well, that threat has passed for now but unbeknownst to the Robinsons, Dr. Smith has smuggled aboard a piece of alien technology onto the Jupiter 2. 

As the Resolute approaches the Jupiter 2, that alien technology begins to spread all across the trip and take control of it. The Jupiter 2 starts to veer left, away from the Resolute despite not having any fuel left. The Robinsons have no idea what is happening and then suddenly the ship enters into a kind of hyperdrive and is hurtled through space. It ends up in a part of the universe Maureen has never seen before.

Their ship is now orbiting a strange-looking planet, that appears to be two planets smashed together. Will recognizes the “planet” immediately. It’s the double-circle design that The Robot etched into the dirt on the old planet. The Robinsons, Don West, and Dr. Smith are now officially lost in space and orbiting a hostile alien planet.

Credits.

The Lost in Space Season 1 finale is significant because it returns the show back to its roots. Both the original 1960s TV show and the 1998 film adaptation featured only the Robinsons, Don West, Dr. Smith, and the Robot aboard the Jupiter 2 and lost in space. Now, after a season spent amongst other scattered colonists, the show’s core characters are well and truly alone.

And lost…in space.