Warning! SPOILERS about Bodies season 1 ahead.
Netflix’s thrilling crime drama Bodies crafted an explosive ending that made everything make sense and seamlessly connect despite the multiple potentially confounding timelines happening simultaneously. Based on the DC Vertigo graphic novel of the same name by Si Spencer, Bodies was developed by Paul Tomalin, leaping to the Top 10 TV Shows on Netflix in multiple countries including the UK and the US in the first weekend since its debut on the streaming platform on October 19. Bodies’ fight against time makes its suspense non-stop in the limited series’ eight episodes and its packed ending that ties up most loose ends easily places Bodies among the best Netflix shows right now.
Mannix’s time travel made sure that even when the main Bodies‘ cast of characters went against his theories, the loop that saw him die happily kept happening. Although only Hasan and Maplewood knew about the hundreds of thousands of Mannix’s bomb killed, all detectives risked losing either their lives or their loved ones’ futures, making the dissolving of the loop the only thing that could have ever saved countless lives. Planting in Mannix the seed of doubt that he wouldn’t necessarily end up loved despite everybody’s sacrifices made the timelines reset possible, saving 2023’s London and all the detectives’ lives as a result, and providing a satisfying, mystery-solving ending to Bodies.
London Wasn’t Destroyed Because All Detectives Stopped The Loop
Bodies episode 8 started with Iris Maplewood successfully traveling to 1890 to try and stop the loop from consolidating. Her actions set in motion multiple changes in all timelines, entirely modifying what was perceived as a fixed loop. From making sure Defoe wouldn’t have died when he traveled a few days forward in time in 2053 to convincing Hillinghead to believe her and sway Mannix, Maplewood’s choice to sacrifice herself and travel back to a time she wouldn’t have had her Spyne augmentation made the loop’s dissolution possible. Without her realization that Defoe wouldn’t have just gone back in time but also forward, the detectives couldn’t have stopped Mannix.
While without Maplewood the chain of events wouldn’t have started, all detectives contributed to saving London. Hillinghead’s final words to Mannix/Harker and his insight into Harker’s future that Hillinghead shouldn’t have had essentially convinced Mannix that everything that had been promised to him wouldn’t necessarily happen. Mannix’s change of heart in 1941 gave the secret record to Whiteman that would have stopped teenage Mannix from detonating the bomb. Finally, Hasan’s trip from 2053 to 2023 made it possible for Mannix to hear the secret record, making 2023’s Hasan and 2053’s Hasan conjointly work towards Mannix’s erasure from all timelines and the loop’s final destruction.
Shahara Meeting Iris In 2023 Doesn’t Necessarily Stop Mannix’s Dystopia
Although teenage Mannix choosing not to detonate the bomb essentially destroyed 2053’s dystopian reality where Commander Mannix ruled all, Netflix’s Bodies ending with Hasan and Maplewood meeting coincided with the acronym of Mannix’s cult’s slogan appearing on a London skyscraper. Mannix’s erasure from the timeline meant he never inspired other people in 1890 to follow the plan that would have brought his military rule in 2053, but “Know You Are Loved” still mysteriously appeared in 2023. In addition, Iris knew who Shahara really was in Bodies episode 8’s final scene, thus hinting at Maplewood’s time travel.
Bodies purportedly left the final scene unexplained, ending on a minor cliffhanger and leaving some mysteries unsolved for a potential season 2, where Bodies season 1 continues being successful. However, Mannix’s erasure from all timelines only guaranteed the bomb wouldn’t have exploded in 2023, not creating Mannix’s world in 2053. Indeed, the Throat that made time travel possible still remained open in 2053, with Maplewood and Defoe living at that time, making their chance to use it possible. Maplewood’s knowledge of Hasan would be more difficult to explain, but a potential Bodies season 2 surely could, especially if it were connected to KYAL’s appearance in 2023.
Iris’ Regret For Shooting Dafoe Created A Brand New Loop
Influenced by Commander Mannix’s values, Maplewood didn’t waver and shot at Defoe when he entered the Throat. The bullet hitting Defoe while time traveling finally explained why he had an entrance wound but no bullet in 1890, 1941, and 2023, but it also showed how Maplewood’s choice that would have changed the fate of London in 2023 wasn’t decided before Commander Mannix’s time travel but after it. Indeed, Iris’ regret at having chosen duty over her connection with Gabriel and her realization that she could have saved Gabriel, who would have gotten to Longharvest Lane in the future created a whole new loop that destroyed Mannix’s initial loop.
Bodies’ Ending Proved Dafoe’s Free Will Theory Wrong
Iris and Gabriel’s connection in Bodies episode 4 prompted him to share his theory that free will was an illusion and everybody’s life was predetermined, and the way Mannix’s cult made sure things happened as they needed to bring forth his world almost convinced everyone that he was right. However, first by stopping Gabriel from dying and then by traveling to the past and convincing Hillinghead to influence Mannix, Maplewood proved free will always existed. By starting that chain of events, Iris Maplewood proved it was her making all her choices because the mere mention of doubt to Mannix in 1890 eventually made his future and past crumble.
KYAL’s 2023 Appearance Creates Another Foe After Mannix
2053 London’s dystopian society put the civilians’ need to feel loved above democracy or freedom. While this was a direct consequence of Mannix’s bomb in 2023 and his 1890 cult, which had more than a century to plan that world, it doesn’t mean the desire of some to create such a society wouldn’t exist. The Throat’s existence in 2053 makes the chance to create new loops possible for everyone who knows how to find the portal, thus making someone else’s villainous plans to undemocratically rule the UK or more countries always possible, and KYAL’s appearance on a 2023 London skyscraper at the very end of Bodies hints exactly at that.
What Does Bodies’ Ending Really Mean & How It Sets Up Season 2
Hillinghead, Whiteman, and Hasan’s day starts like it did at Bodies’ beginning, but without them finding Defoe’s body finally proves that the loop was destroyed with Mannix’s erasure from the timelines. This ensured London would not be destroyed in 2023, and that Hillinghead and Whiteman’s lives wouldn’t end prematurely due to Mannix’s cult’s interference. However, as Mannix’s paradoxical existence made all the events in the Netflix original TV series Bodies possible, it means that the detectives would have never known each other nor collaborated through time, as their common villain never existed, thus making their lives continue as they always did, without coming in contact with time traveling.
Bodies’ seemingly anticlimactic ending made sure all the detectives never knew what happened, as the versions who collaborated and defeated Mannix were on the destroyed loop, making them as non-existent as Mannix. However, that doesn’t happen for Maplewood, who in Bodies’ final moments knew who Hasan was, using her first name to address her despite only being her driver. This greatly hints at time traveling still causing troubles to Hillinghead, Whiteman, Hasan, and Maplewood in a potential Bodies season 2, as the opportunity to create time loops still exists in 2053.
