Does anyone else need some Soma after watching the end of Brave New World? When Season 1 of Peacock’s new dystopian series came to a close, it kind of felt like the world had ended, but the story doesn’t necessarily have to stop there.
The mounting tension in New London came to a head in the Season 1 finale, with the uprising of the Episilons led by CJack60 (Joseph Morgan). They took John’s (Alden Ehrenreich) words about creating an equal world a little too far and started massacring Alphas, Betas, and Gammas alike. It wasn’t really the revolution that John had in mind, but honestly, where else was all that untapped rage going to go?
Meanwhile, Indra (Sophie McIntosh), the malevolent A.I. that created and maintained New London, abandoned her plans of killing everyone in the city after Mustafa Mond (Nina Sosanya) cut her off from the population. That doesn’t mean she’s done screwing with humans though since she implanted herself in Bernard (Harry Lloyd), whom she then sent to the Savage Lands. Seems like she’s got a new plan for world domination.
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When the dust settled, Lenina (Jessica Brown Findlay), of all people, found herself in charge of New London as the new Director. After that horrific slaughter, it’s hard to imagine how she’d be able to lead (or who’s left for her to lead for that matter), but there’s no doubt that in an age without Soma and structure, Lenina is probably the best choice to introduce everyone to the concept of living with their own emotions. John, on the other hand, retreated to the ruins beneath New London to live the life of fishing and solitude he and Lenina dreamed about. At least he’ll have his creepy Lenina hologram to keep him company.
This finale certainly could serve as the end of the series, but there’s also still plenty of stories left to tell if it gets renewed for Season 2.
“I think the relationships that have been established and the things that come to pass over the course of the story, both, I think, resolve themselves well, but also open up entirely new worlds,” Ehrenreich told TV Guide. “I think there’s versions of [the second season], that could draw on other works of Aldous Huxley.”
While we’d obviously like to see if New London manages to pull itself together — not to mention what was in that box Bernard gave Sheila (Kate Fleetwood) — we’d also be into an anthology type of series exploring Huxley’s other novels. Brave New World might be his most famous novel, but it’s certainly not the only one worth a TV adaptation.
Brave New World is currently streaming on Peacock.
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