KAOS on Netflix is the new big budget banger to grab our attention, thanks to its raucous retelling of Greek mythology. But how does season one of KAOS, and the story of Zeus and his gods end?
If you need a reminder, the new 8-part series follows the god of all gods, Zeus (played by Jeff Goldblum) as he resides over a very luxurious Mount Olympus and mortal humans on earth below.
Only, things seem to be going a little haywire – he’s experiencing what can only be described as a midlife crisis, as he worries about his prophecy (“a line appears, the order wanes, the family falls and kaos reigns”) coming true. Meanwhile, three mortal humans are unknowingly on a path to destruct the status quo, questioning the unwitting devotion to the gods. Juicy stuff, huh?
What happens to Zeus at the end of KAOS?
At the beginning of the series, we join Zeus, the god of the sky, lightning and thunder, on Mount Olympus, as he rules over his fellow gods and mortal humans. It quickly becomes clear that he’s feeling paranoid about his prophecy (“a line appears, the order wanes, the family falls and kaos reigns”) becoming true after he spots a vertical wrinkle on his forehead, aka, a line.
Later, he panics that order is waning when he has a dream about cutting open a pomegranate, slicing his finger and bleeding – the unthinkable, considering gods aren’t meant to bleed.
Worried he’s going mad, Zeus pays a visit to The Fates, who write the prophecies, who tell him the prophecies can only come true if people believe in them. He decides to destroy them, hoping this will destroy all the prophecies, including his own, and so he burns them all. It’s then that he spots his watch, which his son Dionysus had given to Lachesis earlier to help Orpheus gain passage into The Underworld, and begins to question who is with him, or against him.
His wife Hera then calls a family meeting, attended by Persephone, Dionysus and Poseidon. It’s here that Dionysus tells his dad he gave The Fates the watch, because he genuinely believed Orpheus’s love for Riddy. Then, Poseidon reveals he’s in love with Hera, who shuts him down. Zeus then dramatically kills Dionysus’s cat and burns Hera’s bees, as a lesson that none of them should love anything less than the gods.
Later, Prometheus then shows up at Mount Olympus. When Zeus tries to shun him away, his powers aren’t working, and he quickly realises it wasn’t a dream about cutting his finger, but a vision. Now that he can bleed, and his powers aren’t working, does that signify the loss of his immortality? At the same time, his ring of endless water collapses.
What happens for Riddy at the end of KAOS?
After Orpheus successfully brings Riddy back from the Underworld, The Cave is gone. Orpheus realises Riddy’s true feelings for Caeneus and the fact that she no longer loves him. The pair share a hug, before going their separate ways.
Then, Cassandra shows up, and tells Riddy, “I’m a prophet. So are you now. You must go to Ari and set the living free. Caeneus will do the same with the dead.”
This puts Riddy on the path that Prometheus sets out at the beginning of the whole show: a plan to bring Zeus down. As his voiceover revealed in episode one, “The plan involves three humans and a prophecy. The first human lives on Earth.”
What happens for Caeneus at the end of KAOS?
In the Underworld, Caeneus sees his mother, who tells him she only led his killers to him so he could fulfil his prophecy – the same prophecy as Riddy.
He then follows his mother through the frame into the Nothing, where he sees his mother again. She’s been turned to stone by Medusa, but he tries to wake her up, with her replying by uttering one single word to him: “Chaos.”
Hades then appears, asking: “How did you do that?” He realises Caeneus has the ability to renew human souls – much like Cassandra hinted that he would do to Riddy – setting him on the path to disrupt both the Underworld and the Nothing.
What happens for Ari at the end of KAOS?
Earlier in the series, Ari’s father, President Minos, attempted to defy his prophecy by killing his son, Glaucus, who is actually the Minotaur. But what he doesn’t realise is that his prophecy, which states his first child to take breath would kill him, was actually about Ari, who was the first of the twins to breathe after being born.
So despite President Minos killing Glaucus / the Minotaur, Ari actually fulfils the prophecy by stabbing her father, before dragging her brother’s body to her mother. She explains what has happened, and how her brother has been alive, before telling her she killed her father. Her mother, Pasiphae, hugs her and tells her it’s OK.
In the final scene, Ari is now in charge of Krete, and vows to defy the gods. She meets with the rebels and tells them, “What do you want? Tell me, and I’ll do it.”
They reply, “Help us rebuild Troy and destroy Olympus.” Ari then reaches out to shake their hand, setting out the potential to bring down the world as they know it.
Dusty Baxter-Wright is an award-winning journalist and the Entertainment and Lifestyle Director at Cosmopolitan, having previously worked at Sugarscape. She was named one of PPA’s 30 Under 30 for her work covering pop culture, careers, interiors and travel, and oversees the site’s Entertainment and Lifestyle strategy across print, digital and video. As a journalist for the best part of a decade, she has interviewed everyone from Louis Theroux and Channing Tatum to Margot Robbie and Ncuti Gatwa, while she has also spoken on Times Radio and BBC Radio. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram here.