That ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ Twist Ending, Explained
The following story contains spoilers for the Season 1 Jupiter's Legacy finale.
The Season 1 finale of Jupiter's Legacy closes several plot lines, but has a huge cliffhanger ending that sets up much to come.
Dual scenes with Walter, Sheldon, and Raikou lead to some major, world-changing revelations.
A lot happens quickly, so here's a full analysis of just how everything plays out in the finale.
Netflix's latest gambit into the superhero genre—and first from comics legend Mark Millar's Millarworld company—is Jupiter's Legacy, a brand new and pretty unique superhero story. Jupiter's Legacy isn't a spoof, or a subversion of the superhero genre; it's just aiming to be a new, unique, and original take on the booming genre. If it's closest to anything that existed previously, it may be Marvel's Fantastic Four. And that's because Jupiter's Legacy, above all else, is a family saga.
So, then, it makes sense that the show's adventures, past and present, seem to be boiling down to the forever fractured relationship between Sheldon Sampson/The Utopian (Josh Duhamel), and his brother Walter (Ben Daniels), who becomes the telekinetic superhero Brainwave.
A lot happens in the first season of Jupiter's Legacy, and a lot of mystery happens at the same time. We wonder how Sheldon, Walter, and the rest of the family got their powers—and, eventually, we find out. We wonder what happened to George/Skyfox, and how he went from a friend and hero to a feared supervillain. And we wonder what the hell is happening in the present-day story with a cloned supervillain, and chaos on the horizon with regards to the commonly cited superhero code.
And just when it seems like enough has happened in the season, we get that ending. It comes with a simultaneous scene between Walter and Sheldon, and Walter and his estranged daughter, Raikou (Anna Akana). We know a lot about Walter and Sheldon's relationship, but the back end of Jupiter's Legacy let us know that Walter also has a strained relationship with Raikou, who works as a mercenary/assassin and is also a telepath.
Daniels is masterful in the closing moments (as he is throughout the series; his character is layered and nuanced, and he does a wonderful job balancing a character who isn't just one thing or another), and it's clear that he's pulled one over on not only his brother and daughter, but a whole lot of other people, too. But in case you were a little unclear on what was happening, don't worry—we've got you covered. We'll all be patiently awaiting Season 2 together in no time.
So, what really happened in that Jupiter's Legacy Season 1 ending?
In the closing moments of Season 1 of Jupiter's Legacy, there's a twist that makes us basically re-evaluate everything we've seen to this point. In short: Walter Sampson, Sheldon's brother, has been undercutting him for the entirety of the present-day storyline. That's right: one superhero (Brainwave) has been actively working against another (The Utopian).
In an admittedly exposition-heavy sequence, Raikou discovers that her father has been plotting against everyone else all along. Walter is the one who cloned Blackstar, he's been planting seeds in Brandon/Paragon's heads all along, and he's been trying to drive them apart. His goal is to drive Paragon and The Utopian away from one another, attempting to wrestle power—and, thus, leadership of the Union—to himself.
His motive here is clear in the show; Daniels does a wonderful job in he flashbacks showing Walter's bubbling resentment toward his brother. It's hard to be the voice of reason expressing caution when the other—in this case Sheldon—is all optimism. And by the time we catch up to the present, it's clear that Walter has had these issues for a long time.
It's also interesting to think about Walter's whole sort of motivation in the comic version of Jupiter's Legacy. It gets a lot more involved in the real world politics/current events of the time—Walter wants the Union to give President Barack Obama direct advice to save the economy in his second term—but his overarching goal is clear: he wants real, measurable, power and influence.
What's unclear is just how fabricated the fight with Skyfox—which also included Grace—was inside the fake Blackstar's head. Is that even the real Skyfox/George? He clearly wasn't behind this plot—that's all Walter. But his location is still a mystery, and his rugged, aged look certainly would reflect the time. That will have to remain a question until next season. It also makes us wonder about Walter's power. In the first episode, he got into the fake Blackstar's head, and talked to him in that alternate reality he creates with his powers. Why did he do this if he created this clone himself? Just a good acting job, I guess.
But the twist ending wasn't all camp and shocks. In perhaps the most poignant moment of the finale, we simultaneously see Raikou tell Walter, and Walter tell Sheldon, "you can trust me." And given that this is a family saga, and these people are all family, without context, you might take that at face value—and in Sheldon's case, he probably does. But just as we now know that Walter is hatching an evil plan, he knows that Raikou's "you can trust me" holds about as much weight as his own does. He's a liar; like father, like daughter. He recognizes what he has to do to preserve his own machiavellian plotting, and he cuts his daugther's throat to silence her. His secret, and his plan, remain secure for the time being. Sheldon trusts his brother—he sees no reason not to—despite the fact that Walter has been undercutting him all along.
As the season ends, after 90 years, things are finally tipping in Walter's favor—he's the brother holding the cards for the first time. The question now, of course, is how Sheldon will respond. And what, if anything, he'll be able to figure out.
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