Welcome To The Heavy Spoilers Show, I’m Your Host Deffinition, this is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between not seeing the show and seeing it, it’s the channel where we explain it so you don’t have to. This is The Twilight Zone.
The show has just dropped it’s sixth episode in the Jordan Peele reboot and Six Degrees of Freedom, follows a group of stranded astronauts that have to deal with the fact that they are apparently the last surviving members of the human race.
Throughout this, I’ll be breaking down everything that you need to know about the episode and it’s ending as well as what I took from it.
This is full spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen it yet then I highly recommend that you turn off now.
With that out the way, thanks for clicking the video and let’s dive into my ending explained breakdown of The Six Degrees Of Freedom!
Five Characters In Search Of An Exit
Now the first thing that really stood out to me about this episode is that it’s quite similar premise wise to the original Twilight Zone Episode: Five Characters In Search Of An Exit.
That episode follows five apparent strangers who find themselves trapped inside a large metal cylinder and throughout the episode, they attempt to offer up theories on how they got to be in that position as well as try to escape.
This to me at least is a similar position to the characters in Six Degrees who are all headed towards a destination though they do not know what awaits them. The group must work together as one in order to escape their situation and this is mirrored in both episodes.
Eventually, In Five Characters, due to teamwork, they manage to escape and it’s revealed that they are in fact unwanted toys that wish to be loved once more. This twist is quite jarring and It’s not one of my favourites from the original series so I was actually quite hopeful that this would be the one time that Peele would actually best the source material with one of his remakes.
So how does Six Degrees of Freedom hold up?
Six Degrees of Freedom Plot Recap
Well unlike the rest of the episodes in the series Six Degrees has a rather hopeful ending despite the constant nihilism that exists in the storyline. We follow the first manned mission to Mars as they set out to colonise the rest of The Galaxy. Though they initially are humanities bold new leap into the stars, they quickly become its last hope as the rest of the planet’s population is wiped out due to nuclear war.
Similar to the prior episodes in the season, there is clear fear of other countries and the threat of self-destruction looms heavily over the plot. Whilst in A Traveller, the threat came in the form of Russia, here it is portrayed as North Korea who are the first to launch the missiles. North Korea, of course, has quite a lot of tension with the US right now and whilst A Traveler was rather heavy handed in it’s social commentary, Six Degrees at least subtly showcases that this could be a very real scenario should tensions continue to rise.
Six Degrees offers a commentary on how humans are destined to either destroy each other or to learn to co-exist peacefully and this is back and forth tension acts as the episodes main motif. Just in the same way that North Korea ended up turning on rest of the world, the humans trapped on the ship too face these same challenges. The greatest danger for them is each other and the episode teases what would happen should the characters turn on one another out of fear.
Six Degrees Of Freedom: Ending Explained
Whilst it would be cliched for the crew to eventually devolve into harming one another, Six Degrees actually showcases what can happen if they work together. Several of the characters often become opposites of one another but they learn to help one another in order to reach a positive outcome.
Though the characters do make it to their destination without turning on each other there are several real events that happen aboard the craft that can be seen as metaphors for real-world problems. The main standout for me comes in the form of worry over an unplanned pregnancy which makes some crew members fear that if a child is born then their rations would be heavily depleted.
This of course carries subtext of the overpopulation worries that currently exist on the planet and how many people fear that if humanity continues to grow in the way that it has been then it will put the rest of the planet in danger.
However, the humans still manage to work together and make the best out of a bad situation and none of the characters give into their dark desires. Though they irritate one another they put these differences to one side in order to push forward.
This is definitely a positive message that can be taken into the world how many of us felt hope when we saw Trump and Kim Jong Un actually working together and meeting in order to try and have a positive outcome to their disagreements.
The True Meaning Of The Episode
In the end, this is what wins them favour with their overseers, the mysterious race of aliens that have been watching them throughout the episode. The crew has actually been in a simulation that the creatures created in order to see whether we as a race are worth reaching out and contacting. This group has been closely studying the humans and carrying out observations to see if we are worth saving which we prove ourselves to be.
This is something that I definitely believe about humanity and whilst there is a lot of bad in us, we also have the potential to do great things that will have an amazing impact on the world and the galaxy once we eventually manage to venture into it. We are worthy of salvation and even though it only came when we were forced to face our own destruction, we still did it.
My Review
So, what are my thoughts on Six Degrees Of Freedom? Well, after a very disappointing series I actually really enjoyed this one. I found the social commentary to be subtle and unlike the other episodes this was more focused on character development and plot rather than the message behind it.
Though it’s not perfect, had the rest of the season been like this I would have greatly enjoyed it rather than feeling slightly dismayed by the entire thing. This showcases the best of humanity whereas the rest of the season puts forth the worst and for me, that’s enough to make it stand out from the rest.
It definitely bests Five Characters and overall feels like a step in the right direction for the show.
Your Thoughts
Obviously, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the episode and if you enjoyed the series or not. Comment below and let me know and if you enjoyed this video then please like it and make sure you check out my breakdown of the entire season which will be linked in a playlist at the end.
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