[woman singing soulfully in Iñupiaq]
[baby fussing]
[narrator] Humanity has a long history.
But so do hybrids.
At least, longer than most people realize.
Ikiaq, they're waiting outside.
[pastor] You can't accompany us.
[uneasy music playing]
[baby fussing]
I've spoken with the others.
It's not you, it's him. They say--
My son has not been touched by the devil.
He shares the spirit of the tuttu.
I'm sorry.
I've left you what provisions I can spare.
There's nothing more I can do.
May God be with you.
[door closes]
[baby fussing]
[delicate, wondrous music playing]
[in Iñupiaq] We'll be okay, Munaqsriri.
The world is not ready for you yet.
But one day it will be.
[narrator in English] The child's story was not a simple one,
but it was important.
[humming sweet lullaby]
Because it was not just his legacy.
[wind howling]
It was the world's.
[lullaby echoing]
[Gus] Who are you?
Why did you help me?
Heartbeat.
[Gus panting]
You can hear it too?
[grunts]
[erratic, disorienting music playing]
Where are we going?
Home!
[disorienting music continuing]
[music subsides]
[mysterious figure huffing]
[groaning]
[grunting, groaning]
Here. Keep pressing.
What do I do now?
[breathing weakly]
[distant clattering, creaking]
Who's there?
[panicked gasps]
[hammer clatters]
Gus?
Mom.
Oh my God. Look at you.
[both gasping excitedly]
[aching, emotional music playing]
You're really real.
So are you.
[grunts in pain]
He saved me.
But he's really hurt.
Come on.
[heavy, foreboding music playing]
Should have left Singh's ass back in Idaho when I had the chance.
He's probably leading Zhang straight to Gus.
Walt was right.
The world's troubles came to our door, and I let them in.
I'm sorry we brought you into this mess.
But thank you for saving us.
[truck door opening]
[Siana] Huh. Looks like they're moving in.
We can't stay here.
I have to find Nuka. If these monsters find her first...
Any idea where she'd go?
Follow me.
Pack up and head to the outpost now!
- Move it! - [man] Outpost bound!
[man 1] Let's go! Let's go!
We need to get out before they realize I'm gone.
We can't go this way. Come on.
[man 2] We're ready to go.
We gotta go!
Who is that guy?
- Did you know him? - I thought I did. Clearly I was wrong.
Why wouldn't you fight him?
I lied to him.
And I left him in a very bad place.
Don't do that, by the way.
Now he's got no one,
and I don't even think he knows what he's fighting for.
[engine turning over]
We need to find a vehicle before there's none left.
Are we good?
I don't know.
- I've never done this before. - Me neither.
[engine sputtering, revving]
Let's go find Gus and Jepp.
[music trails off]
[gurgling, grunting]
What happened out there?
Zhang's wolf hybrids.
Her grandkids.
They've been trained to come after me.
Jesus. What is wrong with people?
You were right, what you said on the tape.
Once someone found out I was the first...
They'd never stop hunting you.
How did you get all the way up here, anyway?
It wasn't easy, but Big Man helped me.
He's the one who got me to Colorado.
And he also helped me get to Alaska after I dreamt about you in the cave.
[mysterious, haunting music playing]
You know about the cave?
It's been... calling me.
I think it's been calling me home.
Yeah, I know. I think you're right.
This cave... whatever's inside it...
This whole time, I thought I came to Alaska to find you,
but now I think I came to find it.
Maybe that's what my dream was telling me. We're supposed to find the cave together.
[jolting stinger]
Stay away from the cave!
[tense music playing]
[music trails off]
[Tex] Is the baby all right?
Yes. Yes, all good.
Congratulations.
There's nothing to celebrate unless that baby is human.
You realize time is of the essence for her.
[Mrs. Zhang] Yes, and if science can create hybrids overnight,
then it can restore humans just as fast.
Yes.
But I'm afraid science is rather useless these days, Ms. Zhang.
You see, I dedicated my life to it,
and all it brought me was heartache.
- You have something else in mind? - Yes.
[subdued, cryptic music playing]
I offer something much more powerful.
A blood sacrifice.
[music intensifies]
[footsteps approaching]
[music trails off]
[Mrs. Zhang] Where have you been?
Getting my sons.
I know where the deer kid went.
[Rosie] The boys tracked him. He was following the pipeline.
- They almost had him-- - Where is this?
Junction 18.
- The hell's he doing out there? - [Dr. Singh] What he's been called to do.
Like me.
[ominous music playing]
[gasps] He's heading to Thacker's cave.
- [Tex] They won't find anything. - Oh, yes, he will.
The same way salmon return to the river where they're born to spawn.
The same way caribou migrate to their calving grounds in spring.
James Thacker wanted to unlock the power of whatever was inside that cave.
Instead, he broke it.
If we want to make it whole again...
I believe I need to sacrifice Gus.
Gus and I share a dream, you see.
A dream of the cave.
[eerie, enigmatic music playing]
But there are things in mine
that I've kept to myself,
until now.
That Gus would die by my hand.
[dark, disturbing music playing]
[Thacker, echoing] All was unlocked when I sacrificed the deer.
Thacker's journal confirmed it.
I believe Gus's blood will fix what Thacker did.
I believe it'll bring back human birth.
It'll end the Sick for good.
He's the key to fixing... everything.
And then when he dies, you'll have the very thing
that you and your husband were searching for.
A human grandchild.
A legacy.
Get the doctor whatever he needs.
[Rosie] I don't understand. Why are we even listening to him?
Have a little faith, Rosie.
She's right, Mother.
We don't need Singh. We can find that kid without him.
We have everything we need.
Never underestimate a desperate man.
[man] Hey, get over here! Check it out!
[man 2] Check it out.
[Rosie] What is that?
I don't know what's in that cave,
but I'm gonna take it.
No!
I need to remove the fang, or it won't heal.
I would rather die than get help from a human!
If you hate humans so much, then why'd you rescue her?
[grunts]
I didn't want to take a mother from her child...
[delicate, emotional music playing]
...as the world took mine.
In this very place.
What happened to her?
You were born here.
In this church.
You're Ikiaq and Nathaniel Burke's son.
But that would mean that...
How is that even possible?
My bones are as old as those of this church.
He's been alive for over 100 years.
And for 100 years,
I stopped humans like you from finding that cave
so that things could be as they should.
And now... the location of that cave,
it dies with me.
[grunting in pain]
- Do you have something for the pain? - The blue jar.
[breathing raggedly]
I still don't know your name.
I'm Gus.
I used to think I was the first hybrid, but I'm kind of relieved that I'm not.
I am glad...
that I was not the last.
You were lonely, weren't you?
Why do you say that?
Because you're like me.
But grown up.
After my Pubba died, I was lonely too,
and up until recently, I never met another kid like me.
I grew up in a place kind of like this, in a cabin in Yellowstone.
Yellowstone?
My Pubba raised me there, just the two of us.
It's a magical place,
full of maple trees.
Do you know what maple syrup is?
I'm old, not stupid.
[sweet, gentle music playing]
My Pubba taught me how to tap the trees for the sap inside.
I was scared to do it at first
because I thought I might be hurting the trees,
but then Pubba told me
that the trees feel pain differently from us,
and even though we're different,
we all share the same world.
And Pubba told me that the trees are my family,
and the maple syrup's their gift.
Even though we were alone in the woods, Pubba made sure that I was never lonely.
Where is he now?
We were attacked by someone, and he died from the Sick.
And then the Last Men came and destroyed our home.
Yellowstone wasn't safe anymore.
[bittersweet notes playing]
You see?
Humans do not deserve this world, little one.
That is why you must never find the cave.
[Gus] What do you mean?
[elder] Nature must take its course.
But... that means everyone's going to die.
My... My friends, my mom.
- You'll have saved her for nothing. - [cries out]
[Birdie] Here.
[groaning]
A walrus tusk.
Find it for me.
It tells her story.
[tense, adventurous music playing]
Why are we stopping?
[Becky] I don't wanna waste more fuel until we're sure where we're going.
That's a lot of words to say we're lost.
Fine, we're lost.
For all we know, Gus and Jepp might be gone.
We don't know that. We're still here.
For how long?
You know, I never expected to grow up.
It's different for you, though.
You have a whole life ahead of you. You have a future.
You can grow old.
You shouldn't be wasting your time here at the edge of the earth.
With me.
[delicate, fraught music playing]
When I snuck onto Zhang's jet...
I was trapped right between those wolf hybrids.
They snarled and snapped from their cages the whole way.
They saw me as an enemy, even though I'm a hybrid just like them.
Isn't that sad?
[emotional music building]
It's not your fault for stabbing that boy.
And I don't blame the wolf boys either.
I blame Zhang.
I blame the people that made them that way,
for making them feel lost.
[thoughtful, aching music playing]
[bright, sparkling music playing]
Mom always said whenever I felt lost,
I could look up and know she was watching.
We follow these stars, Mom will show us the way.
Well, how can you be so sure?
You got any better ideas?
[Becky chuckles]
[engine turns over]
[tense, adventurous music resumes]
[Siana] That's it! Birdie's place.
Her place in Colorado was a lot more homey.
[three reciprocal taps]
Nuka.
- I knew you'd be here. - And I knew you'd come.
- Are you okay? - A-okay.
- [Nuka] Hungry? Birdie left food. - Someone's here!
- [engine halts] - [Nuka] Wait a second.
- [faint ringing] - [indistinct chatter]
It's Odell and the others!
We had nowhere else to go, Si.
Inside, all of you.
[somber, thoughtful music playing]
Wait till I tell Big Man about this place.
How big exactly is Big Man?
Huge, like two Pubbas.
Two...
He seems very important to you.
After Pubba died, he's the one who kept me safe.
He picked up where Richard left off.
And that's why we have to find the cave, to stop the Sick and keep him safe.
Him, my friends, and you.
We will.
Gus, I... [sputters]
[unsettling music playing]
What is it?
Gus?
[breathy lullaby echoing faintly]
[heartbeat thumping]
Bring it to me.
[indistinct chatter]
Zhang and the cowboys, they just scattered everybody.
And they're draining all the outpost's power
to wake up the Beast.
What the hell is the Beast?
It's an old oil driller, an earth-pillaging nightmare.
It sucks everything out of the ground. Leaves nothing behind.
And Zhang will use that to take whatever she finds in the cave.
Birdie always worried about the wrong people finding the cave before she did.
- Walt tried to stop them. - And they killed him for it.
This is all on you, Siana.
We were all doing fine until you brought the outsiders.
I was just trying to help Gus find his mom.
[tense music playing]
But that's no excuse for getting you into this mess,
which means I'm going to get you out of it.
How exactly are you planning to do that?
We go against Zhang, we're going to end up just like Walt!
[Siana] And if we don't, we're gonna freeze to death.
We have to try.
[woman] Screw it. I say that we negotiate.
Zhang gave us a chance to turn that kid in, so if--
I say we turn him in and see what she says!
[Siana] Like hell we are!
I wasn't talking to you.
We all lost our homes because of him and his friends.
- He can pay the price. - I'm not turning anybody in!
We should head for Fairbanks while we still can!
- [Odell] Everyone just calm down. - [Milton] You calm down! We're all dead!
[angry overlapping arguing]
[tense, agitated music pulsing]
[sighs]
- [Odell] No one's going anywhere. - [woman] We're screwed, and we know it!
Mom, what are we gonna do?
[Odell] Calm down, all right?
Enough!
[tense, agitated music halts]
Look, I know... none of you want to hear from me right now.
But I know what you're all going through.
Trust me.
When... the world goes to shit,
it seems like the only option left is to turn inward and fight for yourself.
That's how I used to operate.
That's what I thought I had to do to survive.
But then, I met this scrawny little hybrid kid
who had to grow up way too fast.
He'd seen the worst in humanity.
He has every reason to hate us.
But the crazy thing is,
not only does he see the best in us,
but he expects the best in us.
Sweet Tooth showed me
that we don't have to live in a world where we fight for ourselves.
He showed me we can live in a world where we fight for each other.
Now, if we work together, then maybe, just maybe, we can still have a home.
[stirring, dramatic music playing]
So, what's it gonna be?
Well, shit. I'm in.
[Milton] Surprise, surprise.
I'm in too.
And me.
[inspirational music building]
Fine.
Then it's settled.
We're going to stop Zhang from taking the Beast,
and we're going to kick these assholes out of our home.
[outpost residents clamoring in agreement]
Mind if we join you?
You gotta be shittin' me.
[Siana] More friends of yours?
[joyful laughter]
Oh my God. Wait a minute.
- Wait, how did you-- - Her mom.
And the stars.
[robust laughter] Oh!
My mother carved this before she died.
So that I would never forget.
Thacker had a mission to find a cure for all illness,
here in the Arctic.
And he did.
He found it...
in the sanctuary.
He saw, and he took.
But he wanted more.
He took the blood of the earth
as if it was his to take.
As if there would be no consequences.
But there are always...
consequences.
The Sick.
[murmurs in agreement]
So, if we find the cave, then we can fix it. We can stop the Sick.
That is not where the story ends.
Thacker's crew made sure that the Sick died with them.
But my mother... escaped.
[delicate, inscrutable music playing]
[sweet lullaby echoing]
My mother died while I was still a child.
And without her to protect me,
humans treated me like an animal.
They took your antlers.
They thought this world was theirs alone.
Greed.
Thacker's sin...
is humanity's sin.
People are the disease, Gus.
The Sick is the cure.
No.
There are good humans and they're worth fighting for.
Pubba and Bear and Big Man.
Tell him.
What if he's right?
What if people haven't changed?
But...
When the Arctic night is over...
the sun will finally shine again,
on a world without humans.
And all will be right.
You told us your story.
Tell us your name.
A long time ago...
my mother called me Munaqsriri.
Her little Munaq.
Guardian.
[ragged breathing]
[in Iñupiaq] Mother.
[singing sweet lullaby]
[in English] Why did you have to leave me?
I needed you...
to protect me.
[heartbeat thumping weakly]
[whispering faintly]
[heartbeat halts]
[gentle, distraught music playing]
[man] Let's go, boys. Let's get this thing powered up.
"It's amazing what you can do when it's for someone you love."
You said that in one of your tapes.
We both lost spouses.
I'm here because of mine.
I assume you are because of yours.
Rani meant everything to me.
Everything hinged on whether she lived or died.
And when I lost her, I had... nothing left to live for.
But then something...
kept me alive,
because my purpose in this life had not yet been fulfilled.
Too much karmic debt, if you will.
If killing Gus in that cave means ending the Sick once and for all...
then my purpose will be fulfilled.
And then maybe my slate will be wiped clean,
and I'll be... free...
to join Rani again.
We're nothing without our family.
Ma'am? The storm is breaking.
Whatever happens, promise me I'll be the one to do it.
- Saddle up. - [man] Let's move!
[ominous music playing]
You stay here and get that thing ready to move.
You did good, Rosie, finding that deer boy.
Now I need you to do this for me and wait for my call.
You'll make us proud,
me and your dad.
[Rosie] Mommy's here.
[Rosie's sons whimpering]
Hey.
I'm sorry, you know.
About Bruno. He didn't deserve what happened to him.
You don't have to pretend to care about them, you know.
No.
You just have to pretend that you don't.
[Birdie] It's a map.
[Gus] And there's the cave.
[gentle, wondrous music playing]
This is how we find it.
Those mountains are just north of here.
We're close.
All these years I spent looking for it,
it turns out all I was missing was you.
Well, now we can finish what you came here to do, together.
You know, Gus, before Munaq found me, before you came here,
I was heading back to Colorado to find you.
Really?
You gave up?
[inhales]
All those years I spent looking for the cure just led me here.
All those years I... I could have spent with you.
I'm here now.
[tender, heartfelt music playing]
Promise me something.
If anything ever happens to me,
you won't let your story become like Munaq's.
Promise.
We know this place a hell of a lot better than they do.
Make sure they never forget it.
In a few minutes, the sun will set.
I don't know about you, but I plan on seeing it again.
- So... - What are you doing here?
[Giana] We cannot let them drain the power.
[Wendy] Gus.
He's out there somewhere.
Go. Go, we got this.
Gus knows what to do.
He doesn't need me.
But don't you need him?
[Siana] If we want to survive, we have to stop them.
And we do that by stopping the Beast.
[sighs heavily]
[somber, forlorn music playing]
[storm rumbling]
[intricate, sweeping folk music playing]
[klaxon wails]
[pack howls]
["Avalanche" by Leonard Cohen playing]
♪ I stepped into an avalanche ♪
♪ It covered up my soul ♪
♪ When I am not this hunchback That you see ♪
♪ I sleep beneath the golden hill ♪
♪ You who wish to conquer pain ♪
♪ You must learn ♪
♪ Learn to serve me well ♪
[song trails off]
[Gus] Mom?
Yeah? You ready?
Yeah.
Let's go.
[loud pounding]
[pounding continues]
[brooding, suspenseful outro music playing]
[music fades]