Loose Ends
The first season's finale, "The Angel of Death", introduces a synth from the planet Qar’To (which is in the same system as Mor-Tax) named Q'Tara who arrives on Earth and begins killing aliens right and left in effort of finding the Advocacy, without whom the aliens would be lost and helpless. The Blackwood Team is happy to have such a powerful ally (who can shoot "atomic bullets" and can easily detect aliens) on their side who seems to be fighting the same enemy. In fact, after the aliens launch a surprise attack on them all, Q'Tara even goes the extra mile to heal the fatally wounded team members. Although she is shown to be doing well so far, she reports that she needs to bring in reinforcements.
Just as she is preparing to leave Earth, she makes a last report in a strange native language (subtitled), which states that her mission is incomplete, and that humanity as a future food source is still in danger. This cliffhanger—combined with the plans of the rogue alien Quinn vying for his own global dominance—would potentially bring millions of more aliens and their leaders to Earth in a short strand of years. Under these scenarios, the show painted a future in which many friends and foes would be battling for the planet. Ultimately, however, this potential was lost, as many plots, back-stories, and characters were never picked up and carried into the second season.
Another element that was being built was the issue of why no one remembers the invasion of ’53 (something that is the centre of the show's criticism). Many hints of the true explanation were dropped in many episodes, but this was something that season two never even acknowledged, much less answered. Some believe that, as the synth constantly says "Remember nothing" and appears to be able to change people's memories, the aliens are somehow involved in wiping humanity's collective memory. The first season also touches upon a government conspiracy as demonstrated in the discovery of a whitewash of the alien reconnaissance mission that took place in Grover's Mill in 1938 that was forgotten because of the infamous radio broadcast made by Orson Welles. A few online sources claim, unverified, that the 1953 film audiences know is also a film within the show's universe, and was produced for the same purpose on a wider scale. Though the show gives no clear evidence of such a thing, this would, however, explain some discrepancies, such as the noticeable difference in the aliens’ appearance, and would also leave room for the idea that the global destruction depicted in the film may have been exaggerated from the show's reality. Another theory is that the aliens were somehow able to manipulate human memory, possibly to ensure surprise in the future should they fail and recuperate or for the colonists when they arrive. This is supported in an episode in which an alien object, regardless of its original purpose, is capable of radically altering a human being's personality. How any of these theories tie into the real explanation (separately or even all together) remains unseen and the issue of debate.
The post-apocalyptic cyberpunk atmosphere for season two is never fully explained, although a radio newscaster in the first episode hints that the legalization of narcotics may have led to the deterioration of American society.
Read more about this topic: War Of The Worlds (TV series)
Famous quotes related to loose ends:
“No doubt I shall go on writing, stumbling across tundras of unmeaning, planting words like bloody flags in my wake. Loose ends, things unrelated, shifts, nightmare journeys, cities arrived at and left, meetings, desertions, betrayals, all manner of unions, adulteries, triumphs, defeats ... these are the facts.”
—Alexander Trocchi (19251983)