Scavengers Reign: What Happens to Kris in Season 1?

Ruthless spacer Kris gets her comeuppance by the time Scavengers Reign‘s first season wraps up – or does she? What really happens to Kris in Scavengers Reign Season 1’s finale, “The Reunion”?

Related: Scavengers Reign Creator ‘Hopeful’ About Future Seasons on Netflix [Exclusive]

Kris’ Fate in Scavengers Reign Season 1, Explained

Kris is dying of thirst in the final scene of Scavengers Reign Season 1. This feeble state stands in marked contrast to the tough, self-sufficient aura Kris projects from the moment she shows up in Episode 7, “The Cure.” That said, it’s also totally in keeping with one of Scavengers Reign‘s key themes: adaptation. Unlike many of the show’s other characters, Kris never changes; right up until the end of Season 1, she’s motivated by her own self-interest.

This failure to adapt – to learn how to lean on others, such as Azi and Barry – is why Kris ultimately comes unstuck. If she’d teamed up with Azi and thrown her lot in with the surviving Demeter crew, she’d now be safe and sound in the colony they built. Instead, Kris bailed aboard the Demeter‘s only remaining shuttle, without realizing she didn’t have enough food or water to survive.

But just because Kris is in bad shape, that doesn’t mean she’s definitely a goner. In the final scene of “The Reunion,” we see Kris’ shuttle – now covered in vegetation from the planet Vesta – boarded by a bunch of masked figures who give off distinctly culty vibes. These folks could rescue Kris, however, it remains unclear for now whether they actually will. If anything, they seem more interested in the shuttle’s only other passenger: a baby Levi creature, spawned by a flower Barry picked earlier.

Related: Scavengers Reign: What Happens to Levi in Season 1?

Who Are the Creepy Cultists Kris Encounters?

It’s impossible to say at this point – for all we know, they’re not even cultists! Still, the ceremonial quality of their outfits and their use of incense strongly implies these folks have religious leanings. What’s more, their penchant for ritualistically posing robed skeletons with plants hints that Vesta’s ecology is sacred to them. As such, the “cultists” Kris meets in Scavengers Reign Season 1 could be the “Neo-Luddites” that series co-creator Joe Bennett mentioned in a 2023 Collider interview.

Related: All Voice Actors & Cast List for Scavengers Reign

“[T]his is something that we’d explore more in other seasons, there’s gonna be characters that are still kind of using the planet,” Bennett said. “They’re finding utilities in the planet and using tools and things like that even if it does have some kind of ripple repercussion to the planet. Then you have characters that will soon be introduced that are sort of more like Neo-Luddites and worship the ground where taking one step is like a sin. Then you have a third party which essentially is just completely tapped into the sort of consciousness, almost acting as a vessel for the planet.”

Scavengers Reign Season 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.