An epic new miniseries, The Signal, has come to Netflix and we’ve explained the mind-bending ending to the sci-fi drama.
The German show follows Paula, an astronaut who is about to return to Earth after months flying in space when she goes missing, causing her family to frantically search for answers.
So, what happened to Paula and is her husband, Sven, able to find out? Plus, who is saying “hello” in the eerie recording? Get ready, because here is the ending to The Signal explained.
The Signal ending explained
In the final episodes, we learn that Paula discovered that the mysterious signal from space saying “hello” was actually alien life trying to communicate and come to Earth.
Her colleague, Hadi, tries to stop Paula from finding out more and back on Earth, we learn that he is being blackmailed by their employer, Benisha Mudhi, who funded the space mission and wants to be the one to welcome extraterrestrial life.
The next day, Paula and Hadi are sadly killed on their way home in a plane crash. But, that wasn’t before she managed to send her and Sven’s daughter, Charlie, the UFO’s correct coordinates via the radio they used to communicate during her time in space.
Hoping Benisha will help them find out what happened to Paula, Sven and Charlie meet her at the correct coordinates but on their way, the police contact him to say it was Mudhi who had Hadi and Paula killed.
Soon, Mudhi orders her assistant Nora to kill them Sven and Charlie, but Nora secretly lets them live and works with the police to have Mudhi arrested.
Then, Sven finds out the correct date of when the aliens are set to arrive through a voicemail Paula sent him before she died. On that day, Sven and Charlie go to the coordinates where they find not a UFO, but NASA’s Voyager 1 space probe.
This is a real life space probe that carries a golden record containing sounds and images selected to portray life and culture on Earth, in the event that it is ever encountered by extraterrestrial life.
So, it wasn’t an alien trying to contact Paula and their ship but it was recording of a human child. What does this mean? Well, it could be that humanity wrongly chose to try and shoot down the UFO without wanting to understand it, showing our want for violence over peace.
The Signal is streaming on Netflix now.
