To understand “Moonhaven,” we need to know a few things. Firstly, Earth is on the verge of extinction, and so are the people on it. So settlers have been sent to the Moon to solve Earth’s problems, after which they will be brought back. To solve the problems, the settlers will be assisted by a powerful artificial intelligence known as IO. Finally, the settlers have found a way to survive the future and save the Earth from going extinct. So, the time has come to bring the settlers back to Earth.
Episode 1: Recap
It is nighttime. Chill Spenn is running, followed by Strego Nall, who is in her pursuit. She has some kind of white artifact in the shape of a flower in her possession that Strego wants back. They are lovers, and it is evident from their actions. As they speak to each other, Strego manages to grab her and take the artifact from her. “It’s not too late,” she tells him. But seeing that Strego is adamant, she snatches the artifact back from him and starts running again. But this time, Strego catches up to her and kills her. Then, he runs away with the artifact.
The next day, policemen Paul Sarno and Arlo Noon find the corpse of Chill Spenn. They also come across Spenn’s sister, Asus, who tells them that she didn’t see anything. Back at the station, Strego has been captured, and Paul and Sarno go to check on him. However, Strego manages to injure Paul and break free from his cell.
On Earth, Bella Sway, a pro pilot, is hired to take Indira Mare, envoy of IO, to Moonhaven. Tomm, Indira’s bodyguard, is also on board. Unbeknownst to both Indira and Tomm, Bella’s job, as told to her via an encrypted call from a guy called Jatey, is to bring back a Singer, a drug, from Moonhaven. After the ship lands on Moonhaven, Indira meets Council Chair Maite Voss, and they discuss sending the First Wave back to Earth.
Meanwhile, Bella, who has remained back on her ship, finds Arno and Noon knocking on her ship. She is told by Paul that IO has flagged her as Chill Spenn’s blood when she entered the Moon’s airspace. But according to her, she has no sister. When asked about her mother, Bella reveals that her mother left her on Earth and came to Moonhaven when she was very young. Since then, she has never seen her, nor does she want to. Then she gets the news from Paul that her mother died ten years ago.
Somewhere in Moonhaven, we see Strego Nall pull his IO implant out of his body. Meanwhile, Paul makes his second visit to Bella’s ship and tells her that Asus, her sister, has a message for her from their mother. Paul brings Bella to Asus’s home. Paul decides to give Asus the Singer drug, which would rid her of the pain of her sister’s death. As the drug takes effect, Asus tells Bella that their mother had mentioned to Chill about Bella, a sister on Earth who would keep Chill safe. She also says that there was a third person where Chill was killed, but dozes off before revealing the name. But according to Paul, a third person can’t be there as IO would have shown it. It uses the implants in each human on the Moon to learn about them as well as track them.
As Envoy Indira delivers her speech about the future to the people of Moonhaven, Paul and Bella visit the spot where Chill died. There, Bella finds a white flower petal with markings on it and discreetly slides it inside a pocket (this is from the same white artifact that Strego snatched from Chill before killing her). Right then, she observes a little girl running into the forest nearby. Both Bella and Paul rush in her direction. However, the little girl manages to cross Moonhaven’s border. Despite Paul’s warning, Bella follows her too. Once outside, she sees the girl climbing a dead tree, but before Bella can get to her, she collapses, being unable to breathe. Meanwhile, Indira tells Maite that she has to be replaced as the Council Chair since IO has detected corruption of overflow in Moonhaven. Maite isn’t happy about the decision and tries to defend her position. However, Indira has announced her decision. It is up to Maite to step aside with honor or be removed.
Bella opens her eyes and finds herself at what seems to be Paul’s home. There she meets his family and his kids. After she is back on her ship and is about to leave “Moonhaven,” an alarm goes off, telling her that there has been a breach in her ship. Upon searching, she finds Strego Nall, who wants to go back to Earth. He also shows her that he has removed his IO implant. Meanwhile, Tom enters the ship. Bella tells Strego to hide. However, as she speaks to Tomm, Strego comes out and says the words, “It’s done…When one world ends, the next one begins.” And at that very moment, Tomm shoots and kills him. He then attacks Bella, who is somehow able to inject Tomm with a heavy dose of the Singer drug using a jet injector of some sort and get out of his grasp. As she rushes out of her ship, she finds Paul standing there, who apparently “had a bad feeling.” Bella admits to him that she doesn’t know whom to trust anymore. “Trust me,” says Paul. After this, Bella loses consciousness, thanks to the shining handcuff that Paul puts on her wrist.
Episode 2: Recap
Bella opens her eyes in a floating hut amidst a sea while back at her office, Indira receives doubts from the Earth’s council regarding the preparation of the Bridge (that will take the first batch of settlers back to Earth) after the recent attempt to kill the envoy’s personal bodyguard. When asked about whether “Moonhaven” ‘s council Chair Maite Voss has been dismissed, she informs them that she has delivered the message, but Maite is yet to step down. The Earth council is dissatisfied and points towards the possibility that IO’s prediction of the corruption of workflow might be an indication that the Mooners are turning against Earthers. However, Indira ensures that she will take care of all the troubles, but the course of the Bridge will remain the same.
Paul arrives at Bella’s floating hut, where she attacks him but does not cause any harm. Once she is calm, he tells her that the man who got shot was Strego Nall, the same guy who killed her sister. She then lies to him about the events on the ship and tells him that when she entered the ship, she saw Strego with the needle in Tomm’s neck, but Tomm somehow managed to shoot him before collapsing. Paul tells her to sit tight while the case is dealt with. However, he gives her the news that Tomm is alive and, once he comes to his senses, he will be able to give more information about what happened.
Indira approaches Maite yet again and reassures her that she will have to step down from her chair. But this time, Maite points the finger at her and threatens her to leak the recent incidents and destabilize everything if she is removed from power. She will not let anyone frame the deaths of two people as “Moon Trouble” because she knows that the trouble is from Earth.
Paul and Arlo check Bella’s ship for evidence. Arlo thinks that all that’s happened is related to the death of Chill Spenn. They deduce that the only reason for Strego to remove his mark (IO implant) is for him to do something so bad that he wants to leave the Moon forever. And the reason Strego killed Chill was that she knew too much. The duo then arrive at Asus’s home, where she tells them that the love between Strego and Chill was ever-lasting. She also gives them a locked box that Chill gave her for safekeeping. She wants them to give it to Bella. Paul and Arlo then pay a visit to Indira. We also see Tomm on a bed of plants, healing. Indira tells them that some earth extremists may have found a way to send an agent to Moonhaven to prevent the Bridge from going to Earth.
‘Moonhaven’ Episode 2: Ending Explained- What’s In Chill’s Box?
Bella rows a boat from her floating hut and reaches land. There she observes Mooners performing a ritual. But before she can escape, she is discovered by them and taken back to the police station, where Paul finds her again. He accesses her memories, while she remains in a cell asleep, and finds out about her military past and all the people she has killed. However, he also finds the encrypted video call she made to Tate, in which she spoke about bringing the Singer drug to Earth. But when he questions her about working with Strego to smuggle drugs, she denies it truthfully. Be that as it may, her fate now lies with the people of Moonhaven. Paul then gives Bella the sealed box that Asus sent for her.
Bella Sway is brought in front of the Moon council for her judgment. While some want her to be sent to sleep in custody until the truth is discovered, others want her to be sent back to Earth with her lies. However, Paul takes a stand and tells the council that he will take the responsibility for Bella Sway and that she shall live at his house. She deserves to be healed after everything she has been through.
Paul then brings Bella face-to-face with a projection of her sister Chill. Her custom self has been assembled by IO from her living responses. This “estimator” is not entirely who she was when she was alive, but enough to “gift closure” to Bella. She asks Chill if she remembers anything from the moment she was killed and if there was someone else other than her killer, Strego. She doesn’t say anything. Bella then asks her if Chill somehow sent for her (after sensing that Bella would be needed on Moonhaven). But all that Chill remembers is her sister Asus. Realizing that she cannot get anything out of Chill anymore, Bella apologizes, more to herself than the estimator, for not being able to save her and leaves.
Back at Paul’s house, Bella manages to open Asus’s sealed box using her wooden pendant as the key. Inside, there are many of their mother’s belongings. Among these is another estimator bead or a message bead. Paul realizes what it is and takes it back to the estimator chamber. Upon running it, they find that it is a message from Chill. To the shock of both Paul and Bella, the message from Chill is addressed to Asus and says that the Bridge is a trap. Earth was never meant to be saved.
The question that arises here is that if the Bridge is a trap, what is its purpose? Will it take the Mooners somewhere else? Or is it some kind of bomb that will be sent to destroy Earth once and for all? Indira doesn’t seem to know about this, but there seems to be a lot more to Chair Maite Voss than meets the eye. There is also the mysterious third person that Asus spoke of as well as the little girl Bella followed. Is this girl the same third person Asus saw? What remains to be seen is what info Tomm reveals, since we know that Strego’s words, “It’s done,” were addressed to him, according to Bella. And we believe her.
See More: ‘Moonhaven’ Episode 3: Recap & Ending, Explained – What Is The Intent Of Maite Voss?
