As creatures of flesh and blood, humans are perishable, insignificant—but the ideas they inspire, irrespective of their moral alignment, are infectious, everlasting; and this is the central idea of the final season of The Head, which grapples with yet another murder mystery set in an isolated, extreme environment. Arthur Wilde, the biologist whose dastardly actions triggered Olivia’s murder spree in the first season, himself became the serial killer in the series’ second chapter and met his end as his own daughter, Rachel, drowned him to death. In the final season, Arthur is not physically present, but his influence continues to affect the narrative—as one of his ardent admirers takes it upon himself to take revenge on Olivia on behalf of his late idol. Thereby, the series comes full circle, pitting Arthur and Olivia against each other for a final time—and even though the ending is not the perfect one series viewers might have hoped for, it wraps up everything pretty well.
Spoilers Ahead
Rachel’s Death Is Tragic But Meaningless
First off, like me, if anyone else had wildly speculated about Rachel being the possible killer in the third season, they will be disappointed after the season finale, which diminishes Rachel’s role drastically keeping in sync with the rest of the season. The penultimate episode of the third season of The Head had ended with the research team ending up with two final survivors, while all of the volunteers perished, or so it seemed. To add to the tension, Rachel went into premature labor, and being a medic, Olivia of all people decided to help her in such a crisis situation. At the beginning of the finale, Olivia helps Rachel safely deliver the baby, and out of gratitude towards Olivia, Rachel apologizes on behalf of her father—knowing no amount of remorse and guilt can ever mend Olivia’s pain. On the bright side, as Rachel mentions, the knowledge that Rachel and Olivia have decided to let go of their enmity must have Arthur turn in his grave. Might I add that, for a change, it is good to see Olivia actually assisting in bringing a life into this world instead of taking one like she was doing throughout the first and ongoing third seasons? Coincidentally enough, right at this moment a downpour begins, an incredibly rare occurrence when you consider the facility is located in the Sahara desert. Olivia goes to gather rainwater, leaving Rachel and her newborn child alone in the facility, and the ominous tone pervading the finale makes it clear things are about to go south real soon.
Olivia returns to find the child missing and Rachel brutally murdered with a spear jammed through her head. Rachel’s death is tragic, to say the least, but like her role throughout the third season, it served no real purpose except for shock value. Olivia frantically looks for the newborn, and following a breadcrumb trail of clues, she reaches outside the facility where she is able to find the child near the iron safe where Bashir’s body was found in the first episode. Olivia is injected with a sedative by the killer who has been tormenting the research crew and volunteers for so long, and as she wakes up inside the iron safe, she finally learns the identity of this crazed individual. It should be mentioned that from the killing patterns and overall modus operandi, Olivia had figured out that the killer had knowledge of the events that transpired in Polaris VI, wanted Olivia to suffer, and had a certain respect for Arthur Wilde—further confirming that the person is none other than Arthur’s admirer from his prison years.
Who Is The Killer?
The killer’s identity will not come as a surprise, if that’s what you were expecting. Sean, one of the volunteers of the algae research program, is revealed to be the mastermind behind the majority of the deaths—as just like a copycat killer, he tried to emulate his idol, Arthur, by eliminating everyone in the facility one by one. Sharing the sob story of needing money to provide treatment for his ailing son, Sean had won the trust of fellow test subjects, which is how he caught them off guard and killed them while escaping, taking the algae sample with him and setting the vehicle on fire. To ensure his deceit didn’t get uncovered, Sean had dug up the corpse of Michael Drake—the American tourist who was killed by Geri—and left it inside the burning vehicle. Sean had carefully set events in motion since the beginning, kidnapping the son of the recruiter to get himself enlisted as one of the volunteers, killing Bashir and Lauren, and later on he took advantage of the panic and anxiety caused by his actions, which resulted in a death spree that somewhat eased his work of eliminating all the survivors. Sean had followed Arthur’s advice ardently while taking down his victims one by one, just to torment Olivia.
In the flashback sequence, Sean’s motivations are revealed, as he was fulfilling Arthur’s wishes all along. Sean, who was a lowly inspection guard at Arthur’s prison, remained distressed by the toxic, suppressing presence of his invalid father—who never failed to remind his son of his insignificance. Sean, who always had a darker side to him, started idolizing Arthur’s genius—ignoring the allegations of mass murder brought against him. Arthur eventually inspired him to go down the dark path as he killed his own father, and before Arthur left the prison, Sean was able to learn the most cherished wish of his mentor—to kill Maggie Mitchell, aka Olivia. Arthur met his end, but his ideals and influences lived through Sean, his devoted admirer, who took it upon himself to go to such crazy lengths to torment Olivia. As for why he spared Rachel’s child, even though he murdered her to take revenge for Arthur’s death—it is pretty simple, as surmised by Olivia. The psycho killer wanted to let his mentor’s legacy live through the child.
What Happened To Olivia?
However, Sean’s fractured psyche was sent spiraling when he learned that the murders in Polaris VI were not orchestrated by Arthur; instead, in reality, Arthur, who was spared by the killer—Olivia herself—had learned her modus operandi and taught Sean accordingly. The dark, murderous legacy of Olivia inspired Arthur to kill the crew of Alexandra in the second season, and once again the same inspired Sean to orchestrate the killings in the research facility. The mere knowledge that the person whom he idolized was not who he considered him to be resulted in Sean’s mind getting trapped in his own shackles. In an absolute state of mental ruin, Sean begins to hallucinate Arthur and his own father—both of whom try to dominate his feeble psyche, and this distraction proves enough for Olivia to wedge the dagger Sean was holding through his eye—killing him instantaneously. However, the final twist that the makers had left for the final moments of the episode was quite satisfying in my opinion.
In The Head’s ending, the contractors who were supposed to arrive after the scheduled research deadline come across the bloody massacre at the facility, and mimicking her defense mechanism of feigning to be a feeble, hapless victim, Olivia hides herself, along with Rachel’s child—only to be rescued by the contractors. Now it’s time for her to get surprised, as one of the contractors is revealed to be Johan, who is already quite aware of her charade—given he lost his wife, Annika, following the massacre of Polaris VI. Back then Johan was befooled by Olivia’s trickery and considered Arthur Wilde to be the killer, but now everything is clear as daylight to him as he taunts Olivia; she can not fool him any longer. This surprise reveal could have been worked much better had the makers not shown Johan in a flashback scene during Arthur’s trial.
Anyway, Olivia has no intention of running or defending herself, and instead, she hands Johan the last algae sample of Arthur’s research, which was preserved by Sean. She entrusted him with the algae, as part of the reason Annika met her end was to protect this research at any cost. The episode ends on a cliffhanger of sorts, as it remains unclear whether Johan will move on with his life or, following the footsteps of Olivia, Arthur, and Rachel, decide to go down the path of violence and vengeance.