Pantheon Season 1 Episode 8 Review: The Gods Will Not Be Slain

Please note this review contains spoilers for Pantheon Season 1 Episode 8, “The Gods Will Not Be Slain.”  

Pantheon concludes its first season on an emotional note with Pantheon Season 1 Episode 8, “The Gods Will Not Be Slain.”

Following the tragic cliffhanger of Pantheon Season 1 Episode 7, “We Are You,” “The Gods Will Not Be Slain” starts rather unexpectedly. 

The episode starts by introducing an entirely new character, the US government’s first UI asset. With so much going on, spending as much time as the episode does on a new character is risky. Especially when they are introducing a character who has very little to do with the rest of the episode. Yet, it works for two reasons.

First, the episode does an excellent job of piquing viewers’ interest in this mystery character named Joey. If you are going to introduce a new character on the last episode of a season, they had better be interesting. Joey is that. 

Secondly, Pantheon will return for a second season, so we can assume Joey will be a major part of the next season.

The only thing worse than using a significant amount of time on a finale to introduce an uninteresting character would be to introduce a character we want to see more of only for the season finale to become the series finale without viewers getting the chance to get to know that character.

But, since Joey is a character we want to know more about and because we know the show will be back, the introduction is intriguing rather than frustrating. 

The ease with which Joey leaves her family doesn’t quite work for me. Plus, the whole bit about it not being her world as a reason why she wants to upload is clunky. Still, she has my attention.

I am interested in seeing how her desire for greatness shapes her journey next season and where it leads her.

After the detour to introduce Joey, the episode refocuses on the characters we’ve spent the season getting to know. 

Chanda has gone full god-complex. He not only has no remorse about killing Lori but also forces David to choose between killing himself or letting countless people — including his family — die in a missile attack on Sacramento. 

All traces of humanity appear gone. Chanda is unrecognizable from the character we met on Pantheon Season 1 Episode 1, “Pantheon.”

He has become just as callous and dispassionate as the people who uploaded him. His motivation may not be greed. It is, however, power, even if he tells himself it’s for some greater purpose.

Earlier in the Season, I discussed the need for David to keep ties to his family in order to hold on to his humanity, and he does. Chanda, however, does not.

He had few personal connections before his upload. He kept the one he did have — his mother — at arm’s length afterward. 

As a result, he has become so detached from things like compassion and empathy he can take thousands of lives without even a second thought. 

I don’t know if there is a path back for Chanda, but if there is, it is likely through his mother. Having had his love for his mother weaponized against him by Alliance, he is probably resistant to embracing those feelings again. He likely sees them as a source of vulnerability. 

Still, repressed doesn’t necessarily mean gone, which means there is hope. Chanda’s journey on Season 1 was losing his humanity. Maybe on Season 2, his journey will be getting it back. Or perhaps he will continue consolidating power and become an even bigger threat.

Either way, I’m ready to see what’s next for him.

The heart of the episode is David’s big fight with Chanda in the cloud and his death when he releases Lori’s message. 

The animation and action as David and Chanda battle are incredibly cool and edge-of-your-seat exciting. It’s precisely what we’ve come to expect from these types of scenes this season. 

It’s also one of the most emotionally affecting scenes of the season. There is something satisfying about Lori still being the one to tell the world about UIs.

Yet it’s tempered by knowing that honoring her comes at the cost of David’s life. Worse than that, only a select few know how many lives he saved and what he sacrificed to make Lori’s message public.

Even more heartbreaking is seeing Maddie give him permission to send the message, knowing it means losing her father again. It’s a huge moment of growth for her character and one that’s been a long time coming.

Frankly, until this episode, Maddie has been the least interesting of all the main characters. Hopefully, this new maturity will change that moving forward.

The finale doesn’t offer much in the way of closure. Instead, it leaves viewers ready for more.

There is plenty to look forward to next season. Chanda is still out there, for one. Caspian is now in charge of Logorhythms and working on bringing David back. Only will it be the David we know?

We don’t know what point in time the backup Caspian is using is from. And, even if the backup version is from right before Maddie and Ellen took control of David’s consciousness, he won’t be the version of David that has grown since making contact with his family.

He won’t have the shared experiences that the version of David that sacrificed himself had. It hearkens back to Lori’s conversation with Cody before she died.

There is also the question of whether he will even develop into the same person this time. Even slight changes could send David down a different path and change the nature of his relationships.

The big game-changer on the finale is that the world now knows UIs exist. There are no more secrets, and the stakes will be even higher with the world watching.

What new nefarious actors will try to use the technology for their own purposes? How will people’s changing ideas about reality, life, and death impact societal norms?

If Season 1 focuses on big questions about the individual, the finale positions Season 2 to take a broader view that asks those questions about our shared reality and values.

Pantheon Season 1’s sticks the landing. It wraps up a solid first season with an excellent finale. We are far from finished with this story or this world, but what a tremendous first chapter.

What did you think of this episode of Pantheon? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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All Episodes of Pantheon Season 1 are now streaming on AMC+ and HIDIVE

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