The Lazarus Project Ending Explained: Does George Save Shiv In Season Finale?

The Lazarus Project's take on time travel and its impact on the modern world moves to a dark zone after George’s escapades lead to a fatality as he struggles to keep Shiv alive.

Published on Jul 31, 2024  |  05:30 PM IST |  150.9K
YouTube/Sky TV
The Lazarus Project (PC: YouTube/Sky TV)

The Lazarus Project Season 1 ended on a nail-biting cliffhanger leaving fans with a pool of unanswered questions and mystery. The Sky Max series’ take on time travel and its impact on the modern world takes a darker turn after the leading character, George’s escapades lead to a fatality. 

George, who has the power to manipulate his future by traveling to and fro from the past, finds himself struggling to keep Rudi Dharmalingam’s Shiv alive. The BAFTA-winning series follows the protagonist recruited to a secret organization called Lazarus that strives to protect the world from disasters by leveraging the power of time resets.

The Lazarus Project Season 1 ending explained

George tries to save Shiv

The Lazarus Project Season 1 ends with the shocking twist of Shiv’s death and his murderer being revealed as Paapa Essiedu’s George himself. He embarks on a pursuit to solve the mysteries of his world and protect his people through his ability to reset time. 

But George’s half-thought approach plummets with Shiv’s blood in his hands. Despite the tragedy, he is not convinced of the brutal impact of his powers and resets time multiple times to make amends, only to result in the same fate as before. 

Hence, Shiv’s demise in the Season 1 ending remains constant regardless of George’s desperate efforts. 

Shiv’s tries to caution George of his powers

It appears it’s not the first time Shiv has witnessed such an ordeal unravel as George mindlessly utilizes his time-traveling powers to his benefit. The utterly cautious character tries to warn George of the potential risks of manipulating time, stemming from his own experience with the same. 

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After Shiv’s backstory is revealed, viewers find him on a mission to prevent George from going down the same path. His confrontation with George turns out to be futile, with the latter facilitating Shiv’s tragic death in the series. 

Archie digs deeper into George and Lazarus’ antics

Archie played by Anjli Mohindra travels to Shanghai in the debut season’s ending to hunt for more information about strange happenings. Her search for Janet leads her to critical information about Lazarus’ time singularity technology and how the Chinese are involved with it. 

She also discovers George’s unrestricted usage of powers that had instigated a chain of unfavorable events. It is further made explicit after Archie confronts him about it in the Season 1 finale. 

Zhang teams up with Archie

Besides the unraveling of truth, Archie also finds out confidential information about the Chinese through her alliance with Elaine Tan’s Zhang. 

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The leader of the Chinese kidnap squad, Zhang has a distaste for her seniors at work and rats them out to Archie. The latter is overwhelmed by the influx of information on how the Chinese have duplicated Lazarus’ time singularity technology inching the world closer to its ruin with the multiple realities. 

Rebrov protects Janet’s secret message

Tom Burke’s Rebrov finds his way back to Lazarus’ headquarters armed with Janet’s hidden message about the time resets. The plot embeds Rebrov to shed light on a possible resolution of the looming mystery and breezes through his history with Janet as a backstory. 

Rebrov’s knowledge of the message deems him crucial to the storyline of the Lazarus Project Season 1, also opening doors to the character’s future in the sequel season and unexplored possibilities. 

What was Janet’s message?

Vinette Robinson plays Janet and appears to be a key figure in the mystery. Her message, “It will be worth the wait” was shared with Reborve 12 years ago, and vaults into a central plot for the sci-fi series. 

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The finale hints that Janet is lost in the past and someone is at fault. Therefore, the mystery of her absence and Lazarus’ time manipulation backed by George all bind up to hint at a bigger conspiracy that is taking their world closer to doom. 

The Lazarus Project canceled after two seasons

The Lazarus Project premiered on 16 June 2022 and ran for two seasons until November 2023. Throughout its run, the sci-fi series created by British screenwriter Joe Barton met with great acclaim and show ratings. 

Despite the success, the hit show was canceled for a third season by the network Sky Max in March 2024. An official statement announcing the cancelation was released to Digital Spy that stated, “Whilst we won’t be commissioning another season, we would like to thank the incredible team who made this show possible."

The Lazarus Project vaulted as Sky Max’s second-biggest launch for two years and massed a 1.7 million viewership within a month, per Collider. Even though the season finale ended with more questions than answers, it seems fans will have to find their way around it. 


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