Tamal Kundu
Portrayed by Adam Bartley, Byron is one of the supporting characters in ‘Night Sky,’ Amazon Prime Video’s epic sci-fi romance drama series. He and his wife Jeanine (Cass Buggé) are next-door neighbors of Irene and Franklin York (Sissy Spacek and J. K. Simmons), the main two characters of the series. As a character, Byron is created in such a way that he is bound to draw unflattering judgments from the audience, but as the series progresses, and we get to know him, he emerges as one of the most complex characters in the series. In the penultimate episode, he steps out on an alien planet. If you are wondering whether he lives or dies, we got you covered. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Is Byron Dead or Alive?
In the early part of the series, Byron is meant to irritate the audience because we see him through the perspective of Franklin, who initially dislikes Byron, and arguably with good reasons. Byron is overly friendly and curious and seems to have trouble understanding that people have boundaries. Byron and Jeanine have recently moved to Farnsworth, Illinois, from Champaign, and the latter is not particularly happy about that. Byron runs for the town council, but no one signs his petition, and he ends up putting the signatures himself. He is subsequently contacted by the city and forced to bow out of the election. Byron initially thinks that Franklin is the one who informed the council but later realizes that it was actually Jeanine.
Franklin and Byron’s relationship improves significantly after the two men start to understand each other. Franklin even shares his and Irene’s biggest secret with Byron — the chamber that transports them to the room on an alien planet. When Byron expresses his desire to explore the planet, Franklin shows him the spacesuits he has built for himself and his wife. Our opinions on Byron start to shift at this point if they hadn’t already. We learn that Byron is an engineer and used to work for a major vitamin company in Champaign. After learning about their malpractices, he decided to blow the whistle on them. The money he evidently has now is the result of the subsequent settlement.
Byron modifies the spacesuits so they can sustain him and Franklin while they are exposed to the environment of the seemingly desolate planet. At the last moment, Franklin decides that he will not go. He planned this for both himself and Irene. It doesn’t feel right to him to do it without her. Franklin also advises Byron on his marriage, but by then, Byron is adamant about venturing outside of the room.
This is a manifestation of Byron’s inferiority complex. He has a deep-seated fear that he doesn’t deserve most things in his life and constantly tries to prove himself to others. After he vanishes while walking outside on the planet, Franklin decides not to tell Jeanine anything until he gets the confirmation.
Byron isn’t dead. In one of the final scenes of the first season, Franklin puts on a spacesuit and ventures out. He finds a dead body with the hilt of a knife protruding out from it, but the deceased is definitely not Byron. When Franklin’s equipment starts to malfunction, Irene comes out to help her husband, not caring about her own safety, and discovers that the planet has breathable air. Together, they spot a very human city built under twin colossal alien structures. There are other similar structures across the landscape, implying that there might be other cities as well. Franklin and Irene also hear the tolls of a bell from the nearest of them. It’s highly possible that Byron has survived and is now in one of those cities.
