Revival Season 1 Ending Explained: How is Em Still Alive?

Created by Aaron B. Koontz and Luke Boyce, ‘Revival’ spans the aftermath of a supernatural event that causes the recently deceased residents of Wausau, Wisconsin, to inexplicably come back to life. Not just that, these Revivers are now functionally immortal and capable of healing any and all wounds. With the town giving into paranoia and unrest about who is living or dead, Officer Dana Cypress comes across a murder case that hits too close to home. All of a sudden, everyone in the town, including the Revivers, is a suspect, and Dana must team up with her sister, Em, to get to the truth. As it is revealed over the course of this supernatural mystery series, however, the murder is deeply connected to the start of Revival Day itself, and its true aftereffects may not even be visible just yet. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Revival Season 1 Plot Recap

‘Revival’ season 1 begins with the sudden, inexplicable revival of everyone who died in the town of Wausau over the last two weeks. As the entire town descends into chaos, Deputy Dana Cypress has to work with her father, the Sheriff, to rein things in. Weeks later, the town is officially in quarantine, with the Sheriff maintaining a directory of everyone who’s come back to life. Dr. Ibrahim Ramin, a renowned scientist working with the CDC, is asked to examine the scene and to join Dana in her daily missions. After a brutally mangled corpse of a horse is discovered, Dana suspects that a reviver might be to blame and goes on the lookout. Soon enough, she meets her sister, Em, who isn’t on the best of terms with her family, but is forced to join the group.

Before Dana and Em can have a proper conversation, the killer of the horse is revealed to be Arlene Stankiewicz, an old, unregistered Reviver who also happens to be exceptionally powerful. Before she can be restrained, she manages to stab Em, only for her to heal, confirming that she is actually a reviver. The surprising thing about this, however, is that Em doesn’t remember dying either, and as Dana tries to cover this up in the face of an upcoming crackdown, Em goes off on her own to discover the truth. In the process, she confronts her professor, Aaron Weimer, with whom she was in an extramarital relationship. The last thing she remembers is being attacked by someone while sitting on a bridge overlooking Moore Creek, and while Aaron clears his name soon enough, Em’s suspicion lingers.

As Dana runs an investigation of her own, she comes across a number of characters who have reacted to Revival Day in their own way. The Wayne brothers, for instance, have begun an organ trafficking ring, abusing the Revivers’ healing properties, and Dana eventually uses Em’s help to put a stop to this. Then there is Blaine, a radio jockey cum demonologist who has successfully created a militia to purge all the Revivers. However, when some of the undead begin spotting a strange yellow glow, touching which causes them to disappear, the situation gets complicated. Ultimately, Dana, Em, and the company realize that the truth about Em’s death and the start of Revival Day are connected, and the answer lies within the Moore Creek.

Revival Season 1 Ending: How is Em Still Alive? What Will Nithiya Do?

‘Revival’ season 1 ends by revealing that Em is still alive and hiding in a cabin along with Nithiya. While she may technically be dead, her surviving as a reviver doesn’t add up, considering the scenes prior, where she reunites with her soul. To make things more complicated, this scene also branches off from the ending of the ‘Revival’ graphic novel, pushing Em and Nithiya’s fates into truly original trajectories. The answer to this mystery, however, likely lies in the subtle ways Em’s soul-reunion is different from the other Revivers we have seen thus far. To begin with, her’s is the only soul that shines purple instead of yellow, and the fact that we never see her disintegrate and vanish like the rest is enough to suggest that she likely never departed in the first place.

The fact that Em has a unique, purple aura is likely one of the reasons Lester considers her to be different and a more potent sacrifice for the creek ritual. While he doesn’t explain why that is the case, one possible explanation is that Em was pregnant when she died, and as a result, the lake was simply met with too much life force, and compensated by triggering Revival Day. In fact, this is loosely confirmed to be the case in the comics, and though the show doesn’t expand on that, it also explains why Em’s body has the ability to restore others, considering that she was already nourishing a soul before her death. In line with that, it might be that both Em and her revived baby have to reunite with their respective souls in order to depart for good, and given how complex that can be, her story is left unfinished.

Given that Dana loses consciousness just as Em is reunited with the purple glow, we don’t know whether Em escaped the scene by herself or if Nithiya came to retrieve her. From the scenes that follow, however, it’s established that Nithiya has been pulling the strings from behind for quite some time, and likely even played a part in starting Revival Day. For now, though, her goal is likely to use Em’s restorative abilities to heal her cancer. However, we still don’t know whether Em is staying with her of her own volition, or if there are manipulative factors at play. Nonetheless, it’s clear that Nithiya has bigger plans for her patient, and if that skeleton-themed jacket is anything, it might even require Em to get her hands dirty.

Who Killed Em and Rose? Why Did Everyone Revive?

Aaron Weimer and Lester Goode are revealed to be the killers of Rose Blackdeer, and later Em, as part of a larger ritual. While they had their own reasons for doing so, it ultimately boils down to a yearning for longevity, be it through the healing of injuries, which is what Aaron wanted for Nithiya, or pure immortality, which is Lester’s ultimate goal. While well known for his anti-aging gimmick, Lester always knew that death was approaching him, which is why he decided to use his town as a vessel for spiritual energy, siphoning and using it for a selfish cause. Moore Creek has often been described as the thin boundary between life and death, where spirits roam and reside, and thus, accessing it wasn’t that difficult for the man who claims to know the most about Wausau.

After targeting Jesse’s daughter, Rose, first, Aaron and Lester realized that they needed more spiritual energy to kickstart the effects, and this is how Em entered the picture. However, her presence turned out to be too much for the Moore Creek, causing an opposite reaction that not only grants immortality to one person, but to everyone who died in the past 14 days. Where Em imagined that her mother was beckoning her to the lake, in reality, it was Lester who was drawing life force out of her for his personal gain, in an act of utter selfishness.

What Happens to the Revivers? Where is Blaine?

Though many of the Revivers ultimately meet their end by reuniting with the yellow orbs of light, a great number of them survive, so to speak, and get to rehabilitate into society over time. A flash forward to the following month reveals that the insurrection against the Revivers has more or less died down and that people have started to become more understanding of who they are. While this confirms that the town of Wausau is changing, albeit slowly, some mysteries still remain. To begin with, we are never introduced to the actual kingpin in charge of the smuggling business in the town. Now, with the brothers dead, the mystery figure might make an actual entry to grab his share in the budding organ-smuggling industry.

An even greater threat to the city, the demonologist Blaine, is left with a relatively ambiguous conclusion by the end of season 1. While we hear his voiceover in the background of the entire final sequence, it is unclear whether he is still serving as a radio jockey from his own station or from behind bars. Given that there is video evidence of him killing people, it shouldn’t be hard for Dana and company to get a warrant, but this largely depends on whether greater powers decide that the killing of Revivers counts as murder. As such, there is still a long way to go before the town can truly come to understand the phenomenon that is Revival Day, and what might come after it.

What is the Mystery of the Moore Creek?

While the comic series ends with Em’s supposed death, the exact reason why Moore Creek can pull off such supernatural feats is never quite explained. However, with Ibrahim still staying in town to continue his research, the answers might not be so far away. From what Lester reveals about the place, Moore Creek is not the only site in the world where the supernatural can be accessed, and it’s precisely these zones that have fueled myths and spiritual legends over the years. Water has been interpreted as a liminal space over the years, which makes it fitting for the creek to serve as a literal channel into the world of the dead. The fact that Em lost her mother right around likely had a chain reaction, as now Em’s emotions are powerfully attached to the creek, likely with a desire to dial things back in time.

Ibrahim is driven by more than scientific curiosity when deciding to stay in Wausau, as he also happens to have feelings for Dana, feelings which are yet to be actualized. However, until the world truly understands the mystery of the Revivers and the yellow orbs of light, the romantic side of the story will likely have to take a backseat. For now, Ibrahim seems to be looking into the actual biological matter of the creek, as it’s very likely the thing that is granting the Revivers healing. However, if series like ‘Twin Peaks’ have established anything about liminal space narratives, it’s that spiritual manifestations often have a root in the collective unconscious of the place. As such, the true route to understanding Revival Day isn’t just by looking into the organic matter, but into the secrets of the town itself.