Small Prophets Season 1 Ending Explained: Is Clea Alive?

The fantasy series ‘Small Prophets’ follows the story of Michael Sleep, an eccentric middle-aged man frozen in his grief after the disappearance of the love of his life. Seven years ago, his girlfriend, Clea, left home and never came back. With no evidence to suggest otherwise, many assume that the woman is dead. However, Michael continues to hold out hope for her survival and eventual return. Yet, he has no concrete way of confirming his beliefs. That is, until his elderly father, Brian, tells him about the magical homunculi, human-like prophets who can be grown in jars using a secret alchemical recipe. Thus, between juggling his job at the local DIY store, dealing with nosy neighbors, and placating Roy, Clea’s brother, Michael undertakes the hefty responsibility of growing these mystical creatures in his backyard. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Small Prophets Season 1 Recap

Ever since Clea’s disappearance, Michael’s life has fallen into a predictable monotony. He lives in his house at the end of a cul-de-sac with the friendly Olive and passive-aggressive Clive as his neighbors. He works at a DIY store, Toolbox, and his manager, Gordon, remains perpetually displeased with his performance. He visits his amnesiac dad, Brian, at the nursing home, and routinely helps him apply to newspaper competitions. One day, he gets a concerning call from Hilary, a nurse at the old age home, who expresses some worry about his father’s behavior. When his son visits, Brian appears to be fine, but he begins talking about an Italian alchemist who created prophecizing creatures. Michael recognizes the story from his childhood and assumes it’s a fairy tale. Nonetheless, his father insists that the creatures, homunculi, are real and can be concocted using a recipe that he had written down in his journal.

At first, Michael remains skeptical of this tale. However, shortly after his visit to the nursing home, he has an encounter with Roy. Clea’s brother insists that after years of disappearance, it’s time to accept his sister’s passing and legally declare her dead. His motivations are largely driven by the fact that he’s currently broke, and Clea’s confirmed death would transfer her house into his name, which he can then sell. Upset by this interaction, Michael begins looking through piles of long-forgotten storage to find his father’s journal. To his surprise, once he finds the journal, he also discovers a photograph inside of an otherworldly creature trapped in a jar. As a result, the grieving boyfriend becomes convinced of the homunculi’s existence and begins putting together the ingredients to begin their alchemical creation. Around the same time, he also makes a new friend, Kacey, one of his younger co-workers.

Inevitably, after the two go out to a pub with their colleagues, Michael ends up drunkenly spilling the beans about the homunculi. That same night, in his shed, the first of the creatures take their material form. The next morning, Kacey seems to be the only one who has taken his drunken rambling about the homunculi seriously. Therefore, Michael agrees to introduce her to the creatures. Eventually, she begins helping him carry out the rest of the process to bring the prophets to their stage of divination. This requires a period of burial in manure, a task Michael sets out to complete in his own backyard, which invites the annoyance of his neighbor, Clive, and the intrigue of his wife, Bev. Meanwhile, a different mystery unravels in Roy’s life. A woman, pretending to be a friend of Clea’s, confronts him and makes subtle inquiries about his sister’s old storage unit.

Once the jig is up, the woman, Bea, reveals that she’s actually on the hunt for a rare bird book, ‘The Birds of America’ by John James Audubon, which is worth millions. Upon learning of the lucrative opportunity, Roy throws in his lot with the woman. The following night, a meteorite falls through Michael’s roof, inviting outside curiosity around the cul-de-sac. Furthermore, the protagonist begins to realize that someone is trying to trick his elderly father, fishing for information about him and Clea. However, these problems take a back seat, as the buried homunculi reach maturation, finally entering their divination stage. Once he and Kacey dig the jars back out of the backyard, all that’s left to do is ask the prophets about Clea’s disappearance.

Small Prophets Season 1 Ending: Is Clea Alive? Where is She?

In the show, Michael’s life grows around Clea’s devastating absence. Until Brian tells him about the homunculi, the man is largely aimless, driven forward only by his obsession with perfectly turning a room into a replication of the perfect Christmas memory for his girlfriend. He started this process seven years ago as a surprise for Clea. However, she never got to see it, having run away from home on the same day. In the immediate aftermath of her disappearance, many rumors circulated. In fact, there was an official investigation into Michael to rule out the possibility of a homicide. Eventually, the authorities discovered the missing woman’s car underneath a bridge. As the years passed with no further news about her, her friends and family began to accept that she was probably dead. Yet, Michael held on to hope for a different truth.

Michael stubbornly believes that Clea is still alive and out there somewhere. As such, when the time comes for him to ask the prophet his questions, he first inquires about whether his girlfriend is still alive. Much to his relief, the answer arrives as a yes. Next, he asks if Clea will ever return home. This time the answer is a lot more sobering, as the prophets tell him that the missing woman won’t ever come back. Although Michael might have been able to get more answers about the situation, the tense circumstances unfolding around him make any further investigation impossible. In the end, an assurance of Clea’s survival and the disheartening reality that she will never return home is all the explanation Michael is given. Still, it’s a lot more than what the protagonist has been holding onto for the past seven years.

After years of blind hope, Michael finally receives definitive, divine affirmation that Clea is alive. For a yet-to-be-determined reason, it appears she can’t come to him. For the same reason, he decides that he will go to her. The search for Clea won’t be an easy one. Even so, Michael is convinced that it won’t be impossible. Earlier that day, an unknown number had called his phone when he wasn’t around to answer. Although Kacey picked up, she was only met with silence on the other side. Later, the duo realized that the call had come from British Columbia, Canada. Michael concludes that Clea must have been behind this call. Throughout the story, we see the protagonist clinging to hope when the truth evades him. In the end, he remains similarly hopeful that the phone call had some meaning attached to it and that it would finally lead him to Clea.

Why Did Clea Leave?

The season ends on an ambiguous note, leaving plenty of questions unanswered and even more threads unresolved. Perhaps the most crucial one revolves around Clea’s disappearance. In the build-up to this foundational event, she and Michael were going through a rough patch. It’s primarily why he tries to recreate the Christmas from her childhood inside a room in their house. This indicates that even though things were bad between the couple, the protagonist at least never thought they were unsalvageable.
Nevertheless, this notion is challenged when Clea leaves home on Christmas Day and never returns again. Over the years, Michael has undoubtedly grappled with the question of exactly what could have driven his girlfriend away. Yet, as time passes, other doubts, namely about her survival, take center stage.

As such, more than anything, when Michael sets out to grow homunculi in his shed, what he’s looking for is assurance of Clea’s survival. Although he manages to create the prophets, a series of events lands him in a predicament in which he only has a few seconds to ask his questions before he would have to let the creatures go. Thus, he asks his questions in order of his priorities. Unfortunately, an explanation about why Clea left him all those years ago does not make the cut. Whether she’s alive or not understandably takes precedence. Then, he asks about the possibility of her returning because he has kept his life frozen in anticipation of the event. Lastly, he asks the prophets something that holds incredible importance to him: whether or not Clea loves him. All this time, he has been holding out hope for her survival and return because his love for her prevents him from moving on.

Therefore, it’s of some bittersweet comfort when the prophets answer that Clea will love him forever. Ultimately, this only further complicates her motivations behind leaving. If her love for Michael runs so deep, there must have been an outside factor that compelled him to escape. The fact that she never returns and will never return home in the future cements this assumption even more. For now, the reasoning behind Clea’s actions remains unknown. Moreover, it seems like Michael has no interest in seeking the answers behind this from any mystical prophets. Instead, he plans on undertaking a journey to find his girlfriend on his own and perhaps discover these answers in the process.

Does Roy Find the Bird Book?

The series of events that push Michael into a time limit with the prophets involves Roy, Clive, a coveted bird book, and a meteorite that happened to land through the protagonist’s roof. Over the course of the homunculi’s gestation, Michael’s neighbor has been hovering around his house, keeping a close eye on him. He’s disturbed by the other man’s general antisocial behavior. Yet, more than anything else, he’s bothered by how his chaotic house affects the visuals of the entire cul-de-sac. Naturally, when he begins digging a hole in his backyard and filling it with manure, it doesn’t sit well with Clive.

For the same reason, on the morning after the prophets have reached divination, when Michael briefly leaves his house, the neighbor sneaks into his shed to investigate. When he discovers the homunculi, his first instinct is to call animal control. Meanwhile, Roy has an agenda of his own involving Michael’s house. After Clea’s disappearance, her storage unit was eventually emptied, and its contents ended up in her house. Therefore, it’s likely that the book Bea is looking for is somewhere inside the hundred boxes that Michael is hoarding. Therefore, after declaring his intentions to take over the property, he brings a truck around. At the same time, professionals from a university also arrive in connection with the meteorite.

As a result, Michael’s front yard collects a small gathering of strangers who could pose a threat if they discover the existence of the homunculi. This is what pushes him to rush through his questions before he inevitably destroys the creatures with the poison his father had provided. Afterward, all that’s left to do is hand out the proverbial treasures that created this situation in the first place. Ironically enough, as it turns out, the thousand-dollar meteorite had happened to land on the million-dollar book. Once Michael gives these items to Roy and the others, it becomes their problem to resolve. Ultimately, it’s unlikely that Clea’s brother will be able to extract much worth out of the damaged artifact.

Will Kacey Be on Neighbors?

One of the first things Michael, and subsequently the audience, learns about Kacey is her apparent love for the Australian soap opera ‘Neighbors’. The DIY store worker desperately wants to be on the show, despite lacking any thespian aspirations or skills. However, the likelihood of her ever making this dream come true remains slim to none. For the same reason, the morning after the prophets enter their divination stage and Kacey finds themselves alone with the creatures, she pitches her own question forward. As per the homunculi’s prophecy, Kacey is destined to appear on the soap opera.

Yet, the young woman doesn’t stop here with her questioning. She goes on to ask the prophets about the upcoming lottery numbers. In the end, after the prophets are destroyed, they leave Kacey with a strong motivation to chase after her dreams, which had always seemed so impossible to her prior to this experience. Her quick thinking with the lottery numbers means that she has also secured the funds she needs to fly out to Australia and maybe even take an acting class or two to fulfill her prophecy. Thus, much like Michael, she has also been imbued with a new sense of hope for a brighter future.