Star City Finale Ending Explained: Is Nobody Safe?

Star City has ended its genre-bending first season with Episode 8, titled The Wolves,” which culminated in everything that made it great: espionage and space thrills. Tense up until the very last shot, we see the KGB stay one step ahead of anyone planning a move that isn’t in the nation’s “best interests.” Nobody is safe, with the USSR extending its influence as far as territorially possible in this final episode.

Anastasia manages to save Lakshmi and Sasha at the border, but that was only because she predicted Col. Raskova’s deceitful behavior and thinking. The Colonel has been facing a rough few episodes, but it looks like she will be coming out on top after successfully getting information from Sergei that turned out to be accurate. With a well-executed Season 1, this is easily one of the most underrated shows on Apple TV.

The Bittersweet Ending to Star City Season 1

The ending of Season 1 of Star City puts us all in an awkward place. While there were smiles on a lot of characters’ faces, including Tanya’s, the KGB did not relent. Despite Tanya evading capture and leaving her life behind, she is still on the radar. Irina has done her best to be two-faced when she liked.

It’s easy to say that Irina got most of what she wanted, compared to other characters. She was genuinely able to outsmart Raskova, playing the part of the loyal KGB spy when needed, but scrubbing her records clean whenever she did something sneaky. Her attempts to save Tanya might’ve only helped temporarily, but that didn’t stop her from having the most pleasant ending in the show: sitting next to her daughter playing piano.

Irina also relayed the information that Sergei was seen where he didn’t belong, alerting Raskova. Being part of another torture scene, she held her tongue while Sergei spilled the secrets of the new Venera landing. This scene in particular highlighted how Irina has played a crucial role throughout Season 1 of Star City, while no one except a handful of people knew of her.

The Chief Designer did his best from Earth, providing maneuvering calculations for the landing to happen successfully without the USSR’s intervention. The science in this show spectacularly blends with the espionage, putting it high on our list of sci-fi Apple TV shows. While the cosmonauts did their best, Sasha voluntarily allowed himself to be caught after seeing his dearly beloved sacrifice herself. He does it with a smile, making this moment truly bittersweet.

The most bittersweet moment of them all came in the form of Valya’s Venus landing. The cosmonaut who betrayed the nation finally got to visit another planet successfully. Valya laughed while holding his wife’s picture, indicating that despite the knowledge of incoming death, he does not regret anything.

Episode 8: The Wolves Are Everywhere

A still from Star City | Apple TV

The Wolves are truly everywhere in the final episode of Star City. Any attempts to save the cosmonauts aboard had to be done with utmost secrecy. After the shameful throwaway of the Chief Designer, it was time for the man to rise to the occasion once again. His love for his cosmonauts and Star City will never go away, even if it means putting his life at risk.

Through Sergei, the Chief Designer managed to evade the wolves all around him, communicating the information to Salyut-1, where Anastasia was aboard. Most of the episode was espionage-coded, filled with the paranoia that at any moment the mission to rescue Sasha and Lakshmi may fail. Through complex forms of coded communication, data was relayed to the Venera.

Did this stop the main wolf, Raskova? Not at all. Honestly, Anna Maxwell Martin deserves an Emmy nomination/award for portraying the character of Raskova with ruthlessness and depravity. She is immensely dislikable, like the way Joffrey was in Game of Thrones. All signs of a great actress fully committed to playing the villain.

Of course, we have a slightly more gray moral compass when it comes to her. The previous episode showed her as a happy mother whose child had passed away. This makes us empathize with her despite her cold and calculating nature. Do her actions as the most loyal USSR agent outweigh the damage to humanity? Perhaps the next season will tell us more.

What did you think of the finale of Star City Season 1? Let us know in the comments.

Star City is streaming on Apple TV in the U.S.