If you just finished watching Archive 81 on Netflix, you’re probably thinking, “what the hell just happened here??!”
It’s no lie that the show left you glued to your screen for the last 8 episodes. Such is the magic this multidimensional, haunting, ethereal journey surrounds you with. But if you’re anything like me, that last cliffhanger left you at the edge of your seat, bewildered, then this one’s for you.
If you haven’t watched the show yet, I suppose I owe it to you to let you know that this article contains a lot of spoilers. That being said, if you haven’t watched the show yet, do it. You will not be disappointed, that much is for sure.
Let’s start right at the start: Dan Turner, played by Mamoudou Athie, the archivist, is hired to restore a few tapes from a skyscraper that burned down ages ago. Little does he know that taking this job would change his entire life- and Melody’s.
Archive 81 Quick Revision
Dan restores a few damaged and destroyed tapes for a client silent and infamous- Vigil Davenport.
The tapes he demands have been set in the Visser building, which burned down in 1994. Dan hesitates, as one naturally does when faced with a circumstance of such mystery. Yet, he decides to take a shot at it when offered a generous payment in exchange.
He finds himself inescapably embroiled in the mystery that involves a burnt building, a strange cult, sacrifices, disappearances, and, wait for it- multiple timelines. Dan stays in a rather quiet, hidden research compound during his time at the research, and soon finds a rather startling, unsettling connection between Melody Pendras (played by Dina Shihabi)- the student behind the filming of the tapes.
Dan follows her path and story. She moved into the Visser Building with the goal of nothing but filming a history report. All was good here- till she begins to notice the distant neighbours, shadowy sounds, and strange group gatherings, and then it dawns upon her- her neighbours were part of a cult.
With paranoia and anxiety eating at her, she films it all. She comes to the distressing conclusion that the cult would sacrifice a 14-year-old resident of the building to complete the ritual.
They begin to unexplainably connect as he realises that their conversations were real, and when Vigil’s confronted about the cult situation, it is revealed that someone rather close to this shady CEO was an integral element of the cult. All of that leads to the most unpredictable cliffhanger you’ve ever seen.
What Happened in the Archive 81 Finale?
Melody’s past comes into view, and boy is it complicated. Julia Bennet, Melody’s mom, is a Baldung witch who can let’s just say, open up an entire alternate dimension of time. And surprise surprise, Melody’s stuck in the other dimension- and Dan enters this “Otherworld” to find her.
Melody’s been trapped there since 1994 when she was dragged there by Samuel after summoning Iris.
Now, Dan’s there, and Kaelago, the demon wants to distort his mind and memory. He attempts to disorientate reality and manipulate Dan into staying in the alternate world.
Dan finds Melody and convinces her to leave with him. They follow the sound of the key and try to find their way out of this jumbled maze- Kaelago’s lair.
All was going good till as they were about to leave, Samuel grabbed Melody and pulls her through an open door into the light.
Now Melody appears from the portal but she is alone. She reunites with her mom but Mark wonders where Dan is.
Dan appears in a hospital bed, and that’s where he’s been for the past two weeks. The nurse talks about the fire and his survival. She says that nobody had come to visit him during this time. An announcement runs on the television, and it said Kurt Gobain has died.
As he looks out the window, he sees the twin towers. He realises he’s back in 1994, and we realise he’s switched places with Melody, who is now in the present day.
This is where the episode ends, leaving us with a dropped jaw and chills. It also leaves us with burning curiosity for what is to follow.
What Does the End of Archive 81 Finale Mean?
They’ve obviously switched places.
Dan is now in 1994. As we know, Mark helped Dan to break into the research lab and find the answers he was looking for. The two of them reach the basement where the ritual was performed ages ago. With the help of the tapes and the caretaker, with all said and done, Dan set off to set Melody free.
Except it does not work out that easy.
When he reaches the unfamiliar dimension and finally tries to rescue Melody, she’s abducted by Samuel and pushed into the other doorway. With this, she appears in the basement of the research facility to be welcomed by a heavily anxious Mark.
Dan was found to have survived the fire; the fire of the Visser building.
What Happens to Dan? Where is He?
It ends mystifyingly, as Dan is now trapped away in 1994. Now, when he walks through the doorway, he finds his family (HUGE QUESTION MARK HERE). His family had died but when he was a little child, and according to the Baldung witch, time functions glitch in the otherworld. Perhaps that would explain why Melody, who’s been in the otherworld for decades, hasn’t aged a day.
Where is Melody?
Speaking of Melody, while Dan’s stuck in the very dimension he wanted to save Melody from, Melody’s back to the present day. She returns to reality- 25 years later.
The reason Dan interacted with Melody despite her existence limited to tapes was that she was not just a person in a video, but she actually existed in another dimension. That is why he knew that the conversation was not, in fact, a mere hallucination, but rather very real. This was also pointed out by Bennet, Melody’s mother, when she implied that the tapes narrowed the gap between the otherworld and reality, hence allowing interaction.
Melody’s in the future, she has escaped but she is not free. She is burdened by the fear that the door to the other dimension can and has been open, meaning that the cult leader could be back at any given point in time.
Then there’s an entire other dimension of saving Dan. She might be out, but Dan is now in the hands of a world run by the evil, and the only person who can save him is her.
So, her freedom is nothing but a mere illusion, something that is almost within grasp, with “almost” being the keyword here.
Visser Residents – Where did They Go?
After the fire, all the Visser residents disappeared, as though they had evaporated. That does make sense, seeing as they were a part of the supernatural cult, and perhaps the thirteen bodies were never found because their ritual ceremony required them to disappear into thin air in order to open the doorway.
So, quite obviously, Dan is unable to track any of them down. It appears that all of them were killed in the ritual, leaving only two survivors- Dan and Jess.
Jess records everything.
Jess had, apparently, moved to Haiti and converted to a nun. She had changed her name and no longer wished to be addressed by her past life.
So, What Happens Next on Archive 81?
In a recent interview, Rebecca Sonnenshine answered many of the pressing questions we all have in our heads.
“I can tell you that he is in the ’90s,” says showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine, “He’s in the real ’90s, and the clue for that is that it does not have the particulates floating around there. He’s in 1994. And the question we’re asking is, we saw people disappear into The Otherworld in different time periods, right? So what does that mean?
“It means there’s little holes, little poke, poke — little entry and exit points. And that people have gotten kind of mixed up in there trying to exit, and maybe didn’t exit through the right door.”
When Melody re-entered reality, Samuel was not present, but that does not mean he will not reappear in the next season.
She said “Samuel is still very much part of the story.
“And I think Season 2 is, where is Samuel? Where is he? And I think that that is a very exciting branch of our story that we definitely know what we’re doing with.”
So, for now, we’ve got a web of tangled plot points, none of which will be left abandoned says Sonnenshine. She also gave us the surety that we should be looking forward to watching season two.
So, that is all we know about the show. We hope what comes further will bring more chills and shivers and shocks. Get your weapons out and prepare for season two, which will, no doubt, bring by more horror when it comes around.