KAOS: Netflix's Lightning Bolt Cancellation of a Masterpiece

I am currently on my second rewatch of KAOS. If you haven't seen it or haven't heard of it, and you have or are near a Netflix subscription, I strongly recommend you give this five-star show a watch. A show which the Guardian labelled a "masterpiece". I'll wait. Have you watched it? Great! And yes, it has been cancelled. I feel your pulsating rage. I feel your blood boil. It is like being hit with Zeus' lightning bolt and your soul being turned to stone.

When I was recommending FX's Shōgun to every person I knew, Shōgun deservedly swept the Emmys; what I did not know is that I would soon be watching a show that - whilst very different - was equally incredible. So, imagine my dismay that after a week or so of telling friends to “watch KAOS!” - "You definitely need to watch KAOS!" - that I would be cut down in my prime ‘watch this!’ phase, insidiously made to look a fool by the cancellation of the show. Ouch. This one hurt.

Why would Netflix cancel KAOS? It clearly wasn't cheap to make. Jeff Goldblum is too much of a magnetic powerhouse to come cheap. But was he and the show worth every penny? Absolutely! I could literally write out the name of every actor in the show and give nothing but superlatives for their work. The writing: unreal. The originality of the story: fantastic. The production design: amazing. The soundtrack... you get the picture?!

Netflix, with KAOS, did not hit the numbers in the first week it wanted to so, and to not sound too conspiratorial, the algorithm told them to chuck it. Binned. And do it fast, because the bigger the following the bigger the pushback on Netflix for cancelling it. Within a ridiculously fleeting time frame, Netflix cancelled KAOS. I now hope chaos finds Netflix for wrecking a show that was set up to have a three-season arch. After all, this is a studio that greenlit, not one, but two, yes there are two of them, Rebel Moon movies; at an obscene cost of around $166 million each. These one-star affairs are abysmal.

If you build it, they will come. I have no doubt KAOS would have gotten to where it needed to be given the quality of this story. Netflix needs to start watching and backing its original storytelling shows (which KAOS is at its utmost finest!). Netflix is becoming known for bailing on its shows after one season. But soon who will bother to watch any of their shows since you are a % against that show ever getting another season? It is time the executives at Netflix watched their algorithm less and watched the fans more. Otherwise, people will not be watching Netflix at all (like me!).

For those who have seen KAOS, what happens next?! Let's speculate!

What are we as fans to do after having been dumped by Netflix? Fans who loved KAOS, a story that had so much more to give us, well, not much. We can cancel our subscription and sign a petition. We will never get to know the ending! Therefore, I have been thinking of what the show might have told us in a second and third season; since we will never know then creating our ending is the only closure we will get!

Zeus is Riddy’s father. In Greek mythology, Zeus was father to the Muses and in the first episode we see Riddy on a poster with Muse and she is the muse to Orpheus. She was unsatisfied with this and she yearned to be more (out of the marriage). Notably, her Mother is said to have “known all along” about the ‘plan’ by Prometheus and is working as a double agent. This is why she sacrificed herself and chose to be a priestess to Hera, to ultimately save Riddy from Hera, whilst in doing so becoming a willing part of the plan to take down Zeus; “some knew their part all along” as Prometheus says whilst the shot pans to her. Assume her motivation is because she knows how terrible the Gods are (namely Zeus and Hera) perhaps being once tricked into bed by Zeus and then warned how Hera would come for her and the baby - as she kills the babes and turns all his human lovers into Bees.

Orpheus can’t write music and is very depressed, but finds even bigger fame by having brought someone back from the dead. This invokes the anger of Zeus so he is on his hit list; as Zeus tries to wrestle back control of everything he cannot let the very fabric and rules that govern humans seem to be falling apart! Step in...

Dionysus is given the job of killing Orpheus. Zeus cannot zap anyone he wants now, so Dionysus - who won't kill Orpheus - will set out with Orpheus on another adventure! Dionysus sets out to help Orpheus hide from this death. Dionysus once again lies to Zeus, this time about Orpheus being dead. Hard to do when you’re super famous!!

My feeling is that Zeus is no longer ‘almighty’: as seen in how he cannot command Prometheus to disappear back to the rockface. Prometheus is a god/demi-god himself in Greek mythology and his knowledge of Zeus seems to suggest that he could not have been human; unless he was friends with Zeus on Krete, or something like this before Zeus took down Kronos, but this doesn’t really gel with someone who planned a scheme for a very long time; so my feeling is he is a god, and one who saw Zeus become his father... and the fates, who knew Zeus would be a disaster, plot with Prometheus to bring him down).

Riddy. The anarchy of no one in charge will cause chaos - KAOS/chaos - Riddy will struggle at first to be heard (as a prophet) but will then have followers who believe her and with this comes fervent opponents. People who will want to kill her for her blasphemy. She will gain foresight, visions of the future, and this will see her interact meaningfully with one of the other main characters, such as Ari, and ultimately, she will end up discovering Zeus is her father towards the end of the season.

Zeus will fight Poseidon for top dog of Mount Olympus. Poseidon being motivated by his love for Hera may win. Poseidon’s love Hera will not reciprocate, so it could be Poseidon gets the upper hand on Zeus (injuring Zeus) in their fight; Poseidon goes to Hera to say they can be together…and Hera then takes Poseidon down to become top of Olympus.

Kaos may or may not be a literal character or thing. It may just be that everything turns to chaos before a new and better order comes to fruition, or it might be a literal harbinger that is coming to kill Zeus and his family. Or that’s just what Prometheus wants him to think. I actually lean to the idea of Kaos as a metaphor. Kaos in Greek mythology was a primordial figure, not a true character, and was the embodiment of the universe as a void or, in other telling, Kaos is the producer of the order of the universe going from nothing to something due to Kaos. So, ‘chaos is coming’ could I think to mean that everything is going to come into conflict, Kaos changes the order of the world.

Hera will team up with an unknown god to create her own faction to try to become the ruler of Olympus (after all she said she owned it). Neither of Hera’s daughters fit the bill for a war like scenario so she since she has a disdain for children that are not her own; in terms of the gods this only leaves Ares and Hephaestus. Ares seems probable and his disdain for Zeus can be seen in how he didn’t visit him. Ares as god of war seems easy enough for someone like Hera to manipulate. I don’t see what Hephaestus can do for her given his role as a blacksmith.

Troy and Ari. I think there will be opposition from other Greek cities/nations about rebuilding Troy. She will need to guide people through this, given the class system against Trojans, and she will fight I assume political opposition, and commit resources to her promise to rebuild it. But, the Gods aren’t particularly happy about this. It could be a Troy god such as Apollo lends a hand now that Zeus isn’t all powerful. Riddy would be very useful in helping coordinate responses to this, given her foresight, and as she becomes a major religious figure these two will cross paths or team-up.

The Underworld. Hades will work with Caeneus and Nax to restore souls in the underworld. This will no doubt weaken the gods as they lose the meander water, and it’s sucked back from the Gods to restore souls. After all, Chronos ate all his children except Zeus (who he was tricked into thinking he ate a rock) and they were able to get them (Hades, Poseidon, Hera etc.) back from within his body. How Medusa and other characters such as those as the waders who now can’t guide people into the frame; this will play out in a very chaotic way. As one of the first things they would do is start housing dead people, perhaps the Underworld becomes a massive refugee camp, as they don’t want to send anyone through the frame. And people coming in may now have heard that ‘renewal’ Is a sham. Some won’t believe this and will try to break through to go into the water via the now barred frame. Most of the second season would be then a refugee camp and a prison; so them trying to figure out en-masse how to restore the souls and get the system (renewal) to work properly under these circumstances seems difficult. Zeus is too busy fighting to confront this so I think that would be a strand for the third season. Perhaps there is a coup in the Underworld for the pro-framer believers; this would cause another problem for Hades and co. to get them to get back in charge to then make the necessary changes to the frame.

Prometheus - this is the hardest one to pin down. His strategy and prophecy and plan are still in motion. As the narrator, he is also what I would consider the main protagonist so what he now does is one of the hardest things to guess. His plan is still in place, but now he has his freedom he can in theory involve himself in the plan. My feeling is he lets his plan continue as set whilst trying to convince or manipulate Zeus into doing the things he needs for the plan to work. They had great chemistry in the first season so I see this continuing.

2nd season climax: Riddy comes face to face with Zeus, her father. Hera is on top for now on Mount Olympus and turns out to have very harsh ideas for the world. Zeus is injured and slumming it somewhere.

Prometheus questions if he has done the right thing if Zeus’ family falls that would include Hera, but as turmoil spirals, he questions at what cost?

Orpheus regains his mojo thanks to Dionysus and plays a peace concert preventing a war (maybe between Krete and Athens). He is sympathetic to the Trojan cause so he helps solve the internal conflict amongst people.

Overarching and 3rd season conclusions: the main question remains who takes over if/now Zeus has fallen? Is it no one? Is it a world without gods and that’s how we get to where we are today - a world without gods? It seems that Prometheus wouldn’t go to all this trouble just to see another powerful dictator in charge. So my guess he is fighting for humanity to have control of their destiny. This will also include the end of the fates given individuals prophecies. People become in control of their own fate.

Based on the above I think we would see a lot of dramatic conclusions of the conflicts, the chaos, come to resolution.

The Gods become mortal.

Riddy dies in a selfless act of saving someone; she may have seen this was going to happen in a vision and decided beforehand to sacrifice herself for the greater good. Riddy is reunited with Caeneus, and once they have their dramatic/romantic reunite they both walk through the now, properly restored, frame together holding hands.

Prometheus is reunited with his love, who he killed, and I assume this is a reward by Hades or the fates for orchestrating his saving of the world. Charon is returned to Prometheus, who forgives him, and they live together the rest of their lives on an island in peace. Hades who seemed unhappy with his job; ends up with his wife also as mortal and much happier for it.

Ari gives democracy to Krete and steps down as ruler to allow for a true democracy to come to fruition. Dionysus (now Dennis) understands he never wanted more power he wanted purpose. I think this is to make people happy (not hedonistic) but happy. Perhaps he is elected the new ruler of Krete. He gains this on merit.

Dionysus and Orpheus remain best buds. Orpheus accepts Riddy isn’t coming back to him, but he is okay. I do not think he will find true love again; but music is his passion and in the 3rd season we get his third big song at the celebration of the end of the gods.

Let me know what you think about these theories and if you have any to add yourself!

And thank you Aurora Perrineau for being our Riddy! xxx