'Reality Z' Ending Explained: Why did Teresa allow the zombies to take over?
Spoilers for season 1
Cláudio Torres's Netflix series 'Reality Z' is a Brazilian remake of Charlie Brooker's 'Dead Set' - in the first half at least. Following the recipe of a reality TV and its contestants trapped in an impenetrable studio amidst a zombie outbreak, Torres extends the plot with an original addition of twists and new characters, who pretty much engage in the same fight for survival as their predecessors, and imminently succumb to the same deaths. But this time, the finale, aka episode 10, wraps with one of the newer survivors - Teresa (Luellem de Castro) - pressing the button that makes the shutters go up and the zombies storm in, killing everyone. Why did Teresa do that? She tells fellow survivor Leo (Ravel Andrade) that she is following his mother, and the building's engineer Ana Schmidt's (Carla Ribas) orders; but is that all? Or is it just a set up for the next season?
Ana is a pretty kickass new addition to the story; the way she singlehandedly tackles the control room set up after leading the group of survivors is pretty captivating. She takes Teresa with her along the way, giving her the secret code to control it all. Later, when their resident congressman starts playing god, killing a fellow refuge in the name of sacrifice, Anna leads Leo to the secret button for the shutters and records a cheesy, preachy video asking whoever finds her phone to be better at being humans than they were.
Teresa tells Leo she was just following his mother's orders, but perhaps it's the impending doom coming their way and knowing there is no way out, she lets the zombies in to take over and end it all at once. As one of their fellow survivors said that she has lived long enough to know it doesn't get better, and Teresa most likely catches on to that. But the final scene ends differently; it's clearly after the zombies storm as most of the main characters can be seen with lifeless eyes and blood gurgling out of their mouth. They have all turned into zombies and seem to be... thriving?
It almost makes one think this is a set up for the premise of the second season. It's obvious there are other survivors, but considering the twists this debut season has played with, if 'Reality Z' could turn into an all-zombie and no living drama, how cool would that be?!
All 10 episodes of 'Reality Z' are available for streaming from June 10 only on Netflix.