The Rain season 3 ending explained: How did the Netflix sci-fi series wrap up?

The Rain season 3 ending explained

Starting three months on from the end of the second season, The Rain season three begins with Rasmus firmly entrenched in the Apollon HQ and working alongside the company’s evil boss Sten. The rest of the group, Rasmus’s sister Simone plus Martin, Patrick, Jean, Fie, and Kira, are camping on the outskirts of the quarantine zone and plotting an attempt to get beyond the wall that surrounds it.

Simone makes her way through to the other side but discovers, to her horror, that the virus has spread and is wreaking havoc on the local residents. On her way back to share this news Simone is apprehended by Apollon forces and taken to visit Rasmus where he reveals his plan to save the world is to infect everyone with the virus. Let’s call it herd immunity.

Simone’s cohort of survivors arrive at the Apollon HQ to rescue her. Amid the chaos she’s able to break free, making a run to a bridge and dramatically plunging hundreds of feet towards the river below and, surely, her grisly demise. The Rain loves a comeback though and soon enough Simone is rescued downstream by innocent looking Daniel, and brought back to his family home.

In between concocting ill-thought out schemes to ensure the future of humanity, Rasmus is also pining over girlfriend Sarah who, remember, he believes died at the end of the second season. She appears to him in dream sequences before finally learning that Sarah is, in fact, alive and at Apollon. Cut to a series of love scenes as the moody pair make up for lost time in Rasmus’s perspex cell. It’s at this time that Apollon, knowing the virus can't be destroyed, hatch a plan to begin infecting more people and controlling them that way. They hope to use Rasmus for this and will experiment on terminally ill patients.

Meanwhile, Daniel is clearly smitten with Simone and tells her about his family’s discovery of a potential cure for the virus found in the nectar of some nearby flowers. His family are furious at him disclosing this information but Simone believes that it could hold the key to saving her brother. She, alongside Daniel and Kira, head out on a dangerous mission to gather as much of the liquid as they can in order to take back to Rasmus and the rest of the people infected with the virus. Along the way they encounter a dangerous gang who kidnap Daniel’s sister Luna and are forced to trade a large proportion of their flower stash in order to secure her safe return.

Back at Apollon HQ, Rasmus is growing increasingly worried by Sten’s cold-hearted approach to science and, though their first test on a girl named Olivia is a success, his mind is made up; Rasmus must kill Sten. He does this in brutal fashion and kills another Apollon scientist when he breaks the news of their boss’s death to the company board. He plans to infect Martin next and Martin agrees, feeling he has nothing left to live for given his belief that Simone has died. Patrick is not so sure though, asking fairly: “Are we even the good guys now?” When he discovers Simone is, in fact, still very much alive he rushes to tell Martin but doesn’t make it in time before Rasmus has given him the deadly virus.

Knowing that Simone is still alive, ex-soldier Martin sets out to find her and bring her back safely. He eventually tracks her down at Daniel’s family home but is left weak by the virus and sacrifices himself before they can make it back to the quarantine zone. This development leaves Rasmus furious and, with a typically rash leap, he vows to kill Simone for ruining his plans. Simone, while fighting off an army set upon her by her brother, finally comes to the conclusion that Rasmus needs to die in order for there to be any chance of peace on earth.

This tees up a face-off in the series finale between the two siblings we first met in the pilot episode as young kids raising one another following the loss of their parents. What a journey it has been. Sarah, Rasmus’s once loyal girlfriend, manages to persuade the buff teen that murdering his only sibling is not the way forward and, instead, they should sacrifice themselves to the virus-eating flower. Cut to a huge blue explosion as the flower envelops them whole, taking with it everyone nearby with the virus.

This leaves Simone as the last of the Andersen family standing. Over three seasons she’s lost her entire family but now holds the cure to the virus that ravaged her community and is spreading wildly across the world. The final episode closes with her eulogising her brother by saying: "You're not here anymore. But you're everywhere. The rain created you. It saved your life while it killed everyone else. It was evil. You only wished to do good. You never meant to cause trouble. All you wanted was a purpose in life. You never found it. But you found it in death.

"I wish I could show you the world of tomorrow. You gave us hope. We're here thanks to you. And we're rebuilding the world in your honour. You are in everything that I do, in my every thought. You are forever my sweetheart. I love you."

The Rain season 3 is streaming now on Netflix – check out our lists of the best TV shows on Netflix and the best movies on Netflix, or see what else is on with our TV Guide