'Tomb Raider' Netflix Recap And Ending Explained: Did Lara Croft Return The Peril Stones? 

Nathan Drake and Indiana Jones might have earned their reputation as iconic treasure hunters, but neither of them compare to the legendary status of Lara Croft, one of the most beloved video game characters to ever exist. Starting its journey three decades ago, The Tomb Raider franchise has survived the ravages of time, thanks to its charismatic, sharp-witted, empowering, daredevil female lead, Lara, acting as an enduring presence throughout. 

Despite the fact that three live-action movies were unable to do justice to the character’s legacy, animated ventures are a different ballgame altogether, which is why I was excited to binge through the first season of Netflix’s recently released animated series, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, in one go. Filled with cheeky Easter eggs from the game series, key references, traps and riddles, mystical artifacts, and most importantly—a healthy dose of history admixed with fantasy and mythology acting as the narrative foundation—the first season is a thoroughly entertaining watch and has important hints for the upcoming continuation. It should be mentioned that the animated series picks up from where the Survivor Series or rebooted The Tomb Raider series left off.

Spoilers Ahead

Search for the Peril Stones

Fans of the gaming series already know that the daughter of British archaeologist and treasure hunter, aristocrat Lord Richard Croft, Lara, had taken up her father’s trade after his untimely demise at the hands of secretive religious society, Trinity. The soul of an explorer within Richard was passed on to his daughter and led her to numerous perilous parts of the globe in search of new mysteries to unearth. Richard’s friend, a fellow treasure hunter, Conrad Roth, had continued assisting Lara in her adventures, and just as Lara had found a fatherly presence in him, Roth raised Lara like his own daughter, Camilla. 

As the series begins, Roth assists Lara in embarking on a new adventure into the depths of the forests of Chile, where the duo come across a green box, which, unbeknownst to Lara, contains a peril stone. As revealed later in the series, according to the creation myth in Chinese cosmology, Goddess Nu’wa brought peace in the world by taming the perennially struggling chaos and order, and as humanity drifted naturally towards chaos, the goddess took their worst vices—power, betrayal, wrath, and greed—and turned them into peril stones. Nu’wa scattered the peril stones to the farthest corners of the world to ensure the existence of peace, and according to the legends, if the peril stones are tampered with or discovered ever again, the world will come to an end. 

The exploration in Chile proves to be the last adventure Lara and Roth embark upon, as Roth later breathed his last after getting killed by the Solarii brotherhood, sacrificing his life to save Lara, who was wracked with guilt and despair following the demise of yet another parental figure in her life. A couple of years later, with the help of her team, consisting of Jonah and Zip, Lara decides to auction the artifacts that her father had bought (stolen) during his globetrotting adventures, considering it an effort to gain some solace by letting go of the past. During the auction, she is introduced to a certain Charles Devereaux, a mercenary/treasure hunter who is aware of Lara’s past and eventually steals the box that contains the green peril stone. Lara shared an emotional connection with the particular artifact, given that it held the memory of Roth and her last adventure together, which is why she begins pursuing Charles.

Why Does Charles Devereaux Want Peril Stones?

Having put a tracker in the box, Lara, along with Jonah, ventures to its last revealed location, at the shrine of Emperor Tianxi Xing, in China. As Lara stops by a nearby fishing village, she learns of the Daji, an evil fox spirit who nearly destroyed the nation during ancient times and is responsible for a series of child abductions recently. However, as Lara ventured into the shrine, she found out that, in reality, the Daji was seeking to get released and guided her to rescue the children after Lara was able to free Daji’s spirit. Lara also found out the ruby peril stone box from the shrine but lost Jonah while returning after getting caught up in a fierce tidal wave. Charles, who had been tailing Lara and Jonah for quite a while, attacked Lara to get a hold of the stone, and Lara left the red peril box with him. From her librarian associate Eva Tong, Lara learns about the creation myth of Chinese cosmology and the significance of peril stones and comes to the conclusion that it will be disastrous if Devereaux gets a hold of all the stones. Eventually, Lara came to know that the red peril stone belongs to Turkish mobster Elvan Kaya. Lara ventures to Turkey, where she once again comes across Devereaux, who reveals that, like Lara, he too has lost his father to an ancient, secretive cabal known as the Light and wants to exterminate the order using the peril stones. However, Lara, wary of his true motivations, refuses to help him. 

Infiltrating Kaya’s palatial residence, Lara manages to get a hold of the red peril stone and loses control over her mind as she becomes feral and murderous under the influence of the stone. However, Lara manages to snap out of it, and Devereaux, who is revealed to be controlling Jonah using the green peril stone, manages to get the ruby peril stone from Lara as well. Combining two peril stones together, Devereaux creates a terrible explosion that claims the lives of many. 

Lara Seeks Camilla’s Assistance

Growing up together, Lara and Camilla shared a strong bond with each other, but life took them to their separate journeys in the future, and after Roth’s death, Lara was unable to face her any longer. At present, Lara goes to find information on Devereaux from Camilla, who is now an Interpol agent, and the duo end up working together to unearth Devereaux’s troubling past. Charles father, Devereaux Sr., was a pastor who was killed by the Light, the secret cabal who claim themselves to be descendants of the Knights Templar. Camilla and Lara venture into Devereaux Sr.’s church, where through direct artwork references, they learn about how the gold peril stone was responsible for corrupting the minds of a faction of Knights, who were hunted and killed by the church. Light, descendants of these knights, took revenge upon Devereaux’s father, a man of faith, by killing him. However, Lara and Camilla are unable to find the gold peril stone; instead, Lara faces psychological dread after two followers of the Light terrorize her using hallucinogens and theatrics. Finally escaping from it, Lara deduces Pasargadae to be the location of the gold peril stone and Devereaux’s next destination. Camilla reconciles with Lara after realizing how much emotional burden she has been carrying on her own. Throughout her journey, Lara is haunted by the repressed trauma of her past, her own difficulties to cope with them, and a sense of loss.

Tracking down Devereaux, Lara is able to help Jonah break free from the mind control but fails to get a hold of the peril stones at Charles’ disposal. As she becomes obsessed with reaching the black stone before Devereaux, natural cataclysms start making their presence felt across the world, indicating there’s not much time left for them to stop the peril stone crisis. To find the black stone, Lara and Jonah search for the Yellow Emperor’s tomb, and following mythology-oriented navigation, the duo manages to activate a portal that transports them to Mongolia at the particular site, where they find Devereaux to be already present with his thralls, who are being controlled by the green peril stone. Lara calls out Devereaux for only using the death of his father as an excuse to gain power, given how many innocent lives have been lost in his quest for revenge. Devereaux continues to use the peril stones to incapacitate Lara, who is later rescued alongside Jonah by a number of locals. 

While unconscious, Lara faces an inner struggle as her fears, insecurities, and past wounds begin to affect her mind, but through the intervention of Daji, the fox spirit, she is able to find the much-needed balance in her life and self-acceptance at long last. Lara and Jonah visit the Azores Islands after the disastrous weather conditions of the area makes it the likely location where Devereaux has set his lair with four perilous stones at his disposal. Lara finds Camilla and her Interpol colleagues to already be present there, who have been investigating the presence of the Light, and the abandoned mine there turns out to be the cabal’s secret meeting place. However, as of present, Deveraux is holding all the members of the Light as captives and using the stones’ influence, manipulating their minds to force them to kill themselves. 

Was Lara Able to Return the Peril Stones?

Lara, Jonah, Camilla, and the Interpol agents apprehend Devereaux, who turns out to be extremely powerful while wielding all four stones, as he transforms into a monstrous creature under their influence. Deveraux is able to turn Lara against Camilla by manipulating her mind momentarily, but the lessons Lara has learned through her journey have taught her to hone her self-control, and at the end, Lara remains unaffected. Additionally, as Lara herself mentions, the stones are not inherently evil; they affect those of feeble mind. Working together, Lara and Camilla manage to control Devereaux, and Lara extracts the stones from him at last. As Deveraux is being detained by the authorities, Lara shows him a picture from his childhood—of Deveraux with his father—and tries to comfort his troubled mind by mentioning that his father would have liked to know that he has found solace. Lara can relate to Deveraux’s grief and anger over losing a parental figure in a most unjustified way, even though she doesn’t approve of his methods of coping with the agony. 

With the world climate worsening and the doomsday clock ticking, Lara and Jonah venture to the Kunlun mountain, which, according to the legends, is the high seat of Goddess Nu’wa—to whom they are going to return the peril stones. After unlocking a secret passage to the goddess’ shrine, the duo comes across a fantastical realm where mythical flora and fauna exist. Solving riddles, escaping traps and near-death situations, and activating passages, Lara finally manages to enter the shrine room of the goddess, but Jonah decides to stay behind while distracting a bear from its pursuit of Lara. 

Lara finds herself in a metaphysical cosmic space, outside the trappings of the physical realm, as Nu’wa appears in front of her to take the perilous stones. Afterwards, Lara loses her consciousness as everything collapses and wakes up outside the shrine—and is relieved to see Jonah alive and well. As a nod to Lara’s adventures in the first trilogy and also in Tomb Raider: Anniversary, she and Jonah battle a T-rex, presumably killing it as they escape to safety. 

What Happened to Sam at the End?

The scene shifts to sometime later; Lara has continued her plan to give away all the relics. She and her team, along with Camilla, attend Jonah’s wedding when she receives a call from her best friend, Sam, who seems to be in some sort of danger. Lara breaks into Sam’s house and, from visual cues, realizes that Sam was investigating a series of relic robberies and antique black markets and assumes that Sam’s actions had drawn the ire of some influential people who ended up abducting her. As the first season ends, Sam’s fate remains in question, and if the series gets a continuation, Lara’s new objective will be rescuing her best friend. It remains to be seen whether the Light or Trinity has any part to play in this or whether this is a trouble of a different origin altogether. 

...