The Wayfinders Ending Explained & Series Recap: Will There Be A Season 2?

What if we somehow combine “Game of Thrones” and “Stranger Things?” And also throw in some “Lord of the Rings,” “Harry Potter,” the MCU, and basically every popular superhero/fantasy franchise here and there? I’m not sure if that was the pitch behind Angel Studios’ “The Wayfinders,” but what I just said does a pretty good job defining the show. That said, if you can look past the amateurish acting and the story being far from original, it is not exactly a bad watch per se. In fact, by the end of the first season, I would even say it manages to find its footing as a satirical take on medieval fantasy slash small-town thriller—if that’s even a genre—albeit unintentionally. We’re going to take a closer look at the series in this article, and discuss the ending of it, along with the possibility of another season happening.

Spoilers Ahead

What Happens in the Series? 

Alright, let me simplify things first. This is a story set in both the world we know—a town called Milford where our three main characters go to high school—and a medieval place like Westeros; they call it Tairngire here, from where all the chaos images. There’s this thing called the Void Key—a brown shiny sphere that is needed to teleport back and forth between the two worlds—and to run the Void Key, a blue crystallized substance called Maro is important. Maro is basically magic, and our heroes face a lot of trouble in search of it. 

So here’s what happens. In Tairngire, Prince Vedric is betrothed to Princess Aurora. Vedric has noble intentions, as he plans to take the ‘Maro’ away from the upper class of the society, including his own mother, the queen, and distribute it to everyone in the kingdom so that everyone can prosper. Aurora, understandably charmed by Vedric, tells him about this magical relic—the Madrick skull, which has the power to help the prince achieve his goal. The skull currently is in a faraway land—which is our world, Milford, to be exact—and to reach there, the Void Key is a must. But in the meantime, looking at Vedric getting obsessed with the skull and losing his way, Aurora realizes that the prince better not find his way to the skull. Vedric’s half-sister, Zaya, who has the unique skill of foreseeing the future, also warns Aurora that she has seen the Prince getting completely consumed by the dark power of the skull. So Aurora hires this guy, Calibor, an opportunist thief, to get the Void Key. But Vedric one-ups her by paying Calibor more for the same job. Using the Void Key, he sends Zaya and his trusted ally, Goran, to Milford to get the skull. He also takes Aurora captive in the impenetrable Daktu prison for her betrayal. 

However, on Earth, Zaya decides to make a fool out of Goran and run away with the skull. Her agenda is to destroy the skull forever, effectively saving Vedric. There’s another thing Zaya needs to do as well, which is find the Wayfinders. They are a trio of a warrior, a sorceress, and a thief, and as per a prophecy, they are going to save the world from all evil—in this case, Vedric. While even in Tairngire, people don’t believe in the prophecy, Zaya believes in the existence of the Wayfinders. What’s the twist here? The trio being three high schoolers from Milford High School—popular guy Cash, who’s great at everything and loved by all, the wallflower Flynn, who mostly keeps himself busy in the world of online games, and the very quirky Oaklee. Zaya gives the Void Key to these three, and during a field trip, the trio are put in a group, and they end up having an encounter with Goran. Thanks to Zaya’s instructions from before, they put the Maro in the Void Key and get transported to Tairngire, that too in the middle of some sort of a battle, at Prince Vedrick’s den. Shocked and confused at the suddenness of the whole thing, the trio meets Calibor, who takes the Void Key from them and asks them to meet at this place called Black Arrow. Oaklee, Flynn, and Cash somehow manage to get away, and soon they come across this warrior, Kaven, who Oaklee tricks into believing that she’s a sorceress by clicking his photo on her phone—he thinks his soul is being captured. Thanks to that, Kaven takes it upon himself to serve and protect Oaklee. This ultimately proves to be quite handy, as Kaven not only takes the trio to the Black Arrow, which is a pub, but also rescues them from some random minions of Vedric by turning himself into—wait for it—a werewolf. They seldom drop the W word, and Kaven also doesn’t quite turn into a beast on a full moon, but the inspiration is clearly visible. In actuality, Kaven is a result of Vedric’s experiment on one of his soldiers going wrong. Anyway, Calibor tricks the trio again in Black Arrow, giving all the more reason to not trust him, just like Zaya said (technically she wrote a note) to Flynn.

Do the Wayfinders rescue Aurora?

As per Zaya’s instructions, the next step would have been rescuing Aurora, and thanks to Kaven being part of the team, our trio succeeds in doing that. They do apply a bit of earthly trickery by playing loud music and pointing flashlights at the guards, which manages to bring a living, breathing dragon to the site to do the rest. Anyway, Aurora is rescued, and she is quite amazed by the trio and finds it hard to believe these are the mighty Wayfinders. She also despises Kaven, but Oaklee makes sure the guy remains a part of the team. 

The rescue of Aurora, however, adds a new member to Team Avengers—yeah, we’ve a scene where Flynn literally compares themselves to the superhero team, not that there’s anything wrong in it. It still boils down to getting the Void Key from Calibor, without which the Wayfinders are unable to get back to their world. Fortunately, Aurora knows where Calibor might be, so the team heads towards the thief’s village. However, there’s one problem, which is Vedric also reaching there because he was, obviously, tracking Aurora and the Wayfinders. Vedric and Calibor have a face-off, where Vedric demands the Void Key and threatens to burn down Calibor’s village if it is not handed over to him. Calibor has no choice but to agree, but when he tries pulling out the Void Key from what looks like a Golem robot, all he finds is a Rubik’s cube. Unbeknownst to Calibor, Flynn has taken the Void Key. This, of course, results in Vedric keeping his promise of burning down the village, which makes Calibor mad at Aurora and the Wayfinders, but he also knows for a fact that they don’t have a choice. While Calibor joins the team, the Void Key still remains pointless without any Maro. Fortunately, Calibor has already made a deal with Rip, who is an Uzek—an Orc-like creature who talks like a human. The Uzek will give him the Maro in exchange for treasure. However, Aurora is not sold on the idea, and she decides to go to the Ai-Aloi sanctuary, which has a supply of Maro.

Does Team Wayfinders find Maro in the sanctuary?

Sadly, no, as the sanctuary has dried on Maro, which has a lot to do with Calibor robbing them once upon a time. But they do take everyone in and insist on Oaklee learning some magical skills. Imagine Hogwarts and Xavier’s school for gifted youngsters combined, and you have it. Oaklee manages to impress the faculty with her abilities, which has a lot to do with her accidentally getting injected with the Maro while being transported to Tairngire. But all she learns by the end of her stay is how to blow out and light up candles. Of course, at this point, she has no idea that this skill is going to save the day during the climax.

Anyway, Flynn fixates on impressing Calibor, taking him as a mentor. His goal is to find a treasure that hasn’t yet been discovered and taken by Calibor. The plan is to find a treasure and then take it to Rip so that he gives them the Maro. After an initial struggle, Flynn gets his win by zeroing in on the lost crown of dwarf king Oleg—a treasure that even Calibor was unable to find before, but it seems doable now, with the map Flynn has discovered. Cash, meanwhile, has quite a moment at a local pub after getting instantly famous for his singing—he sings popular hit songs, from Bon Jovi to Ed Sheeran, claiming all of them to be his own. However, Cash’s subplot ends with Arkaan—more of a henchman than a minion—making an entry on behalf of Vedric. The Wayfinders are still able to elude them, and the team soon takes off for the crown of Oleg.

About lost treasure and fresh betrayal

Finding the treasure was a given, but not without a healthy amount of trouble, like the Biclops, for example, a two-headed (one eye on each) monstrous creature guarding the dwarf tunnel. The tunnel is small and claustrophobic, like how tunnels made by Dwarfs usually are. This is where Aurora finally reveals the history between her and Vedric and why she despises Calibor—he betrayed her for heaven’s sake. Calibor does argue that he wouldn’t have done it had he known what’s at stake, which is hard to believe given it’s Calibor. Thanks to Flynn being able to solve the riddle of two axes making a key together—the dwarf king put those for his twin sons to figure things out, but they ended up killing each other—the team gets very close to getting the crown. But Calibor, being Calibor, tricks them and takes the crown himself before getting away. Clearly, this was his plan all along.

What’s going on in Milford?

In a parallel subplot, Zaya puts her best possible effort into getting things done on earth. Her main agenda is not letting Goran have the skull, and after initial hiccups, she finds an ally in Flynn’s elder brother, Darryl. The earth portion of the show also has Flynn and Darryl’s mother, Shauna—who’s progressive and lets her sons be—trying to do an investigation on her own, with the help of Cash’s overbearing father, Mitch, who’s a bit of a nutcase. The most hilarious bit here is, of course, Goran getting caught by the police and blabbering about the skull, the Void Key, and all the rest, which makes everyone believe the guy has completely lost his marbles. One key thing here is Zaya making Darryl deliver a very important message to Flynn with the help of the skull. The message is a bit odd if we go by the context—it says trust Calibor. While Darryl is able to deliver it, he also loses faith in Zaya and ultimately sides with Goran and hands him over the skull.

Who are the real Wayfinders?

Calibor’s plan of delivering Rip the crowns and getting Maro doesn’t quite work out, as the Uzek captures him right after giving him the Maro. Needless to say, Rip is working for Vedric. Fortunately for Calibor, now hanging from a tree, stuck inside a cage, he encounters the team—Aurora, Kaven, Oaklee, Flynn, and Cash—he just betrayed. It’s only fair for all of them to be mad at the thief, but Flynn then deduces that Zaya’s message asks them to trust Calibor. He also concludes that the real Wayfinders are actually Aurora, who’s a sorceress; Kaven, who’s a warrior; and Calibor, who’s a thief and also the leader. That’s a cool twist, but ultimately turns out to be the story pivoting to throw the audience off a bit. Flynn, Oaklee, and Cash are the real Wayfinders; there shouldn’t be any doubt about that. 

Anyway, when Aurora, Kaven, and Calibor get caught by Rip, Oaklee and Cash try to strike a deal with the orc by putting a bag full of earth magic—basically Oaklee’s bag that has things like flashlights and mobile phones—on the table. Oaklee and Rip play a game of chance, and the game just happens to be Uno, where Oaklee ultimately loses thanks to the Uzek cheating. They end up in prison, but Flynn comes to the rescue again. Flynn also manages to steal the Void key from the Uzek. Upon Vedric’s arrival, when Rip hands him the box containing the Void Key, it turns out to be the Rubik’s cube again. Frustrated at the Wayfinders constantly making a fool out of him, Vedric threatens to ruin everything. Now with Calibor’s Maro and the Void Key in their hands, the trio finds the perfect opportunity to get back to Milford. But like true heroes, they choose to save Aurora and Kaven instead by offering the Void Key to Vedric in exchange for the prince freeing them. Things don’t go as per plan, though. Flynn does give Vedric the Void Key, but Oaklee uses all the Maro to pretty much obliterate Vedric’s army. In response, Vedric flees, but takes Aurora with him, with Kaven following them. Calibor gets shot in order to save Flynn, but Oaklee is ultimately able to revive him. The season ends with the Wayfinders, along with an unconscious Calibor, setting off on a new journey to rescue Aurora from Vedric again.

Will there be a season 2?

The answer is a resounding yes. Nothing has been solved yet. Vedric has kidnapped Aurora, Goran has the Skull Key, nobody has any Maro, and the Wayfinders are stuck in the strangeland. As the prophecy has said they’re going to save the world, it has not been fulfilled yet. Season 2 will answer a lot of questions hopefully, along with bringing new twists and more magic.

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