As the finale of The Lazarus Project begins, it is 2012 when Rebrov (Tom Burke) talks to Janet (Vinette Robinson) about their relationship. Janet realizes he is trying to ask her out. Dennis says he thinks about her all the time and it is starting to do his head in. She says the same. As Dennis gets a message, Janet snaps a picture of him. She agrees to go on a date with him. He claims he doesn’t know and doesn’t care who is texting him. Three weeks ago in Hamburg, Janet writes something on a piece of paper and hides it under her leg when Zhang enters the room. Zhang checks on her as gunfire is heard in the background. She gives Janet the key to uncuff herself but warns her that she’ll be shot if she tries anything. They manage to escape before Shiv (Rudi Dharmalingam) can get to them.

He finds the note that Janet left for him. It says, “I’ll be worth the wait”. George (Paapa Essiedu) shoots Shiv before finding the note in his jacket pocket. When Reggie knocks on the door, George changes his shirt this time to ensure he doesn’t see any blood. He blames the loud noise on the new speakers he got for the television. Reggie leaves and George gets a call from Wes (Caroline Quentin) who tells him to come in immediately. Once he arrives, Blake (Lorn Macdonald) tells him that the world ended. Wes explains it was an emission of gravitational radiation caused by two black holes merging together. Greta (Salome Gunnarsdottir) makes it simple by saying there was a big explosion in space and everything in the universe got zapped.

Wes says that was the singularity and there is another one. When George asks how they went back, Wes says they have a dead man’s switch on their end. Once it is destroyed, it automatically resets. Wes says it is already collapsing in on itself so it will happen again in three weeks. George questions whether they’re going to live the next three weeks on loop. Wes doesn’t know what to do since she can’t stop a black hole from collapsing. George says singularities don’t just appear overnight so someone has to be responsible for this. Wes asks what he’d do if he wanted to create a machine to turn back time himself. Once George says he doesn’t know, Wes suggests finding the one person smart enough to know how all this works. She’d get them and put them to work. George believes she is talking about Janet.

She reveals Archie is in Shanghai because they believe the Chinese are involved. When George leaves, he meets with Sarah (Charly Clive) to listen to her tell him she has met someone else. While buying supplies, he tries to call Archie, but she doesn’t answer. George returns to his flat to deal with Shiv’s body. After wrapping up the body, he spray paints the camera in the elevator to avoid being caught. George dumps Shiv’s body into the water under a bridge. In Shanghai, China, Archie (Anjli Mohindra) tries to find information about Janet. She visits Zhang’s sister and shows her pictures of her sister. The woman sits down because Archie has a gun but insists she doesn’t know where Zhang is. Archie cocks the gun to threaten her before the woman writes something down for her.

When Archie goes to the spot in question, she is confronted by a lot of men with guns. They kill her so time restarts and George shoots Shiv again. George quickly tells him about the singularity as Shiv pulls something out of his pocket and drops to the ground. George tells Reggie about the speakers again. Janet’s note is too bloody to read. George doesn’t meet with Sarah this time and instead begins working to deal with Shiv’s body. Sarah catches him trying to load Shiv’s body into his car. She complains that she waited an hour in the café today. He apologizes before blood begins dripping onto the ground and Sarah runs away. George catches her with his car. He asks her to get into the car with him. Once she does, George tells her that his name is Shiv and he is an ex-operative for a top-secret organization called The Lazarus Project that is tasked with preventing and undoing extinction-level events.

George tries to explain that he is a member of The Lazarus Project. She learns that he has killed a lot of bad people. He wants to show her something so he takes her to the headquarters for The Lazarus Project. George shows her the profiles for himself and Shiv before they go to his flat to have sex. Once they finished, George reminds her that she can’t tell anyone about it. He hates when she calls him her ex and she agrees. George says he is only going to be here for another three weeks before he has to go somewhere. After Sarah leaves, George dumps Shiv’s body. Archie learns that Zhang is staying in Sunset Villas. However, Archie believes her sister is trying to lead her into a trap. She threatens the woman’s parents and kid in hopes of finding out the truth this time. Archie surprises Zhang. She tries to put her in cuffs, but Zhang begins fighting back.

Archie cuffs one of her wrists to Zhang’s only for the fight to continue. Zhang takes Archie’s gun and shoots herself. Sarah wishes George could tell her where he is going tomorrow. He wishes he could too. They say they missed one another. Sarah asks if he’ll come and find her when he gets back from wherever he is going. George tells her that he’ll always find her. The world ends again so George restarts from Shiv’s death. When Archie enters the room, Zhang holds her at gunpoint. She asks her to just knock next time. Archie is surprised to learn that she can remember time loops and they made their own serums. They wanted what The Lazarus Project had so they made a machine. As for Janet, Zhang passed her on to her handler. She was supposed to meet her handler, but he never showed and stopped answering his phones. Zhang suggests her friend get to him first before describing Shiv.

She goes on to say they’ve been tracking Lazarus for years. George led them straight to her when he went to her apartment in Barcelona just before the nuke went off. Zhang asks whether this is going to keep happening. Archie admits he doesn’t know. Sarah meets with George after he misses the café and sees the pile of blood near his car. He hits her with his car this time. He doesn’t find a pulse so he complains about her not looking both ways. Her body is put into the boot with Shiv’s. George curses himself and goes to the spot to dump the bodies into the water before time resets once again. George tries to get Shiv to tell him something. He also meets with Sarah who tells him that she is engaged as time resets again and again. George asks Wes what they’re going to do as she suggests they must start waking people up.

They’ll have to alert world leaders and people in charge. They can’t fix it on their own and might not be able to fix this at all, but it is time to start looking for help. As George returns home, Archie confronts him to say she underestimated him. She knows about Shiv so George shows her the blood on the floor. Archie is about to wake up in China. She knows why he did it and he knows why it doesn’t matter. George explains that the loop brings Shiv back with a bullet in him. Although he has been trying to save him, he hasn’t found a way to do so. Archie warns him that he better find out a way. They live in a world of consequences right now, but George is going to help her bring them back. Then, he is going to face them. She makes sure he understands before confessing that she trusted him. He betrayed her.

Archie doesn’t know where Janet is. There is a rival machine out there and Janet is the key to fixing this. Once George says he thinks Shiv knows something, Archie tells him he better find out a way to save him. She asks him to tell Shiv she is sorry she didn’t believe him in the next loop and that she is going to make it right. Once time jumps back, George grabs Shiv and tells him everything. He takes a picture of the wound to a doctor to find out how she’d treat a collapsed lung. She tells him she’d release the trapped air and get some fluid in him but won’t say anything else. He returns and finds Sarah sitting on the steps because he didn’t show up to their planned meeting. He knows she is seeing someone and will marry him.

George suspects she is already having doubts and thought telling him would mean she couldn’t turn back. Before he goes inside, George tells her that he is really alone right now. At the office, Blake decides to quit working since he doesn’t see the point anymore. Time jumps back, George apologizes that he can’t help Shiv, and he gets mad at Reggie. George tries to dry the bloodied note. In the morning, Reggie apologizes for disturbing him last night. George is surprised to see that Reggie is a paramedic. Then, he takes the note to a woman who might be able to disclose the message. They believe it says, “it’ll be worth the wait”. She also finds Chinese characters at the bottom of the page. When he translates the letters, it says time machine. George takes a vial of something from one of the coolers at The Lazarus Project headquarters.

George goes to Sarah’s place and apologizes for not showing up at the café. He asks if he can come in. Zhang visits Archie. Once they sit down together, Zhang says she feels like she is losing her mind. She mapped out everyone on the first day and found that one guy went to a small park where he hanged himself. She said hello to the guy once and he didn’t hang himself. Archie admits the smallest things can make the biggest difference. She points out the music nearby. A couple of loops back she went next door and threw the guy playing the guitar out the window. When Zhang asks what is so special about Janet, Archie says she has genius level IQ and her brain is the size of a small country. She believes Zhang’s government made their own serum and tried to make their own time machine, but it went wrong.

They might’ve taken Janet in hopes of fixing it. Zhang confirms she has found where they’re keeping her, but they’re going to need help. George tries to convince Sarah that he is telling her the truth about the time machine. He tells her that something has gone wrong. George doesn’t know if it is selfish and cruel to give her the option to know. He wonders whether being woken up is worse than sleeping through it. He just knows that he misses her and believes she misses him too. He puts the serum down on the table causing her to believe he is taking heroin. George explains it is a serum that will help her remember everything she lost, such as them being married and going to have a baby. They can get that back. When George returns to his flat, Rebrov puts a gun to his head before asking if he needs it.

They go into George’s flat to discuss where Janet could possibly be. They talk about the singularity and Shiv before Dennis says this doesn’t feel like a flat that has a woman living in it. He learns about the girlfriend dumping him and what actually happened to Shiv thanks to the bloodstain on the ground. George tells him about the note that says time machine in Mandarin. Rebrov seems to know what “it’ll be worth the wait” means. Time jumps back immediately preventing George from finding out what it means. George yells at Reggie that he has been shot and needs help. As Reggie begins working on Shiv, he tells George to call 999. Archie and Zhang sneak around a building with their guns out as Janet works in a room guarded by a man. George refuses to call 999 and tells Reggie to stabilize him here.

Zhang and Archie kill guards as they make their way to Janet. They enter the room only to find that Janet is gone. George tries to get Shiv to tell him where Janet is, but Reggie tells him he needs space. Once Shiv comes through, he tells George that Rebrov is the key. Dennis enters the Lazarus Project building to say it was Janet’s idea to use the code “big plans are afoot”. There were many but one was more important than the others. It was the one that meant I am in trouble. He says it is “it’ll be worth the wait” as we see Janet sending that message. The phrase always reminded Rebrov of something, but he couldn’t remember it until he saw it written down the other day.

He shows Wes a picture and says they won’t find Janet because she isn’t here anymore. Someone has found a way to break through the checkpoint and found a way to send her back in time. Janet looks at the television above her that shows the 2012 London Olympic Games. Rebrov remembers getting that message when she took a picture of him on the bench. He knows exactly where she is. If they want to get her back, they’re going to need his help. Sarah shows up at George’s flat to say he can time travel.

 

The Lazarus Project Review

The Lazarus Project was an interesting ride that never really broke free of the constraints of mediocrity. In terms of viewer reviews, this seems to be something people absolutely hate or review positively to offset the lower scores. While the series has some interesting moments, its flaws stick out like a sore thumb leaving moments of frustration and disappointment. At times, it felt like The Lazarus Project had been cobbled together at the last moment without any real forethought.

This was evident in the last episode especially. The acting and mumbling reared their ugly head from time to time, but the writing did nothing to make compelling characters. George was obviously meant to be a likable protagonist although the side characters were far more interesting. In particular, Shiv, Archie, and Rebrov were easier to connect with than George who regularly did stupid, arrogant things.

The show requires viewers to ignore or bend reality to fully accept the story. The time looping angle clearly adds to the unrealistic nature of the show, but other things were just silly unrealistic. The convenient writing was a real disappointment in the last episode. For instance, Reggie just happens to be a paramedic who can save Shiv’s life. George goes to an older woman out of the blue in an attempt to restore the note.

Rebrov somehow finds out where George has been living despite never being there. The season didn’t do much in terms of closing doors and answering questions. It primarily provided backstories into the main characters and opened countless doors for the next season. While this could possibly get better with a second season, it is questionable whether it deserves one. It’ll have a better chance of time looping again because it is on Sky.

The finale scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Lazarus Project can be found on Reel Mockery here. Want to support our work? Find out how to do so here.