Premiering in 1965, the original Lost in Space followed the intrepid Robinsons, a family of space explorers, aided by their trusty safe-keeper robot and accompanied by the disagreeable Dr. Smith. Netflix's reboot, which debuted in 2018, modernized the familiar architecture of the series, giving it inherent conflict, depth and a cascading set of crises that can only be overcome by fantastical applications of science and sincere human devotion.
Season 3 debuts in a few weeks, bringing the saga of the Robinsons to a close. In the recently released teaser trailer, the young Will Robinson solemnly intones, "I thought I could save everyone," and that in itself is emblematic of how far he, and the show, have traveled.
Dr. Maureen Robinson is a professor and engineer responsible for designing some of the Resolute's systems. Her estranged husband, John Robinson with whom they share three children, is a former Navy SEAL. Maureen's eldest daughter Judy, whose biological father was the famed astronaut Grant Kelly, died before she was born. Judy, raised and adopted by John, is intellectually and athletically gifted and a trained medical doctor. Penny is the middle child who is still trying to find herself and self conscious about her role in such a family of alphas and high achievers. Will, the youngest, is a prodigy who is not as mentally tough as he needs to be, at the journey's outset, for the challenges that are to come.
The Robinson family are part of 24th Colonists Group, tasked with establishing settlements on Alpha Centauri. En route to the star system, an emergency requires all of the family's on board their ship, the Resolute, to disembark on Jupiter class shuttles as a precautionary measure. After separation all of the shuttles and the Resolute itself are pulled through a rift in space and catapulted across the universe before crash landing on an unknown planet, galaxies away from where they intended.
While attempting to repair their shuttle and tend to their injuries they come across a bipedal AI, whom they refer to as Robot, that comes to their aid when they need it most. After recovering from their ordeal they go out in search of the other Jupiter shuttles. By this time it is clear that the Robot has bonded with Will in a unique and powerful way, obeying his commands and engaging in earnest if somewhat limited communication. When they reconvene with the survivors they learn that the emergency that necessitated the evacuation was a robot attacking the Resolute, killing many and destroying swaths of the ship. One of these survivors is a con artist named June Harris, who stole her sister's identity to gain passage on the Resolute from Earth. When her sister's boyfriend confronted her on board the ship she placed him in an airlock, then killed him to keep her secret. She was discovered and arrested and used the chaos of the robot attack to escape and steal another identity, the therapist Dr. Smith.
Convinced that Robot could not have done this, but also afraid of how the colonists may react, the Robinsons hide him in a remote cave until they can learn more about what happened. Dr. Smith, who is constantly observing her surroundings and using her empathic skills to read people and situations, follow the Robinsons and discovers Robot. Maureen discovers that a black hole is going to consume the planet while John convinces the colonists to trust the Robot. In an attempt to wrest control of the AI from Will, she manipulates one of the colonists into attacking Robot, forcing it to defend itself. In the ensuing melee John is injured and the Robinsons are no longer certain of Robot's innocence. As a result Will attempts to destroy Robot by telling him to step off a cliff where he falls to his presumed demise.
Dr. Smith finds Robot and eventually reassembles him and replaces Will's bond with her own. With Robot under her control she attempts to force her will on the Robinsons and other colonists. Maureen arrests Smith after learning the truth about her with little time remaining to escape the doomed planet. At this point it is revealed that the Resolute was built using alien technology. As the colonists attempt an escape, another Robot, which they come to refer to as SAR (Second Alien Robot), comes to retrieve the alien engine, which presumably belongs to it. The two robots battle, falling out of the ship and crashing into the orbiting Resolute, as it catapults to a new star system.
Seven months later the Robinsons are stranded on a water world with an equatorial ring of alien towers, and with Smith as their prisoner, are trying to jump-start their Jupiter’s fried battery. After John gets hurt, Maureen releases Smith to help them navigate their ship though the storm tossed seas and Smith holds up her end of the bargain, saving everyone and earning her freedom.
They escape the planet and pick up the Resolute’s signal, but only after finding a severed robot arm, that they then quarantine. On the Resolute, which is seemingly abandoned, Smith sabotages the ship in an attempt to erase her true identity from its records, which separates the Robinsons from one another. They realize they are not alone and that there is a survivor on the ship who tells them that a robot is also on board, which is why it was abandoned.
A group of the surviving colonists, including a scientist named Ben Adler who was one of the people who recovered the alien engine when it crashed on Earth, board the Resolute from a nearby amber planet and inform the Robinsons that a robot called Scarecrow has been on the ship the entire time as its navigator. Scarecrow, as a token of gratitude for Will's help, shows him where Robot is located on the amber planet where the colonists are camped.
It is revealed that Judy’s father, Grant Kelly, was a scientist who was working on the Alpha Centauri project and that the Amber planet has a ring around it just like the oceanic planet. The SAR approaches Will pretending to be Robot, hoping to communicate something to him, but is destroyed by Adler. He plans on using Robot to replace Scarecrow as navigator and also plans to abandon the colonists on the Amber planet due to a shortage of uncontaminated water.
After learning of this the Robinsons come up with a plan to clean the water and mutiny to execute said plan. During the mutiny it is revealed to the family that Maureen falsified Will’s scores to be included on the voyage and Robot had been attempting to save his friend, the enslaved and mutilated Scarecrow, all this time. Adler and Will go to the Amber planet to heal Scarecrow, leaving Robot behind to be captured. Hastings sacrifices himself to save Scarecrow, but also inadvertently awakens a slew of other robots.
The new army of robots, led by THAR (The Head Alien Robot), attempts to retrieve the engine. The Robinsons destroy the Resolute in an attempt to stop the robots, save themselves and save their children, who are on another ship, presumably with Dr. Smith (who seemed to sacrifice herself) and headed to Alpha Centauri. Instead, they arrive at a ship adrift in orbit around a broken planet: the Fortuna, captained by Grant Kelly, and long thought lost. The Robot was tasked with taking them to the nearest human signal, assuming that would be Alpha Centauri, but instead brought them to this shattered world and a whole host of questions.
The final season of Lost in Space arrives with lots of unanswered questions. Is Judy's biological father still alive somewhere on the Fortuna or the broken planet it orbits? Is Dr. Smith alive and on board the Jupiter with the children -- and, if so, what is she planning next? Where are Maureen, John and Don? These are just a few among many, but here is the official synopsis for Season 3:
In the third and final season of Lost in Space, the stakes are higher than ever and the Robinson family's survival instincts will be put to the ultimate test. After a year of being trapped on a mysterious planet, Judy, Penny, Will, and the Robot must lead the 97 young Colonists in a harrowing evacuation -- but not before secrets are unearthed that will change their lives forever. Meanwhile, John and Maureen -- with Don at their side -- must battle overwhelming odds as they try to reunite with their kids. The Robinsons will have to grapple with the emotional challenge of not just being lost -- but being separated from the ones they love... as they face the greatest alien threat yet.
Netflix released a teaser trailer for Lost in Space Season 3 on Oct. 7. Expect at least one more before the final season arrives in December.
Lost in Space Season 3 stars returning cast members Toby Stephens as John Robinson, Molly Parker as Maureen Robinson, Maxwell Jenkins as Will Robinson, Mina Sundwall as Penny Robinson, Taylor Russell as Judy Robinson, Ignacio Serricchio as Don West and Parker Posey as Dr. Smith/June Harris.
The third and final season of Lost in Space arrives Dec. 1 on Netflix.
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