The Signal ending explained: Paula intercepted messages from a probe

All four episodes of The Signal, a German series were released on Netflix on Friday, March 7, 2024. The sci-fi drama series is produced by Bon Voyage Films GmbH, and directed by Philipp Leineman and Sebastian Hilger. Written by Kim Zimmerman, Nadine Gottmann and Florian David Fitz, the story follows Paula and her family’s plight through a sabotaged mission.

The plot of The Signal shows Paula, an astronaut, on a mission where she decodes signals intercepted by her space station, presumed to be about the arrival of aliens. However, Paula, her co-astronaut Hadi, and 178 passengers of an aeroplane go missing on the Atlantic when returning home.

Now, her partner, Sven, and their hearing-impaired child Charlie reach out to Benisha Mudhi, the sponsor of the mission. However, the predicted aliens did not arrive but a NASA probe landed at the calculated location.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for The Signal.

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The Signal: How did Paula protect the information?

Paula takes pain to protect the message (Image via Netflix)

Netflix's latest offering, The Signal, sees Paula coerced by Hadi to give out a date and time of arrival of aliens. Hadi locked her in isolation depleted oxygen in the capsule to push her into asphyxiation, and to force her to give out the information, she also relayed it to others.

However, it was later found that she had given out the wrong date and time. She also sent a cryptic message about the coordinates to Sven, in an attempt to protect the information. Unfortunately, desperate to look for her, Sven went to Benisha to ask for help and gave her the coordinates.

Netflix’s sci-fi show further has Benisha taking Sven and Charlie to the location using the coordinates. When no aliens arrived Benisha asked her subordinate Nora to eliminate Sven and Charlie.

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Who was behind Paula’s death?

Sven and Charlie decipher Paula's message (Image via Netflix)

When travelling to the designated location as per the coordinates given by Paula, Sven learnt that Benisha Mudhi was behind the sabotage of Paula’s mission. She had funded the mission and then asked Hadi to push Paula to give the date and time she had deciphered.

To cover her tracks, Benisha then, got the plane crashed, killing Hadi, the lone witness, along with Paula and 178 others. However, she could not back out of the situation when Sven approached her. She wanted to be the first to greet the aliens when they arrived.

With no aliens arriving at the date and time given by Paula, an infuriated Benisha ordered Nora to kill Sven and Charlie to eliminate the witnesses to her crime. However, Nora secretly let them go as she didn’t want to commit more crimes.

While Charlie and Sven realized that Paula had given the right coordinates, the date and time were left in a cryptic message to Sven before she boarded her flight. Unravelling the message the father-child duo got both the right location and the right time, three months later, according to the show's timeline.

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What were the signals and the final message in The Signal?

As shown in the ending of The Signal, Benisha was arrested, and Sven and Charlie went to the desert for the aliens to arrive. While no aliens turned up, NASA’s Voyager 1 probe of 1977 landed at the spot. The probe contained the Golden Record, a gold-plated copper phonograph, about 12 inches long.

The Golden Record, which holds music and voices of greetings from Earth, was playing in a glitched loop when Paula heard it. She mistook it for aliens trying to make contact. However, the Golden Recorder found at the finale of The Signal offers a message and a cliffhanger at the same time.

The Golden Record represents a lost past of hope and unity. The messages sent from Earth were about peace and humanity contrasting with the present era where governments are ready to bomb a UFO on sight without threat.

The message from the past is a reminder about how we Earth-dwellers have failed our own purposes. It may urge us to embrace our lost values and again root for unity and peace. When aliens visit us in the future, they may find a united Earth.

The cliffhanger at the end of the German show was the landing of the Golden Record. It seemed as if someone sent it from outer space. However, who did so and why, is open for guesses.

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The Signal is currently available for streaming on Netflix.