Ash Ending Explained: Is the Alien Parasite Dead? Did Riya Survive?

Directed by Flying Lotus, ‘Ash’ is a thrilling horror film that blends the cold intrigue of outer space with the dread of an alien invasion. It follows the story of Riya, a researcher who wakes up in a viciously torn-up space station that is littered with the dead bodies of her crew. However, her trauma-induced amnesia prevents her from recalling the events that led up to the carnage in the facility. Therefore, even when Brion, one of her surviving crewmates, shows up to rescue her, she remains haunted by the growing uncertainty around her. Inevitably, as flashes of memories begin returning to Riya’s mind, she’s left to deal with the psychological and extraterrestrial dangers. As the unreliable nature of the story’s protagonists pushes the narrative down intriguing roads, it also fuels an ever-present air of mystery around the fates of Riya and her space-bound crew. SPOILERS AHEAD!

Ash Plot Synopsis

On a distant planet of KOI-442, aka Ash, Riya wakes disoriented and amnesiac in a space station. The various dead bodies strewn about in the ransacked place make it clear that something strange has unfolded in the facility. Nonetheless, the woman can’t recall any details, save for a few flashing memories of violence and chaos. After she tries to find answers—and first aid—in and outside of the station, a strange figure eventually knocks on her door. Although she’s initially suspicious of the man, he reveals himself to be Brion Gargyle, one of her crewmates who claims to be responding to an SOS signal she had apparently sent to the orbiting space station above the planet.

As Brion shares bits and pieces of the crew’s habitat-finding mission on the planet, they conclude that the massacre in the facility must be the actions of the missing crew member, Clarke. However, aside from the same, the man doesn’t seem interested in finding any more answers. Instead, he’s eager for the duo to abandon the facility and return to the Orbital as their station experiences rapid oxygen depletion. Nonetheless, Riya remains on edge. Momentary flashbacks of her memories seem to suggest that she may have had something to do with the crew’s death, compelling the woman to grow desperate for a definitive explanation. For the same reason, conflict arises between her and Brion once she learns that her crew was actually researching the possibility of an intelligent lifeform on the planet.

In fact, they even formed evidence of the planet being terraformed. Once Riya confronts Brion about the same, he insists that they should prioritize their escape over attempts to solve this cryptic mystery. Furthermore, once the woman reveals she thinks she may have killed her friends, he compels her to keep using medical patches that are enhancing her amnesia. He simply wants to ensure their survival and report back their findings of alien intelligence, even if it means they have to abandon the mystery of their crew’s deaths. Yet, even though Riya agrees to go along with his plans, things soon become out of her hands.

One medical patch too many seems to overwhelm Riya’s system, making her pass out and recall the details of the brutal way she had murdered the captain, Adhi. In the aftermath, she wakes to find Brion’s dead body in a vent as well as a surprise visit from space-suited Clarke. In the confrontation that follows, Riya ends up killing the woman, only to later realize that she was never infected by an alien species in the first place. In fact, further investigation leads to the startling realization that it was Riya who had been under an alien parasite’s control all this time. This compels the woman to attempt a surgical extraction, at the end of which she finds herself fighting the reanimated, infected body of Brion. Ultimately, Riya manages to burn the Brion’s body and the alien parasite along with him. However, unbeknownst to her, that doesn’t confirm the end of the horrors planned by the invasive species.

Ash Ending: Does Riya Make it Out Alive? What Happens to the Alien Parasite?

Early on, Riya comes up with the theory that the massacre in the space station must’ve been a result of an invasive infection by an alien species. She assumes that Clarke, the only missing person from the crew, must have contracted the infection and attacked everyone before disappearing. Nonetheless, parts of her own retained memory contradict this assumption. From recollections of killing her captain to cryptic dreams about running her lover, Kevin, through with a blade, Riya has many reasons to believe the death and destruction in the station is on her hands. Eventually, a post-mortem on Clarke’s body leads to the same conclusion as it reveals that the other woman was never, in fact, infected.

In the wake of this discovery, Riya decides to also scan Brion’s body, and learns that he has actually been dead for 2 days. This directly confirms that the man had died along with the rest of the crew, which means the researcher has been hallucinating his company all this time. This leads to the revelation that Riya herself is actually infected with the alien parasite, which entered her brain through her head wound. The alien species exists as a hive mind, controlling fractures of themself while remaining one central creature. As they reveal themself to Riya, she learns that the parasite has been terraforming the planet all on their own through complicated machinery.

Therefore, the alien parasite is less than eager to allow humans to take over the planet, snatching it away from them. Instead, after destroying humans’ space station on the planet, they now want to use Riya as a vessel to infect the rest of the Earth-hailing species. Naturally, this elicits a violent reaction in the woman, allowing her enough level-headedness to overpower the parasite and take control of her body. During this time, she manages to use the medbot to initiate a surgery on herself to extract the parasite from her body. However, all it does is offer Brion’s nearby dead body to the alien species as a willing and operable host. In the end, a nerve-wracking altercation ignites between Riya and Brion’s rapidly monster-ifying infected body.

Ultimately, Riya overpowers it by blasting it with a jerry-built flamethrower. She ensures its death by burning down the rest of the research facility. Thus, in the end, she’s able to operate the Brion’s spaceship to escape the planet to the Orbital in the nick of time before its orbit passes her by. Nonetheless, this optimistic ending is easily trampled by the ending shot of the film, which reveals the Orbital has been overtaken by the same deadly alien parasite that reigned over Ash. Even though the narrative doesn’t provide a direct answer, only one explanation remains. It’s likely that despite Riya’s fiery attempts, some part of the alien parasite survived and snuck into her spaceship before it left the planet. As such, the woman ended up bringing death and destruction to the Orbital. Ultimately, Riya and the rest of humanity’s continued survival is inescapably at risk under threat of the alien parasite’s rule.

Is Brion Real? Is He Dead?

Even after the story wraps up, it leaves the viewers with a few confounding revelations that require some investigation. This includes the abrupt reveal of Brion’s perpetual death. Brion enters the narrative as a suspicious character who is meant to be Riya’s savior. The researcher herself has lost all of her memories, leaving blanks about her mission, her crew, and their gruesome demises. Therefore, Brion’s arrival is the only thing that helps her realize she can escape Ash and return to a home base space station currently orbiting over the planet. Nonetheless, he’s never entirely truthful with the woman. He’s dead-set on returning to the Orbital and consistently tries to discourage Riya from trying to solve the mystery of the past few days.

Eventually, once Riya’s memories return to her all at once on their own, an explanation arrives for Brion’s suspicious behavior. All along, Brion has been a figment of the researcher’s imagination. The real Brion Gargyle died two days ago, along with the rest of Riya’s crew. All this time, his dead body had been rotting in the vents from which he had tried to escape during the parasite’s attack. After wreaking havoc on the station, the alien parasite ultimately infected Riya. However, unlike their other hosts, they have a specific task for the research.

The parasite wants to use Riya to reach the rest of humanity and lay waste to their existence to ensure their own species reigns supreme. For the same reason, they want her to operate Brion’s spaceship back to the Orbital. In order to do this, the parasite induces an amnesia-laden hallucination of the other man, compelling the woman to inadvertently bring the alien species to their goal. Thus, the Brion Gargyle remains dead for the entirety of the story. The man that Riya and the viewers see and get to know is simply a hallucinated manifestation of the alien parasite’s psychological manipulation.

What Happened to Riya’s Crew? How Did They Die?

The deaths of Riya’s crew remain one of the overarching mysteries that persist throughout the bulk of the stories. Initially, the seemingly sole survivor of the massacre only knows that some sort of attack has killed Adhi, Kevin, and Davis. Eventually, as the narrative unravels, the details about their deaths are revealed. During the crew’s mission on Ash, they had discovered massive technological pits on the planet, indicating the existence of an intelligent alien species. This discovery is huge since it promises to change everything humanity knows and understands about life and existence. However, soon after this discovery, the crew noted an invasive parasitic plant-like species overtaking their space station.

As a result, they called it in at the Orbital, who sent down Brion for investigation. Once they conclude that the parasite species could be potentially dangerous to them, they plan to follow protocol and evacuate the facility. Nonetheless, Riya’s burning curiosity got the better of her. She refused to agree with Adhi’s plan and was eager to study the specimen herself. For the same reason, she tried to take a sample of the parasite. However, this is where things went south. While he tries to extract a sample, the alien parasite ends up infecting Adhi, effectively turning him into a foot soldier for the hive mind.

Consequently, Riya was forced to kill Adhi in a violent altercation. Yet, the specimen simply jumped onto another host. Eventually, Riya was able to help Clarke escape from the facility, but she decided against her own escape. Instead, she stayed behind to finish the job and kill Kevin in hopes of terminating the species. Still, once she killed her partner, the alien parasite ended up infecting her, putting the events of the film into motion. As such, the deaths of Riya’s crewmates end up on her own conscience one way or another.