It’s been years. Honestly, the sting of an unfinished story never really goes away for sci-fi fans, and Between season 2 left us hanging in a way that still feels a bit personal. If you spent your time watching Wiley and Adam try to navigate a town where everyone over 21 just... dropped dead, you know the vibe. It was bleak. It was claustrophobic. And then, it just stopped.
Netflix and Rogers (the Canadian network that co-produced it) never officially held a funeral for the show. It didn't get a "canceled" headline in the trades like 1899 or The OA. Instead, it just faded into the background radiation of the streaming era. But for those of us who actually stuck through the second season, the frustration isn't about the lack of a third season—it’s about the massive, unanswered questions left on the table during those final six episodes.
The Shift in Between Season 2
The first season was a slow burn. It was basically "Lord of the Flies" but with more iPhones and a literal fence around the perimeter. By the time we hit Between season 2, the showrunners decided to floor the gas pedal. The scope expanded. We weren't just looking at kids dying in the streets of Pretty Lake anymore; we were looking at a massive government conspiracy involving Horatio Pharmaceuticals.
Liam Cullen showed up. Remember him? Steven Grayhm played the mysterious outsider who claimed he could fix the virus. His arrival changed the dynamic entirely. Suddenly, it wasn't just about survival; it was a race for a cure. This shifted the show from a character-driven drama into a high-stakes conspiracy thriller.
Some people hated that change. They felt it lost the "small town" intimacy of the first season. I kinda liked it. It felt like the stakes finally matched the premise. If you have a virus killing every adult in a ten-mile radius, the government isn't just going to sit back and watch forever. They’re going to experiment.
That Ending Was Never Meant to Be the End
The finale of Between season 2, titled "Don't Look Back," was a chaotic mess of adrenaline. Adam and Wiley finally made it past the wall. They were out. They had the evidence. They were ready to expose Horatio Pharmaceuticals to the world.
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And then... black.
It was a classic cliffhanger. The problem is that a cliffhanger only works if there’s a ledge on the other side. Because the show never returned, that ending changed from a "to be continued" into a permanent "what if." We never saw the fallout. We never saw if the world actually believed a couple of traumatized teenagers from a quarantined town.
The Reality of Why It Vanished
People often ask if the show was actually canceled or if everyone just forgot to make it. It’s a bit of both. Michael McGowan, the creator, and the production team stayed quiet for a long time. Jennette McCurdy, who played Wiley, eventually moved away from acting altogether to focus on writing and directing. Her memoir, I'm Glad My Mom Died, gave a lot of insight into her headspace during those years, though she doesn't spend a lot of time specifically bashing the production of this show.
Still, when your lead actress leaves the industry, the chances of a revival drop to zero.
The economics were also weird. This was one of Netflix’s first "international" deals where they shared the rights with a Canadian broadcaster (Citytv). This kind of deal became common later, but back then, it meant the numbers had to work for two different companies with two different sets of goals.
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What We Actually Know About the Virus
The science in the show was always a bit "TV logic," but Between season 2 tried to ground it. The virus wasn't some random act of God. It was a manufactured biological weapon. Specifically, it was designed to target people based on their age—or more accurately, their cellular maturity.
That's a terrifying concept.
It wasn't about "turning 22." It was about the biological markers of adulthood. The show hinted that the cure Liam brought in wasn't a perfect fix, either. It was a temporary patch. This meant that even if the characters escaped Pretty Lake, they were still walking time bombs. They were carries of a plague that could theoretically wipe out the global population of adults if it ever mutated or leaked properly.
The Legacy of Pretty Lake
Looking back at it now, Between season 2 was ahead of its time. This was years before the world actually went through a real-life pandemic. Re-watching it in 2026 feels different. The scenes of quarantine, the distrust of government officials, and the fear of "the outside" hit way harder than they did in 2016.
It explored the breakdown of social order in a way that felt grounded. When the teachers die, who runs the school? When the police die, who holds the gun? The show excelled when it focused on those tiny, brutal details of a world without grown-ups.
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Key Takeaways for the Fans
If you're still holding out hope for a secret third season, it's time to let it go. The sets are gone, the actors have moved on, and the contracts have expired. But that doesn't mean the story is worthless.
- Watch for the performances: Jesse Carere (Adam) and Jennette McCurdy had a strange, prickly chemistry that really anchored the show's emotional core.
- Ignore the "Netflix Original" tag: Remember that this was a co-production. If you’re looking for more info, searching Canadian TV archives for Citytv press releases from 2016-2017 gives a clearer picture of the production's end than Netflix’s UI ever will.
- The "Cure" was a lie: Or at least, it wasn't the silver bullet the characters hoped for. The tragedy of the show is that even in "winning," the survivors likely faced a very short life expectancy.
If you’re looking for a similar vibe to fill the void, you’re basically looking for "Young Adult Dystopia." Shows like The Society (which also got canceled too soon—seriously, what is it with this genre?) or Yellowjackets carry that same "kids left alone to rot" energy.
The best way to experience the story now is to treat the finale of Between season 2 as a cynical, nihilistic ending. They escaped the town, but they didn't escape the system. Sometimes the bad guys win, and the credits roll before we can see the consequences.
For those wanting to dive deeper into the lore, your best bet is to find the old "Between the Lines" webisodes and the interactive maps that were released alongside the original airing. They provide a bit more context on the Horatio Pharmaceuticals conspiracy that the main show didn't have time to fully explain. Stop waiting for a revival and appreciate the twelve episodes of tension we actually got.