Revival season 1 episode 1 ending explained: What happened to Martha?
Revival season 1 on Syfy aired on June 12, 2025, with fans meeting a small town in Wisconsin that was shaken by a paranormal incident called Revival Day, where the dead started resurrecting. But unlike zombie reign, these brought-back people, or Revivers, are not their old selves, retaining personality, memories, and even looks.
Against the dark, haunting landscapes of rural America, Revival combines elements of horror, mystery, and noir to probe the psychological and social effects of resurrection. Amidst this madness stands Officer Dana Cypress (Melanie Scrofano), whose investigation of seemingly unrelated incidents starts to reveal a darker reality.
The first episode of Revival season 1 gets the ball rolling with a mysterious murder mystery, a growing tension between the dead and the living, and a huge plot twist altering the way viewers understand Martha Em Cypress, Dana's younger sister.
The show closes on a haunting note with more questions than answers, including whether Martha was killed and what caused her to rise from the dead. In Revival season 1 episode 1, it’s revealed that Martha died during her three-week disappearance and came back as a Reviver.
What happened to the horses in Revival season 1 episode 1?
The mystery of Revival season 1 episode 1 starts with a strange find: the carcass of a mutilated horse in the woods. Dana is summoned in the late evening hours by her father and police chief, Wayne Cypress (David James Elliott).
While initially presumed to be an animal attack, perhaps by coyotes, Dana quickly senses discrepancies. Tire marks at the site and a coyote captured in a crude trap raise suspicion about the initial hypothesis.
What makes the incident more surreal are the human teeth discovered alongside the deceased coyote. Subsequently, when Dana speaks with Ibrahim Ramin (Andy McQueen), a liaison from the CDC who was dispatched to observe the Reviver debacle, he verifies the teeth match those discovered within the horse's stomach.
Peculiarly, the teeth regenerate, which points to them being part of a Reviver. This discovery implies that the horse did not die naturally or from the attack of another animal; it was a part of an intentional cover-up. Whoever killed the horse is likely a Reviver, and whoever attempted to cover it up was another individual.
What did Dana do in Revival season 1?
In episode 1, Dana does a lot of walking through a town, which is even more unsettled since the quarantine ended 35 days prior. While only 47 Revivers have been officially accounted for, she believes the actual number is far greater. Her hypothesis?
They might have died without anybody noticing and come back without even realizing they had died at all.
As a part of her research, Dana illegally gets access to revival records and discovers that Myles Miller, a notorious criminal who had been serving a life term, was one of the dead during the period in question. She goes to Myles' secluded and trap-filled cabin, where she is attacked. Myles' arm is hurt in the altercation, but he recovers within seconds, indicating that he is a Reviver.
Although he denies having anything to do with the horse accident, he does recall seeing a red truck covered with a tarp in the woods, a detail Dana tracks.
Later, Dana finds the same truck and listens to noises emanating from a nearby barn. In the barn, she finds an old woman, another Reviver, who is clearly unstable. Though given a place to stay by a local couple, the woman is volatile and unstable.
She kills the couple after showing them her body continues to grow teeth even after she attempts to pull them out. The experience confirms Dana's suspicion: there are dangerous Revivers, and ones are hiding them.
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Who killed Martha?
The largest revelation in Revival season 1 episode 1 concerns Martha Em Cypress (Romy Weltman), Dana's little sister. Marred at first as a troubled college student whose heart is broken and still grieving, Martha returns to town after being gone for three weeks.
She is vague about where she's been and seems mentally unstable. Dana gives her a lift, and the sisters catch up on lost time and make promises for the future, including a vacation they never took to Myrtle Beach.
But the end of the episode turns it all around. When Dana goes into the barn to kill the renegade Reviver, Martha tags along and is ambushed. The Reviver slashes her with a scythe, and Martha falls over, appearing to be dead. Dana kills the assailant, but the creature instantly regenerates.
Just as things appear to be impossible, the Reviver's skull is cleaved open with the same scythe, carried by Martha, who inexplicably lived through the fatal blow. This scene verifies a big breakthrough: Martha is a Reviver. Her mysterious three-week disappearance now makes sense; she had passed away and come back without informing anyone. Whether she killed herself or was killed is ambiguous.
The guy who was stalking her earlier in the show might know something, but his identity has not yet been disclosed. The last sequence of Revival season 1 episode 1 raises some immediate questions from the audience: Who murdered Martha? Why is she distinct from the troubled Revivers, such as the woman in the barn? And how many more Revivers remain in plain sight?
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Interested viewers can watch Revival season 1 on Amazon Prime Video and SYFY.
