This article contains mentions of suicide.
Warning: Major spoilers for Bird Bix Barcelona below!Mario Casas' Sebastian is the main character of Netflix's Bird Box Barcelona, but why can he see the monsters which force others to take their own lives? Netflix's Bird Box was a huge streaming success for Netflix in 2018 and penetrated popular culture to the extent that the "Bird Box Challenge" briefly became a thing. With Sandra Bullock's reluctance to return for sequels to her own work - following the likes of Speed 2: Cruise Control - Bird Box Barcelona instead takes the franchise in a new direction.
As the title implies, the setting shifts to Barcelona, where main character Sebastian is searching for other survivors nine months after Bird Box's terrifying monsters took over the city. Bird Box Barcelona's big twist flips the original, with Sebastian being revealed to be a "seer." Whereas suicidal impulses instantly overtake most human beings who look upon the creatures, some are so overwhelmed by their "beauty," they're instead compelled to seek out other survivors and show them.
Seers & DNA Markers In Bird Box Explained
This is why Sebastian can see the monsters in Bird Box Barcelona. In the original film, Tom Hollander's Gary fulfilled a similar role, where he was taken in by the Bullock's gang of survivors, only to betray them and try to expose the group to the monsters. Bird Box Barcelona makes a "seer" the main character, with the film being told almost entirely from Sebastian's perspective. Viewers never get to actually see what the monsters look like - possibly due to "observer's effect" theory - but to Sebastian, they resemble angelic beings coming to take souls to heaven.
Bird Box Barcelona's ending goes into further detail about seers too. In the final scenes, survivor Claire (Georgina Campbell) is taken for blood tests by the army. They explain that seers all carry a chemical marker in their blood, caused by exposure to the creatures. It's revealed that extreme forms of trauma, such as violence, abuse, or - as in Sebastian's case - grief, can cause an epigenetic change to the way a person's DNA works. This ending also teases Bird Box 3, where the DNA of seers could be used to create a compound against the monsters.
The twin traumas of losing his daughter Anna (Alejandra Howard) to a group of seers and witnessing one of Bird Box Barcelona's creatures caused this change in Sebastian, and the chemical marker this event left pushed him to seek out other people to expose them to the "angels." Sebastian being able to see in Bird Box Barcelona comes in very useful during the third act, however, when the effects of this DNA alteration wears off and he realizes the truth.
Why Sebastian Forces People To See The Entities & Kill Themselves
Sebastian's being able to see naturally gives him an unfair advantage over other vulnerable survivors. The opening introduces Sebastian as he encounters some survivors and they take him in. These first 15 minutes make him out to be the hero, which is all the more devastating when he leads this group to their deaths by forcing them to look at the monsters. From his POV, he's not killing anybody, but he's leading them to salvation. Sebastian doesn't see horrible monsters when he looks at the entities, but majestic, six-winged angels called seraphs, which is born out of his own Catholic faith.
His hallucinations of Anna also force him to seek out more survivors while making him believe they will be reunited in heaven one day. Bird Box Barcelona making a character who really should be a villain the main protagonist is one of the most intriguing parts of the spinoff. He firmly believes he's doing the right thing by forcing people to look at the entities and take their own lives, and it's only through meeting Claire and another young survivor named Sophia (Naila Schuberth) does he start to understand Bird Box's monsters are anything but divine.
Are The Golden Orbs Of Light People's Souls?
Whenever somebody dies in Bird Box Barcelona, Sebastian witnesses golden orbs of light exit their bodies. This is another delusion on his part, as he thinks their souls are being carried up to heaven after the seraphs have saved them. These orbs aren't really souls being gently lifted to the afterlife but are just another byproduct of the chemical changes that were made to Sebastian's DNA.
Religious Meanings Behind Bird Box's Seers
It's not a coincidence that the seers in the Bird Box franchise attach religious significance to the monsters. According to the "observers effect" theory the movie itself lays out, the entities might be quantum beings with no true form of their own. They only take shape after being seen, with that form based on their own persona and beliefs. Sebastian appears to be a devout catholic, with the creatures taking on the form of an angel that appears on his daughter's necklace.
Bird Box Barcelona's villain is also a priest who leads a flock of followers around the city, "converting" other survivors they find. It should be noted that not all seers regard the beings as angels; one infected survivor thinks they are aliens beaming people up to a mothership. However, most of them believe the creatures are divine in some way, and this blind fanaticism is what drives them to expose others to the glory of what they see.
Why Sebastian Stops Seeing The Light And Helps Save Claire & Sophia
Sebastian being able to see is what eventually earns him redemption in Bird Box Barcelona's ending. While he wholeheartedly believes what he's been doing throughout the movie is righteous, seeds of doubt creep in thanks to his interactions with Claire and Sophia. Hearing about the "observer's effect" also starts to undermine his beliefs too. After he leads another trusting survivor to their death, he doesn't see the "soul" leaving their body, which confirms to Sebastian that the beings aren't angelic after all.
After Sebastian stops seeing the light, he has to convince Claire and Sophia he can be trusted to help take them to safety at Montjuïc Castle. The finale sees him wrestle with hallucinations of Anna - representing the will of the monsters - trying to stop him from saving Claire and Sophia too. Bird Box Barcelona ends with Sebastian sacrificing himself to save them, though the conversion about seers suggests that can be rehabilitated once the illusion caused by the chemical marker has worn off. Maybe this is a concept a potential Bird Box 3 can take further.
