The Last Day

“*No, no, not Izel! He's my baby brother... I'll be the sacrifice. I'll take his place.*”
―Nelli to the Uxmal priest during the meeting of the city's elders

## "The Last Day"

### Director

Kevin Altieri

**"The Last Day"** is the first episode of *Onyx Equinox*.

## Official Summary

As Mictlantecuhtli initiates a blood war, the other Gods consider destroying humanity altogether. Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca make a side bet to see if the “lowest-of-the-low” can serve as humanity’s champion to save the human race. In Uxmal, a tragic decision sets Izel’s destiny in motion.

## Synopsis

In the Zapotec city of Dani Baán, a teenager named Zyanya defeats her friend in a friendly sparring match, when an alarm goes off throughout the city: a recent sacrifice was not enough to appease the gods, and the city will fall. As the sky turns blood red and a storm erupts over the city, Zyanya races home to find her parents being absorbed by faceless cyan-colored underworld creatures. Her mother urges her to get to the old stone of the city, to which she races off towards, while the city is under attack. Meanwhile, after a local priest slits his throat in self-sacrifice, the Zapotec gods Cocijo and Xoo appear before the city's inhabitants in an attempt to protect the city.

As the two gods begin to attack the invaders, Zyanya manages to reach a small area containing obsidian rocks, and, before being consumed by a pursuing creature, stabs it in the head with an obsidian slab, freeing her father and almost doing the same for her mother. Zyanya's father urges her to flee the city while he attempts to rescue his wife. As Zyanya follows her father's orders, a crater opens beneath part of the city, and her father is reabsorbed by the creature after a futile attempt to save his wife. In the main square of the city, multitudes of monsters gather and partially reveal their human captives before forcing them to slit their own throats in a mass self-sacrifice. The ground beneath them absorbs the torrent of blood before opening to reveal the Aztec God of the Underworld, Mictlantecuhtli, towering above the city. After Cocijo flees the scene, Mictlantecuhtli effortlessly rips Xoo apart, gorging himself on the god's golden blood before tossing him aside and, with his massive hands, pushes down on the city and sinking it beneath a gate to the Underworld, taking hundreds of people down along with what remains of the city.

In the fringes of the city, any survivors flee, die from their injuries, or simply break down over the recent chaos. One boy searching for his mother suddenly contorts his body multiple times before his eyes turn yellow, having been possessed by Quetzalcoatl. He makes his way to a damaged house just bordering the large crater, where the three other celestial Aztec gods—Huitzilopochtli, Tezcatlipoca, and Xipe Totec—have possessed other humans, and are surveying the scene before them. They mull over the situation before them: having sunk an entire city into the Underworld in the midst of a blood drought, Mictlantecuhtli has demonstrated a brazen act of war, in which he and the other gods and goddesses of the Underworld can hoard blood sacrifices for themselves, leaving fewer for the rest. Huitzilopochtli proposes closing the five gates to the Underworld to cut off the blood supply and effectively end the drought. Quetzalcoatl volunteers to perform this task, as his twin brother, Xolotl, would be among the gods who would have their blood supply run out. With the rest of the party in agreement, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl leave the house after the remaining two gods disintegrate their hosts' bodies. Approaching one of the obsidian gate switches, Tezcatlipoca informs Quetzalcoatl that he intends to destroy and remake the world anew at the equinox, as the humans have been spilling more blood in battles than they have been offering them [to the gods] in sacrifice. Upon attempting to touch the gate switch, the hand of Quetzalcoatl's young host burns away into bones, as [Olmec-made] obsidian acts as a god-repellent. With this, a bet is made: Quetzalcoatl will choose a human—"the lowest of the low"—to close the gates, and Tezcatlipoca makes a compromise that to ensure Quetzalcoatl doesn't cheat, his most loyal emissary—Yaotl—will guide the human; whichever god wins the bet will get the blood sacrifices of the other. The two agree before their hosts wither away completely and their remains scatter to the wind. Just below the rim of the crater from which Dani Baán fell, a female figure can be seen watching the gold wisps of the rival gods blow away in the wind.

In the Maya city of Uxmal, a young teenager named Izel is finishing a piece of embroidery on a loom when he is summoned by his master to join him alongside Izel's older sister, Nelli, to the city market to sell their goods. As the siblings barter in the market, two strangers to the city arouse suspicion amongst the inhabitants, and the city's priest orders for a meeting of the elders. As Izel passes by the two strangers, one of them asks Izel to spare some food for a piece of clothing, to which he offers them a bag of maize and offers them his sympathies, as they had come from Dani Baán. The older woman marvels over Izel's kindness, and asks if they are Mayan. Nelli walks over and reveals that they were born in Tenochtitlan and left when they were very young, before wishing the duo well and hoping they consider settling down in Uxmal. The woman clarifies that they may not stay long, and only wanted to get away from the destruction at the former home as soon as possible. The master calls the two siblings over and informs them that he has a meeting to attend, and requests Nelli to accompany him, while Izel is tasked with bringing their belongings home.

Nearing sunset, Izel encounters a group of local boys who bully him for aiding the foreigners and beat him up. Meanwhile, as Nelli provides the participants at the meeting with water, the elders discuss the situation at Dani Baán, and how similar, worsening events have been happening across the area. The priest concludes that a sacrifice must be performed to appease the gods and protect the city. Later, Nelli is preparing dinner at home when a bruised and teary-eyed Izel staggers into the hut. The siblings embrace and Izel sobs that the boys he encountered earlier beat him up and mentioned a sacrifice, before asking if anything will happen to her. Nelli reassures Izel that their master has taken care of him for most of his life, and Izel could live in Ox Te' Tuun with another man named Maak, but that she will always be with him. The two spend the remainder of the evening having dinner and working on Izel's embroidery; later that night, the calm inside the hut is interrupted with the arrival of the priest and two guards, who usher Nelli away, much to Izel's worry. In a flashback to the elder meeting, the priest asks the master if the siblings could be used for the sacrifice. The master mulls it over for a few seconds before offering Izel as the sacrifice, to which Nelli drops the water jug she was holding in shock. Desperate, Nelli offers herself in Izel's place, to which the priest responds "A sacrifice giving willingly *is* the most noble." To this, Nelli addresses her master and demands he'll take care of Izel. Sad and reluctant, the master agrees to this, before the scene shifts back to the present. An anxious Izel tries to stop the group from leaving; Nelli simply tells her younger brother to be brave before being escorted out of the hut by the guards. Before the priest leaves, he informs Izel that her sacrifice might save them all, and that Nelli chose to take his place.

Izel grabs a nearby obsidian blade and, at dawn, races to the top of a pyramid, and screams for help from the gods. Meanwhile, Nelli goes through a ceremonial cleansing and is adorned in elaborate clothes with a headdress made of quetzal feathers and Maya blue body and face paint. Back outside, Izel tries to cut his hand to supply blood to the gods for Nelli's life, but is too squeamish to do it. As the sun rises, Izel races to the platform over the cenote, pushing people out of the way, including his master, in desperation. He is stopped yards away from Nelli by a trio of guards, while Nelli turns around to face him with a slightly stunned expression on her face. As the audience looks on at the scene before them, Nelli calmly consoles her brother: "I love you, Izel. It's okay. Be br—" Before she can finish her sentence, Nelli's throat is slashed by the priest and drops of blood splash onto Izel's face, while a pool of blood falls from the cut and onto the platform's floor by Nelli's feet. Before allowing Nelli's body to fall into the cenote behind her, the priest presses a piece of amate to Nelli's neck, collecting blood and burning it and declaring "May this sacrifice we freely give in your honor appease you and protect us!" As the main party atop the platform descend down the stairs, the priest addresses Izel one last time by stating that now, they may stand a chance against the recent chaos. The master attempts to console Izel, but can only silently shed tears, while a stunned Izel quietly walks to the pool of blood at the edge of the platform and kneel down. The day passes into night, and, wordlessly, Izel closes his eyes and leans forward, falling into the cenote in an attempted suicide. As he sinks down and approaches another Underworld gate, a large silhouette appears from the other side of the gate and pushes a tendril forward, touching Izel on the back and causing electricity to course through his body as he gasps for air. A large, black jaguar with a cyan flaming upper dorsum and ankles, and a large shield adorned with red ribbons grabs Izel by the jaw and carries him to the surface. The creature places Izel down on the bank and transforms so that his flames and shield disappear. Looking down on the weakened, scrawny champion of humanity, the jaguar bluntly states that the humans are fucked.

## Trivia

* This is the first (and only) episode to feature gods apart from those worshipped by the Aztecs. When Dani Baan is under attack, Cocijo (the Zapotec god of rain, lightning and thunder) and Xoo (the Zapotec god of earthquakes) appear in a (futile) attempt to save the city.
* Although Huitzilopochtli and Xipe Totec are not addressed by name, one can tell which elder was possessed by which god. Huitzilopochtli is the first god with a speaking role, and the one who holds his staff with his left hand, as Huitzilopochtli is left-handed. In addition, the longer Huitzilopochtli possesses his host's body, the faster the host's heart beats, and the body becomes consumed with sunlight. Xipe Totec is the god who has the next speaking role, and whose elder's skin sags the longer he is possessed, as Xipe Totec flayed himself to give food to humanity.
	+ Oddly enough, Xipe Totec nor his voice actor are credited at the end of the episode, despite making an appearance.
* The head at the cenote platform is meant to resemble the Maya god of rain and lightning, Chaak, who is often depicted holding snakes.
* It's most likely that the Underworld creature that brings Izel back to life before drifting into the gate at Uxmal was Mictecacihuatl.

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