The BEST episodes of Cosmos (2014) season 2

Every episode of Cosmos (2014) season 2, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Cosmos (2014) season 2!

Hosted by renowned astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cosmos continues from its 1980 predecessor, exploring how we discovered the laws of nature and found our coordinates in space and time. It brings to life never-before-told stories of the heroic quest for knowledge and transports viewers to new worlds and across the universe for a vision of the cosmos on the grandest scale. The most profound scientific concepts are presented with stunning clarity, uniting skepticism and wonder, weaving rigorous science with emotion and spirituality to form a single, united, transcendent experience.

Last Updated: 8/15/2024Network: National GeographicStatus: Ended
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Magic Without Lies
star
8.30
215 votes

#1 - Magic Without Lies

Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 4/6/2020

Meet the man who stumbled on a hole in the reality of quantum mechanics and the still-unfolding technology that made it possible.

Directors: Brannon Braga
Watch Now:Amazon
The Sacrifice of Cassini
star
8.16
207 votes

#2 - The Sacrifice of Cassini

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 3/30/2020

The mysterious untold story of the scientist who figured out how to go the Moon while fighting for his life in a WWI trench. He wrote a letter to fifty years in the future. It made the Apollo Mission possible. And the saga of the twenty-year long odyssey of a robotic explorer ordered to commit suicide on another world.

Directors: Ann Druyan
Watch Now:Amazon
Vavilov
star
8.08
258 votes

#3 - Vavilov

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/16/2020

In the first half of the 20th century pioneering geneticist Nikolai Vavilov traveled 5 continents assembling a treasury of the worlds seeds. He dreamed that science could be the means to end hunger. His refusal to tell a scientific lie cost him his life. The heroism of his colleagues and its direct impact on your life is one of the most stirring stories in the history of science.

Directors: Ann Druyan
Watch Now:Amazon
Lost City of Life
star
8.03
261 votes

#4 - Lost City of Life

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/16/2020

A new vision of genesis at the bottom of the blood red sea of the infant Earth. And the story of the man who found the first clues to life's beginning in a green jewel. As he searched for life's origin, he risked his own, daring to toy with his Nazi tormentors.

Directors: Brannon Braga
Watch Now:Amazon
The Fleeting Grace of the Habitable Zone
star
8.02
294 votes

#5 - The Fleeting Grace of the Habitable Zone

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/9/2020

There is no refuge from change in the cosmos. There will come a time in the life of the Sun when Earth will no longer be a home for us. The story of our ancestors who rose to a comparable challenge and a long-term vision of our future on other worlds.

Directors: Ann Druyan
Watch Now:Amazon
Ladder to the Stars
star
7.98
372 votes

#6 - Ladder to the Stars

Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/9/2020

An adventure spanning billions of years into the evolution of life and consciousness. A visit to a 100,000-year-old laboratory. The story of the change in life-style that radically altered human existence and the life of the heretic who found god in the book of nature, opening our way to the stars.

Directors: Brannon Braga
Writer: Ann Druyan
Watch Now:Amazon
The Search for Intelligent Life on Earth
star
7.93
224 votes

#7 - The Search for Intelligent Life on Earth

Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 3/30/2020

A revelation of the hidden underground network that is a collaboration of four kingdoms of life, and a true first contact story between humans and beings who communicate in a symbolic language and have maintained a representative democracy for many tens of millions of years.

Directors: Brannon Braga
Watch Now:Amazon
A Tale of Two Atoms
star
7.93
206 votes

#8 - A Tale of Two Atoms

Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 4/6/2020

How a deadly embrace between science and state altered the fate of the world, and a gripping cautionary tale of mass casualty and unlikely survival.

Directors: Brannon Braga
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
star
7.84
209 votes

#9 - Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/13/2020

An exploration of human potential for change, concluding with the story of one of history's greatest monster and his virtuous transformation.

Directors: Brannon Braga
Watch Now:Amazon
The Man of a Trillion Worlds
star
7.80
224 votes

#10 - The Man of a Trillion Worlds

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/23/2020

A child lies on the rug of a tenement dreaming of interstellar adventures. At the dawn of the space age, a young Carl Sagan's career is forged in the clash of his mentors, two scientific titans. Sagan goes on realize his childhood dreams, to carry their research forward and communicate its significance to the whole world.

Directors: Ann Druyan
Watch Now:Amazon
Coming of Age In The Anthropocene
star
7.78
208 votes

#11 - Coming of Age In The Anthropocene

Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 4/13/2020

A baby is born on the day the show premieres. What kind of world can she expect to grow up in? One of her possible futures is explored.

Directors: Ann Druyan
Watch Now:Amazon
Seven Wonders of The New World
star
7.69
198 votes

#12 - Seven Wonders of The New World

Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 4/20/2020

Take a trip to the 2039 New York World’s Fair, where the problems we now consider hopeless have been solved and thrilling possibilities exist.

Directors: Ann Druyan
Watch Now:Amazon
The Cosmic Connectome
star
7.67
231 votes

#13 - The Cosmic Connectome

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/23/2020

A voyage of discovery through the evolution of consciousness with stops in ancient Greece, a visit to the largest life form on Earth, into the poignant dream of an abandoned orphan that opened the way to our understanding of the architecture of thought and beyond to a vision of a galactic network of thought.

Directors: Ann Druyan
Watch Now:Amazon