"Alien: Earth" is an American Sci-fi horror series created and directed by Noah Hawley. The series only has two episodes out at the time of its premiere but I will update this review as the series continues to be aired on FX and Hulu. This one is remarkable right off the bat because it is the FIRST official television series of the whole "Alien" franchise that was kicked off all the way back in 1979.
We've had movies and videogames and novels and comic books but never a tv series. (Apparently this is a PREQUEL to the original "Alien" film and I'm not sure how I feel about that, but we will see. I'm only two episodes in as of August 15th 2025.)
I'm going in very excited since the original "Alien" film is one of my favorite films of all time, let alone in the horror genre as a whole. Having things take place on Earth, albeit an earth 100 or so years into our future, is very intriguing and I love the look and atmosphere of it already. However, it has some very big shoes to fill, so we will see how things pan out as the series continues.
We're seeing a return to the horror scene for Essie Davis whom I adore from "The Babadook" and "Deltoro's Cabinet of Curiosities." I also recognized Timothy Olyphant ("Live Free or Die Hard") and Sydney Chandler ("Don't Worry Darling.") Otherwise I wouldn't necessarily say the cast is STAR-STUDDED, which is nice in my opinion. It means they actually trust the material enough to not feel the need to STUFF IT with famous over-used celebrities just to get views.
If Chris Pratt had been in the cast, I would've been tempted not to watch. On god.
Let's see, Trigger Warnings: lotsssss of blood and gore. A dude crawling across the carpet with only his upper body, having lost everything below his waist a moment earlier. Blooddddd everywhere. Some eye trauma, I suppose. A few dead animals (a cat, rats, etc.) Some children who are terminally ill, if seeing a girl with no hair and an IV bag is triggering. Lots of potential existentialism and psychological terror and body dysmorphia with the AI and humans transferred into artificial bodies. Bit of swearing and alcohol - the gore and dystopian corporate society are probably the biggest ones.
I suppose I'll put a page break here just to make sure I don't ruin anything for anyone as I get more specific. So, if you DON'T want any more specifics, stop reading here:
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SPOILER WARNING
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----------------------------------------- EPISODE 1 AND 2 -----------------------------------------
Okay so I'll start with a big of a sporadic summary of the things I love so far. Even from the intro sequence it was clear that the people who made the series obviously loved the movie(s). They straight up spelled out the title with the same cryptic straight lines as the original "Alien" film. The set design and scenery is also superb. It has the same chunky, cubic architecture that was supposed to look high tech and futuristic back in 1979.
It looked just like the Nostromo brought to life again 40 years later.
The scenery and costumes are crafted with such care. I always adore practical effects so the fact that this show is using so many really makes my heart swell. We've got AI and synthetics and cyborgs and capitalism - It really does a great job bringing together the whole mood of a dystopian sci-fi horror series, as it absolutely should. The part where a character tries to go to Medical school and his request is rejected by a robot behind a glass screen that reminds him he still has 7 months of servitude left in this sector. It's just like the poor people in "Romulus" who would rather risk their lives than stay on their poisoned mining planet a moment longer because Weyland Yutani couldn't care less how much they suffered as long as they worked.
It has the same sort of... I almost want to call it 'wonder and awe' that "Prometheus" had. Where the series lingers quite a bit in blood-soaked shadowed corners but it ALSO peers into the potential of the future. The way we might be able to save terminally-ill people from a slow and painful death and instead give them ageless synthetic bodies that are healthy and young and perfect. We look at a scorpion in a glass bowl and Wendy says she would crush it before it hurts anyone, whereas Kirsch reminds her the scorpion is just as afraid of her as she is of it and the scorpion would do anything it could to not be crushed.
It reminds me of David the android watching "Laurence of Arabia" and studying classical music and creating art. The way the Alien franchise has always kind of played with the ideas of what it even means to be "alive" in the first place is a bit of an unappreciated element to the story-telling. Obviously it takes a back seat to the scares and the thrills. But I believe it makes the horrors and bloodshed hit all the harder after you've kind of been subtly surrounded with the thought-provoking wonderings of why you're here in the universe in the first place and what you're doing with your very limited time alive.
The horror and suspense is the main focus, of course, but especially on the research island of "Neverland," there are all of these grand and guarded depictions of the fragility and resilience of life on earth as well as life beyond our little blue planet. It's bound to happen when you mix human beings with synthetics, cyborgs, and hybrids like Wendy and her fellow transferred "lost boys."
The way little Wendy got to look down at the synthetic body she would soon inhabit on the operating table was so strange and surreal. And the way a massive round screen opened above her playing the Disney classic "Peter Pan," was so lovely - so profound to think of which of our various movies and television shows would survive the test of time even into a far-away future with intergalactic space travel and cloning and everything else we've only dreamed of.
Perhaps some might think of the references to "Peter Pan" and the "Lost boys" and the megacorporation known as Prodigy to be kind of on the nose with their ramifications of their names but I thought it was cool. The concept of the children's minds put into adult bodies is really interesting and psychological. I can only imagine how strange they must feel in their own bodies, what consequences this will have for their futures. What it means to be able to grow up and be an adult.
Of course, the children would be dead otherwise, but still - makes you wonder if being a 12 year old girl in a 29 year old woman's body is better in every way. We will have to wait and see. Is this going to turn into some parallel of Claudia's desperate frustrations from "Interview with a Vampire," being a grown woman trapped in the body of a child?
I love all of the layering effects the camera has been using. How people's memories blur together into the present instead of being completely separate flashbacks. I also love how they keep showing a sort of holographic projection of a TV or computer screen but instead of showing us the screen directly, they have us look THROUGH the screen at the face of the person watching it so we get a direct line to their emotions and their reactions.
The musical score is lovely too. It really feels like the creators and crew really cared about what they were making, and that ALWAYS enriches a movie or tv experience for me. You can sense it, the love for the original subject material.
The actors and actresses that are playing children in the bodies of adults are doing a wonderful job. I love the quirky comfort of Essie Davis as Dr. Sylvia. She looks so much like the female version of Doctor Octavia from "Into the Spiderverse," before she reveals herself as Doc Ock. A sort of "Miss Frizzle" energy in her clothing and appearance accompanied by a softer tone of voice. I love how they're using an older woman and she is still depicted as lovely, sexy even. Women her age are rarely utilized in films and tv shows if a younger woman is clearly and readily available.
Another character I really like is Joe, Wendy's older brother from when she was still just a sick little human girl. He is so simple and yet so needed in this series. Being a medic, he not only knows how the victims died but he knows IN DETAIL how they suffered.
When you just have the group of marines charging forward in the Alien films, they just go "oh shit," when they see a ransacked ER full of bodies and carry on with their mission. Death is death, and they gloss right over the dead because they don't have time for this sentimental details. But Joe stops and mentions just what the dead person went through, judging by their wounds, their twisted facial expressions, their blue lips and bleeding eyes. He really adds a much-needed touch of humanity in a series that otherwise could've glossed over that whole element in favor of shock value and carnage for carnage's sake.
Joe makes it hurt more. He brings you back to imagining yourself dying in that poor victim's place. It's not just bodies everywhere, it's HUMAN BEINGS that met very tragic fates. The first "Alien" film was great at this because the cast was so small but later on, from "Aliens" into "Alien: Resurrection" and especially "Covenant" (derogatory), it was kind of a "let the bodies hit the floor" situation. The people felt like nameless fodder outside of the main cast, whereas "Alien: Earth" is doing a great job so far with making sure the empathy for the dead isn't completely lost because of gunfire and swearing and gore.
Speaking of the gore and gunfire, this seems like a good point to mention some things I'm not exactly loving about the series. The carnage is a bit heavy-handed. There are always groups of like, 15 bodies scattered around, torn into bloody pieces, and by a Xenomorph none the less. I would never say a Xenomorph isn't a killer because that is surely a lie, but the sheer abandon with which is kills in this series so far borders on the absurd. It doesn't really eat the humans it kills but it often didn't tear them to pieces because it wanted to use their bodies to breed more chestbursters and continue to reproduce.
I'm not sure if it's because there's no Alien Queen established yet and this particular Xenomorph is kind of lost and feral without any guidance but - I will admit it feels a bit off with how it just leaps into groups of people and shreds them and scurries on its merry way. It happens a little too often to feel as "natural" as other xenomorph behaviors that the series has established over the years. It feels like they're kind of getting a little heavy-handed with the gore and violence and just doing it as often as possible because "its an Alien show."
Sometimes the characters do things I really can't understand. The way the one Hybrid boy that wanted to be a scientist just stared at that plant monster even as it reached for his face to try and latch on. The way Wendy and the other children weren't given the SLIGHTEST briefing of what might be waiting for them in that crashed ship. No military training, no fighting skills, not even the most basic search-and-rescue protocol. I know it was a spur of the moment decision but still. It seemed very haphazard a thing to do with 6 or 7 synthetic hybrid kids that must've cost a FORTUNE each to produce.
Kirsch staring silently at the plant monster with the boy as the other kids were sent elsewhere, instead of him being SURE to keep an eye on them. Joe having SEEN a grown Xenomorph already and barely escaping with his life and then leaning down within five inches from the opening of a face hugger egg. (I'm not saying he knew the egg was a pre-xenomorph or anything but it was still an unknown on a ship full of alien monstrosities and he got CLOSE ENOUGH TO SMELL IT even after it pulsed.)
What was up with the party of people dressed like they were from France in the 1700s?
The dead cat with the parasite eye looked very fake. It would've been nice if they had used a real cat for perhaps the first shot where it was silhouetted and drinking from a puddle, before you knew anything was wrong with it.
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***Note added on another rewatch: Killing a cat in an "Alien" film is a sin. How dare they. A whole focus of the first two films was the cat getting home safe and staying safe after the journey.
Sweet Jonesy.
It was one of the best little side details for me, honestly. Pets never survive horror films and "Alien" really subverted that trope alongside so many others. For "Alien: Earth" to kill a cat, even if it was in a way to introduce another hideous creature, is unforgivable. That's docking them a point. ***
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But hey, that's most of what I've got so far. Loving the human elements and the prevalence of emotion and sympathy that is present. Love the obvious respect for the source material. Love the visuals and the music score. I just think the characters need a little work - less stupid choices in a horror setting please - and the xenomorph could use some more substance than just being a wood chipper that serves only to destroy with no biological reasoning for doing so (needing food, breeding vessels, self defense, etc.)
I think we've got 4 hideous creatures so far. The big Xeno himself of course, but also a gross eyeball parasite, a dangling plant creature with some vaguely sexually-violating vibes in its appearance, and a few Space Ticks that can drain a liter of someone's blood in three seconds. All very interesting beasties.
I'm definitely looking forward to more!~
So stay tuned for the next episodes.
----------------------------------------- EPISODE 3 -----------------------------------------
Episode 3. Joe just got grabbed by the Xenomorph and Wendy comes to the rescue. But she runs all the way around some corners and down into a parking garage instead of literally just jumping down after the creature and her brother. Why?? XD We know she can jump half way down a mountain. She did it like it was nothing in episode 1. Just seemed like quite a loss of valuable time.
Kirsch gentle-parenting these loose canon hybrid synthetic children is fantastic. Kid goes to touch the computer screen and Kirsch says "Look with your eyes." XD For what it's worth, all of the actors do a lovely job acting like 12 year olds in grown adult bodies. Very humanizing for a show that is obviously very futuristic and surreal otherwise.
FINALLY the Alien cocooned someone. I was waiting for that. Otherwise the creature's behavior was feeling a little out of character. Yes the Xenomorphs are killing machines but that's not ALL they do. They are strategic, goal oriented. Gathering more host bodies for the offspring tends to override slaughter for slaughter's sake in most other films and series. So this is a step in a better direction than how the creature has been behaving so far.
I still wish the Alien would stand upright and run a little more instead of crawling on all 4s. Yes, it's got digitigrade legs and is perfectly capable of crawling on all fours but in excess it looks a little silly. It -IS- born from an upright walking human after all. More bipedal stalking please. They manage to get all the kids and Joe out of the collapsing spaceship mostly unharmed. Mostly.
Wendy managed to decapitate the Xenomorph before it killed her or Joe but she is - down for the count. And Joe has a severely punctured lung. Skewered is more accurate. Both of them need medical attention STAT. Nibbs is SOOOO not okay after the eyeball monster tried to assault her face. She's having a full on body dysmorphia identity crisis, which - Girl, same. I would too in that scenario.
The kids and the creatures make it back to Neverland. Leaving the dead Xeno completely uncovered and barely strapped down to its transport gurney is a BOLD choice. Very odd decision to handle a creature that you know absolutely nothing about in such a relaxed manner. It seems there was another creature I missed thus far on viewing the broken zoo. Some other sort of insect species that seems to create nests out of goop like a mud-dobber. So that's - 5 deadly beasties all in one place.
Cavalier looks like a kid on Christmas morning watching all his new toys being brought in. I love the sass between him and Kirsch. They both seem excited for the upcoming science but obviously express it in different levels of emotion.
There's a scene where Curly goes to talk with Cavalier about how she should be his favorite, given how Wendy only cares about her brother anymore. It's just one example but I really like the whole atmosphere of the scenes that are mostly just conversations between two or more characters. They feel very natural. The dialogue comes out easy, not forced. It feels more 'real' and less 'you're watching actors on a screen.' I really like it.
LOVED the dissection of the face-hugger. Cannot sing this show's praises enough for how it's using so many practical effects.
Bitches love practical effects. It's me, I'm Bitches.
The way Kirsch removed the tiny baby embryo from the face-hugger was actually really cool. Never seen that before, so it's really expanding on the lore. Where did they put this little baby parasite? Right into the lung they 'salvaged' from Joe's body during surgery. He -DID- get speared through the chest, I'm not saying he didn't need an operation and maybe some cybernetics in there to save his life. But they took his whole fucking lung.
Wendy never tells anyone where she's going. She never says, "Hey, what've you got there?" "Hey, what happened to me?" She just goes places and does things. But I guess that's a 12 year old child for you. She didn't think much about walking into a secure laboratory full of monsters while Kirsch and the others were clearly busy and distracted. But don't worry, she's fine - other than dropping to the ground again and no one noticing.
She can clearly hear the Xenomorphs somehow, whether its their "voices" or something in them distorts her natural internal audio frequency - like holding a big battery up near a radio and frying the signal. I guess we will see how this all pans out. Final thoughts: the Prodigy company logo is stupid.
Until next episode.
----------------------------------------- EPISODE 4 -----------------------------------------
This one wasn't the best out of the bunch so far but it's still plenty good. The sequence with Wendy waking up without any hearing (audio processing) was really cool. They filmed it very well. I'm so glad to see that Joe is safe. I wouldn't have been super surprised if the Prodigy company had just let him die in surgery after taking his lung and told Wendy they "just couldn't save him." Cavalier is being very generous letting him live at all, since his presence certainly distracts Wendy. (Though I suppose it's also a way for him to control her. Leverage.)
The sounds the Xenomorphs make even in their fetal stage were super cool. Cavalier yelling "Sure you can speak French but can you do THAT?!" right at Curly must've just - destroyed her a little. How mortifying to be singled out like that in front of everyone as NOT being as impressive as your peer, who is also sitting right there. Ouch.
The sequence of the sheep and the Eyeball parasite was very well done. It was slow, suspenseful even though you knew what was going to happen. The er, possession took longer than I expected. The sheep fought back as hard as it could, which made it all the more disturbing when the Eyeball took over in the end. Very brutal and uncomfortable to watch, which I'm sure was the goal.
That fucker's THINKIN' in there.
I find myself wondering if anyone can really "get away to talk" on this island. Surely Cavalier has every inch of it under constant observation? Or maybe he's just so secure and confident that nothing will happen that he hasn't bothered. We will have to wait and see if he has been watching Arthur and Sylvia sneak away to talk about how afraid they are of what will happen next.
Oh gosh, Nibbs has lost it. She thinks she's PREGNANT??
Did the - the Eyeball monster actually make contact and put a little eyeball inside her somehow? That's the only creature I can think of that she has been up close and personal with. But maybe it has nothing to do with an alien animal and is purely psychological. Still, the human mind is a powerful thing. Women who are not pregnant have made themselves lactate just by believing they were pregnant that much, that hard. Their bodies do everything they can to make it happen.
It was foolish of hot doctor lady to keep pushing when Nibbs is so obviously unstable. I thought that was a little silly on her part, but hey - maybe this is really the first time ever the children have done anything like this so she just really didn't see it coming at all.
I like all of the playing around with the idea of what it really means to be human.
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"Did you really download my sister? Is that really her?"
"Those are two different questions."
"Is she still human?"
"..."
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I wasn't sure how Morrow was going to manage to influence any of Slightly's actions but threatening his family is sure a good place to start. Ugh, I'm so sad. He's just a kid. His Mom looks so scared. I don't want Weyland Yutani to get their xenomorph but I'm SURE Slightly isn't going to fail them, not with his family's lives on the line. That goes right to an emotionally-mature adult's heartstrings, let alone a vulnerable child's. Morrow is one cold motherfucker.
Seeing the chest burster's birth right out of the lung was super cool. I don't believe we've seen anything like that before, not obscured by all of the skin and bone and muscle and clothing.
I love how this show is building on the previously established lore in new, unexpected ways. We've gotten to see more of what the inside of the egg looks like, how it's filled with a thick clear fluid. We've seen the tiny alien embryo that the face-hugger implants through that long breathing tube. And now we get to throw a new Xeno a party and Wendy can actually wish it a happy birthday.
Hhhhhh I don't know how Wendy could possibly know what to say or how to say it to the newly born xenomorph but - I'm sure she's smarter than me despite her mind state being around 12 years old. I'm not saying the xenomorphs aren't intelligent enough to communicate clearly to each other but I'm not sure if I'm buying that their language could be understood by a person in any capacity. I guess we'll have to see how this goes - certainly badly, but like, how fast, y'know?
----------------------------------------- EPISODE 5 -----------------------------------------
This episode was basically one huge love letter to the original film. The scenery, the plotline, the outcome. Finally going back and explaining how everything went wrong for the doomed spaceship in the first place. A fitting and well-done recap. It was so fascinating to think of how I already knew what was going to happen to each one of those crew members and yet I got to go back and see HOW it happened, HOW they came to have such broken, twisted bodies and blood running from their eyes.
The Nostromo was kind of sabotaged from a distance. Like, Yutani woke them up to go get the xenomorph and bring it back and put a duplicitous Synth on board to make sure it happened. But at least all of the humans were on the same page and Ash wasn't interested in ruining the ship or making sure the whole mission failed entirely if things didn't go according to plan.
The ship at the start of "Alien: Earth" was sabotaged SO DIRECTLY. Like, from within, from one of their own kind, even to the point of ruin for everyone and everything on the ship. It was so blatant, so obvious. Almost more heart-breaking for that. We always knew Weyland-Yutani would do anything for money over people but a crew-member selling everyone out like that felt so much harsher and cruel.
Does this make any sense? What I'm saying?? I'll move on lol
I thought this episode did a great job of going back and humanizing all of the characters that we barely saw alive in the show earlier. Made them more than just tragic set dressing, they were actually relatable and had a bit of substance. Nothing crazy, no "here's my whole backstory" kind of thing, but just enough for me to be sad that some of them died.
It was a little one hour soap opera - established the characters and how they related to each other, how they felt about each other. I especially liked the dynamic of master and apprentice that the old Mechanic had with the blundering young man he was working with. The way Zoya had a little burial ritual for the man she loved as well as for herself and her crewmates was very touching and human of her.
The lab scene where Chibuzo was lazily feeding the two dangerous space ticks while enjoying lunch was SO painful to watch. I'm not even a scientist and I was like "oh my god, please." She had a sandwich on a plate on the table, eating it as she worked and getting crumbs everywhere. Her water bottle was open and completely uncovered. Not wearing any breathing mask or safety goggles. I wouldn't be surprised if she had failed to put on latex exam gloves. She wasn't following ANY sort of lab safety procedure AT ALL, almost to the point of absurdity. Like, how did this lazy, casual lady get such an important job at all?? Her lack of science laboratory decorum was agonizing.
The space ticks were plenty scary as they were from the start but to learn that they are intelligent enough to open their containment cannister and release a horde of offspring into the open water bottle was HORRIFYING. Did they lay their tick tadpoles in water anyway or did they KNOW the water in that bottle would be consumed eventually and provide all the little ones with blood for feeding?
The one that got out knew to hide and did so under the uncovered sandwich.
I wonder if Chibuzo ate the damn thing afterward.
Apparently she eats in the super dangerous science lab because Tang, the Synth, smokes all the time and she has asthma. It's actually funny to see her taking care of her health in one setting and not the other when it is FAR MORE DANGEROUS to her and her whole crew.
Speaking of Tang - what's up with him?? He ignores orders, he speaks so slowly that it must take effort to do so unless he's broken. He is snarky and sasses the rest of the crew like some sort of Cheshire Cat character that speaks in riddles. He smokes all the time and even screamed in fear when the xenomorph got him - Can Synths feel pain? Can they even be afraid to die? He was just such an odd character, I'm not sure if there was anything symbolic or metaphorical behind his performance or not.
Petrovitch really risked it all, huh? Was willing to kill everyone and everything on the ship in a fiery crash because he - thought he could survive the crash and get the creatures to Cavalier alive?? That was - VERY RISKY?? Why did he disable the ship's engine and navigation instead of just commandeering it so that he could land it safely? What if he crashed the ship and lived but all the creatures died?? I just don't see how his plan was supposed to give him the end goal he wanted with any sort of guarantee. It had SO many variables and he seemed to pick the most dangerous methods to enact it.
And then he ended up just - getting stabbed. It was crazy.
This episode really humanized Morrow, who otherwise seemed like an emotionless robot cyborg in the first couple episodes. He just treated his crew and the Prodigy agents that came to rescue them so coldly. (And he was always so sweaty all the time. Not relevant but still.) I wondered if he was lying about a daughter and stuff when he was speaking over radio with Slightly - I thought he was just saying whatever to manipulate him. But he really did have a daughter and he really did love her.
You really FEEL why he took this all so seriously and is willing to do whatever it takes to complete his mission, because it is all he has left. Using "We'll Meet Again" by Vera Lynn was a nice touch. That song always conveys such love, longing, and nostalgia for a time long passed with every single note.
The ticks have a POISONOUS GAS self defense system. For crying out loud, the ticks are OP. Did anyone really stand a chance after picking up those bastards on some distant death planet? Speaking of death planet, we finally get to see the full-grown Xeno more clearly as it gets its first violent rampage started good and proper.
Love the details in this alien design. It has the smooth skull of the one in the initial film instead of the ridged skulls of the warrior xenos in "Aliens." But the pipe-like protrusions from its back are smaller than both of those previous designs. It's also a dull green in hue, whereas I think of the other iterations mostly just being a glossy black all around, maybe with a bit of blue or brown in certain light.
BLARGH more writing here
Eye parasite taking the old man like oh no
Eye parasite going for the xeno like whoa
Yutani saying "whatever he wants, he gets" like DAMN the trust, the aura
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Oh boy, this one was a doozie. I knew it was all coming to a head, seeing as there's only one episode left after this one - I knew it was all going to go downhill fast. It is an "Alien" series after all. But gosh, it hurts a lot.
This is obviously a testament to how much I've bonded with the characters and how much I care about them, for me to feel so terrible about what's happening to them. This episode really had two or three punches in a row to my empathetic little heart.
Mind-wiping Nibbs did feel like a mercy - it would be to me if I could just forget that a tentacled eyeball monster narrowly missed engulfing my face - but I get it. They didn't ask her first. They just - rewrote a child's brain. The fact that this is what comes between the marriage of Sylvia and Arthur is so painful. I loved them as a couple and they both cared SOOO much about the kids. I could kind of figure that maybe Sylvia thought she would be more help to the kids in the future if she stayed, that this was a small sacrifice to make in order to make sure worse things didn't happen to them.
But we didn't even really see her say anything to her husband. It was just so cold. Years and years of marriage - gone. Arthur refused to literally erase part of a child's mind for the convenience of her being a good little doll for the upcoming Prodigy presentation. Arthur was so good. I'm sad that Sylvia was the one to continue on with it after that - that she was the one that bowed to the capitalistic/bureaucratic pressures. I'm hoping it was just a move of "honey, if we're both gone from this lab, who is going to take care of the children?" but I can't know for sure.
What an absolute FLUB to leave Nibbs alone with Wendy IMMEDIATELY AFTER HER MIND WAS WIPED without saying ANYTHING to Wendy???? You might as well have not done it at all.
Oh my god, leave the girl who is the most talkative and open and blunt with the girl you just edited like a Word Document. That was - NOT smart. Of course Wendy would have NO discretion whatsoever to keep up the "lie" that nothing terrible had happened in the past few days. Of course Wendy would be upset that part of her friend was 'deleted' without her consent. Of course things turned out wretchedly like this between two of the girls and Sylvia, the one they were supposed to be able to trust.
"I don't want to be human if this is what being human is."
~Wendy
Bars. Poetry.
Kirsch definitely has his own agenda here. I don't know if it's all just "I wanna see what happens because I'm a scientist" or if there's something a bit more human there - wanting Cavalier to suffer for the way he's treated Kirsch so bluntly and coldly, how he's always ordered him around and mocked him. I know it's not the most vibrant/expressive acting, since Timothy Olyphant is being rather deadpan and flat in his performance - of course I know that's the point, but like --there's still something about the subtly in his facial expressions and dialogue that is still impressive in a way. I just really like him.
At last, something goes wrong with the lab full of dangerous alien species. It was only a matter of time. I'm just sorry it had to be the scientist boy to go first.
He always genuinely meant well and didn't try to start anything. He just wanted to do a good job. Though I must say that leaving this incredibly dangerous specimens in the hands of bumbling children is NOT WISE and like - surely I'm not the only one that thinks so??? Did Kirsch not care how this went? The boy was kind of a student to him, yet he did nothing to tell the boy, "Just leave it, we will feed the metal-dissolving bugs when I get back."
Ugh and what a way to go. His face just melted down to soup, dropping to the ground all alone. Bugs slurping him up out of his mouth and eye sockets. Absolutely disgusting and absolutely devastating.
Arthur - sweet Arthur - literally just gets done trying to help Joe get Wendy out of the lab because he's a good person and he cares about the children, and oh, what's this? Another child needs his help. He's the one that notices the melted boy scientist lying dead in the bug tank. He rushes over to help - and this is the opportunity Slightly has been waiting for. A human. A flesh and blood human. Right into the lab without him even having to do anything. A perfect candidate for some hugging of the face.
So fucking sad though. I loved Arthur so much and for THIS to be his fate is just heart-breaking. His wife abandoned him, he lost his job, the kids he has taken care of are all in danger, one is dead, he just wants to help -- and he walks right into the biggest trap the show has laid so far. The one that has been 5 episodes in the making. It's true that I feel bad for Slightly, I know he just wanted to save his family, but damn that was cold. Couldn't he have at least knocked out Arthur first?? So that his last moments weren't full of screaming terror?
Wait, no, his last moments are going to come later - ALSO full of screaming terror. That poor man. He deserved better than that. I'm glad the one to get face-hugged wasn't Joe, who was Slightly's first choice for a xenomorph candidate, but still - Arthur. Sweet, caring Arthur. That just - really sucks.
And Kirsch watched it all, stoic as ever. Really wondering what he's cooking up in the background there. Lied straight to Cavalier's face when he asked if everything was fine. Very human of him. Onward to the finale.
----------------------------------------- EPISODE 7 -----------------------------------------
Oh my god, Slightly just sitting there with Arthur incapacitated under his bed. And of course Smee bangs on the door until he can come in, kids don't understand the subtleties of their friends having such important secrets. They just want to be included. Again the adult actors are doing a great job embodying the minds of children, so praise for that. The way Smee saw Arthur's arm uncovered, the way he lifted the blanket to hear the face-hugger wheezing for breath, the way his face dropped, you could just feel the discomfort and fear so palpably.
(As a note, I'm not sure I've ever heard the face-hugger make so much noise breathing for a victim before. I wonder if that was added or accentuated for the sake of the horror for this series specifically.)
Slightly and Smee were so afraid and yet they tried so hard to do what Morrow asked of them.
Another point of confusion for me: I thought Synths were super strong. Wendy carried four children on her arms in the first episode and jumped down from a mountain unharmed, so I was surprised to see the two boys struggling to carry Arthur. I thought one of them could just throw him over their shoulder and they would be good to go. They seemed more like two regular humans trying to hide a body, not two synths.
Wendy looked appropriately shook to see Tootles dead and half-melted. This whole time, since she 'reawakened' as a hybrid, she's been told she's better, faster, stronger than normal humans. That she and all her friends are invincible. Her actress did a great job of showing that "my-world-just-exploded" experience on her face with no words at all. I felt bad for all of the kids, no doubt as the show's creators hoped to make me feel.
Curly not wanting to leave because "this is the best place I've ever been..." tracks for her character. She wanted Boy Kavalier to like her so badly. But Nibs was ready to go. She certainly couldn't stay, not with her whole sense of self and reality hanging by a thread.
I can't tell if Wendy being able to communicate with the Xenomorph is OP. Like, I don't believe it's ever happened before. (I recently watched a playthrough of the game Aliens: Dark Descent and they had some cultists that would wear baby chest-bursters in a bubble container on their torso and the grown Xenomorphs didn't kill them, probably because they recognized them as hosts for their next generation. But I don't believe there was actual -communication- with anything like WORDS happening there.)
Her being able to call it and direct it to kill and not kill is - a VERY powerful ability to have. I can't decide if I'm "cool with it" or if it just seems like too much. I wish they explained more of why she could hear them at all. Is it a frequency thing, almost like she's a radio receiver? Does it have to do with the way she can disrupt electronics and cycle through channels of audio/video like they are a physical puzzle box in front of her? I'm not sure we're gonna get an explanation but it would be nice.
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