On ‘Alien: Earth,’ Spit’s About to Hit the Fan

After an exciting, revealing week away from the main storyline, Alien: Earth was back in Neverland for its latest episode. So many stories were left lingering, and with only three episodes to go this season, it’s time to kick them into high gear. Stories like Wendy being able to communicate with a xenomorph, Nibs becoming violent because she thinks she’s pregnant, and Slightly being blackmailed by Morrow into sneaking an alien embryo off the island. Each story, and more, took a big leap ahead this week, so let’s get into it.

The sixth episode of Alien: Earth is called “The Fly” and, if you’ve seen it, there is one very obvious reason for that. It’s the actual large fly we watch kill one of our beloved Lost Boys. But “The Fly” could also be a more veiled reference to all the problems that have begun to flutter above the surface. They’re right there, just out of reach, nagging, ready to bite.

That begins with the latest update on the biggest question: what’s up with Wendy and the xenomorph? The creature is now in a proper cage, but she’s still communicating with it, allowing us to see a version of the creature we’ve never seen before, almost a toddler xenomorph. As Wendy talks to it, everyone and everything is watching with great interest. That includes the eyeball octopus, which is still in the sheep, as well as her brother Joe and Kirsh. The two get into a conversation where Kirsh, in no uncertain terms, shuts down Joe’s notion that Prodigy is going to let Wendy leave to be a normal sister. She’s potentially the most important piece of technology in human history, created to change the world, not help him with his grief, and we are loving the complexities of that argument.

Later, Joe and Wendy continue the debate over whether they should stay or leave, and she makes it pretty clear she wants to stay, especially because she believes this xenomorph is capable of good. Joe disagrees but Wendy is too deep into the potential of the island, especially now with the xenomorph.

An even more fascinating argument happens regarding Nibs. She hasn’t been the same since encountering the creatures on the ship, leading to the latest violent outburst against Dame Sylvia and the seemingly nonsensical pregnancy talk. Boy’s creepy, bald, right-hand man Atom Eins suggests they wipe her memory back to before the trip to the crash site, which both Sylvia and her husband, Arthur, are against. They want to go for more traditional methods on how to deal with trauma, but since Nibs is a hybrid, Eins doesn’t think that’s necessary. A quick fix should do the trick, he says. The ethical debate reaches its peak when Arthur flatly refuses to mess with Nibs’ brain and is fired. Sylvia, put in the difficult position between her husband and her life’s work, agrees to the memory wipe.

When Nibs wakes up from the procedure, Wendy is there and very quickly realizes something is wrong. She’s a machine. She shouldn’t forget anything, especially not her potential pregnancy or traveling off the island to a crash site. Eventually, Wendy confronts Sylvia about it. She is not okay with her and her fellow hybrids being treated like objects instead of people, but Sylvia basically explains that’s what they are. Things get heated and eventually Wendy shows the ultimate act of defiance by saying her name isn’t Wendy; it’s Marcy. All of this goes against the discussions we saw with her brother across the episode, but that’s because before, she didn’t think Prodigy was capable of doing what they did to Nibs. Now, she’s not so sure.

That’s jumping ahead a bit, so let’s go back. We got to see Boy Kavalier and Yutani sit down for mediation over the crashed ship and its cargo. Morrow is there for Yutani, so it’s safe to assume she knows that Boy masterminded the whole thing. If she does, though, she does not do a good job, as after a lot of fun back and forth, Boy not only gets extra money out of her but also several more months before he has to legally return the creatures. Certainly, that’s more than enough time to get what he needs, and he leaves the negotiations very, very happy with himself.

Back on the island, Slightly is still under the gun to find someone who can take a Facehugger and smuggle a xenomorph out for Morrow. He attempts to get Joe to come with him but Joe is saved by some of his military friends who are on the island and take him out for a walk. That conversation makes Joe even more worried for his sister, so he goes to talk to Arthur. Joe knows Arthur cares about his sister, but he doesn’t know that Arthur has been fired. In a very cool exchange, Arthur warns Joe about everything that’s happening and tells him they should escape the island. But he never says any of this. All of it happens on computer screens so as not to get caught by the cameras. Arthur also turns off the tracking on all the Lost Boys so that Joe can more easily smuggle his sister off the island. Arthur feels good about himself when he notices something. Tootles’ tracker isn’t working. What’s up with that?

Heading back from the meeting between Boy and Yutani, Kirsh asked Tootles—new name, Isaac—to take care of the creatures. Which he gladly does. While there, though, with a xenomorph that has grown a lot since we last saw it, something breaks on one of the cage doors. He unlocks it to fix it, but there’s a slight jolt (thanks to the sheep), and he gets stuck in the cage. Trapped, the flies come out and spray Isaac all over his face. He burns, falls, and, we think, dies.

That’s why his tracker isn’t working. So Arthur goes to the lab, the last place Isaac was seen, to investigate. The same lab Slightly needs a human to visit so he can get a xeno in him. Which is exactly what happens. Slightly traps Arthur in the lab, the eggs are exposed, and he gets a Facehugger to the face. Mission almost accomplished.

Ultimately, a lot happened in “The Fly,” and almost all of it works to set up the final two episodes for pure madness. Are Wendy and Joe really going to try to escape? What happens to the xenomorph if they do? How will Prodigy react to losing one of their hybrids? Will Slightly be able to get the xenomorph to Morrow? All questions that we’re one week closer to being answered. In other words, spit’s about to hit the fan.

Assorted musings

• I love the way this show does the recaps during the slow title reveal. It’s just brilliant. And this episode, after being away for a week, was more crucial than ever.
• In the Alien movies, we usually go from chestburster to full-sized xenomorph. Everything else happens off-screen. So, it’s a real treat this episode to see some other stages of its growth. We got to see two more stages, in fact, basically a toddler and a teenager.
• I’m really fascinated by the show’s debate about how to treat the hybrids. Yes, they are children at heart, but they don’t have a heart. They’re not human. And they wouldn’t exist if not paid for by this company. All of it becomes really hard to get your head around, especially when you start to wrestle with the nature of their existence. The kids would be dead without Prodigy, so don’t they owe them for that? But also, isn’t their independence key? We saw this in multiple storylines this week—from the stuff with the memory wipe to Joe and Wendy, etc.—and it’s really become the beating heart of this show.
• Is Yutani really bad at her job? She got beaten badly by Boy in the negotiations, especially since she likely knows and could prove with video that he was behind it. Is she really putting all her eggs in Morrow’s wild plan to smuggle a xenomorph off the island? I really hope there’s more to this.
• Nibs saying she was pregnant was one of the wildest things to happen on the show so far. So it’s a little disappointing for it to be literally wiped away and not explored. I hope we eventually get to learn what made her think that and what that means for her psyche. It could still happen, but now seems increasingly unlikely.
• “See you soon, old toy.” Loved the little showdown between Kirsh and Morrow at the negotiations. Especially since we know that Kirsh knows Morrow’s plan. Morrow thinks he’s got the upper hand, but he does not.
• Speaking of Kirsh, though, what is his plan? He knows about Morrow. He watches Tootles/Isaac get killed and reports none of it. Something is going on.

Two more episodes of Alien: Earth remain. Are we ready?

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