Alien: Earth 1.08
Sep. 29th, 2025 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakDarth Real Life hounds my every step these days, but I did manage to watch the finale.
On the one hand: solid suspense, Joe survives (I had been afraid he wouldn't, given Boy Kavalier's intentions were deducable), in fact everyone I wanted to survive did. Alas so did Boy Kavalier, and not as the meat puppet for T. Ocellus, though that may still happen in the future, but at least he got told by Wendy what a pathetic little man he is. Also, hooray for Curly getting over wanting to be Kavalier's favourite. And: course he built a Synth to kill his Dad way back when. (BTW, the first proof he actually is a prodigy, instead of just claiming to be one.) The name "Adam Eins" is a bit of a giveaway, especially if you're German, "Eins" meaning One.
That Wendy is now able to both hack into and control Prodigy's network in addition to being able (for now) to control the Xenomorphs makes her ridiculously overpowered, always a problem, but then a) if Legion is anything to go by, Hawley likes that sort of thing in order to deconstruct it, b) the cliffhanger has the Wayland Yutani forces arriving on the island, who have their own network, and c) Wendy is the "oldest" of the kid synths, so the fact she can hack and the others can't (yet?) might simply be due to her having had the most time to adjust to a computer as a brain, in which case they would cancel each other out. But for now, they are united, and have locked up the grown-ups in their old prison, which is an extremely childlike thing to do. Of course the episode title "The True Monsters" has the ambiguity of referring both to the cooperations (which is what Ripley already called them in the movies) with their utter disregard for human life (again demonstrated in this episode when Boy Kavalier muses which human being to use as T.Ocellus' meat puppet) or the Synth Kids with their artificial bodies and brains combined to a child nature and for now the upper hand. It's not just Wendy, either; Smee being capable of both, the horror and grief and guilt over Arthur's fate (because he was right there when it happened, and he liked Arthur), and the glee at Joe's former comrades being chased by the aliens as if it was a video game, underlines that empathy for them is now limited to people they know - and they don't know the rest of humanity, of which the current specimens, Joe aside, didn't give them the best impression.
Wendy using her hacking skills to present Dame Sylvia with a montage of clips from human Marcy and Nibs trusting her and being lied demonstrates a deeper anger than just "they locked us up" (but then Nibs getting mindwiped by Sylvia was the first thing that disaffected Wendy from the Neverland people). Joe and Sylvia look understandably horrified at her "now we rule" announcement at the end of the episode, indicating these will be the relationships the next season might focus on. (Boy Kavalier after an episode of getting shown up, by contrast, looks gleeful again, but then he's the type who would at any announcement of something he regards as entertaining.)
Where my mixed feelings come in: we still have no idea what Kirsh is up to, not even a hint about his motivations or goal. Another physical fight between him and Morrow doesn't really make up for it. And I'm glad T. Ocellus is still around (and currently in Arthur's corpse, thus ensuring the actor work for at least one more episode next season), but I really hoped it would free us of Boy Kavalier (whose actor surely would be up to the task of embodying T. Ocellus? He did great work as the Joffrey of Alien: Earth this season!).
Still, all in all, I really enjoyed this entry into the Alien franchise, and have started to listen to the official podcast, thus learning that Noah Hawley decided early on that he'd provide new aliens, because he wanted to give the audience that feeling of discovery and body horror you got when first watching, unspoiled, the original Alien, and that's just not possible with the Xenomorph anymore, about whose life cycle we now know everything. Also that the real life Thailand location for shooting is because future Earth is suffering from the consequences of climate change and tropical locations and way too much water are everywhere, which makes sense.
On the one hand: solid suspense, Joe survives (I had been afraid he wouldn't, given Boy Kavalier's intentions were deducable), in fact everyone I wanted to survive did. Alas so did Boy Kavalier, and not as the meat puppet for T. Ocellus, though that may still happen in the future, but at least he got told by Wendy what a pathetic little man he is. Also, hooray for Curly getting over wanting to be Kavalier's favourite. And: course he built a Synth to kill his Dad way back when. (BTW, the first proof he actually is a prodigy, instead of just claiming to be one.) The name "Adam Eins" is a bit of a giveaway, especially if you're German, "Eins" meaning One.
That Wendy is now able to both hack into and control Prodigy's network in addition to being able (for now) to control the Xenomorphs makes her ridiculously overpowered, always a problem, but then a) if Legion is anything to go by, Hawley likes that sort of thing in order to deconstruct it, b) the cliffhanger has the Wayland Yutani forces arriving on the island, who have their own network, and c) Wendy is the "oldest" of the kid synths, so the fact she can hack and the others can't (yet?) might simply be due to her having had the most time to adjust to a computer as a brain, in which case they would cancel each other out. But for now, they are united, and have locked up the grown-ups in their old prison, which is an extremely childlike thing to do. Of course the episode title "The True Monsters" has the ambiguity of referring both to the cooperations (which is what Ripley already called them in the movies) with their utter disregard for human life (again demonstrated in this episode when Boy Kavalier muses which human being to use as T.Ocellus' meat puppet) or the Synth Kids with their artificial bodies and brains combined to a child nature and for now the upper hand. It's not just Wendy, either; Smee being capable of both, the horror and grief and guilt over Arthur's fate (because he was right there when it happened, and he liked Arthur), and the glee at Joe's former comrades being chased by the aliens as if it was a video game, underlines that empathy for them is now limited to people they know - and they don't know the rest of humanity, of which the current specimens, Joe aside, didn't give them the best impression.
Wendy using her hacking skills to present Dame Sylvia with a montage of clips from human Marcy and Nibs trusting her and being lied demonstrates a deeper anger than just "they locked us up" (but then Nibs getting mindwiped by Sylvia was the first thing that disaffected Wendy from the Neverland people). Joe and Sylvia look understandably horrified at her "now we rule" announcement at the end of the episode, indicating these will be the relationships the next season might focus on. (Boy Kavalier after an episode of getting shown up, by contrast, looks gleeful again, but then he's the type who would at any announcement of something he regards as entertaining.)
Where my mixed feelings come in: we still have no idea what Kirsh is up to, not even a hint about his motivations or goal. Another physical fight between him and Morrow doesn't really make up for it. And I'm glad T. Ocellus is still around (and currently in Arthur's corpse, thus ensuring the actor work for at least one more episode next season), but I really hoped it would free us of Boy Kavalier (whose actor surely would be up to the task of embodying T. Ocellus? He did great work as the Joffrey of Alien: Earth this season!).
Still, all in all, I really enjoyed this entry into the Alien franchise, and have started to listen to the official podcast, thus learning that Noah Hawley decided early on that he'd provide new aliens, because he wanted to give the audience that feeling of discovery and body horror you got when first watching, unspoiled, the original Alien, and that's just not possible with the Xenomorph anymore, about whose life cycle we now know everything. Also that the real life Thailand location for shooting is because future Earth is suffering from the consequences of climate change and tropical locations and way too much water are everywhere, which makes sense.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-10 07:24 pm (UTC)I was going to look up Noah Hawley, as his name was also familiar, so seeing your ref. to Legion made me say "aaah!"
One thing in Ep 8 that struck me was that the sheep container case door had a push-up/pull-down handle on the inside, so why didn't Oculus use it?
Are we going to learn about Xemomorph goals/culture? For all the films, iirc, their sole motive is to kill and procreate. Now we've seen them communicate, at least with Wendy/Marcy. Oculus plans and creates opportunities.
Are the various captured specimens of the same origin world or examples of similar evolution from different worlds? Do they have a culture or even multiple cultures? Are they only intelligent opportunistic predators?
For instance, I don't think that Wendy controls the xenomorph she matured alongside, but that they communicate, and she gives it victims in exchange for it killing/threatening her targets.
I'm thinking of chimpanzees and bonobos and dolphins, all tool-using, intelligent species with whom we can communicate, but can't converse.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-11 11:17 am (UTC)Otoh I'm pretty sure we will hear Occulus speak - as in, communicate, I mean, not just by reciting a word or something like that - next season, but then Occulus is an original creation from Noah Hawley which he doesn't owe to anyone previously.
I think it's mentioned in the pilot or the second episode that all the creatures hail from different planets, not from the same one; presumably Wyland-Rutani had given the order to collect the most advanced/dangerous specimmens, especially if they are intended to biological warfare.
I agree that Wendy doesn't really control the xenomorph, and presumably we will find that out the first time they have completely different interests, but that so far they appear to have a give and take. Which is remarkable enough, though. The only other previous examples I can think of is Ripley "negotiating" with the Queen in Aliens by threatening the eggs and getting Newt in return, and the scene between the clone Ripley8 and the Hybrid that had her DNA in it in Alien IV, and those were very special circumstances, which did not last long, whereas Wendy has been doing this for months.
Good commparison to the various animal species, and one could add whales and their songs, which we can record and replay, but not actually communicate in.