“We’re all going to die here. And then the bugs will crawl in and we’ll all be ghosts.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
As expected after last week’s tension-building instalment, all those plotlines that Alien Earth has built up over the season start coming to fruition in this penultimate episode. Joe and Wendy’s escape plan from Prodigy; Slightly’s frantic attempt to bring Morrow an Alien; Yutani sending in troops to retrieve her specimens; Wendy’s bond with the recently hatched Alien – all feature heavily in an episode that shifts the story into high gear.
But not just the plotlines. All the ideas and concepts that have shaped Noah Hawley’s fascinating show also seem to be moving more to some kind of resolution. Are the Xenomorph creatures actually intelligent? This seems beyond doubt now that Wendy can not only talk to one, but seemingly command it to attack or not. This just leads to another question, of course – is it actually ‘obeying’ her, or just going along with her wishes for the time being, for reasons of its own? That would indicate a very high level of intelligence, and it remains to be seen.
That the scuttling eyeball, still resident in the head of an unfortunate sheep, is intelligent is also beyond doubt. As ever, Samuel Blenkin’s Boy Kavalier is hugely watchable in these scenes. His initial shock and grief at the ‘death’ of Tootles is instantly forgotten as he sees the video footage of how it occurred, and realises the eyeball creature (it’s called Ocellus, apparently) orchestrated the whole thing.
Any lingering doubt about the creature’s intelligence is dispelled as Kavalier asks it to list continuing digits of pi after the initial 3.14, which it does, correctly, by stamping its feet. Before depositing a big pile of shit on the floor of its cage. That’s not only high level mathematics, but seemingly defiance and humour, all neatly demonstrated in a couple of minutes. No wonder Kavalier wants to relocate it in the head of some luckless human functionary who can actually speak; but it didn’t seem to demonstrate that skill with its takeover of Shmuel on the ship. I’m guessing we’ll see the outcome of this – and whatever poor soul Atom Eins designates as a host – in the final ep next week.
Speaking of hosts, we hadn’t seen the last of David Rysdahl as the doomed Arthur Sylvia. Slightly and Smee are once again amusingly teamed up in their desperate attempt to get the facehugger-incapacitated scientist to the beach for Morrow; with a little help from the inscrutable Kirsh, whose plans within plans continue to mature. But as we know from the first Alien, the only movie to show the process from beginning to end, after the facehugger has done its impregnation, it drops off and dies, leaving the host seemingly all right – for a while.
So it was here, with the befuddled Arthur having no memory of the events at all, and trekking through the jungle with Slightly and Smee like a comedy trio in a particularly dark road movie. Until, of course, the immature Alien bursts through his chest, to everyone’s horror. I don’t think there’s been any clear indication of how the hosts remember the time under the facehugger. Kane, in the first movie, has the rest of the crew to tell him what happened, though he says he remembers “a horrible dream about smothering”. Here, Arthur doesn’t remember even that, suggesting some element of mind control during the process – telepathic, perhaps?
At any rate, it wouldn’t have been an Alien series without at least one chestbursting scene, so it’s good that we get one here. It’s as horrific as always, with the added novelty that we’re seeing it in full natural daylight, rather than the dimly lit spacecraft/colony interiors we’re used to.
Also shown in full natural light for the first time is the Alien itself, as Wendy’s pet/friend/whatever comes to the aid of the fleeing Hybrids (and Joe) when their plotline intersects with that of the invading Yutani troops. Your mileage may vary as to whether it’s a good idea to show the creature in such well-lit detail; its usual habitat of dark spacecraft interiors is normally accentuated by clever direction that avoids you seeing the whole thing for more than a fraction of a second.
Here, you see it in exterior daylight, in all its glory, and the result, perhaps, slightly takes away some of the fear associated with it being a barely glimpsed predator. We’ve seen before that they’re rarely exactly alike, and this one has a distinctive mottled brown head that’s perfect for blending in with the foliage. Because, yes, the scenes of it gorily massacring heavily armed soldiers in a jungle are reminiscent of nothing so much as the original Predator – a movie which also takes place in the same universe. If there’s a second season (and I’d be surprised if there wasn’t), maybe the extraterrestrial big game hunters will put in an appearance themselves.
The show’s other big theme, the nature of artificial life, is also evolving, especially in regard to how equal the Synths and Hybrids are to organic humans. Joe’s ultimate decision to side with his human military comrades by stunning the out of control Nibs is met with obvious disapproval from the artificial being that was/is his sister. From a character perspective, that builds nicely on Wendy’s increasing disillusionment with humanity; even her own brother considers his own kind more valuable than her. I’m guessing that’s not going to end well. It was a good scene for Alex Lawther and Sydney Chandler, each expressing their dilemma and turmoil without needing dialogue to do it.
The motives of Timothy Olyphant’s inscrutable Kirsh remain opaque too. He’s fully aware of Arthur Sylvia’s infected state, a fact he keeps from Boy Kavalier, and helps the clueless Slightly and Smee get the doomed scientist out of the compound. But his later ambush of the Yutani soldiers trying to break in suggests that this was all part of a longer game. However, he still seems pretty contemptuous of humanity in general, and I suspect the final episode will show us what his real agenda is.
One more ep to go, and this one really ramps up the stakes and the excitement for a conclusion. It’s an action-packed ep with plenty of the series’ trademark gore – a chestburster scene, the dismemberment and evisceration of the Yutani troops, and especially the now-psychotic Nibs, literally ripping the jaw off one of Joe’s old comrades. So far, this has been an excellent series (even the unnecessary prequel-to-a-prequel remake of Alien was very good), and I’m pretty confident that Noah Hawley will give it a satisfying conclusion. Let’s see what next week’s finale brings.
Simon’s Incoherent Blog 