Alien: Earth Season 1, Episode 6
"The Fly"
Writers: Noah Hawley and Lisa Long
Director: Ugla Hauksdóttir
Cast: Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Samuel Blenkin, Essie Davis, Adarsh Gourav, Kit Young, David Rysdahl, Babou Ceesay, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diêm Camille, Adrian Edmondson
After an episode-long flashback to the descent of the USCSS Maginot, we return to Neverland, where the five alien species retrieved from the crash wait behind three inches of steel and tempered glass. Where they're sure to remain … right?
By now, the xenomorph Wendy saw explode from her brother's harvested lung is a juvenile with fully-formed limbs. This is usually the stage where the little guys are hiding off-screen, growing and plotting, but Wendy gets to observe it scampering around a habitat of stacked gray cubes. I imagine Kirsh checking off terms like "brutalist" and "Geiger" from the presets on a giant 3D printer. I suppose you can't just dump it in there with a stick and a handful of grass. It'd probably appreciate some wet chains dangling from the ceiling and a good humidifier. Who knows if that's their preferred environment though? Maybe they're cottagecore by nature.
Wendy attempts to bond with the creature, trilling and clicking to it in an attempt at communication. The xenomorph seems interested, though it occasionally charges the glass. Observing this from outside the synth-only lab, Joe and Kirsh debate the safety of this whole endeavor. Joe still has a gnarly surgical scar following his previous encounter with an alien, so he's fairly biased towards "Fuck that." Kirsh views this as infantilizing; Wendy took down an adult xenomorph in single combat and this little whelp is behind glass. Joe reminds him that harm can be done to more than just the body, but you'll recall that Kirsh doesn't view the hybrids as children or even human, but something more. He's not especially concerned with the long term effects. Or he is, but with a level of academic detachment in direct conflict with Joe's brotherly compassion. Kirsh loves nothing more than watching people do stuff they probably shouldn't.
Joe doesn't know he's on a television show — and certainly not this television show — so we'll have to forgive the little cinnamon roll for his openness in wanting to get his sister out of here and lead something approaching a normal life.
Put Your Feet Up
Kavalier and Kirsh travel off-island to meet with Yutani and a mediator of the Five to settle the legal dispute over the crash. More than one insufferable tech bro and pickup artist will reference this scene in their upcoming books, agog at the barefoot trillionaire's plucky gamesmanship. He addresses her as "honey" (twice!), and she's shockingly … shook? I guess I expected a lot more poise from a character, or family of characters, so iconic of corporate hegemony and shadow councils? This is the bus driver pointing to the Succession ad, I suppose. Not every Yutani is cut out for the oligarchy. Kavalier steamrolls her, even suggesting the crash was intentionally orchestrated by Yutani as an attack on Prodigy City. Wild! We know from last week's episode it was actually his own doing, a conspiracy he cooked up over Zoom with a saboteur aboard the ship. He turns down a higher settlement from Yutani, retaining possession of the bestiary for now.
Kirsh and Morrow share an elevator on the way out, muttering insults all the way. Shades of the "I'm a PC" ad campaign. Each has a microchip on their shoulder about planned obsolescence and they're taking it out on the other. That's how the corporate overlords win!
Critically, this business trip leaves Kirsh off the board as things go FUBAR in Neverland. Doesn't mean he isn't watching it on his tablet though.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Nibs
It starts with Atom's directive to wipe Nibs's memory, at least as it pertains to the past week. Sylvia points out that this isn't just like deleting memory from a traditional android. There's no telling how this could damage her psyche going forward. This is the 2120s equivalent of a lobotomy or sending an unwed pregnant girl to "fat camp." He won't budge though. He needs this hysterical pregnancy to go away so Nibs isn't a problem at the hybrids' public debut in three weeks. He makes it sound like a cotillion.
Arthur threatens to quit. Atom hardly bats an eye, asking Sylvia if she can do the procedure on her own. It's possible she could've said no here, offering her husband some leverage. Instead, she reluctantly agrees to Atom's demands, determining, perhaps, that it's better that at least one of them remain on the project to advocate for the hybrids and their humanity. Delusion to be sure. Atom fires Arthur, banishing him from Neverland. Unfortunately he never makes it off the docks. More on that in a bit.
Sylvia erases the last week from Nibs's memory, wishing she herself could undergo such a procedure. She has to bury her trauma. Unfortunately there's no plan to account for one little girl losing her memory surrounded by other children with shared experiences.
The other Lost Boys are obviously unaware of Nibs's soft reboot, so it should come as no surprise when Wendy attempts to talk to her about her pregnancy. Why wouldn't she be curious? And why wouldn't she want to address the events of their trip to Prodigy City? Of course they're both going to get upset about the disconnect, only fueling Wendy's growing consternation over personhood.
Wendy confronts Sylvia, bristling at the decision to erase Nibs's memory without her consent. Sylvia patronizes, referring to the act in terms of "glitches" and "corrupt data." She tries to steer the conversation to Wendy's work in the restricted lab. Wendy feels a kinship with the aliens. None of them asked to be here. They're all just specimens to Neverland's scientists. Just experiments.
"I don't want to be people anymore," says Wendy, "if this is what people are."
As for Nibs? I actually dropped a Cognitive Psych course to take Sketch Comedy, so take this with a grain of salt: I don't think trauma is something linear you can just extract. Memory is a rat king. Time will tell though.
The Emancipation of Marcy Hermit
Joe's had some unsettling conversations with Atom and Kirsh that leave him eager to get his sister off the island. He's about as subtle as a chestburster, his fellow medics calling him on his obvious fishing for intel on their exact location and the feasibility of taking a boat somewhere. They don't want to mess with paying work.
When he talks to Wendy about it, we get a reminder of all the voices whispering in her ear, all the philosophies warring for her soul. He says she doesn't need to let Prodigy control her life.
"This is a yes place," she insists, quoting the Boy Genius, "not a no place." She wants to embrace the opportunities at her disposal here. Joe, to his credit, wants to instill the importance of "no" when it comes to consent and personal autonomy. She has the right to leave if she wants to. Wendy questions whether leaving is something she wants.
Later, Joe catches Arthur in the process of gathering his things to leave. Recognizing Arthur's compassion for the hybrids, he asks him for reassurance that Wendy will be okay. Arthur lies for the benefit of the surveillance cameras, but when he invites Joe to look at a monitor for a readout of Wendy's vitals, he's actually typed out a warning to take the girl and run. He also shares a boat code.
Joe thanks him and leaves. Alone again, Arthur notices an error message. Tootles is offline, last detected in the restricted lab.
This is around the point I realized Arthur's banishment from the island likely means no one would think anything of him disappearing. At least not right away.
Sheep's Clothing
Still en route to Neverland, Kirsh calls Tootles to remind him to feed and water the aliens. Tootles excludes Curly from the assignment, eager to impress with his independence. A fatal mistake.
Attempting to multitask, Tootles ends up trapped in the cell with the Fly, a species I'd quite honestly forgotten about. I think I'd conflated them with the Ticks? The Eye Midge, currently ensconced in the body of the sheep, observes all of this, a woolly Hannibal Lecter. It butts the partition to the Flies's neighboring cell, causing Tootles to trip. The door closes and locks behind him. The softball-sized insects have constructed something like a mud daubers' nest in the upper corner of the cell. They emerge now, descending on Tootles to spray a caustic material. His face dissolves. The creatures immediately begin feasting on his ruined servos.
Only then does the possessed sheep move to its feeding area for some hay.
When Arthur arrives to investigate, he's intercepted by Slightly, who's been pacing nervously the entire episode. Arthur attempts to drag one hybrid to safety while the other opens a cell. It happens quickly. Slightly activates the door, freeing a facehugger from its egg. It was just waiting for an opportunity. Slightly exits the room, locking Arthur inside. The scientist asks to be let out, but Slightly is in too deep. Morrow has his family, or so he thinks. I wouldn't be surprised to find out he killed them days ago. Arthur tries to reason with him, but it's too late.
Slightly drags Arthur into a vent to allow the facehugger to do its work. An aerial POV from the Flies — kinda tacky if I'm honest — reminds us they're still loose. The sheep watches. Kirsh also watches via his tablet. He pointedly refrains from sharing this with Kavalier. I swear, if the Eye Midge and Kirsh don't tumble over a cliff together, that's going to be a real missed opportunity. Watcher vs. Watcher. C'mon!
The sheep stares down the barrel of the camera and we get another unhinged needledrop. Godsmack!? You know what? Sure.
Next week I'm hoping to learn more about that plant pod alien. That one's long overdue for its "Suddenly Seymour" moment.
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