(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
In space or on Earth, uttering the phrase “It’s gonna be all right” is a sign that everything is about to go to hell.
In the case of Alien: Earth, these five words are spoken after multiple gruesome deaths have occurred. Almost the entire crew of the doomed USCSS Maginot quickly learns that nothing will be fine again.
The first episode of Noah Hawley’s entry into the Alien franchise revealed that the Maginot team—except Chief Security Officer Morrow (Babou Ceesay)—was dead before the Weyland-Yutani-owned vessel crashed into Prodigy City. In this week’s new episode, it is time to turn back the clock and share how the bloodbath unfolded.
What follows is a 60-minute medley of disturbing ways to die at the hands of familiar aliens and inventive new intergalactic critters.
Questions of identity and humanity that have been percolating in previous episodes are put on pause; the driven cyborg Morrow makes it clear that the objective is to protect the cargo above all else, including human life. In doing so, we get a front row seat to a massacre that gleefully taps into an array of fears.
Hate things going in your eye? Check! Afraid of bugs? Check! Terrified of Xenomorphs? Grab a cushion!
It has been over 40 years since Ridley Scott’s Alien first introduced the facehugger and chestburster impregnation and “birth” shot-chaser, then unleashed the H.R. Giger-designed Xenomorph to increase the body count. Alien: Earth has not been shy about showing the terrifying killer in stalk and attack mode, ripping through the damaged Prodigy City apartment building with ease. Well, until it came face-to-face with the first hybrid prototype, Wendy (Sydney Chandler).
Sadly, no one aboard the Maginot possesses Wendy’s superhuman abilities.
“How big can it get?” asks Dr. Rahim (Amir Boutrous). He won’t be alive to find out because size isn’t everything when a parasite is involved. The fifth episode isn’t simply repeating the Xenomorph slice and dice showcase. It also introduces new nightmare fuel.
There is not enough money (or Weyland-Utani shares) in the world to make a 65-year-long work assignment appealing, even with the benefit of cryo-sleep. It is no wonder that a combination of sabotage, inexperience, and sloppy mistakes leads to the quickly spiraling events that decimate the crew in bloody fashion. “There’s f—ing monsters on this f—ing ship,” Rahim spells out the obvious.
For the most part, Rahim is the voice of reason. However, he also resorts to heroics to perform emergency surgery, inadvertently triggering a defense mechanism that causes three deaths in one go—including his own.
You see, the full-sized ticks from the first episode, which can easily drain a person of their blood, are equipped with other ways to kill you. Namely, a toxic gas. At least it is quick for Rahim and scientist Chibuzo (Karen Aldridge). Not for poor Malachite (Jamie Bisping), who has the unfortunate experience of ingesting these bugs after drinking contaminated water, vomiting blood before passing out from pain.
The tick’s secret weapon is similar to the corrosive blood running through the facehugger and Xenomorph veins, which happens to be the source of the first fatality on board the Maginot. A fire in the containment room prompts Captain Dinsdale (Tanapol Chuksrida) and Science Officer Bronski (Max Rinehart) to rush in, armed with extinguishers and little else. Rahim cut the tail of the creature that was smothering the captain’s face, accidentally unleashing the deadly acid. The gestation period is incomplete, saving the captain from that fate.
Zaverni (Richa Moorjani) has the unfortunate role of the new captain. Her priority is the crew (around 10 of whom are currently in cryo-sleep), which doesn’t align with the orders to protect the expensive cargo. Capitalism always wins. Not to mention that the fire—and therefore everything that happens after—is caused by a rogue crew member who is being paid to do so by Weyland-Utani rival, Prodigy Corporation’s Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin). Whoever possesses the monsters has the power.
In the meantime, the still-breathing Bronski is put into cryo-sleep with the facehugger still attached. Luckily the person in the pod next to him has zero idea of the creature who has joined their slumber party. Not to mention that the freezing process has zero effect on the alien lifeform, which lives to fulfil its chest-bursting destiny. Without a doubt, John Hurt as Kane in the OG Alien is one of horror’s most defining (and scariest) moments. One benefit is that Bronski isn’t awake to experience the agony of the Xenomorph’s birth; we also skip this grisly tableau.
That is all merely an amuse-bouche to the carnage.
What happens next spotlights the new superstar of the Alien franchise. Yep, I’m talking about “The Eye,” which is equal parts repulsive and adorable. Within a handful of episodes, the Eye has proven to be one messy b—-, capable of stirring the pot while getting ahead and terrifying me.
For starters, the Eye is instrumental in the death of four Maginot crew members. Those tick babies that end up in Malachite? Well, the Eye distracts Chibuzo from the unsecure tick container by repeatedly tapping on its glass vessel, which it will later escape. Amid this diversion, one of the ticks sprays its sperm-like tadpoles into Chibuzo’s open Wayland-Utani-branded water bottle. Nothing like a bit of teamwork!
It is wild to me that Chibuzo continues to conduct her research even after the first facehugger incident. But it also underscores the expectations of this crew. Lucky for Chibuzo that Malachite drinks her water; unlucky that she is in the room when the tick releases its poison.
To put it plainly: everything is f—ed.
The body horror still hasn’t hit its maximum level of disturbing. Enter, the Eye.
It has already been shown slithering across the camera, now it resides in Schmuel’s body. When Zaverni gets to the bridge, she isn’t too perturbed that Schmuel has his back to her. When he turns around, we see that the Eye has replaced his regular eye—the glimpse of the tentacle pulling at Schmuel’s mouth adds to the disgust and dark humor.
While we don’t witness the Eye climbing into the ocular socket or pushing the original eye out, it is deeply unnerving to watch the previously vocal Schmuel no longer utter a word.
In fact, the only noise he makes is guttural squawking to call the Xenomorph to this extraterrestrial hostile takeover. At first, I thought this was so they could team up, but the Eye immediately attacks the Xenomorph, and now my list of questions about this creature is even longer. Schmuel dies a second death because a Xenomorph is more equipped (though the Eye scurries away from its temporary host). Zaverni is next, only leaving Morrow alive to tell the tale.
Other crew members are in the cryo-chambers, blissfully unaware that death is coming. Probably better to be dreaming through this madness than awake for the nightmare.
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