SPOILER ALERT! This story contains details from the season 1 finale of Alien: Earth on FX.
Noah Hawley’s ambitious contribution to the Alien franchise wrapped its first season on FX by delivering exactly what Sigourney Weaver waxed on about earlier this month at TIFF. The original heroine of Alien said she admired how Hawley’s sci-fi is not “Alien-centric….the scope of it is so much bigger.”
True that. The eighth episode titled “The Real Monsters” featured the Xenomorph, raging killer that it is, as more of an undercard rather than the main event, as Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and her fellow Lost Boys take control of Boy Kavalier’s operation. The eye midge may have implanted itself elsewhere and there’s no telling where those other icky creatures from Prodigy’s labs have scurried off to, but those are questions that will no doubt be answered once/if FX announces a second season.
In the meantime, Chandler addressed a few lingering questions about the final episode, including whether her alter-ego has a blood connection to the Xeno, and why Boy K (Samuel Blenkin) seemed almost giddy that his hybrids had achieved the upper hand.
DEADLINE I didn’t expect to see the alien as a potential protagonist on my bingo card, but it certainly seems to be on Wendy’s side. So is the alien on the side of good?
SYDNEY CHANDLER I think it’s something I want to continue to play with. As we got script changes, as their connection grew, [the goal] was to keep the fear and awe and big old question mark about the alien. It’s not a puppy dog coming out of the grass, it’s a lion. It’s not eating you and it’s kind of listening to you, but there’s a hesitancy. I think the alien stands for being the iconic Xeno. It’s also a mirror of Wendy’s dehumanization, as well. There’s a reason the final episode is called The Real Monsters. I think everyone is shifting. I don’t know who is good or bad. Everyone’s kind of fallen into a gray area. Although, from my opinion, Wendy is just perfect.
DEADLINE Are you able to explain what your blood relationship is with the alien? Why is it that you are able to connect?
CHANDLER I do not know the answer to that question.
DEADLINE Wendy faced an existential crisis at the end. Is she more Marcy or more Wendy?
CHANDLER I think a big turning point was when she saw her grave, and more specifically saw her brother mourning the grave while she was standing there. But I think that is the unanswerable question. If we go to season 2, that would be fantastic to explore. I think she knows what she’s not. That path has been narrowed. As far as exactly what she is, we’re always questioning that. But she’s starting to pinpoint who she thinks she wants to be, or what she wants to be.
DEADLINE And what is she not?
CHANDLER An innocent. That’s gone. She’s not one who needs protection or supervision.
DEADLINE How would you describe her relationship with her brother at the end of the season?
CHANDLER Her mind works very much in black and white, and he’s fallen into this gray area. I think her mindset is that there is good in the world, and there is bad in the world, and he is a good person who, in her eyes, did a bad thing. So, where do you put him? That is the question.
DEADLINE What did you make of the way that Boy K laughed when you said at the end that you and the Lost Boys were going to rule?
CHANDLER Yeah, it was great. That day was so fun. Sam and I had such a blast figuring out this scene, because it was quite meaty. It came to that final line that Wendy gives. If the camera had been flipped, I’m staring straight at Sam and saying, checkmate. That was what that laugh meant… I mean, I can’t speak for Sam. He could have just been laughing at me. I think that was kind of the resonance both he and I were going for. They see each other, they’ve clocked each other, and she’s figured out his game. She started her own game now.
DEADLINE What has it been like with Noah? I’m sure you’ve had a lot of questions about the mythology he’s building.
CHANDLER I can never tell with him! I am the annoying person who will check in and go, ‘hey! What are we thinking?’ He’ll give me a wink, or a nod, and that’s about it. But knowing him, I think he’s got some long-term ideas for this piece. He said this first season laying the groundwork for what the show can be. We’d get a lot of script changes. The storylines would change, quite drastically, throughout. It kept us on our toes, it kept the content fresh. I think Noah likes to work that way as well, but I trust that he knows what’s going on, which is great.
DEADLINE Do you know the extent of Wendy’s powers?
CHANDLER That’s actually one of my questions for Noah, if we go to a season 2 — figuring out where is her edge is, because right now, we are watching her in the process of testing her limits. She does not know, which means I, Sydney, do not know. If we get to go for a season 2, that edge can be explored. Where does she push too far? What exactly does she have control over? Because right now, it’s kind of like the doors have opened, and she’s stepping through. She’s checking it out.
DEADLINE But Wendy knows that she can kick ass, right?
CHANDLER Absolutely.
DEADLINE Do you have a nickname for that language that you speak to the aliens?
CHANDLER I have no idea what I would name this. In the script, it just said she opens her mouth and speaks alien. I was in front of my mirror with David Rysdahl who plays Arthur, playing around with whistling, rolling my Rs and constricting my throat. I found this sound that the cast had to listen to while we were filming. It was a very strange sound. The sound you hear [in the show was added] in post, but when we filmed, I was making a sound, because I didn’t want to just have my jaw hang open. I wanted to give her breath and awareness and movement, so it was a lot of constricting my throat. While we didn’t have an actual language, it gave me a beginning, middle and end for each scene that I was speaking.
DEADLINE Going forward, will you have to be mindful of Marcy’s age, or is that no longer relevant?
CHANDLER I think if you watch the first episode to the last episode, all of the Lost Boys have gained some weight to them, some stillness to them. They’ve lost innocence in their own individual ways. And so, I think regardless of their age, when you’re hit with betrayal or fear or trauma, it changes you wholeheartedly. I don’t know where she’ll go. I know that she’s a very intelligent kid, I know she’s very good at compartmentalizing and adapting, but that can only take you so far. She’s been through a lot.
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