Alien Earth: Emergence

"We're not safe here. I don't think we ever were."

I think this episode frustrated me because it was incomplete, like the first half of a two-parter. A part of my frustration was due to the fact that despite being the penultimate episode, several long running plots were finally resolved. While perhaps momentarily satisfying, they felt more like inevitabilities rather than grand payoffs.

Starting with Morrow, who up to this point has felt like a ghost on the island, inhabiting the thoughts and motivations of poor Slightly, a kid so panicked and desperate to save his mother that he sacrificed Arthur without more than a few seconds of hesitation. Now that plays out, and Morrow's lie translates to a chest burster, throwing Slightly into a moral tailspin. Will his programming hold out? Or will he start to malfunction like Nibs?

The fact that Morrow then shows up with a large group of soldiers to storm the island is almost like seeing that ghost manifest. Slightly even reacted like he was seeing a ghost, and then of course he begged Morrow to forgive him for failing, while Morrow just moved on to plan B, which was obviously to capture the specimens already being held on the island.

Morrow keeps towing that line between protagonist and antagonist, his motivations while consistent are morally gray at best. Especially when it comes to how he manipulated poor Slightly. That being said, I doubt Morrow was ever going to hurt Slightly's parents. He was just a tool to be used, which ultimately turned out to be the wrong one for the job Morrow was trying to pull off.

But poor Arthur. It was hard to watch him throughout the episode knowing he would die in the most painful and traumatic way possible. I'm not sure what that says about being a relatively moral character in an immoral situation, but at least he didn't suffer long. Although that scene on the beach was brutal, and oddly beautiful. I guess that's what happens when horror is set juxtaposed in an idyllic location.

Speaking of morality, I'm finding the Curly situation to be very hard to define. Her interactions with Dame seem to indicate that she is her biological daughter. It kind of makes sense as to why Dame and Arthur helped develop the technology in the first place. Yet to use it on their own child in the first run of subjects? Perhaps no one is "good" on this island.

Well, I guess you could argue that Wendy/Marcy and Hermit are good characters. But she can control xenomorphs and even used them as an incredibly effective attack dog. You could see the disgust and fear on Hermit's face when she commanded the xenomorph to attack. To make matters worse, finding those graves was like an emotional anvil, especially for poor Nibs who is struggling to make sense of her missing memories.

At least we finally have an answer to Kirsh's motivations and questionable actions. He has been playing a long game, setting up and preparing for Waylan-Yutani and Morrow to make their move. He didn't warn Boy Kavalier because his boss is quick to anger and makes impulsive choices. Instead he laid a careful trap, allowing the enemy to think they were in a winning position, and then when the moment was right, closed the trap around them. It was perfectly executed, and I loved Kirsh jabbing at Morrow again, this time as the spider who has caught the fly.

Speaking of Boy Kavalier, he is so excited to talk to something smarter than the average bear that he is willing to sacrifice a human to Mr. Eye so that they can communicate. The creature did display mathematical understanding and basic communication, although I wonder if it could even begin to articulate language through its controlled body, even if it was a human. Either way, this is yet another monstrous and outright evil plot by Kavalier. I truly hope he has a Burke-worthy death.

Bits:

The music at the end of the episode was Queens of the Stone Age, "Song for the Dead."

Hermit shooting Nibs was taking a side, which might cause a rift between himself and Wendy/Marcy. We'll see. Also, did he accidentally kill Nibs?

Nibs gets to say the famous franchise line; "We're all going to die."

The children's full real names were finally revealed with their grave stones:

Wendy – Marcy Hermit (I guess Hermit really is their last name)
Slightly – Aarush Singh
Tootles and Smee – Christopher Shafer, Steven DiMarco
Nibs – Rose Ellis
Curly – Jane Mita (Sylvia?)

Quotes:

Nibs: "We're all gonna die here. And then the bugs will crawl in, and we'll all be ghosts."

Kirsh: "Drop your weapons, nobody likes a sore loser."

Morrow: "This isn't over."
Kirsh: "Nothing ever is."

Arthur: "Now, see, that's the thing about lying. You, you do it once and you gotta keep on lying."

Wendy: "What happened to Isaac?"
Kirsh: "Science."

Morrow: "Stop talking."
Slightly: "I swear."
Morrow: "Stop it. You're acting like a child. Do you know what grown-ups do when they make a mistake? They own up to it."

Slightly: "I did everything you asked me to."
Morrow: "If that were true, I wouldn't be standing over a hollow corpse."

I found it difficult to wrap my head around my opinions for this episode. It felt mildly predictable, yet had some interesting and unexpected twists. It ramped up the stakes and consequences of season long plots, but didn't fully resolve anything. I guess that is because this is very much a penultimate episode, and suffers for it.

2.5 out of 4 Resolved Plotlines

Samantha M. Quinn spends most of her time in front of a computer typing away at one thing or another; when she has free time, she enjoys pretty much anything science fiction or fantasy-related.

• Alien: Earth season 1
• Alien: Earth home