The characters on this show keep peeling back layers. Also, we finally have our first major alien action on the island.
At first this episode felt like a natural continuation from where we left off in episode four with the Nibs situation and Wendy… Marcy and her continuing and disturbing relationship with the xenomorph. Both progressed, and I'm not sure if either story is going to pan out well.
Beginning with Nibs, Atom demanded an immediate solution for the apparent corruption of her psyche due to trauma. At first Dame tried to convince him that time and normal therapy sessions were the answer. But Atom wanted something that could give her the ability to smile and act normally in three weeks. Arthur being moral (mostly) and protective of the project immediately got upset because he understood what Atom was implying; he wanted to erase her memories.
The fundamental problem with this solution is that Atom is treating Nibs as nothing more than a product or a machine. Which speaks to his fundamental misunderstanding of what the entire project is trying to do. Arthur gets it, and I think Dame does as well. But when it came to making that moral choice Dame changes tactics and sides with Atom, betraying her husband's beliefs. Atom fires Arthur on the spot, which feels a bit rash and lacking forethought. Kind of like Darth Vader killing off high ranking officers because they made too many mistakes. However, it does set up the rest of the action in the episode.
The consequences of the scene are two fold. First, Dame does the reset on Nibs and initially it seems to work perfectly. Except Wendy was there when Nibs woke up and quickly dismantled the memory erasure, causing Nibs to panic about her missing memories and Wendy to storm off to confront Dame about what she had done. Wendy then renounced her Peter Pan name, demanding to call herself Marcy again and basically calling out Dame's actions as corrupt and immoral.
To me at least, the point of the entire experiment is to bridge the gap between human and machine. It needs to revolve around human experience, evolving technology and allowing code to not just mimic the human mind, but become the human mind. That idea is a fascinating rabbit hole of philosophical and ethical questions about humanity and what constitutes the soul. However, in this context, it is a silent war over the humanity of these kids. Now we have the very real possibility that Marcy has turned a corner and has little remaining interest in being human anymore.
The second and probably more immediately devastating consequence is Arthur, feeling betrayed by his wife and the company, conspiring with Hermit to release not only Marcy from Prodigy's clutches but possibly all of the hybrids. A decision that led him directly into the path of Slightly who was trying to find a human subject for a facehugger. Which of course is because Morrow has been pushing the kid to the breaking point.
That brings me to poor Isaac and his need to be seen as good and capable to Kirsh, which came to a head in the most tragic way. Because he rejected help so he could prove himself, Curly wasn't there in his moment of need. If she had been there, none of this would've happened. Isaac's mistake was fairly basic, underestimating his strength and tearing off a door to a feeding chamber. His second mistake was instead of calling for help or trying to fix the feeding door, he makes the utterly bizarre and shortsighted choice to physically enter the pen and feed the specimen directly. Of course Mr. Eye, as an agent of pure chaos, causes a distraction which causes Isaac to get locked in with the creature.
Here we finally get a proper reveal of our fifth and final alien: the fly. This one is quite different from the rest because it feels like something we have here on Earth. The xenomorph is all about reproduction and perpetuating its species, meaning it is a danger to humanity. Mr. Eye seems to be motivated by chaos, watching the consequences with curiosity, meaning he's a danger to everyone. The leeches feed off blood and kill in seconds, making them a danger to humanity as well. We're not entirely sure what the plant creature does yet, I assume we'll find out eventually. As for the fly, well, it feeds on metal and rock. What does Yutani want with creatures like this? Actually, for that matter, what does Kavalier want with them? Nothing good, I imagine.
That immediately set off alarm bells for me, because it seemed like this is the one alien that could be a danger to the synthetics directly, and boy, was I right. The following series of scenes feels like something straight out of an Alien movie, as actions made cause a series of mistakes which cascade into worse and worse situations culminating in the death of characters I like. This is no different, as Isaac gets literally eaten by the fly in a matter of seconds. This causes Arthur to react to try and rescue him, which allows Slightly to open the egg pen and a facehugger gets out. That ends exactly as you expect it would with Arthur ending up as a host for a xenomorph, exactly as Morrow intended. Then Slightly only avoids becoming lunch for the fly by a split second himself.
In one episode we lost Isaac who was a very sweet and competent character that I was starting to like quite a bit. Although I kept waiting for something to happen with him, either a glitch to turn him dark or counter that sweetness. Instead he was a victim, and I honestly didn't see that coming. Arthur had "alien fodder" written on his forehead from the beginning, because he is the moral man in an immoral situation and they are almost always the first to go. Which is sad, because he was arguably the one good and moral character on the show.
Lastly, I want to talk about Morrow and Kirsh. They are the most complex and compelling characters on the show (save for Wendy/Marcy) and they do not disappoint in this episode. Morrow's use of Slightly is borderline monstrous, despite not actually threatening his family anymore. Forcing the poor kid to position a human so they can be implanted with a xenomorph embryo is just vile.
Kirsh, on the other hand, seems like a mad scientist, completely devoid of compassion. He has been watching everything and keeping it to himself. He knows about Morrow and Slightly, he knows about what happened to poor Isaac, and yet he remains silent. He even lies to Kavalier. So what is his goal? He's definitely at odds with Morrow, so he doesn't work for Yutani. Does he serve one of the other three corporations? I'm so curious now.
Bits:
The music at the end of the episode was Godsmack: "Keep Away."
The title of the episode is likely referring to the horror classic: The Fly. While there are two versions of the film, the 1986 version staring Jeff Goldblum is the more likely reference here.
Slightly's first attempt at a host was Hermit, who picked up on something off with Slightly's behavior and avoided the bait.
Boy Kavalier made Yutani look like a fool. How much do you wanna bet that's going to end up horribly for everyone involved?
Marcy is convinced that her xenomorph is good, but I think she isn't seeing the full picture. It's likely the only one it won't hurt is Marcy.
The xenomorph remains one of the few horror creatures in cinema that while better cloaked in shadows, remains frightening after being fully revealed.
I retract my earlier question about Mr. Eye warning Chibuzo. It was probably just trying to distract her to see the consequences. Such a fascinating and disturbing creature.
I thought Dame was as moral as her husband, I'm beginning to believe she is as evil as Boy and Atom.
Quotes:
Marcy: "They didn't ask to come here."
Dame: "Well, their specimens, collected by Waylan-Yutani…"
Marcy: "He's studying them. They're experiments to him." (Referring to Kirsh)
Dame: "This is a research facility, filled with scientists. That's what we do. We study."
Marcy: "Like you study us?"
Dame: "Wendy…"
Marcy: "That's not my name."
Kirsh: "Look at you. The almost human. Self hating machine. How you must envy me."
Morrow: "Sure. Yesterday's model, the incredibly irrelevant robot. Who wouldn't want to be you? What's it like working for a company that's made you obsolete?"
Marcy: "That's a funny word. Corrupt."
Dame: "It means…"
Marcy: "I know what it means. I'm not stupid."
Dame: "No, of course not."
Marcy: "I told him this was a 'yes' place. You didn't give her a choice, did you?"
Dame: "I gave her… medicine, just like any other doctor."
Morrow: "They're cute. Your kids, with their shiny new bodies. I got to get me one of those."
Kirsh: "A child or a body that isn't so sad?"
Smee: "Oh man, everybody's so cranky here! It's not fun anymore!"
Slightly: "Not everything's supposed to be fun. We-We're grown-ups now."
Smee: "Being grown-up sucks."
Slightly: "Yeah. Big time."
Morrow: "You know what I like most about killing synths? They don't feel pain, so nothing clouds their minds when I start chopping them up."
Kirsh: "See, I would imagine it's the pain that makes it satisfying. Especially for cyborgs. That moment when you realize that you're not a machine after all."
While a strong episode, it wasn't the best of the season. But it did feature some major turning points. Two more to go!
3 out of 4 Disturbing Deaths
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.
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