There was never a doubt that everything would go belly up at Prodigy. It was a question of when. A week after the show’s successful flashback reestablished its Alien bona fides, Earth returns to Prodigy for debates and dinner. As the conversation over what a human is rages on, the Eye, the Fly, and Wendy’s Xenomorph friend have an answer: Humans are dinner.
The transhumanist dilemmas pile up quickly, with the first half of “The Fly” devoting itself to conversations over the differences between human, machine, and Xenomorph. One conversation feeds into the next. As Wendy gossips with her Xeno pet, Hermit clumsily plans to abscond with his sister. Tonight’s episode is filled with scenes of Hermit asking, “So, uh, what would it take to escape this island with one of these very expensive hybrids?” But Kirsh sees right through him, sticking to his long-held belief that Wendy isn’t a human. Her potential extends beyond Hermit’s dreams for Wendy to live and be a part of a family. She’s starting to realize that potential, too. Communicating with the Xenomorph has given her an expansive worldview that further distances her from her brother. All that chittering and clicking has changed her perspective on the Xenomorph. Like humans, they can kill, but they also might have the capacity for good.
Written by Noah Hawley and Lisa Long, “The Fly” complicates those conversations via Nibs. Her existence as a proprietary corporate product and a human with a prosthetic body comes into sharp focus as Atom argues to clear her cache and erase the memories of the Maginot crash. Arthur refuses, arguing that the consequences could be dire existentially. As Dame puts it, they don’t know what wiping her RAM will do to her identity. But that doesn’t matter when Prodigy has a keynote in a few weeks, and Atom needs Nibs on her best behavior for the canape chomping crowd. If that means firing Arthur, a key architect in the whole program, so be it. It doesn’t matter if you’re the captain of the Maginot, on patrol in the jungle, or the low-key inventor of the technology; humans are expendable.
“The Fly” wasn’t through with these conversations, as the episode showcases a critical facet of the tech industry: arbitration. Given the numerous conversations between humans and machines over what the hybrids are and how they should be treated, the show gives us a counterexample: how humans discuss other humans. And it’s not pretty. Channeling his inner Jack Dorsey, a barefoot Boy Kavalier takes a seat on the desk and holds Yutani’s creature cargo hostage by using the thousands of injured and dead Prodigy citizens as a bargaining chip. Kavalier shakes Yutani down for another couple of billion, but the money isn’t the point. This whole thing is about domination, and by cynically abiding by the Brubaker Accord’s quarantine rule, he’ll get to keep the creatures for another six weeks.
As a bonus bout, we get one final conversation between the different humanoids, cyborg and synthetic. Frankly, Morrow and Kirsh’s bot-based barbs are the most entertaining of the lot, mainly because we get to hear Timothy Olyphant say, “That moment when you realize you’re not a machine after all. When the first eyeball pops.” The conversation lasts the length of an elevator ride, with Morrow’s farewell (“I’ll see you soon, old toy”) setting up a final fight between them in the last two episodes.
All the best laid schemes of bots and men fall apart quickly. After Dame agrees to cut out the trauma, Nibs wakes up to Wendy immediately quizzing her on her short-term memory. We know Prodigy is short-staffed, but why not give the kids a heads-up about Nibs’ memory issues? But Nibs’ memory wipe fuels Wendy’s belief that she’s beyond human and that if humans can just quickly wipe away the Hybrids’ feelings, maybe Wendy should do what Krish suggests and stop relying on emotions. She’s again finding the limits of humanity because humans don’t cure their trauma through medically induced amnesia; they merely squash the pain down deep inside and carry it with them every single day of their miserable lives until they can explode on a loved one. That’s the problem with using children: they expect people to act ethically.
Children are also eager to impress and show off their maturity. As Slightly begins to recognize that being an adult sucks “big time,” Tootles wants to show off his scientist skills to Kirsh, who enlists the newly christened Isaac to feed and water the creatures. “Remember, the scientific method is a method, not a suggestion box,” Kirsh tells him. Unfortunately, Tootles was programmed by the same idiot who trained Chibuzo because, like her, he doesn’t heed the threat of these creatures. He also doesn’t know his own strength. With a smidge of plot contrivance, Tootles rips the door off the flies’ feeding hatch, and rather than waiting for assistance, he unlocks the door and enters the nest. As Tootles drops off the flies’ tech junk dinner, the Eye headbutts the glass, causing Tootles to stumble and close the door behind him. From there, it’s routine. The flies descend, shoot acid in the bot boy’s face, and leave him for dead.
Tootles’ death allows several plots to converge and gives Slightly a freebie. As the recently fired Arthur is packing his things into a box, Hermit makes his way to his office to ask if his sister is safe. As Arthur gives Hermit the boat code and instructions for escape, he turns off the Hybrids’ AirTags as a final fuck you to the company. That’s when he notices that Tootles is offline, sending Arthur conveniently into Slightly’s lap. Slightly lucked out with this one. While Arthur collects Tootles’ body, Slightly unlocks the egg crate, and Face Hugger latches on to the scientist, making this, without a doubt, the worst day of this guy’s life.
Back on the airship, Kirsh watches silently. Again, we have another curious synthetic like Prometheus‘ David. But is Kirsh interested in the outcome, or is he merely chaos-curious? With two episodes remaining and many questions left to answer, I’m ready for everyone to stop talking and start becoming dinner.
Stray observations
- • Tootles to Tootles; we hardly knew ye. Why couldn’t you have brought Curly with you? She hasn’t had anything to do in weeks!
- • No spoilers, as I am not watching ahead, but I’m already pre-grieving Smee, who is clearly too pure for this world. An adult hug for Slightly? Aww, that Xenomorph is just going to eat him up.
- • “That is like an onion asking, ‘How do I take care of a star?'”
- • Not that we want Yutani to get a Xenomorph, but it really speaks to Kavalier’s unique strain of awful that I’m quietly rooting for Weyland-Yutani on this one. Admittedly, this is a “whoever wins, we lose” situation.
- • Every time I spot a plot hole in Prodigy’s handling of the hybrids, I must remember that Apple still makes a rechargeable mouse that still can’t be used while charging.
- • Tonight’s episode of the Pancast really homes in on the sinister side of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan And Wendy. “The boys on the island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out.”
