The Alien movies are defined by genre diversity. We’ve had slashers in space, war and prison films set in distant worlds, and even ones where the Xenomorphs attack an unsuspecting Earth. With Alien: Earth, Noah Hawley delivered the first major Alien release about synthetics with the consciousness of children that befriend the Xenomorph to take down their corporate overlords. In some ways, it’s reminiscent of last year’s Alien: Romulus, which similarly focused on a band of magical orphans. Earth is much more successful than Fede Álvarez’s reboot. That’s because Earth gets a lot right about the underpinnings of the series as a whole. Hawley’s vision exists in a world where people are the property of corporations and where, even in death, humans continue their undying quest to please the companies that gave their lives some semblance of purpose. It’s a world where simply knowing you have shelter is worth hunting a Xenomorph. Alien has never looked so contemporary.
In “The Real Monsters,” Hawley and co-writer Migizi Pensoneau don’t hide who they think the real monsters are—even as the Lost Boys become ghosts. But the best Alien movies aren’t only about monsters. They’re about heroes, namely Ripley, a capable Weyland-Yutani warrant officer whose practical rule-following would’ve helped numerous Xenomorph victims survive to the end of the credits. She thinks for herself and understands the value of a good quarantine, and a character like her is distinctly missing from Alien: Earth. Without that humanist center, it’s all synthetics, trillionaires, and squid monsters, with not much concern for what happens to any of them. It might seem like a minor detail, but the fact that no one is really scared of the aliens becomes a significant problem in the last two episodes, especially when the Xenomorphs escape. Even then, the aliens feel somewhat like an afterthought, as if Hawley was more excited to make a show about the sentience of robots than the terror of corporations locating the universe’s most dangerous killers. One could almost pluck the Xenomorph out of the show and not much would change. Still, it’s hard to fault him.
Right now, especially, as the AI bubble expands ever further and ChatGPT users fall in love or into psychosis, Hawley is asking the right questions. But is this the right medium to do it in? He’s set up a season two where Wendy, the Lost Boys, the Xenomorph, and Baby Xenomorph use their WiFi-enabled telekinesis to overthrow the corporate nation states and forge a new path for humanity. Is that really what Alien: Earth is about? Personally, despite the cutting satire and serviceable alien blood-letting, nothing about “The Real Monsters” gets me all that excited for another season. That might be my trepidation and exhaustion about spending time with the Lost Boys. Adults playing kids has led the show down some interesting corridors, and the performances can be funny and emotional. However, they never reach the same compelling heights of Ripley, Newt, or even Hudson, all of whom are so expertly characterized that we barely know anything about them but still find them very compelling. There’s a detachment to the Lost Boys that hinders the human connection that makes launching a Xenomorph out of the airlock so exhilarating. Not that we need to compare the show Alien or Aliens, but those are just some of the expectations that come with the franchise, and Alien: Earth can’t meet them. It’s merely solid.
In its final forty-five minutes, Alien: Earth reveals itself less as a Neverland and more as an Island Of Doctor Moreau. The Xenomorph has escaped and roams free across Prodigy Island, sniffing Arthur’s waterlogged corpse and terrifying Dame as she lays posies on the graves of kids she killed. Atom gives Boy Kavalier the skinny on the many problems he’s not taking seriously enough: Non-essential staff have evacuated; Yutani forces are on the way and blocking communications; the Lost Boys are in a holding cell, but it’s only a matter of time before they decide to break free; and a Xenomorph keeps killing what few marines remain. Oh, also, Wendy has gone totally Neo and can control Prodigy’s matrix with her mind.
In the Lost Boys’ holding cell, Wendy’s evolution continues. She’s mobilizing the hybrids by poking holes in Kavalier’s logic. “In the book, Wendy Darling is Peter Pan’s favorite, and then she grew up,” Wendy tells Curly, who won’t stop insisting that, as the favorite, she’s not supposed to be there. “And that made Peter mad, so he kidnapped her daughter, Jane. We’re all in this cell because we can’t be kids anymore, but they won’t let us be adults.” What does one do when they can be neither kid nor adult? They become ghosts. Using her ability to hack Prodigy’s computer systems, Wendy begins tormenting her captors, primarily Dame, with videos of the kids before the operation. This finally gets Kavalier’s attention.
In his office, Kavalier continues brainstorming people to feed to The Eye. (I guess he had a brain fart with that eureka moment last week.) Kavalier confronts his hybrids to give them his spiel about his past. He was the miracle baby of an alcoholic from a long line of mouthbreathers, each meaner than the last. But the boy genius was destined to rule the world, if his dad didn’t kill him first. At age six, he built his first synth, which we can assume is Atom, and that synth killed his father. Moreover, he finally spells out what has been gnawing at the hybrids all season: Kavalier believes his creations belong to him and that their rebellion is messing with his bottom line. He’s a trillionaire on the verge of making immortality a consumer product. Unfortunately, without Atom or Kirsh to protect him, the Lost Boys lock Kavalier in the cell and head out onto the island for mischief purposes.
Kavalier’s history serves as a poignant reflection of Hermit and Wendy and a good reminder to the hybrid that she probably shouldn’t hold Hermit shooting Nibs against her brother. After a brief tussle with The Eye, brother and sister reconcile quickly. Meanwhile, Morrow heads for Kirsh, getting the drop on the synth, but he’s unable to finish the job and ends up being choked out after breaking Kirsh’s back. Smee and Slightly, who have similarly put their crimes out of their minds for the task at hand, discover them and restrain Kirsh and Morrow to take them back to the cell.
Like House Of The Dragon‘s last season, the end comes all too quickly, leaving the show on a “that’s it?” moment and audiences to wonder if there’s another episode coming. All the bad guys are rounded up; Wendy and Hermit bury the hatchet; and The Eye finds a new host in Arthur, who cannot catch a break. Wendy provides a little final commentary on the whole Peter Pan thing, ruling that Boy Kavalier isn’t the boy who never grew up but rather the boy who was always a man and an angry little one at that. With their crew assembled, the Lost Boys and the Xenomorphs are ready to rule. A new world awaits, and who’s going to stop them? They’ve got a Xenomorph on their side.
Stray observations
- • Kirsh always gets the best lines, and tonight’s best is a toss-up between “Didn’t John Henry die of exhaustion?” and “Where were you ten minutes ago?”
- • “What do ghosts do?” “Haunt houses?”
- • Turns out, Atom is closer to Lobot than I anticipated. It wouldn’t be an Alien without a synthetic surprise.
- • To those ends, Atom had a great closing monologue: “I told him it was a waste of technology. Who would make children immortal? An eternity of ‘are we there yet?’ But he’s a child at heart, our founder, god bless him. Far be it from me to know better. But if my programming allowed me to say, ‘I told you so….'”
- • I hate to point out plot holes, but won’t someone step on The Eye already and be done with it?
- • That’s it for season one of Alien: Earth. I appreciate everyone for sticking with the show with me. Andor this was not. Frankly, I doubt I would’ve kept up with it if it hadn’t been for recap duties, and I’m certainly not dying for another season if this is where season one ended up. The show lost a lot of steam after episode five, and I’m not sure if it ever regained momentum. Unsurprisingly, that episode turned out to be the series’s high point, considering it was the most conventionally Alien. But it also ingrained all these other ideas about synthetic sentience, corporate feudalism, and a fast-approaching nihilistic future. Another significant aspect is that no one is genuinely scared of the aliens, which undercuts the tension that Hawley and co. hoped to create. There was plenty of beautiful set dressing and oddball performances, but I can’t say that any one episode had me on the edge of my seat. I’ve seen in the comments that some viewers don’t even consider Alien a horror movie. I disagree. Scary is the least an Alien should be. To that end, Alien: Earth‘s terrestrial thrills were always fleeting and in short supply. We didn’t even get to enjoy Boy Kavalier getting his comeuppance. To that, I ask the perennial question of our time: What are we even doing here?
![Dua Lipa denies reports about firing agent for trying to deplatform Kneecap [UPDATE]](https://img.pastemagazine.com/wp-content/avuploads/2025/09/22135814/dua-lipa-royal-albert-hall-performance-screenshot-square.jpg)
