FX’s science fiction thriller series, Alien: Earth, had been extremely impressive throughout its run, but this week’s finale establishes it as one of the most complete shows of recent times, one that can single-handedly push the “Alien” franchise to new heights of success. Last week’s episode 7 had set up an explosive ending, with a possible rift between the human-hybrid siblings, Hermit and Wendy, while the latter’s unique ability to communicate with and exert control over Xenomorphs also made things intense on Neverland Island. On the other side, the megalomaniac leader of Prodigy, Boy Kavalier, had been in search of the perfect candidate to subject to the supremely intelligent T. Ocellus alien specimen. Alien: Earth episode 8 deals with each of these topics, and more, while also leaving some room for speculation as to what season 2 might feature when it surely arrives in the future.
Spoiler Alert
How is Nibs still alive?
Back at the end of Alien: Earth episode 7, Hermit, Wendy, and Nibs had been cornered by the Neverland security team, who had been ordered to capture the trio before their escape from the island and bring them back to the Prodigy facility. However, Nibs, whose emotional state had already undergone an extreme switch, had launched a vicious attack on the soldiers, ripping one of them apart. This had triggered a very human instinct in Hermit—to protect his friends, as he used to be a part of the same security team—and so he had opened fire on Nibs, seemingly killing her with a pulse gun. In fact, Nibs’ body was seen riddled with bullet wounds, and more importantly, the pulse fired by Hermit had caused a tremendous fit in her. The hybrid seemed to shut down and essentially die as she lay lifeless while Wendy angrily confronted her brother about what he had just done.
It was quite obvious that the siblings would then be arrested by the soldiers and brought back to the facility, which is what we see at the beginning of Alien: Earth episode 8. Wendy is rounded up with all of the other hybrids and detained inside a holding cell, which Kirsh admits is not adequate to contain such high-tech beings. Slightly and Smee had first been taken hostage by Morrow in the previous episode, as he and the Weyland-Yutani soldiers marched towards the Prodigy facility, before they were intercepted by Kirsh and his security forces. Thus, Slightly and Smee are also held inside the cell, while Curly, who had refused to leave the island, has also been imprisoned. However, Nibs’ presence in the cell is the most surprising of them all, as it is confirmed that the hybrid had survived the pulse-shot from the previous episode.
There is no mention of how exactly Nibs had avoided death, or permanent shutdown, after it was made to seem like Hermit had killed her earlier. Thus, we are left to assume that the pulse had only temporarily shut the hybrid down, disabling her instead of doing any permanent damage. Surprisingly, Nibs also does not bear any physical signs of the attack, which probably suggests that the hybrids have regenerative abilities as well, since their bodies are technically akin to synths and not humans. At present, the members of the Lost Boys wonder how they got caught by the authorities, and Nibs suspects that Curly betrayed them by telling Dame Sylvia and the others about their location. Although they do not collectively hold Curly responsible, as she completely denies any wrongdoing, this seemingly pointless conversation actually leads to a massive twist in the tale.
Why does Wendy go rogue?
It is during this conversation that Wendy mentions how she had stumbled upon their own graves in the forest behind the Prodigy facility. The children whose consciousnesses had been downloaded onto synth bodies had all passed away and been buried at a gravesite in the forest, and Wendy, Hermit, and Nibs had found the place during their attempted escape earlier. Although Curly refuses to believe that she, or the other hybrids, had died in any way, as her original consciousness still lives on, the others do not have any difficulty understanding how their creators at Prodigy had technically cheated them.
The children had originally been promised immortality but were never told that they would be forever trapped as teenage consciousnesses inside adult bodies, and even be expected to carry out adult jobs for the sake of the creators. This realization makes Nibs mention how they are like ghosts, with no real existence, and this further inspires Wendy to decide to do what ghosts do best—start haunting. Wendy chooses to no longer be subservient to her creators and take control in a fearless manner, and also to lead the other hybrids in a literal and symbolic battle against Prodigy.
Thus, Wendy now takes control of the electronic network from inside the holding cell, through the security cameras, while also communicating with the Xenomorphs and summoning them, almost alerting them about the tough fight that is about to come. Despite being easily able to open the cell doors, she chooses not to do so yet, as that is not part of her plan. Wendy toys with the communications and with Boy Kavalier’s monitor terminal, essentially to make him aware of her powers and to draw him closer to the cell. But first, she remotely opens the other cell holding Hermit and Morrow captive, so that the cyborg can wreak havoc at the facility.
Can Morrow accomplish his original mission?
Morrow had originally set out towards Neverland Island with the sole intention of serving his bosses at Weyland-Yutani by retrieving the alien species from Prodigy’s control. But along the way, he had been wronged by Prodigy numerous times, and now finds himself in captivity, with a metal cage on his cyborg right arm. By this time, Morrow had developed an intense hatred against Prodigy, holding them responsible for everything that had gone wrong in his life. At the core of this feeling was the belief that Prodigy, and its CEO, Boy Kavalier, had single-handedly sabotaged the space mission because of which he had technically lost his daughter decades ago. Thus, when Wendy opens his holding cell, Morrow does not wait around long to take down the guard and make his way to the laboratory.
He finds Kirsh at the place, as the scientist had still been observing the alien species, even amidst the chaos at the facility. An intense fight between the cyborg and the synth follows, with both being equally capable and possessing superhuman strength. Morrow is eventually able to overpower Kirsh and brutalize him, making him bleed the white fluid that is essentially synth blood. But Kirsh manages to hold on to his composed and intelligent nature even at this time, as he catches Morrow off guard and avoids being killed. Before any resolution to this fight can be reached, Wendy frees herself and the Lost Boys from their holding cell and gives each of them specific responsibilities. Thus, Slightly and Smee walk into the laboratory and take both Morrow and Kirsh captive, taking them back to the holding cell, as per Wendy’s plan.
What happens to Dame Sylvia?
Episode 8 of Alien: Earth actually opens with Dame Sylvia visiting the graves of the children in the forest behind the Prodigy facility, as she seemingly feels guilty for what the corporation had done to the helpless children, who had been desperate to hold on to their lives. However, the fact that she had chosen not to support her husband earlier now makes her an antagonist, who will definitely face the consequence of her actions. Despite her guilt, Dame Sylvia had herself made the decision to subject the children to scientific experiments, as Wendy directly tells her towards the end of the episode, and so she faces her judgment as well.
While at the gravesite, Dame Sylvia is almost attacked by the adult Xenomorph running wild inside the forest and is narrowly saved by the security forces. She is then brought back to the facility and her chamber, where Wendy takes over the screens to repeatedly play footage from before the creation of the hybrids, when the terminally ill children were given false hopes about immortality. This is a clear warning to Dame Sylvia that she will not be spared, and thus, Nibs soon heads to her chamber to take her down and bring her to the holding cell, which had originally been used to hold the hybrids captive.
Is the Neverland Security force wiped out?
It is mentioned at the beginning of the Alien: Earth finale that most of the non-essential workers at the Prodigy facility had already been sent home because of the conditions on Neverland Island. The security force on the island had already been thinned out by various forces—the Weyland-Yutani soldiers that Morrow had brought with him, the wild Xenomorphs in the forest, and even Nibs, to a small extent. But the core team of the Prodigy Corporation Security Service, which consists of Hermit’s two best friends, Siberian and Rashidi, still continues to do their job of maintaining safety and security on the island, as ordered by the higher authorities.
In the process, they end up being targeted by Wendy, who naturally hates them for having opened fire on her fellow hybrids, and she literally toys around with them by disabling the elevator and turning on self-destruct mode just to scare the soldiers. Towards the end of the episode, Wendy orders the Xenomorph to attack and kill the remaining soldiers, while Siberian, Rashidi, and the rest of the team go to check the laboratory, where the previous fight had already destroyed most of the containers. This meant that many of the alien species were now running wild inside the place, and one of these, the creepy vine alien seen at the beginning of the series, completely gobbles up Siberian, while her friends can only watch with horror. Rashidi is then seen being taken down by Curly, who had joined the rest of the hybrids in the revolution.
Who is Boy Kavalier’s father?
In Alien: Earth episode 8, Boy Kavalier finally opens up about his childhood in a manner akin to notorious villains talking about their origin stories, and we learn about how he had inherited Prodigy Corporation, which he then grew into a multi-trillion dollar business. Kavalier’s childhood was mostly defined by the terrible treatment he was subjected to at the hands of his abusive father, which had made him grow detached from humans and much more interested in synths and other forms of non-humans. It was at the mere age of 6 that he had built his first synth and ordered it to kill his abusive father. In fact, Kavalier had then managed to download his father’s consciousness onto the body of his synth invention, building the first ever hybrid.
Despite hating his father tremendously, or rather because of it, Boy Kavalier had wanted to exert control over the man, because of which he had transferred his consciousness to keep him alive, in a way. It is now revealed that this first-ever hybrid, the synth who was Kavalier’s first-ever friend, into whom he had downloaded his father’s consciousness to turn into a hybrid, is actually Atom Eins. The senior employee of Prodigy Corporation is actually a non-human, and he has been secretly working as the advisor and guiding figure to Boy Kavalier for all this while as well. Kavalier has essentially made his father become the figure that he originally should have been, but by turning him into the hybrid, Atom Eins.
At the end of Alien: Earth episode 8, Atom Eins takes Hermit to Kavalier’s chamber as planned, in order to make the T. Ocellus alien forcefully enter his body. However, when Hermit manages to avoid this fate, and Wendy arrives at the scene, Eins tries to attack the siblings. But since he is a non-human, meaning that he is driven by electronics, Wendy is able to control him as well. Before Eins can do anything, Wendy simply orders him to stop, using her ability to control all electronics, and thus Boy Kavalier’s father is captured by the hybrids as well.
What happens to Boy Kavalier in the end?
At the very end of Alien: Earth episode 8, Boy Kavalier and the other senior members of Prodigy Corporation are held captive in a holding cell at the facility, ironically the same one where the hybrids were kept at the beginning of the episode. Only some time earlier, Wendy had unleashed her Xenomorphs on the humans, but had spared Kavalier’s life intentionally, for she has specific plans for him. Now that Kavalier, Eins, Dame Sylvia, and Kirsh are held captive, Wendy announces that she and the hybrids are now going to take over Prodigy, meaning that she is going to make each one of them work for her. This is why Boy Kavalier has been left alive, and he is even seen shamelessly laughing in the end, perhaps feeling wonder at the fact that Wendy was now showing the most human tendency of all—the drive to take over other humans and races and exert control over them.
What does the T. Ocellus alien intend on doing next?
The T. Ocellus alien was initially intended to infect Hermit, whom Boy Kavalier had considered the most ideal candidate because of his comparatively inferior intelligence. However, the alien species, which has always managed to survive all sorts of situations so far, manages to slink away from the facility upon sensing danger from Wendy. The alien is now seen ending up on the beach, where it finds the dead body of Arthur Sylvia and immediately enters it by replacing its eyeball. The T. Ocellus takes control of Arthur and allows him to move around once again, although its intentions remain unclear as of now. The T. Ocellus will definitely be dealt with in the 2nd season, and it can be expected to continue playing a crucial role in the plot.
What to expect from season 2?
Alien: Earth season 2 will firstly deal with the situation of the Prodigy Corporation after the change of power, with Wendy and her hybrid friends taking over. Importantly, she still has the Xenomorphs by her side, carrying out the orders that she sends their way, meaning that she will use aliens to fight any battles in the future. It is also known that Weyland-Yutani, led by Yutani herself, are flying to Neverland Island with the hopes of taking back the alien species that belong to them, but they are clearly unaware of exactly what has gone down at the place in recent times. Therefore, a significant portion of season 2 will probably have Prodigy, under its new leadership, engaged in a battle with Weyland-Yutani Corporation. The T. Ocellus will seemingly manage to avoid being found, and it will surely wreak more havoc by using its extreme intelligence. Lastly, the T. Ocellus alien, in control of Arthur Sylvia’s body, might also make an alliance with Boy Kavalier, at least a temporary one, and come to the latter’s rescue in Alien: Earth season 2.
