The latest episode of the FX science fiction thriller series, Alien: Earth, sees a number of new developments, most of which lead to, or nudge things ever closer to, utter disaster, especially on Neverland Island, owned and run by the Prodigy corporation. The previous episode had played out entirely in the past, revealing how Boy Kavalier had hired a begrudged employee aboard the USCSS Maginot to ensure that the spaceship containing numerous alien species crash-landed on Earth, and particularly on land he controls. But this time, in Alien: Earth episode 6, a number of matters pan out at present, including Wendy growing suspicious of Prodigy’s intentions, Slightly setting out to execute his plan, and even the death of a hybrid, for the first time in the series.
Spoiler Alert
What happens at the meeting between the two corporations?
At the end of the previous episode, Yutani, the current leader of the Weyland-Yutani corporation, had revealed to her ever-faithful employee, Morrow, that Boy Kavalier had finally agreed to a meeting in person, and we see this event in Alien: Earth episode 6. The meeting, which takes place in one of the modern megapolises, even has a moderator in the form of a certain Barrister McAfee, assigned by the governing body called The Five, which is basically a conglomerate of the five leading corporations. Kavalier is as disrespectful and unabashed as he always is, and has no intentions of backing down from the very get-go. Yutani had called the meeting to once again put forward her demand—that the crashed USCSS Maginot, a research vessel belonging to her corporation, and all of its contents, be immediately returned to her by Prodigy.
Kavalier does not take the demand seriously, and retorts that he is ready to return everything as soon as he figures out how to remove the spaceship from the crash site without causing any more damage, slyly blaming Weyland-Yutani for the whole situation. Soon, both sides make it very apparent that they don’t have any interest in the crashed spaceship, but are all very driven to get hold of the contents of it—the alien specimens. When Kavalier feels slightly threatened by his rival’s statements, he openly reveals that the Maginot had been carrying back aliens to Earth, which is strictly prohibited by the laws of this futuristic world. His intention is to have McAfee report this to The Five and cause significant damage to Weyland-Yutani, or at least intervene in the meeting. However, the barrister is as corrupt as everyone else, and he looks to have been paid by Yutani to look the other way, so the meeting continues.
As a sort of public defense of her corporation, Yutani now claims that the aliens that were being collected inside the Maginot were supposed to be taken to some other planet for research, and were never meant to be brought back to Earth. She then offers 20 billion dollars to Boy Kavalier as a token of apology for all the harm caused to Prodigy and the families who lost loved ones in the crash, and demands that he hand over the aliens right away. While Kavalier correctly understands this to be like ransom money, and agrees to the deal as well, he soon pulls another sly move by stating that he is ready to return the aliens, but only after the quarantine period of six weeks has passed.
Once again, the law states that any living object from outer space should be kept quarantined for at least six weeks as a protective measure for Earth and its humans, and Boy Kavalier is now extremely driven to follow these rules. Yutani immediately offers a whopping 50 billion dollars to get hold of her aliens right away, but Kavalier turns it down, making it evident that it was never about money for him. A young man (or at least he looks so) who became the first trillionaire on Earth surely does not have to fret about money, and so he simply wants to establish his dominance over Weyland-Yutani through this meeting. Thus, he now absolutely refuses to hand over the aliens before six weeks, claiming to be concerned about the safety of Earth, while in reality just buying enough time for his scientists to research the beings and also probably make them breed. By the end of the meeting, the original offer of 20 billion dollars stands, meaning that Yutani loses the chance to get the aliens legally, as well as an enormous amount of money. Her secret plan of acquiring the aliens through Morrow is still in the works, though.
What makes Wendy question her creators?
Back in Alien: Earth episode 4, we had seen Nibs, one of the hybrids made by Prodigy, go rogue by starting to claim that she was pregnant and even showing the extreme mood swings associated with early pregnancy. Out of her genuine belief that she was pregnant, even though it was biologically impossible for hybrids to be pregnant, Nibs had even attacked Dame Sylvia when the latter refused to believe her claims and tried to change her mind instead. Thus, at the beginning of episode 6, the higher authorities at Prodigy, represented by Atom Eins, are concerned about the hybrid’s emotional status and want to ‘set her right’ by adjusting the various metrics to her personality and psychological characteristics. Despite a lot of initial discussions and disagreements, such a procedure is eventually carried out, and it even leads to a split between Arthur Sylvia and his wife, Dame Sylvia.
It is determined that Nibs had started to behave differently after her strange experiences over the past few days, especially after she was unsuccessfully attacked by the T. Ocellus alien. Therefore, her memory from the last two weeks is completely erased, and when she wakes up the next time after the ‘surgery,’ Nibs has no recollection of the Maginot crashing in New Siam, she and her friends leaving the island for the first time and heading to the city, and even the alien attack on her. To make matters more complicated, she wakes up in the presence of Wendy, who immediately realizes, through her usual conversation, that Nibs’ recent memory had been erased by their creators, the scientists at Prodigy. Nibs herself is extremely confused as to why she cannot remember these events, which Wendy keeps talking about with utter conviction.
Thus, Wendy now confronts Dame Sylvia about the matter and does not really get any satisfactory answer from her as to why one of her friends had been unnaturally tampered with in such a manner. Because of the human consciousnesses installed in their minds, the hybrids genuinely believe themselves to be humans, and so they want to be treated like everyone else. To suddenly erase their memory is a serious breach of privacy and respect to them, and this makes Wendy question her creators, which will surely have an even more serious impact in the episodes to come. Wendy has already started to stray from the path of being loyal to Prodigy, and she is becoming considerably dangerous as well, because of her ability to communicate with the Xenomorphs. The realization that her memory has been wiped can also have an ill impact on Nibs, who is already less emotionally stable than the other hybrids.
How does Tootles die?
Tootles’ death is one of the major highlights of the Alien: Earth episode 6, not only because of how gruesome it is, but also because we had been led to believe that the hybrids are immune to most alien attacks. As Kirsh accompanies Boy Kavalier on his journey to the megapolis for the meeting with Yutani, he needs the assistance of someone else to feed the alien specimens at the laboratory. Instead of relying on any of his human assistants, Kirsh asks Tootles to do it, possibly because he feels that a human would be at more risk than a hybrid in this context. He originally wants Tootles to be accompanied by Curly, but when the former lies about her not being at the scene, he instructs the hybrid to go to the laboratory and feed the aliens alone. Tootles does everything right until he accidentally breaks the feeder of one of the chambers, which houses an alien fly species.
This is when the T. Ocellus alien once again plays a significant role, and while it had seemingly helped the humans in the previous episode, it seems to bear a genuine hatred against hybrids. This is why it had attacked Nibs at the beginning of the series, and now it intentionally rams into the glass of the chamber to make a loud thud and distract Tootles, locking him inside the fly chamber in the process. Perhaps there is some similarity between the hybrids and the Xenomorphs, and it is already established that the T. Ocellus sees the Xenomorphs as its most-hated enemies. Perhaps this is also why Wendy is quickly forming a strong bond with one of the Xenomorphs.
But at present, the T. Ocellus, which had already carved its way into a sheep and taken total control of the animal, simply looks on as Tootles is devoured by the alien flies. It seems like although not all alien species attack hybrids, some definitely do and are even capable of dealing extreme damage to them as well. The flies quickly attack Tootles all over his face, and their secretion melts his face away, covering it with a sort of white gooey substance. There is no chance for the hybrid to survive, as he remains locked inside the chamber, with nobody else at the scene. The danger could have been averted had he not shown the cocky overconfidence that most humans have, and taken Curly with him, but he ultimately dies a most painful death.
Why does Arthur reveal the truth to Hermit?
During his short stay on Neverland Island, Hermit starts to suspect that the scientists and higher authorities at Prodigy are up to no good, and so he feels concerned about his sister’s safety. After being reassured that everything is fine by some of the other individuals, Hermit approaches Arthur Sylvia because of the man’s extreme passion and care towards the hybrids, which he had already seen earlier. Crucially, this development comes at a time that makes their conversation key to the plot development, as Arthur has already been fired by Prodigy. During the heated argument over whether Nibs’ memory should be wiped earlier, Arthur had firmly objected to the demand by Atom Eins, as he believed that they should not play God with the hybrids anymore than they already had. However, not only did Eins refuse to support him, but Arthur’s beloved wife, Dame Sylvia, had also refused to show support, as she agreed to carry out the operation to wipe Nibs’ recent memory. While Dame Sylvia must have done so to protect her and her husband’s position at the research facility, Arthur did not take this well at all and had seen it as a betrayal. Interestingly, his wife does not try to explain her stance either, which really makes it seem like science and Prodigy did finally manage to create a split between the couple. As soon as Dame Sylvia agreed to wipe the hybrid’s memory, Atom Eins fired Arthur from his position, ordering him to leave the island by the end of the day and even threatening to shoot him otherwise. Thus, when Hermit approaches Arthur, he is angrily and frustratedly packing his things to leave the facility and has also lost his love for his wife. He literally has nothing to lose anymore and continues to be driven by his care and concern for the hybrids, who he feels are cruelly subjected to experiments that are doing nobody any good.
Therefore, Arthur secretly tells Hermit that Wendy is not safe on the island and that he should leave with her at the very earliest. He also gives Hermit the code to the boat that is required to leave the island, and then even hacks into the system to ensure that none of the hybrids can be tracked anymore, so that the Prodigy authorities cannot do anything against him or his sister. Most importantly, all of this sets in motion a chain of events that leads to utter chaos in Alien: Earth episode 6. Tootles’ overconfidence leads to his death at the laboratory, and now Hermit visiting Arthur leads to the discovery of this death. As Arthur turns off the tracking for all the hybrids, he is alerted to Tootles being offline, or dead, at the laboratory, and so he heads to the place to check on the matter.
Can Slightly execute his plan in the end?
At the same time, Slightly nervously goes to the laboratory to execute his plan somehow, after having failed to convince, or even lure, Hermit into coming to the place with him. Slightly has an emotional breakdown, which is facilitated by Morrow threatening to kill his mother if he does not comply, and this is when Arthur Sylvia walks into the scene. For all this time, Slightly had seen Hermit as the only human who he could have used to execute his plan of getting hold of the Xenomorph Facehugger from the eggs, but Arthur walking into the lab by himself is a simply unmissable opportunity for him.
Thus, when Arthur enters the alien fly chamber to retrieve Tootles’ body, Slightly opens the chamber containing the Xenomorph eggs and locks the whole lab from the outside. Sensing a human being nearby, the Facehugger hatches from the egg as per the usual practice and soon makes a lunge at Arthur’s face, successfully planting the Xenomorph embryo into his body and confirming that he is the latest victim of the aliens in the series. Once the despicable operation is complete, and Arthur, now under the control of the Facehugger, does not fight back anymore, Slightly enters the lab once again and drags Arthur into one of the air vents nearby. However, he does not lock the fly chamber, leading to the alien insects immediately flying out and even almost attacking Slightly as well. The flies getting released is going to spell utmost disaster for the other hybrids, who are clearly the favorite targets of these alien beings, and the last two episodes of Alien: Earth can be expected to be satisfyingly chaotic and gory.
Will Arthur Sylvia die?
There is no chance for Arthur to survive the ordeal that he is currently in, as nobody would be coming to look for him and rescue him. The fact that Arthur disappears after being terminated by Atom Eins would make everyone believe that he must have left the island without informing anyone else, out of anger and shame. His recent estrangement with his wife will also play a crucial role, and since nobody knows that he had gone to the laboratory, nobody will technically consider Arthur to be missing at all. This plays out brilliantly for Slightly, though, as nobody will go looking for the man who is crucial for his plan. The Xenomorph embryo planted inside Arthur’s body will soon grow into a Chestbuster and rip out of his body, killing him in the process, within just a couple of days. What remains to be seen is whether Slightly will be able to hand over the alien to Morrow successfully, amidst all the dangers that will hold a tight grip over Neverland Island.
