The ending of Love, Death & Robots’ Spider Rose eventually revealed the true nature of the ominous creature Lydia Martinez had received from an alien merchant in exchange for an exotic jewel in her possession. [Spoiler Alert] The extraterrestrial mascot, aptly named “Little Nose for Profits,” used to eat its owners, because of which it was able to mimic them in the end. When Lydia first received the pet from the alien merchant, she found an unimaginable amount of genetic material in its DNA, actually the traces of its previous forms that it obtained after eating its former masters. So what does this tell us? I believe that the alien merchant knew the truth about the predator pet, and only bartered it with Lydia because he didn’t want to lose the jewel she had found in the distant asteroid mine. The alien’s choice of words during the exchange implied that he knew that his pet would end up eating Lydia, and once she was dead, he could easily steal the jewel.
How Did Alien Pet Transform?
But the question that still bothers me is how did the alien pet, whom Lydia named Nosey, turn into a baby monkey-like creature soon after it arrived in Lydia’s nest? Well, if you remember, on the very first day, the alien pet licked Lydia’s robotic arm, which may have contained traces of human DNA, because of which the genetically advanced pet was able to transform into a primate. So it could be speculated that it was the inherent nature of this alien pet to mimic its owner by picking up traces of their DNA so that they wouldn’t see it as a threat or a foreign entity and quickly grow fond of it. The same thing happened with Lydia, as in her case, she developed a strong bond with the pet as soon as it turned into a monkey-like creature. It ate all the roaches on her ship, and Lydia didn’t mind ,because it reminded her of the companionship that she had lost in her life after her husband was brutally murdered by a rival faction called the shapers.
How Did Lydia’s Husband Die?
The Spider Rose episode introduced two human factions. Lydia, her husband, and her friends, who called themselves “mechanists,” who, as the name suggests, were part human and part machine. Meanwhile, the shapers were beings who employed genetic-modifying techniques to enhance their capabilities. Well, the shapers didn’t look human at all and resembled Skrulls from the Marvel comics. The episode further established that these two very different-looking factions were at war for a long time and had been hunting down each other in different parts of the galaxy. Some eight years ago, the Shaper Council tasked their barbaric assassin, Jade, with a mission to terminate Lydia and her husband, which brought him to the Mechanist colony on Konis, where he not only slaughtered Lydia’s husband but hundreds of other mechanists to take over the planet. Jade hunted the couple down and likely put a bullet in the head of Lydia’s husband in front of her eyes. It could be assumed that Lydia killed Jade for destroying her life, though it was later revealed that Jade had made clones of himself, and the one Lydia killed wasn’t the original.
In the present time, Lydia, who changed her name to Spider Rose, has turned into a vengeful cyborg, eagerly looking for a weapon to attack the shaper colony on Konis so she could exact revenge for her husband’s murder. All this while, Lydia had been searching for a prized jewel that she could barter for a weapon of mass destruction. However, as per the treaty, the aliens couldn’t trade weapons, which was why the alien merchant handed her the pet so he could acquire the jewel without paying for it.
How Did Lydia Die?
It seemed like Lydia had sent a transmission to her mechanist friends on planet Enceladus, likely to sell the jewel or procure a weapon to attack the shaper. Unfortunately, Jade intercepted this message and tracked Lydia’s whereabouts, which brought him to a distant asteroid mine where Lydia had been hiding all these years. It could also be possible that it was none other than the alien merchant who’d ratted Lydia out, as he had his eyes glued on her jewel. Or maybe Jade didn’t attack Lydia’s nest at all, and it was merely a figment of her imagination triggered by Nosey. You might have noticed that Lydia showed severe symptoms of PTSD, for which she was taking mind-numbing injections to forget those hellish nightmares in which she constantly witnessed her husband’s death. However, the moment Nosey boarded her spaceship, Lydia’s memories turned cheerful, which could suggest that the pet might have been toying with her mind as well and had been showing her things that she wanted to achieve. And yes, revenge against Jade was on top of her list.
Whatever the case might be, in Spider Rose’s ending, Jade Prime, the original one, attacked Lydia’s hideout to finish his mission, but Lydia was ready to fight back. She had enough artillery in her stronghold to kill Jade and his clones so she could finally exact revenge against her husband’s killer. However, Lydia had to pay a huge price to get such closure in life. Jade had destroyed Lydia’s nest completely, with “eating and nutrient systems” completely offline. Lydia had enough oxygen to last a week or so, and as per her bargain, the alien merchant wouldn’t arrive anytime soon. She knew her end was near, which was why she allowed Nosey to eat her up. I guess, by now, Lydia even realized the true nature of the alien pet, but she didn’t bear any grudges against it, mostly because the pet gave her a new life. After her spouse’s death, Lydia cut off all communications with the outside world and weaved a cocoon for herself. She yearned for human connection but wouldn’t let her desires overshadow her passion for revenge. But in the end, when she fulfilled her only goal in life, she decided to sacrifice her life for the survival of her new pet.
In Spider Rose’s ending, when the alien merchant returned to the mine after 86 days, he found a cocoon, which he brought to his spaceship along with Lydia’s jewel. When it opened the cocoon, he found Nosey, now resembling Lydia, hinting at the fact that Nosey ate its owner completely, leaving only the machine parts behind. Nosey turning into a cocoon and mimicking its keeper is quite an interesting metaphor. In the episode, Lydia, after losing her spouse, did a similar thing. She hid herself in an abandoned mine and let her grief feed on her. Her loss started to mold her personality, transforming her into a completely different being. She was no longer a human but had turned into a spiteful machine seeking vengeance. I guess, through the alien pet, the episode implies that we are nothing but the products of our own thoughts.
