Earth’ Finally Gave Us the Episode We Were Waiting For

When I saw the title for the fifth episode of Alien: Earth, it seemed too good to be true. Could the episode actually live up to the implications of its title? Were we about to get a brand-new, full-fledged Alien movie in the comfort of our home? Thankfully, the answer to both those questions is “Yes.” The fifth episode of Alien: Earth saw creator Noah Hawley deliver his own version of an Alien movie in the confines of his show, and it was familiar, fascinating, and fraught with tension. Let’s discuss.

That aforementioned episode title is “In Space, No One…” a wink at the tagline of the original 1979 Ridley Scott Alien. The full phrase goes, “In space, no one can hear you scream,” and the episode had plenty of screaming as we jumped back in time to explain exactly what happened on the USCSS Maginot that made it crash into Earth.

One of the many things that made this so great is that Hawley, who both wrote and directed this episode, already set up so much in previous episodes. For example, we know everyone except Morrow is dead. We know that he had a chance to save Zaveri (Richa Moorjani), but he let her get killed by a xenomorph. Oh, right, we also know that there was a xenomorph on board that burst out of the chest of a person in cryosleep and that several of the ship’s other creatures also survived the crash. So all of that was just kind of hanging over the episode. Beats we knew we had to hit; it was just a matter of when or how. That delivered almost a new Alien experience, one inspired by the films but more dependent on dramatic irony than pure discovery.

And the episode jumps right into it. Mostly, we follow Morrow, which makes sense as he’s still alive and crucial to the rest of the show. He’s woken up from cryosleep to be told two creatures are out, the captain is dead, and a fire was set that basically made it impossible for the ship to land properly. As the head of security, he immediately tries to figure out what the hell is going on. Was someone behind this, or was it random? He begins recovering deleted files and going through footage. We also get a flashback of him with his young daughter back on Earth and learn that she died in a fire at the age of 19, only a few years into his trip. He’ll have to wait over 50 years to recover her belongings.

With the ship’s captain dead, Zaveri is put in charge. When she reports this home, all Weyland-Yutani cares about is one thing: what’s the status of the cargo? In fact, Zaveri gets almost cyberbullied by the MUTHUR computer as it repeatedly makes sure that she acknowledges “survival of cargo is top priority.” Nothing else. Basically, the humans are secondary to the aliens.

Plus, those aliens are having a field day all over the ship. Even though the person with the facehugger is put into cryosleep, the facehugger doesn’t take, and a xenomorph bursts out and escapes. The creepy slug things escape their containment and drop a bunch of babies into Chibuzo’s (Karen Aldridge) water. Fascinatingly, the eyeball octopus notices this and tries to warn Chibuzo about it, but she doesn’t react. Eventually, that too escapes and takes a ride in the eyeball of one of the ship’s mechanics, Shmuel (played by the great Michael Smiley).

Morrow continues his investigation and discovers two things. One, the ship is being directly sabotaged by someone who is pretending to be asleep. And, most importantly, he learns that this person was hired by Prodigy CEO Boy Kavalier. Morrow finds a video that shows the saboteur Petrovich (Enzo Cilenti) begging Boy to be transferred into a new body. Boy sort of agrees (we know he can’t do this with adults, but Petrovich doesn’t) as long as Petrovich delivers the Maginot on a collision course to one of his cities.

It’s the revelation of all revelations. Boy played dumb as it all went down, but now we know not only was he aware of what was on the Weyland-Yutani ship, but he also orchestrated its crash so that he could steal it all. It’s a piece of information that changes everything. And now we also know Morrow is aware of it.

There are a ton of other details throughout the episode, too, but in the grand scheme of things, they are largely inconsequential. Each little thing—like when those babies finally kill the young mechanic or we get to see the eyeball creature fight and bite a xenomorph—adds to the enjoyment and terror of the episode, but it’s all tangential. Most of the people die, and we already know the creatures live and escape. All that really matters is that we see Maginot was sabotaged and that it was orchestrated by Boy Kavalier.

Eventually, we work our way back to the moment from the pilot episode when Morrow lets Zaveri die, he reports that everyone else on the ship is dead, and he prepares for the crash. Then, finally, back on Earth, and back in the timeline of the show, we see Morrow meet with Yutani (Sandra Yi Sencindiver) and reveal that he wants to not only recover the creatures but also to kill Boy Kavalier. Yutani tells her team to give him whatever he wants.

In terms of moving the story of Alien: Earth forward, “In Space, No One…” didn’t move the needle a lot. It was mostly a big, bold, elaborate story centered on that one massive revelation. But, in terms of giving us a hugely satisfying, seriously terrifying, and massively impressive episode of TV, it delivered and then some. Noah Hawley may be pushing the Alien franchise in a bunch of new ways with this show, but with this specific episode, he tipped his cap back to the masters.

Assorted musings

• Something else I loved about this episode is that it really let us feel the impact of these long, deep space missions. Previous Alien films kind of touched upon it, but here, with Morrow’s daughter and the discussions between mechanics, you really get a sense of how huge a decision going on one of these trips is. You are basically putting a pin in your life while Earth keeps moving. So, yes, you’ll hopefully (but not usually in these movies) live for more years thanks to cryosleep, but everyone you know and love will age normally. You give up so much just to be paid. It speaks to the state of the world and is just a lot to get your head around. Exploring it in this episode made it even better.
• Jumping off that, you also get the sense that these ships are not just the handful of characters we meet. It seems as if there are dozens and dozens of people who do similar jobs and rotate every few years. That’s why it’s so hard for Morrow to figure out who is sabotaging the ship: because there are so many people sleeping all the time. Again, it’s just one of those little details or possibilities you never really think about.
• Previously, the pilot episode made a pretty big deal of the android Teng (Andy Yu) being super creepy with one of the women on the ship, Sullivan (Victoria Masoma). That story comes back again in this episode, but it never pays off. Teng gets ripped apart by a xenomorph, and Sullivan dies in cryosleep. Basically, I’m not sure why this was a part of the story. Maybe it was just a quick addition to up our discomfort? A point that speaks against the views of androids?
• This is an observation for about six of you, but Malachite, the young engineer played by Jamie Bisping who drinks the bugs, really reminded me of Chelsea FC star Cole Palmer. I thought it, and then I couldn’t unthink it.
• What do we think the implications are of the eyeball octopus knocking on its cage to warn Chibuzo about the slug creatures? Maybe it was just trying to gain some favor with her? Maybe it was jealous that another creature made such a bold move, which would then negate its plans? It’s unclear but fun to think about.
• I also want to just spend another second basking in the glory that was the eyeball octopus, inside the body of Shmuel, jumping on the back of a xenomorph and biting it. Sure, it loses the battle, but wow, that was badass.
• This episode was over an hour long without commercials, and yet it took about 45 minutes to get to the xenomorph. Talk about restraint. It works, though, because we’ve seen a lot of xenomorphs in the previous episodes, so a slight break is okay. Plus, we then get that awesome David Fincher chase that brought us back to the Morrow/Zaveri moment.
• Finally, it certainly was frustrating to have last week’s episode end on such an incredible cliffhanger (Wendy communicating with the xenomorph) only to ignore it for a week. But such is the joy of weekly release television. Hopefully, that extra week will make whatever happens next even more satisfying.

Did you like this episode as much as we did? What do you think are the implications of Boy being behind the crash? Let us know below

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.