Spoilers Alien: Earth Spoiler Thread

[Paul Farquhar]

Also...the wig-wearing folks who are so into their party that they haven't noticed a giant freaking spacecraft has just split their building in two? Seriously? What the hell was the scene about

Nobles partying whist the world burns is a fairly common trope. There is a very similar scene in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous during a demonic invasion, for example.

And, of course, they are all off their heads with alcohol and drugs.

 

[Swanosaurus]

I’m wondering why the xenomorph is so violent, whether the xenomorph is in « secure perimeter for the queen » mode, or totally panicked and confused, or whether it is a juvenile queen clearing a nest for herself?

I was wondering that as well ... though in the beginning, it behaves pretty much the way we are used to, skulking around, waiting for the opportunity to pick off one or two at a time, probably not hunting a lot beyond what it wants for food or as hosts or because it feels threatened. (that's always how I understood the behaviour of it in the original movie, though killing Lambert and Parker didn't quite fit.)
But then, it goes full psycho on that wig party, which seems out of character.
Killing the troup of soldiers afterwards seems to make more sense - it has just been attacked and trapped, so waking up, it will probably ill everything that might be a threat.

But beyond that, I feel it's depicted as being more inherently violent then most of the Xenos we have seen before. Even aboard the Maginot, going after the Cyborg, it acts more like a furious psychpathic killer than like the calm, deadly monster we know.

I wonder if this will be explained, or whether it is just considered part of the range of different depictions of how the creature looks and behaves.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

As we mentioned earlier, it’s possible this Xeno incubated in the cat, and is exhibiting cat-like (i.e. psycho) behaviour and movement.

Which means there is another xeno, most likely a queen, that incubated in the human crew member. Which would make cat-xeno its protector. I expect the queen is busy laying more eggs.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Once again, people are shockingly lax about any kind of safety protocols or precautions of any sorts, from people who should know better… At this point it’s so deeply ingrained in the series that doing otherwise would feel wrong I think.

I think we have to see the this as an alt-history given the Maginot necessarily launched in 2055, and yeah we're definitely not going to have the capability to manufacture a space-faring vessel with that outward appearance by 2055 (and it'd have to have been started building, completed and trialled years before that, even), let alone have access to artificial gravity, cryosleep, FTL, presumably a fusion-based power planet, and so on (and seemingly inertial dampers - a lot of stuff is hard to explain if there weren't inertial dampers here, but they're sort of "baked in" to a lot of sci-fi ship behaviour)!

And there are some curious quirks of technology which look deeply retro from our perspective. So despite Ice Age (of all things!) and that 1977 ball game happening in both timelines, I think the timelines probably start diverging in like the 1950s or earlier.

With the five corporations running the planet for what, probably decades by 2055 even, I have to imagine all OSHA/"'Elf and safety innit"-type organisations have been deleted from existence, litigation against the companies is probably legally impossible (except by each other - we know from episode 2 that that's possible), so they don't have to worry about safety except where it hurts the bottom line or imperils their workers/vessels in ways they actually care about. It does seem, from Alien, that they probably at least act like they care a bit, and have safety manuals, because Ripley's whole deal early in Alien is "What the hell are you idiots doing, this puts us all in danger and (IIRC) isn't protocol!".

I’m wondering why the xenomorph is so violent, whether the xenomorph is in « secure perimeter for the queen » mode, or totally panicked and confused, or whether it is a juvenile queen clearing a nest for herself?

Yeah there seem to be four theories here:

1) Oh no poor baby is scared!!! Awww little xenomorph kill the mean men scaring you!

I don't think this is it personally but I do enjoy that people are increasingly siding with/anthropomorphizing the xenomorph we're so used to it at this point!

2) Yeah maybe it's a queen. I would be surprised given Scott is EP but... Hawley said this show is "officially non-canon", and there's only one thing that determines whether something is "canon" in this franchise - Scott's opinion - so Hawley may have pre-permission to use the "non-canon" queen angle. He's certainly using a ton of aesthetics and some ideas from Aliens.

3) That there may be two xenomorphs and the very agile, fast, sleek and incredibly aggressive one may be from the cat (or there's one and the apparent chestburst from a cryopod is a misdirect). It was pointed out to me that the xenomorph here is digitigrade in the sense that a human standing on the balls of their feet is digitigrade, because that's how it stands/crouches (i.e. the guy in the suit is intentionally keeping his heels elevated), which would support that (whereas the Alien xenomorph was flat-footed like a human).

4) That this xenomorph is operating on an "eggmorphing" principle (this is slightly supported by some random pre-release thing for Alien: Earth referring to "ovomorphogenesis"), a technically non-canon process (because the scene got cut from Alien by Scott himself) that nevertheless often pops up in Alien-based media whereby a non-queen xenomorph can somehow cause an incapacitated victim to turn into an facehugger egg (a royal facehugger egg in some versions of this), and is protecting eggs it made. This doesn't completely track with the slaughterfest (you'd expect the xenomorph to drag more people away if it was doing this) and also seems wrong because the eggs appear to have been in crates before someone got them out, though could link to the "two xenomorphs" theory.

I suspect none of the above are fully correct (the first one least of all) but we shall see.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Did the crew capture all the species, tang? Involved in the species being released and the cyborg reliving the events before the crew died or when they were dying

I gotta presume the cyborg (Marrow) was a major part of capturing most of these species, because I don't see anyone else on the crew who is up to that, and he also clearly has and knows how to use capture equipment. I guess the blood bugs and the eye-octopus might just have been tempted into traps but even then, they surely live in pretty scary environments!

 

[wicked cool]

I gotta presume the cyborg (Marrow) was a major part of capturing most of these species, because I don't see anyone else on the crew who is up to that, and he also clearly has and knows how to use capture equipment. I guess the blood bugs and the eye-octopus might just have been tempted into traps but even then, they surely live in pretty scary environments!

Right. I hope we get more flashbacks

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

And a lot of the decisions are inexplicable, like sending all the priceless hybrids (the Lost Boys - Disney/Fox product placement much?) into the crash site - sure they have super bodies, but that should just make a bunch of kids running around a disaster area exponentially more trouble.

I was going to respond to this. I don't think this specific decision is sloppy- I think it is very deliberate. Because it is a reckless, stupid, and impulsive decision.

And the viewers know it.

But rewind to the decision, and what it tells us. It tells us about a character, and about the world.

First, it tells us about Boy Genius. We know that he is brilliant (it's been told to us, and shown to us). We know that he is impulsive and reckless and mercurial (if he doesn't have ADD/ADHD or something similar I would be shocked). We know that he is amoral (he is transferring memories, but it results in the death of the children ... not in being immortal ... and he has stated that he can just make more with more kids). We know that this isn't about about bettering humanity for him, but about his own god complex (or, as he puts it, being able to create a being that is smart enough not to bore him). We know that he is interested in data collection over safety and consequences- see, e.g., first his authorization to allow Wendy to access the computer feeds and then his reaction to learning that she has figured out how to hack the systems .... any reasonable person would shut it down, but he wants to observe it.

This decision is about showing us his character- the reason he authorizes it is first, because Wendy wanted to do it. This surprised him and amused him ... and he values that more than anything (it did not bore him!). The risks don't matter, because he doesn't consider them (or anyone, honestly) as worthy- hybrids, synths, humans ... they can all be replaced. Finally, has live feeds from them ... so he not only gets data, but he gets to be there vicariously. It's not just data and learning more about them, he gets a thrill through them. He's not like WY or the other heads (see his first introduction at the beginning, when he's at the business meeting with his feet up).

And it tells us about the world- when he authorizes it, no one says no. Because he has all the power. Then, his "advisor" (the responsible one) tells him that this is a bad idea, and he brushes him off. Because he can. In this world, it might be a "corporation," but this corporation is one person, and that one person has all the power and you can provide advice, but you can't say no.

So I would say that this is a bad decision, but great writing. IMO, YMMV, etc.

 

[Stalker0]

So I would say that this is a bad decision, but great writing. IMO, YMMV, etc.

My thoughts exactly. Its a terrible idea, but seems perfectly in character for the Boy Kavalier we have been shown so far.

 

[Vael]

And naming him Boy Kavalier isn't subtle at all ...

 

[Stalker0]

And naming him Boy Kavalier isn't subtle at all ...

I wouldn't be surprised if he took on that name himself tbh.