Spoilers Alien: Earth Spoiler Thread

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I liked this episode, but it was more horror-themed than horrific, in my opinion. (I just watched Barbarian over the weekend, so brightly lit aliens just trying to kill you is a welcome relief at the moment.)

What I think this episode establishes is that that the real villains of the Alien franchise are Weyland-Yutani HR. There's no way anyone bothered to give a personality test to Yeng before putting him on the Manginot for 65 years where -- hopefully -- he was only masturbating in the cryochamber. Him happily sitting on the knowledge that someone was only faking being in cryosleep turns out to be the least objectionable thing about him. Never have I been so glad to see a minor character killed off in a horror franchise.

I thought the generally excellent cast did a great job with the crew of the Manginot. I was especially happy to see Richa Moorjani, whom I know from Never Have I Ever, get to stretch her wings.

Characters doing dumb things in Alien movies are par for the course, but I think it was pretty believable here. The acting captain has them cut on the captain's facehugger first because she was protecting her boyfriend. The biologist is sloppy with containment because she's been out there 65 years, is days away from getting home, and is exhausted. The saboteur knows what a cruddy gig this is and wants to get his. And the extremely uneducated and naive apprentice engineer is grossly underpaid and, like the rest of the crew, abused by Weyland-Yutani, who would have sent a chimp instead if a chimp could do basic engineering work.

And Morrow's story, as suspected, is deeply tragic. He gave up a lifetime with his daughter, whom I think he is the sole support for, with the goal of being able to come back and take care of her when they're both in their golden years. Instead, he's alone in the galaxy, with even Grandmother Yutani gone by the time he returns. The mission was all he had left and Boy Kavalier took even that from him. His anger and drive make perfect sense and the actor completely sells it. I don't think there's much chance he'll be able to knife Boy Kavalier, but he can certainly do his best to put him in real danger.

As for the other dangers, the ticks are interesting and gross -- and much smarter than Earth insects -- but as always, the real star is the eyeball monster. Whatever its goal was, it definitely seems familiar with the xenomorphs -- and the xeno with it -- and it appears to have a goal. Was it trying to take control of the ship and fly it somewhere?

Looking forward to the final two (?) episodes of this season, which I suspect will be even bloodier than this one.

 

[Older Beholder]

(I just watched Barbarian over the weekend, so brightly lit aliens just trying to kill you is a welcome relief at the moment.)

Barbarian is so good. For me there were too many hilarious moments to be really disturbed by it.
I watched Weapons yesterday, (by the same writer director as Barbarian) and it was even better.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Barbarian is so good. For me there were too many hilarious moments to be really disturbed by it.

It definitely walks the line of "holy crap, that was horrifying" and "holy crap, that was hilarious." And it winks at the audience a number of times, like when Bill "Pennywise" Skarsgård says that he's "not a monster or anything," knowing that we will, of course, suspect him of being one.

Still, the tone, she is bleak. And the big jump scare in the tunnel at the halfway mark genuinely affected how I ran The Fiend of Hollow Mine the next day. I will likely be thinking about the "basement" in Barbarian when I design or run dungeons for quite a while to come.

 

[Older Beholder]

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Also, while Xenomorphs aren't stupid, the drones are certainly expendable when a Queen is around. I'm thinking of the xenos that were cut down en masse via the automated sentry guns in Aliens. When it is a solo, as you noted, their sense of self-preservation is much higher

They are subject to the law of conservation of ninja.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

As for the other dangers, the ticks are interesting and gross -- and much smarter than Earth insects

They kind of feel like a Gygax original.

"I try to remove the monstrous tick."

"It releases a puff of poisonous gas. Everyone within 5 ft. save vs. Poison or die".

 

[wicked cool]

I got the impression it was trying to distract her from the ticks. It clearly wasn’t helping the engineer.

Anyone else catch it but she called the eye thing she. Also it tried to talk when it takes over the engineer (it try’s to move his mouth with a tentacle )

I would love a prequel (ill take a book) that shows how they captured these creatures as they they appear pretty incompetent

Thinking way 2 much into it but the ticks used a web to hide in order to open the container and then laid eggs in her bottle while distracted showed as much intelligence as the eye

Also how did boy kavalier know about the mission and bribe the chief engineer. The mission was 65 years before? Yutani leader at the end tells the security guard my mother liked you as she wasn’t even alive?

 

[Laurefindel]

I got the impression it was trying to distract her from the ticks. It clearly wasn’t helping the engineer.

Anyone else catch it but she called the eye thing she. Also it tried to talk when it takes over the engineer (it try’s to move his mouth with a tentacle )

I would love a prequel (ill take a book) that shows how they captured these creatures as they they appear pretty incompetent

Thinking way 2 much into it but the ticks used a web to hide in order to open the container and then laid eggs in her bottle while distracted showed as much intelligence as the eye

Also how did boy kavalier know about the mission and bribe the chief engineer. The mission was 65 years before? Yutani leader at the end tells the security guard my mother liked you as she wasn’t even alive?

Not only that, but even if I doubt that Boy Kavalier wanted the ship to crash right in the middle of one of his cities (?), setting up a perfect trajectory for a precise collision in his country and setting up a non-destructive crash-landing from the back end of the ship’s final approach to Earth requires more than chief-engineer mastery of navigational skills.

So not only would Prodigy need to know about the ship and its cargo, but it would need to know its exact trajectory and functioning in order to communicate to an engineer how to perform such a hack.

To a certain extent, we can imagine that regulations about interstellar ships in final approach to Earth would yield relatively public information, or info easy to obtain with the right connections. If Earth become the equivalent of an interstellar airport, there’s got to be a pretty elaborate control tower scheduling and approach vector lanes etc. weeks if not months in advance. For all we know, this ship was brought to Boy Kavalier’s attention only a few weeks ago when it pinged on Earth Control’s radar.

Also, Morrow is reminded of Yutani’s grandmother, not mother.

 

[Laurefindel]

As for lady eye-octopus, I’m starting to think she’s trying to be helpful. I believe she did try to warn the doctor back in the lab, and I do think there was an attempt at communication on the bridge. Heck, I even think she tried to make her host smile as a gesture of good intention, only, it came out as creepy and scary, but I wonder if that was the original intention. Things are left suspiciously unclear there, and I expect further flashback before the end.

Let’s not forget that episode 4 closed on her receiving a new host. Poor xenomorph got his show stolen…

 

[Morrus]

I even think she tried to make her host smile as a gesture of good intention, only, it came out as creepy and scary, but I wonder if that was the original intention.

I doubt her ‘host’ shared her sentiments.