The Xenomorph is the star of the present in Alien: Earth, however after catching episode 4, “Statement,” I am beginning to suppose the eyeball-octopus monster may be a much bigger menace than anybody realizes.
After we first encountered the creepy little creature — formally often known as trypanohyncha ocellus, or Species 64 — it was innocently floating in its containment unit on the USCSS Maginot in episode 1. By the point Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant) and his group of adolescent android assistants, The Misplaced Boys, stumbled throughout it, it had escaped containment and burrowed its means into the cranium of a useless cat, changing the poor factor’s eyeball and hijacking its nervous system. In “Statement,” it did the identical factor to a sheep in one among Prodigy’s labs, and had a fairly unsettling stare-down with everybody’s least-favorite eternally barefoot trillionaire, Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin).
The foreshadowing appears clear: That factor’s gonna find yourself crawling into the Prodigy CEO’s cranium in some unspecified time in the future within the in all probability not-too-distant future. However as of episode 4, the people aren’t who I am frightened about.
[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for Alien: Earth episode 4.]
From what we have seen to this point, it is fairly clear that facehuggers, chestbursters, Xenomorphs, these bizarre blood-sucking ticks, and that odd, plant-like factor Kirsh discovered hanging out within the Maginot’s wreckage are, for probably the most half, solely focused on creatures manufactured from flesh and blood. Even in episode 3’s large Xenomorph vs. Wendy (Sydney Chandler) combat, the alien principally appeared focused on her human brother — Wendy was simply getting in its means.
By the tip of episode 3, Kirsh had caught onto this, and properly declared the lab at present housing the Xenomorph eggs as a synths-only zone, eradicating Boy Kavalier from the room for his personal security. In “Statement,” Kirsch gently caresses a kind of eggs, and it does not reply. By the tip of the episode, Wendy is casually snake-charming a chestburster, petting it like a home cat. The message is evident: Synthetics are comparatively protected, people usually are not.
However this does not essentially apply to t. ocellus. When The Misplaced Boys first encountered it on the Maginot, it instantly deserted its feline host and went straight for nervous redhead Nibs (Lily Newmark), who managed to flee the encounter bodily unscathed, however has been having flashbacks ever since, and is now inexplicably satisfied that she is pregnant. However Nibs is artificial, and he or she wasn’t doing something to impress the creature, which had already discovered a number. So why on Earth did it go after her?
“Statement” appears to recommend that in contrast to the opposite creatures from the alien homeworld, t. ocellus is one thing distinctive. My idea? It does not feed on flesh and blood. It feeds on intelligence. Which suggests none of Prodigy’s synthetics or hybrids are actually protected. If something, they’re in extra hazard than their non-synthetic counterparts, as they will obtain huge quantities of knowledge into their brains, permitting them to study new languages and grasp tough scientific topics with ease.
So as an illustration, Tootles (Equipment Younger), who just lately re-christened himself Isaac, after Sir Isaac Newton, is probably going in a superb quantity of hazard given his ever-growing psychological library of scientific data, and the truth that he works with Kirsh in shut proximity to Prodigy’s numerous extraterrestrial check topics.
Should you’re questioning how feeding on intelligence would even work, nicely, so am I. However notes taken by the Maginot scientists who had been learning the creature earlier than their ship crashed make it clear that this creature is to not be trifled with. In accordance with the Maginot’s science group, t. ocellus shows “outstanding problem-solving expertise at near-human measure,” so it is actually attainable it might study to feed from an artificial host, and its rapid want to climb into Nibs’ cranium appears to recommend it is completely able to doing precisely that.
T. ocellus‘ existence might also clarify one thing about Xenomorphs themselves. Within the authentic 1979 film Alien, the Xenomorph is depicted as having small, seemingly empty eye sockets. In subsequent movies, Xenomorphs seem to don’t have any eye sockets by any means, despite the fact that they’re proven to have some type of sight. Since Xenomorphs and t. ocellus share a house planet, maybe Xenomorphs advanced this manner on goal. They’re recognized to be very clever creatures, which might ostensibly make them a great host for t. ocellus. But when they’re capable of co-exist peacefully with the eyeball-invalding alien, it might be as a result of they do not have eyeballs which can be simply scooped out, and so they bleed caustic acid — two protection mechanisms that in all probability make making an attempt to hijack them tough and even not possible for t. ocellus.
Regardless, one factor is fairly clear: Wendy’s artificial physique and peculiar, Parseltongue-esque capacity to copy Xenomorph speech might maintain her protected from the Alien franchise’s large dangerous, however she and the remainder of The Misplaced Boys are in all probability t. ocellus‘ ultimate prey.
As satisfying (and scary) as it will be to see Species 64 scoop out one among Boy Kavalier’s eyeballs and puppeteer his physique, the considered it hijacking the mind of a extremely smart, extraordinarily robust, nigh-indestructible hybrid who can transfer on the pace of sunshine is what’s actually retaining me up at evening.
The eight-episode debut season of Alien: Earth premiered on FX and Hulu on Aug 12. Additional episodes roll out on Tuesdays via Sept. 9.
