Vague Visages’ Alien: Earth review (season 1, episodes 6-7) contains minor spoilers. Noah Hawley’s FX on Hulu series features Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther and Essie Davis. Check out the VV home page for more TV criticism, reviews and essays.

Episodes 6 and 7 of Alien: Earth season 1 — “The Fly” and “Emergence,” respectively — bring the FX on Hulu series to its penultimate showdowns: Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant) vs. Morrow (Babou Ceesay) and Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) vs. Wendy (Sydney Chandler). It’s apparent that this franchise isn’t ready to give up the ghost. Featuring xenomorphs which aren’t the usual cannon fodder, writers Noah Hawley, Maria Melnik and Lisa Long turn human and alien relations on their head and perhaps forever.

Under Hawley’s watchful eye, the episodic progression from “The Fly” to “Emergence” is the most seamless transition of Alien: Earth season 1. Both sections contain some of the best bio-horror elements to ever grace the franchise — watershed moments indeed. 

Alien: Earth Review (Season 1, Episodes 6-7): Related — TV Review: ‘Alien: Earth’ (Season 1, Episodes 1-2)

Death is in the air as hostility and subterfuge lurk around every corner. Dearest Wendy must confront the truth and the innocence of yesterday. She sinks to a shallow grave, quite literally in this case. Noah and company force viewers to confront their worst fear yet — flies! Under normal circumstances, this might be a minor inconvenience, but as Mahatma Ghandi famously said (allegedly), “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” So, it comes as no surprise, when all hell breaks loose, that it’s the “small” insects who enact their revenge upon their synthetic captors. The scene perfectly complements Boy Kavalier’s underhanded nature, both in boardroom “negotiations” and escalating hostilities towards synths. No wonder every time the boy genius opens his mouth, Hawley is ready to strike right back at him. Episode 6’s board room serves as the means to reveal more about “The Five” and the bureaucratic machinations that surround them. Hawley and Long’s script firmly expresses the amoral and rash pettiness that resides in both corporations’ cultures and interactions. The new xenomorphs may be experts when it comes to chest bursting, but the prevailing ultra-corporate Americana mastered ripping out hearts long ago. If there’s a silver lining (no matter how faint), it’s getting to see Yutani (Sandra Yi Sencindiver) “cook,” and in the case of Yutani Corp., the wait pays off. Standard Alien operating procedure calls for a patriarchal figurehead, one that serves as the voice of the monolithic Weyland cooperation. By breaking with tradition, Sencindiver — a Korean-Danish actress — moves the needle, and in a big way. Up until Alien: Earth episode 6, her performances typically clock in at two minutes or less. Now, Sencindiver commands the screen and never once dials into bigoted “Lady Dragon” cliches that normally accompany such a role. If there is any femininity to the character portrayal, it’s one of a superficial charmer –a trait that harkens back to the femme fatale days of old.

Alien: Earth Review (Season 1, Episodes 6-7): Related — ‘Batman Begins’: The B-List Rises

Meanwhile, the villainous odd couple Boy Kavalier and Kirsh continue their grandiose social experiments. The unreadable poker face of Olyphant’s character is a steady highlight of every episode. While Kirsh initially appreciates Boy Cavalier’s best aspects, like his charisma and calculator-like mind, it’s in Alien: Earth episode 7 where the bipolar tendencies kick into full effect. In various segments, Kirsh champions the benefits of being a synthetic android, not having to feel pain, and yet at the same time, some level of mutual affection for the hybrid “Lost Boys” seems to be affecting his judgment. Throughout Alien: Earth season 1, Olyphant plays this straight down the middle without hesitation. Always one to keep his viewers guessing, Hawley safeguards his cards close to the chest. The suspense is fantastic as Kirsh seemingly prepares to send the “Lost Boys,” Slightly (Adarsh Gourav) and Smee (Jonathan Ajayi), to their deaths or a fate much worse. Again, the ambiguity runs high, so it could be Olyphant’s intention to create a performance that’s so foreign that even the character isn’t fully aware of the how or why of his ever-developing actions. 

Alien: Earth Review (Season 1, Episodes 6-7): Related — The Volume: The Final Stage

In contrast, Wendy and Boy Kavalier’s actions are entirely their own and are transparently in conflict with one another. The former character’s remark of “You can’t just erase things” seals the fate of the once tranquil “Neverland” as the island transforms into an inescapable nightmare. The tone and tempo changes to accommodate the situation. It’s like the Saigon of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979) reimagined with extraterrestrial “Charles” waiting to strike. For her part, Chandler plays her role exceptionally well. It’s been a few episodes since Wendy got this much screen time, but it doesn’t take long to remember why she isn’t just another robot. Chandler’s transformation into an aggressive cyborg is equally subtle as it is haunting. The actress’ facial expression goes a long way to change the perception of Boy Kavalier’s behavior from displeasing to atrocious. Within the first four minutes of episode 7, Wendy’s cybernetic eyes relentlessly twitch, ready to pop out of her skull. Joe Hermit (Alex Lawther), her brother, really gets to push Boy Kavalier’s amoral and erratic tendencies to the limit with a glean in his eye. What starts out as Steve Jobs on a bad day devolves into behavior akin to that in H.G. Wells’ 1896 novel The Island of Doctor Moreau. It’s relatively apparent there’s no John Hammond (Jurassic Park, 1993) redemption arc to be had at the end of this soon-to-be-concluded journey.

Alien: Earth Review (Season 1, Episodes 6-7): Related — The Unforgiving Concrete: Lodge Kerrigan’s Cinema of Estrangement

All in all, episodes 6 and 7 of Alien: Earth season 1 are exhilarating. They deliver the rarest specimen of all: intriguing television. The FX on Hulu series has progressed quite nicely toward the season finale, and it teases that some — but probably not all — of the conflicts and character fates will be resolved. Alien: Earth proves that it can stand on its own two legs, relying on the support of the 1979 original with the potential for several new paths to explore.

Peter Bell (@PeterGBell25) is a 2016 Master of Arts – Film Studies graduate of Columbia University School of Arts in New York City. His interests include film history, film theory and film criticism. Ever since watching TCM as a child, Peter has had a passion for film, always trying to add greater context to film for others. His favorite films include Chinatown, Blade Runner, Lawrence of Arabia, A Shot in the Dark and Inception. Peter believes movie theaters are still the optimal forum for film viewing, discussion and discovering fresh perspectives on culture.

Alien: Earth Review (Season 1, Episodes 6-7): Related — TV Review: ‘Alien: Earth’ (Season 1 – Episodes 3, 4 and 5)