‘Alien: Earth’ S1E07 Review | “Emergence”

Everyone’s breaking out in the season’s penultimate episode.

Alex Lawther as Hermit, Sydney Chandler as Wendy, Lily Newmark as Nibs in Alien: Earth Season 1, Episode 7, “Emergence.” Photo credit: Patrick Brown/FX

[This review contains spoilers for the seventh episode of Alien: Earth, “Emergence”]

For a show that has mostly been about themes and tone, the seventh episode, “Emergence,” was about setting off all the fireworks that were lit earlier in the season. Wendy’s ability to communicate with a xenomorph? Bang. Morrow pushing Slightly to deliver a xenomorph? Bang. Boy getting even closer to the Eyeball Alien? Well, there’s still one episode after this. But “Emergence” largely features payoffs we’ve been working towards as the hybrids realize, sadly, they’re not safe in Neverland and likely never were. Between wiping Nibs’ memory and the callous shrug at the loss of Tootles, Wendy sees how Prodigy views the hybrids as merely another science experiment in the big laboratory, no different than the alien specimens. The only choice left is liberation, but even here, it’s impossible to know whom to trust.

With all these narrative payoffs, the show’s focus becomes distilled into three plotlines. In the first, a reluctant Smee helps Slightly smuggle Arthur and his facehugger out of the compound. This may be the strangest of the three plotlines if only because it’s rendered so darkly comic. You have two kids in adult bodies dragging around their unconscious father-figure with absolutely no grace or skill whatsoever. They have no clue how to be clandestine or sneaky, and if the stakes weren’t so grim and dire, it would be a little lighthearted to watch these buddies get into shenanigans.

Unfortunately, we know that Arthur is already a dead man. The plotline’s comedy gets rendered into a surprisingly sweet moment as Arthur, having regained consciousness, tells the hybrids that he knows something is off and that they haven’t learned to lie yet. He can tell they’re scared, and he’s still trying to be protective of these kids. He is literally too good for this world, and before anyone can make amends, a xenomorph bursts out of his chest cavity. And then we’re kind of back into a dark farce as the creature slithers away, and Slightly and Smee are left scrambling, making their way to the rendezvous with one corpse and zero xenomorphs.

When they meet up with Morrow, everyone is a little underwhelmed. Morrow has no trophy (maybe move the meeting point a little further inland, my guy), and now they’re trudging back to the facility with the hybrids as hostages with the goal of recapturing the specimens on site. Unfortunately for Morrow and his team, Kirsh has been several steps ahead this whole time, and he imprisons the invaders while grounding Smee and Slightly. It’s all a weird, wacky culmination that sits awkwardly alongside our other two plotlines.

We should touch on what’s happening with Boy. His carelessness has no bottom. He sees a dead Tootles and responds, “There goes six billion.” But he’s not bothered for long as he thinks he may have finally found an intellectual peer with Eyeball Alien. He has the creature moved into his private quarters, asks it to name some digits in Pi, and when it gives the correct answer, he’s ecstatic. At this point, Boy may as well have a tattoo on his cheek of an arrow pointing up, followed by the text “Insert Alien Eyeball Alien Here.” But for the time being, he thinks he can just shove the creature into someone else (my bet is on the devoted Curly) just so he can have a chat with this shiny new toy. It’s not exactly a rich plotline, but it feels like a necessary scene if we’re going to see Boy get his just desserts.

Elsewhere, Wendy has decided she’s had enough and agrees to escape to freedom alongside Hermit and Nibs. She invites Curly to come along, but Curly can’t quit the idea that she could be Boy’s favorite. She agrees not to tell, but it’s clear her allegiance is to Neverland, or at the very least, no longer following Wendy just to remain in her shadow. Once outside, Wendy, Hermit, and Nibs make some progress towards the boat, but run into trouble. Here we see Wendy use the xenomorph, which she helped to escape, as her phone-a-friend, and it’s extremely effective at doing what xenomorphs do.

Aside from the neat narrative convenience of having your own xenomorph, it’s also thematically useful to show just how much all the lines have blurred during this story. If hybrids themselves are blurring the line between human and synth and between life and death, Wendy’s relationship with the xenomorph blurs the idea that the alien is nothing more than a relentless killing machine. It clearly shows loyalty and obedience, but does that make it a real bond, or is it little more than what Boy was doing with the hybrids? We’re in an episode that features multiple jailbreaks, and yet what does “freedom” mean here?

The episode leans hard into these questions of blurred allegiances and questionable freedom when the trio reaches the boat, only to find a party of Prodigy soldiers waiting for them, including Hermit’s old pals. Wiping Nibs’ memories clearly didn’t tone down her aggression, and she proceeds to rip off a guy’s jaw while Wendy wants to send in the xenomorph again. But Hermit, seeking to de-escalate the situation, electrifies Nibs and lets the soldiers win. It’s the first time Hermit and Wendy have ever been on opposite sides of the situation, and it’s understandably a betrayal for her. She thought he wanted them to be free, but he’s not willing to do whatever it takes to reach freedom.

This all leaves Wendy at her most isolated. She no longer believes that Boy and his compatriots will protect her. The “Lost Boys” have splintered. Her brother chose his former co-workers over the hybrids. That means her closest bond now is with the xenomorph. In a world full of adults who seek to shed humanity, both in terms of their conscience and the human race, then perhaps it makes sense to find commonality not with a person but with a creature from another world.

Stray observations:

• I’d love to hear some thoughts from readers on what you think Kirsh’s endgame is here. Did we see it with his maneuvering of Smee and Slightly to capture Morrow? Is he truly loyal to Boy, or does he have something else planned? I feel like Kirsh has gone, if not rogue, then certainly he’s no longer fully in Boy’s pocket. If that were the case, his character would be redundant to Atom and far less interesting. I’m just not sure what Kirsh wants.

• I’m also not sure if Nibs is dead or unconscious at the end of the episode. She’s been shot and electrocuted, but is that enough to kill a hybrid? Wendy reacts like Hermit has killed Nibs, but if she’s dead, the moment didn’t land like Tootles’ death last week.

• When you consider that Wendy’s xenomorph sprung from Hermit’s discarded lung, it makes it an odd kind of sibling to her. I’m not saying that’s why she can control it, but thematically, she has found a connection in a creature that came out of a literal piece of her brother.

Alien: Earth airs Tuesday nights at 8pm ET on Hulu. Look for recaps of the latest episodes here within the next day. Matt Goldberg is a film critic who lives and works in Atlanta. If you enjoyed this review, check out his newsletter, Commentary Track.