The Xenomorph is the star of the present in Alien: Earth, however after catching episode 4, “Remark,” I am beginning to suppose the eyeball-octopus monster could be an even bigger menace than anybody realizes.
After we first encountered the creepy little creature — formally generally 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 approach into the cranium of a lifeless cat, changing the poor factor’s eyeball and hijacking its nervous system. In “Remark,” it did the identical factor to a sheep in one among Prodigy’s labs, and had a reasonably 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 sooner or later within the in all probability not-too-distant future. However as of episode 4, the people aren’t who I am anxious about.
[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for Alien: Earth episode 4.]
From what we have seen to date, 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 essentially the most half, solely focused on creatures fabricated from flesh and blood. Even in episode 3’s massive Xenomorph vs. Wendy (Sydney Chandler) battle, the alien principally appeared focused on her human brother — Wendy was simply getting in its approach.
By the tip of episode 3, Kirsh had caught onto this, and properly declared the lab at the moment housing the Xenomorph eggs as a synths-only zone, eradicating Boy Kavalier from the room for his personal security. In “Remark,” 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?
“Remark” appears to recommend that in contrast to the opposite creatures from the alien homeworld, t. ocellus is one thing distinctive. My principle? 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 large quantities of data into their brains, permitting them to study new languages and grasp tough scientific topics with ease.
So for example, Tootles (Equipment Younger), who just lately re-christened himself Isaac, after Sir Isaac Newton, is probably going in a great 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 varied extraterrestrial check topics.
When you’re questioning how feeding on intelligence would even work, properly, 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 response to the Maginot’s science workforce, t. ocellus shows “outstanding problem-solving abilities at near-human measure,” so it is definitely doable it might study to feed from an artificial host, and its quick need to climb into Nibs’ cranium appears to recommend it is completely able to doing precisely that.
T. ocellus‘ existence may clarify one thing about Xenomorphs themselves. Within the unique 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 in anyway, although they’re proven to have some type of sight. Since Xenomorphs and t. ocellus share a house planet, maybe Xenomorphs developed this manner on function. They’re recognized to be very clever creatures, which might ostensibly make them a really perfect host for t. ocellus. But when they’re in a position to 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, they usually bleed caustic acid — two protection mechanisms that in all probability make attempting to hijack them tough and even unattainable for t. ocellus.
Regardless, one factor is fairly clear: Wendy’s artificial physique and bizarre, Parseltongue-esque means to copy Xenomorph speech might hold her protected from the Alien franchise’s massive unhealthy, however she and the remainder of The Misplaced Boys are in all probability t. ocellus‘ supreme prey.
As satisfying (and scary) as it might 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 sturdy, nigh-indestructible hybrid who can transfer on the pace of sunshine is what’s actually retaining me up at night time.
The eight-episode debut season of Alien: Earth premiered on FX and Hulu on Aug 12. Additional episodes roll out on Tuesdays by way of Sept. 9.
