TV Recap: “Alien: Earth” Episode 2 – The Lost Boys Land in the Danger Zone
After the tense, Peter Pan–tinged debut of Alien: Earth, Episode 2 plunges deeper into the chaos aboard the crashed USCSS Maginot and the eerie secrets of Prodigy’s Neverland program. With Xenomorph threats closing in and corporate agendas sharpening, Noah Hawley’s second chapter brings long-awaited reunions, deadly encounters, and the unsettling reveal of what really happens when childhood innocence is downloaded into synthetic adulthood.
Episode 2: “Mr. October" – Written by Noah Hawley
Medic Hermit (Alex Lawther) and soldiers Siberian (Diêm Camille) and Rashidi (Moe Bar-El) continue their search for survivors aboard Weyland-Yutani Corporation’s crashed deep space exploration vessel, USCSS Maginot. In the ship’s medic bay, they find a dead body on a table, seemingly having died during an upper endoscopy when something burst out of their chest. When the ship falls further into the building, the Prodigy soldiers decide to exit the ship, jumping back onto a broken floor. They don’t know that they’re being followed.
On Prodigy’s “Neverland" Research Island, founder Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) visits Dame Sylvia (Essie Davis) in her office. Her focus is on the mental and emotional well-being of the “Lost Boys." Still, the person who funded this breakthrough hybrid technology reveals that his endgame is far more selfish than advancing the lifespan of human consciousness. The boy genius hopes these hybrids will surpass his own intelligence, allowing him to converse with someone more intelligent — a backhanded compliment to the scientist sitting across from him. “But if they don’t stay human, what do we win?" Dame Sylvia asks.
The Lost Boys are approaching Prodigy City in a ship. Wendy (Sydney Chandler) anxiously watches out the window as Slightly (Adarsh Gourav) wonders aloud if they will see dead bodies. Wendy confides in Slightly that her brother is in the wreck and she hopes to find him. She asks him to keep it a secret, but almost immediately, Slightly tells Smee (Jonathan Ajayi). Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant) announces that they are about to land, asking everyone to buckle up.
Hermit, Siberian, and Rashidi navigate the building’s broken stairwells, sometimes having to jump to other landings. One in particular is a big jump. Rashidi makes it just fine, but Siberian almost misses, and for Hermit, who isn’t a soldier, the jump seems impossible. But before he can even get up the courage to jump, a string of slime drips on his shoulder from a dark hole above him. He looks up, hearing a hissing sound. He raises his gun as a pair of menacing teeth come into view. Hermit jumps just in time to avoid the Xenomorph’s attack, but he misses the landing, falling a level below Rashidi and Siberian.
The Xenomorph takes off after Hermit, who races down a hallway towards an elevator. The alien leaves scratch marks down the hallway as it tries to get to Hermit. The elevator doors close just in time, but Hermit is not without injury, bleeding from one of his arms. And his radio doesn’t seem like it’s getting through to anyone as he rides up into the building.
Flashback - One Day Earlier: Trying to keep a promise he made to his father before he died last year, Hermit went to a Prodigy army center to follow up on his request to resign so he could finish medical school and become a doctor. There wasn’t a human to speak to, just a robot behind a glass barrier. The computer informed him that he had to serve the remaining seven months of his contract, denying his request to speak to a human. “Have a heart, or face my fury," he pleaded with the machine, quoting ‘Ice Age 4: Continental Drift,’ which he just rewatched. “Face my furry what?" the machine unexpectedly responded, before denying his request (Boy Kavalier, Dame Sylvia, and the rest of the top-secret team on Neverland were astonished that Wendy was able to manipulate the robot through a video monitor).
The Lost Boys land at the crash site. Wendy, whose ears can pick up frequencies humans are deaf to, is thrown off by a strange buzzing sound. They are led into an army tent for debriefing, but Wendy busies herself with a computer monitor, finding Hermit on an elevator security camera on the 65th floor. She rushes off, and Kirsh sends Slightly to follow her.
From Neverland, Boy Kavalier watches everything. He even has access to Wendy’s point of view through her synthetic eyes. His right-hand man, Atom Eins (Adrian Edmondson), interrupts with a call from Yutani (Sandra Yi Sencindiver). “You have something that belongs to me," the head of Weyland-Yutani tells the owner of Prodigy City. She asks for permission to send a team in to retrieve the proprietary assets on board the USCSS Maginot. Boy Kavalier denies her request, instructing her to have her lawyers begin negotiating a treaty. Off the phone, he gleefully tells Atom Eins, “I want what’s on that ship." His youth betrays his intellect as he giggles with delight.
Kirsh leads Smee, Curly (Erana James), Nibs (Lily Newmark), and Tootles (Kit Young) onto the USCSS Maginot, their child minds fearful despite their synthetic adult bodies. They soon discover plant-like pods hanging from the ceiling, one of them dripping slime as it seems on the verge of opening. Tootles, who aspires to be a scientist, wants to investigate it, while Curly’s instinct is to kill it. Kirsh sends Smee, Nibs, and Curly to find something they can use to contain a pod for study.
Curly, Nibs, and Smee enter Maginot’s lab, finding the bodies of Hoyt and Anant. They see one of the blood-filled bugs crawling away, and they act like scared kids. A black cat writhes on the floor, going limp when its eyeball falls out. But the eyeball has a mind of its own, rising up on tentacles, with the iris splitting into many so it can see in all directions. It leaps at Nibs, trying to attack. Smee finds a tin basin and uses it to pin the tentacled eyeball down.
Wendy and Slightly follow Hermit’s trail, ending up in the hallway where he entered the elevator. They see big, deep scratch marks on the walls. Wendy wonders if they were made by a bear. Once again, she hears a strange sound that disturbs her. They find Hermit’s backpack near a puddle of slime near the elevator.
Hermit exits the elevator on the 65th floor, a nicely decorated penthouse level with a giant black statue in the elegant lobby. He finds another soldier there, Bergenfield (Dean Alexandrou), asking if he’s seen any large animals in the building. He hasn’t, having been assigned to clear the building. All of the apartments on the floor are clear except for one, inside of which a Regency-era dinner party is being held. The occupant (David Bark-Jones) is a pompous man who insists that if there were a need to evacuate the building, Boy Kavalier would call him personally. He slams the door in their faces.
The black statue in the lobby became the perfect hiding spot for the Xenomorph. Hermit is barely able to warn Bergenfield before he is attacked, dragged around as his gun automatically fires all over the lobby. The pompous man in regency garb opens his door with a noise complaint, and the alien dives in, slaughtering him and all of his guests. Hermit takes Bergenfield’s gun and enters the apartment to kill the beast. Stepping into the open-air living room, the Xenomorph attacks from the elevated loft. Hermit is milliseconds from death when a white laser strikes the alien and it collapses. Hermit looks up in astonishment to see who saved him - Morrow (Babou Ceesay). Before he can finish thanking him, Morrow zaps Hermit with some kind of electric device that causes him to pass out. Morrow coats the alien in a white substance that solidifies, forming a bag he uses to drag the creature back into the hallway.
Morrow has almost gotten the white bag into the elevator when Cortez (Nut Devahastin), Brahma (Prinya Intachai), and a team of soldiers confront him. They ask what’s in the bag. “Supplies," Morrow answers as it starts to move. They make him raise his hands and realize he’s a cyborg. They are in the process of handcuffing Morrow when the Xenomorph escapes from the bag, slaughtering all of the soldiers behind him. It then proceeds toward the sounds of another soldier down a hallway. Morrow turns around to see the bloodbath in the lobby.
Kirsh is called to the lab by the Lost Boys, who captured the tentacled eye, leaving Tootles alone to watch the pods. Kirsh plugs into the ship’s computer to learn more about the specimens the deep space vessel brought back. One of the pods opens, and Tootles studies the tendril that protrudes. It seems aware of his presence, following his movements as if it’s watching him. When Tootles is called to join the others in the lab, he backs away from the pod, not exposing his back to it. Kirsh has identified a section of the ship on the computer that contains a circle of eggs. He sends Smee there to rendezvous with Wendy, ordering him not to let anyone in or out until hazmat arrives.
Hermit comes to. He explores the penthouse apartment, finding a room of collectable memorabilia. His attention is drawn towards a baseball - One of Reggie Jackson’s 1977 World Series Game 6 balls autographed by the player. As Hermit picks it up, a screen automatically plays footage from that historic game. He remembers his father (Noah Hawley) showing it to him as a child (Lev Hawley), sparking Hermit’s love of baseball. “What are the odds?" he says aloud. When the screen goes dark, he sees a face behind him - Wendy. She asks who he was talking to. “My dad," Hermit responds. He tosses the ball to her, explaining a lesson his dad taught him. “Sometimes the world gives you a moment to shine, and if you do, well, there’s a name for that kind of hero - Mr. October." Hermit sees blood on Wendy’s arm, which dripped on her in the lobby. He moves to inspect it, surprised to find that her skin isn’t cut. Slightly announces that they’re synthetic. Wendy refutes this, declaring that they’re something different. But their reunion is cut short when Kirsh summons Wendy to the front section of the ship to help secure some cargo. Wendy protests, and Hermit hears Slightly complain that they aren’t children anymore. Wendy asks Hermit to come with them, saying there may be people who need a medic.
As they reenter USCSS Maginot, Hermit asks what Slightly meant when he said they weren’t children anymore. Slightly brags about how they were sick kids who were given these big new bodies. He shares that his name used to be Arush and that Wendy’s name was Marcy. “My sister’s name was Marcy," Hermit responds. “She’s your sister," Slightly declares before Wendy can stop him. She sends him away in frustration.
“Joe," Wendy says to her brother, who shakes his head in disbelief, on the verge of tears. “It’s me. I found you. I’ve been watching you, all the time, on the screens." She tells him how she watches him help people. And then she says something he heard yesterday that seemed strange: “Face my fury." Hermit doesn’t understand; he attended his sister’s funeral. She tells him about the boy genius who told their dad he could help Marcy, but that it had to be kept a secret. Hermit asks who the boy genius is. “His name is on your uniform," Wendy tells him.
As they continue to walk, Hermit grills Wendy for proof that she is his sister, Marcy. But after answering several questions that only Marcy would know the answer to, he has all the proof he needs. They hug, a tearful reunion for Hermit, and one that would be tearful for Wendy if her synthetic body could shed tears.
They meet Slightly at the ring of eggs. One of the eggs begins to open, and Hermit gets close to inspect it. And then its mother attacks. A Xenomorph jumps Hermit, and they are pushed out of a hole in the side of the ship, falling into the building. Wendy has just enough time to tell Slightly to stay there as she jumps out of the ship in pursuit of her recently found brother and the alien that seems bent on killing him.
Next Episode: “Metamorphosis" - Tuesday, August 19th, at 8/7c on FX and Hulu
The team returns home with unexpected cargo. An unsettling experiment occurs, and a new talent is discovered.