Episode four of Alien: Earth is probably my second favourite of the series thus far, after the premiere episode. It pumps the brakes quite a bit, but in slower zone, the show takes time to pose some interesting questions and setup the driving force of the rest of the season. I can see why some people may not be a fan of the slow burn, but I’m in.

That driving force may be a divisive point among fans (I have no idea, I’m just assuming since this is 2025 afterall) but so far, I’m on board with it. It’s revealed that Wendy is able to tap into the frequencies of the Xenomorph’s communication frequencies and as she’s a synthetic being, is able to replace those noises using her “vocal chords” to mimic the frequencies she heard last week. This is rather fortuitous, as the Xenomorph that was growing in her brother’s operated lung opted to burst free, only to form a quick bond with what I imagine it sees as it’s mother/queen.

As we’re in uncharted territory with the hybrids within this franchise, there’s nothing that says this can’t happen in this canon, and the show has been building to this reveal rather intentionally, both literally as well as metaphorically, using Wendy’s transformation from child to hybrid as a parallel for the xenomorphs coming into being by transferring part of themself into host bodies. I am curious what this snake-like Xenomorph will look like when it matures, which should be pretty quickly considering how fast we’ve seen them transform in previous films.

The majority of the rest of the episode waxes philosophical, probing into the larger themes of the show while also gently setting up things to come down the line. Morrow continues to manipulate Slightly this week and is able to coerce his real name of the cyborg, who then of course uses that information to figure out who his real identity and family is. With a twenty four hour deadline given or risk the lives of his mother and brothers, Slightly has to smuggle a human into the Prodigy lab to get one of the eggs to hatch and unleash the facehugger to the would-be host in order for Morrow to smuggle the human/alien out of the labs, as opposed to the giant eggs. The likely candidate for this process? Wendy’s brother Joe of course, whose very presence has touched a nerve with Slightly stating that Wendy recieving preferential treatment isn’t fair for the rest of Lost Boys who have living family members elsewhere. Of course, an interesting wrinkle in all this is that Kirsch has been listening in on Slightly’s communications and has heard everything going on, so not only is he onto Slightly and Morrow, but has taken on a quiet interest in the Xenomorph eggs.

This runs parallel to Kirsh running further experiments on the eye octopus alien, which burrows into the skull of a sheep and takes over the host completely. The concepts of the soul, intelligence, and agency are brought up in numerous different ways in this show and this episode, with the theme of putting one organism into another and pondering the ethical, moral, and scientific consequences of such an action is often weighed. Are six human/synth hybrids merely A.I.s who think they’re human, or did Prodigy actually kill six children in the name of science and the pursuit of immortality? (for the ultra-rich, one would imagine as well). It’s when the show takes time to ask these questions and let the audience think about the possible answers that I really get invested in the show and where it could be going.

With only four more episodes to go, I do wonder where the events established will go and if the payoff will be worth it. But anticipating next week’s episode.