Last week’s episode of Alien: Earth was so good that the odds of this week’s episode being as good or better were pretty low. And I’d say that’s on the money. Not that this week was bad; it was pretty consistent with the rest of the season, actually. However, we definitely came off a high this week, and there were some more noticeable cracks in the writing this week in terms of getting characters into certain situations.

Alien: Earth has had some moments throughout the show where characters have made dumb decisions in the name of pushing the plot forward. Up until today, I could largely look past this. The lack of security near the secure lab comes down to the hubris of Boy, while the inquisitive curiosity of the children-hybrids can excuse some of their behaviour. This week, it’s harder to use that excuse, as Tootles opts to manually open a containment door to feed one of the aliens (the titular fly) when the usual feeding door turns out to be broken for that specimen. When at the door, eyeball sheep next door bonks the glass, causing Tootles to get locked into the room. What an agent of chaos. I know we want to have aliens on the run, causing chaos, but it did feel pretty dumb that Tootles wouldn’t have called for assistance. Also also, why is there a vent in a secure lab? But we’ve had our first true death on the show, and it does suck that it’s one of the hybrids, as they’re very much still children and as the show has been illustrating, still human, no matter what Prodigy tell themselves.

Likewise, the recently fired Arthur also got into the secure lab using his access code, which was still activated, and upon finding Tootles’ remains, also elects not to instantly call for help. But it’s too bad for him, as his arrival was the perfect timing for Slightly to get a facehugger onto a human specimen, after failing spectacularly with Joe earlier on. While all this is going on, Kirsh watches from his security monitor off-site, allowing the chaos to unfold, heavily implying that Kirsh is the architect behind this incident for reasons still to be confirmed, but if synths are anything to go by, he’s likely very motivated by the desire to see what happens next in an uncontrolled environment when it comes to new lifeforms.

Kirsh’s motivations to examine the alien lifeforms may also come from self-preservation. After a meeting between Progidy and Yutani about the fate of the crashed ship and its cargo, Kirsh and Morrow end up having a fascinating chat in an elevator about humanity and artificial intelligence. Morrow, still human, sees the hybrids as the natural replacement for the synth program. The senses of fear and pain that come from still being human, though, are what Kirsh sees as part of the “fun” of killing lifeforms, seeing the pain, whereas Morrow enjoys that he can kill synths consequence-free. These two are definitely going to throw down later on in the season. The scene between Kavalier and Yutani was also great, with each trillionaire trying to outsmart the other, with the boy genius coming out on top by playing the game to his advantage, despite putting no real stock into his words beyond saying what needs to be said to get his way. In the end, he gets the aliens for six weeks (the legal quarantine time) and twenty trillion dollars on top of it.

Meanwhile, Joe is looking to escape from Neverland with his sister, probing for weak spots in the defences. Wendy, in the interim, seems obsessed with her newfound connection with the Xenomorph and apart from questioning the ethics of Nibs’ memory wipe, is largely relegated to watching the alien grow up. While getting nowhere with his security colleagues, Joe does get some information about the boat from Arthur, who was recently fired for disobeying an order to wipe Nibs’ memory of the last few days. Like the show’s narrative, Arthur sees the children as humans and thinks wiping her memories without consent is a flagrant violation of personal rights. His moral compass, ironically, will result in his death.

But while Alien: Earth is maybe making things too convenient when it comes to setting off the chaos, it is still excelling when it comes to character and the overarching theme of humanity. This episode really hammered home the Peter Pan themes, especially the theme of growing up that pervades in both of these stories. I want to know what happens in the final two episodes now, how it’ll play out and what the takeaways will be once we reach the finale.