Alien Earth 1×6 Review: “The Fly”

Alien Earth season one episode 6, titled ‘The Fly’, slowed things down to focus on setting up the pieces necessary to unleash the chaos that will befall the Neverland Research Island in the final two episodes.

After being disappointed in the flashback-heavy ‘In Space, No One…’, I have to say that ‘The Fly’ didn’t make me feel any better. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I feel like something shifted with episode 5. Similar to the flashback shenanigans, ‘The Fly’ also had the writers making characters do things to move the plot while encouraging viewers not to think too much about it. I was expecting Alien Earth to be a sci-fi show with some substance, but the past couple of chapters have made me lose enthusiasm for the narrative. The upcoming couple of episodes might pivot, but I won’t be holding my breath.

The entire thing is quite frustrating because the narrative does continue to feature some interesting thematic discussions. ‘The Fly’ had a very enjoyable dynamic between Morrow and Kirsh. The two disliked each other. However, their short conversation in the elevator made it quite clear that they both realized how the creation of the Hybrids had rendered them obsolete. And with Kirsh talking about the food chain and being better than humanity, his actions in ‘The Fly’ made sense. Even though Boy Kavalier had tasked Kirsh to observe and experiment on the alien species, Kirsh was conducting a completely different experiment. He’s working on a very dangerous project that includes unsuspecting humans and Hybrids in Neverland.

There’s also the discussion about Hybrids being stuck in a state between human and machine, with the likes of Wendy thinking she might be better off going all machine after having witnessed the darkness of the grownups around her. Wendy’s being made to feel more and more like a product with no free will that belongs to Boy Kavalier, and she’s not a fan.

Yet, such moments are bogged down by senseless actions by characters, all in the name of plot convenience. I can’t help but groan at how easy the ‘plot convenience’ moments could have been handled to keep the story progressing how it’s supposed to while respecting the audience’s cognitive levels.

‘The Fly’ opened with Wendy continuing to converse with the new Xenomorph. I get that Wendy’s supposed to come across as a kid fascinated by a unique pet. However, when she brought up the possibility (to Hermit) of the Xenomorph being friendly and different from the ones previously encountered, I couldn’t help but worry about her. Even if Wendy can communicate with the Xenomorph, I doubt that’s enough for her to persuade the alien not to attack humans or use them to give birth to more of its kind. I don’t see Alien Earth giving Wendy a pet Xenomorph. Having her be forced to kill her “pet” to learn a valuable lesson might be the path the writers will take her down.

I liked her conversation with Hermit about how Neverland’s supposed to be a place of saying yes. While Boy Kavalier made the Hybrids think that saying yes was a good thing because it opened doors to development and progress, Hermit made an effective counterpoint by stating how saying no wasn’t a bad thing and was actually about exerting one’s power against people wanting to exploit Wendy.

Hermit’s determined to find a way off Neverland with Wendy. And while I appreciate his emotional need to protect Wendy, he hasn’t really thought it out properly. How the heck is he going to keep Wendy out of Boy Kavalier’s grasp once they are off the island? They will need to keep running for the rest of their lives. And not only Boy Kavalier, but any major corporation will want to kidnap Wendy if they catch wind she’s a Hybrid.

Talking about events occurring away from the island, I was looking forward to Boy Kavalier’s meeting with Weyland-Yutani. Boy Kavalier played all his cards right and forced Weyland-Yutani into a corner to allow him to keep the aliens for six weeks (as stated in the law about quarantining alien species). He was so annoying in that particular scene when he brought up caring about the damage and human casualties caused by the airship crash. I really enjoyed it. Boy Kavalier’s a genius who isn’t socially awkward and knows how to be manipulative, making him extremely dangerous.

I was surprised when Morrow didn’t bring up how Boy Kavalier sabotaged the research vessel during the meeting. So, I’m interested in seeing when that story thread will be used against the annoying brat.

Morrow continued to emotionally blackmail Smee to bring him a Xenomorph embryo. The fandom expected Arthur to be the victim, and that’s exactly what happened as ‘The Fly’ neared the end. As for how all of that occurred… Ugh!

For a group of people tasked with looking after dangerous alien beings, we have yet to see the bare minimum level of competence and proper lab construction. The way Tootles went about feeding the creatures could have been written a lot better. I knew he was done for the moment he set foot into the lab. I understand that the Hybrids are supposed to be kids stuck in adult machine bodies, but I highly doubt that a kid like Tootles would have been so careless. Also, is not a single person on the security team keeping an eye on the camera feeds 24/7? Why are there no alarms being activated the moment a dead human or compromised machine is caught by the numerous cameras around the island? This show is supposed to be set in the future!

‘The Fly’ did showcase a fly-like alien that seemed capable of feeding on metal and similar material by dissolving it with their acid. So, now we have a foe that will likely target the Hybrids and is capable of making quick work of them.

As for Tootles’ fate, I will be highly surprised (and annoyed) if it’s revealed that the Hybrids didn’t have their “brain” backed up somewhere, and that’s why Tootles can’t be brought back.

Another poorly thought-out moment involved Dame siding with Atom and standing against Arthur to delete the traumatic data from Nibs’s programming after she brought up being pregnant in episode 4. The scene showed how easy it was for humans to delete Hybrid memories. But then again, we already knew that. Also, what was the endgame here? Dame deleted the memories and played a role in getting Arthur fired just for Wendy to bring up Nibs’s lost memories a couple of minutes later. Again, needing to delete Nibs’s memories could have been handled a lot better.

At this point, I’m just going to stick with Alien Earth season one because it’s about to conclude. It’s not doing the best in viewership ratings, with more people bringing up the writing issues. So, let’s see if it gets renewed for a second outing.

What did you think of ‘The Fly’? Are you excited about the final two episodes?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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