Alien Earth 1×7 Review: “Emergence”

Alien Earth season one episode 7, titled ‘Emergence’, showed clear battlelines drawn as Wendy and Hermit stood against each other right before the finale. The conflict isn’t only brother vs. sister, but also human vs. hybrid.

The penultimate episode of Alien Earth season one answered the question about Isaac’s fate. Even though he was attacked by the fly-like aliens in the previous episode, there was a slight hope in the fandom that he might be able to somehow “live” by having his mind transferred into another body. However, it’s quickly revealed during Kirsh and Boy Prodigy’s conversation that while such a thing was possible to do, the research wasn’t there yet. So, yeah, Isaac’s isn’t coming back. Sigh! Such a disappointing waste of an interesting character, when Hybrids like Curly are still running around.

Anyway, the accident in the lab had Kirsh show Boy Genius that Isaac’s death was (in a way) orchestrated by the octopus-like alien or the T. Ocellus. Of course, Boy Genius wanted to find out how smart T. Ocellus was, and that led to an interesting scene between the two where Boy Genius asked the creature about Pi numbers. I mean, using Pi as the standard to evaluate whether a creature belonged to an advanced civilization or not didn’t make sense to me, but oh well, it did allow the T. Ocellus to demonstrate it had a sense of humor.

Anyway, giving the T. Ocellus a human host so it could talk to Boy Prodigy made sense. We have seen it use a human host before in episode 5. So, hopefully, the new human host will lead to an actual conversation.

Talking about using humans as hosts, I wasn’t expecting to see Arthur share a heartfelt moment with Smee and Slightly before his inevitable death. Due to playing a major role in creating the Hybrids, I liked how Arthur reasoned with Slightly and Smee after regaining his memory about what happened in the lab.

He brought up how the young Hybrids were still learning to lie and how it was okay to make mistakes because people who loved them, like Arthur, were around to help fix said mistakes. Arthur’s words did work on Slightly and Smee, encouraging them to hold Arthur’s hands and head back to the lab. However, it was already too late for Arthur.

At first, I was surprised by how quickly the Xenomorph burst out of Arthur’s chest. But then I remembered how said countdowns were random in the Alien IP, depending on the story being told. The writing team wanted Arthur to die on the beach, so out came the alien due to an accelerated cycle. Just roll with it.

While Arthur had been truthful about his feelings toward the Hybrids, Kirsh continued to be a bit too calculating for my liking. I understand he’s a completely Synthetic being, but I’m not vibing with how he sees everything and everyone as an experiment. He could have helped save Isaac, but didn’t. He even aided Slightly and Smee to take Arthur to the beach so Kirsh could capture the baby Xenomorph and Morrow down the line. I still don’t know what Kirsh’s endgame is. Also, with how smart Boy Prodigy is supposed to be, seeing him trust Kirsh without an inkling of suspicion comes across as plot convenience instead of a reasonable character flaw due to hubris or whatever.

Coming to Wendy, seeing Isaac’s dead body gave her a much-needed wakeup call. She thought her Hybrid body was immortal. But clearly it wasn’t, especially not in front of an alien species capable of disintegrating the material the Hybrids are made of. Not only that, but Boy Prodigy telling Wendy to keep Isaac’s death a secret from the other Hybrids and threatening to keep her locked up tapped into Wendy’s fight or flight response. And Wendy was ready to get off the island with Hermit and her siblings.

Wendy did give me the creeps during ‘Emergence’ because of how she ordered her Xenomorph around. Even though she’s supposed to have some humanity inside of her, that side of her personality took a backseat when it came to humans she didn’t care about. Wendy hacked the secure lab to release the Xenomorph, resulting in the immediate death of the bunch of people still inside. Not only that, but she also had the creature kill a group of soldiers that tried to stop her, Hermit, and Nibs for heading to the docks.

Wendy didn’t even show any remorse for her actions (unless I missed a facial expression). Due to being a Hybrid with a child’s mind, if Wendy wanted something, she wasn’t above leaving a trail of dead bodies in her wake to obtain her goal. The only reason Hermit’s alive is due to Wendy loving her brother.

That’s why I’m very interested in seeing how the writers will handle the rift in their relationship during the finale after Hermit prevented Wendy from calling the Xenomorph to attack the soldiers on the boat, and then he proceeded to hit Nibs with a strong electrical charge from a fallen soldier’s gun.

I highly doubt Hermit fatally shot Nibs. But regardless, Wendy’s frustrated and angry because they were so close to escaping the island. The scene also showcased a stark difference between Wendy and Hermit. Even though he was human, Hermit still made sure not to destroy Nibs, while Wendy and Nibs attacked the soldiers with fatal force.

As for my thoughts on the scene where the trio came across the graves of the kids who turned into Hybrids, I was quite ‘meh!’ about it. In my opinion, a similar conversation could have been had without deciding to have the gravesite out in the open in such a manner. How the heck was such a gravesite approved in the first place? Also, how the heck did the Hybrids, especially Wendy, not stumble upon it earlier? Again, Alien Earth will shine during certain moments and then bog down the narrative with such scenes.

Talking about Wendy’s pet Xenomorph, well, I’m not sure how I feel about such a creative take. I think I would have been more okay with the creature treating Wendy as a sibling or a parent and jumping in to defend her from attackers, instead of how it was following her orders, similar to a pet or minion. Maybe the Xenomorph will become difficult to control as it grows? We should find out soon enough. Also, I would like some kind of explanation about Wendy’s current control over it.

What did you think of Alien Earth season one episode 7 ‘Emergence’? Are you excited about the finale?

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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