I don’t believe it’s an accident that Noah Hawley titled Episode 6 of Alien: Earth “The Fly.” The series comes back to the present tense to further explore the nature of humanity in the experiments on Neverland. That the episode borrows its name from one of body horror’s best, David Cronenberg’s 1986 Jeff Goldblum-led goop-stravaganza, serves an actual story function in the sixth chapter. But more than that, it’s another example of what this show gets right about being a modern installment of a long-running franchise and pop culture icon.
Spoilers for Episode 6 of Alien: Earth
The story of Brundlefly is one of a scientist inadvertently merging two distinct entities which ultimately become a third something else. The Fly (1986) is a science fiction staple and a cornerstone of a balanced horror movie diet. The film already sits at the center of the same Venn diagram as Alien in that respect. Coopting “The Fly” as the title for an episode of Alien: Earth also highlights the understanding of the genre and the culture surrounding these types of properties that’s been on display since Hawley opened this series with a shot-for-shot remake of one of Alien’s most iconic scenes. “The Fly” is a smart choice on a few different levels, all of which work very casually with a “if you know, you know” sort of delivery, which is one of my favorite parts of this show.
For Jeff Goldblum’s Seth Brundle, it was not his intention to become a gross and terrifying hybrid, but for Boy Kavalier and his Prodigy scientists, that was exactly the plan. Terrifying or not, the hybrid Lost Boys are childish versions of Brundlefly, two formerly independent things fused together, but what exactly the resulting creatures are is the debate “The Fly” puts front and center.
Every plot point takes a break in Episode 6 to explore the question. Joe Hermit continues testing the fences, as it were, in his ambition to get his sister Marcy/Wendy off the island, instead finding himself confronted by Kirsh’s reminder that she’s certainly not still “just a kid.” Nibs has her memory wiped instead of continuing the therapy Dame Sylvia is recommending, bringing up the whole question of autonomy for these beings. It comes up again in the arbitration hearing between Kavalier and Yutani, when she claims that the alien specimens are Weyland-Yutani property. This time though, Kavalier throws their autonomy in her face as a legal precedent that living creatures don’t belong to anybody. He of course doesn’t believe that for a second and is only using the line as a way to get one over on his rival, but it proves one other thing about this show.
Alien: Earth continues to not be about whether or not the Lost Boys are still human because that question has been answered repeatedly. In fact, some of this episode feels a little like well-trodden ground for the series. If they've already raised and answered this question in previous episodes, however, "The Fly" at least does it better, providing a more definitive answer. The answer is “yes, they’re absolutely still human.” Alien: Earth then becomes about a bunch of people who don’t understand or appreciate humanity. Everything that happens to these characters is played for such tragedy, it’s clear where Hawley and the series’ writers and directors stand on the issue. This episode is another chapter of difficult-to-watch decisions being made on behalf of characters I’m really starting to enjoy spending time with. Take Nibs waking up after the memory wipe, for example. Wendy is there to greet her, full of questions about the pregnancy and about their misadventures on the Maginot, none of which Nibs has any recollection of. The full weight of that realization, of the meddling she’s been subjected to, hits so much harder than her believing she’s pregnant in the first place (forgetting for a second the totally boneheaded decision to let Wendy be around at all when Nibs woke up because of course she’s going to ask those questions and freak her out).
What makes “The Fly” truly upsetting though is the series’ first significant death. The cannon fodder we’ve seen in the first half of the season have met , but none hold a candle to the emotional weight of Tootles and the titular fly-like alien melting him down as a snack. That one of these children can (and indeed does) die frightened, so that the rest of the Lost Boys can mourn him, is the most final answer the series can give on the “are they still human” question.
Thematically elsewhere, the other thing I love about this episode is the section of Peter Pan with which it begins. Kavalier reading J.M. Barrie’s original text to his Lost Boys has provided a not totally subtle throughline for this first season, but one of the quotes struck me this time: “Two is the beginning of the end.” In the story of the boy who never grew up, it’s referring to the age at which things start to go downhill for kids and they can’t help but get older. The way this episode uses that quote, however, is in the pairing off of characters in the home stretch of the season.
Wendy and the young xenomorph are clearly connected, Slightly and Smee are bound together in a mission to smuggle a xenomorph off the island for Morrow, and Morrow and Kirsh have an absolutely incredible tête-à-tête on an elevator that sets them on a collision course I can’t help but be fascinated by. All of these storylines have taken shape and are now rocketing toward a conclusion.
Structurally speaking, as the beginning of the season's final act, this episode is doing all of it right. Including dropping a well-thought-out nu-metal track.
Credit Roll Needle Drop Check-in
Firstly, I think this is the first (and presumably final) time I will ever use the phrase “well-thought-out nu-metal track,” in part because I’m already doubting it. “Keep Away” by Godsmack, the cleanup hitter on their debut album, is maybe the most on the nose choice Alien: Earth has made all season.
As the episode closes by locking eye with the sheep, the one who caused Tootles’ death – or at least gave it the nudge in a deadly direction – the distorted opening riff of “Keep Away” gives way to some pretty simple-to-read lyrics.
Sickness spilling through your eyes,
Craving everything that you thought was alive.
Stab me in my heart again, aw, yeah.
Drag me through your wasted life, are you forever dead?
Do like I told you, stay away from me.
Never misunderstand me, keep away from me.
There’s an obvious interpretation of the “sickness spilling through your eyes” line, particularly when staring at the eye-ctopus puppeting a sheep carcass. But it’s that last line that really makes Godsmack’s song perfect for this episode. Our favorite body hijacker is already a thematically on-point monster, its very nature an embodiment of the fear of losing autonomy, and the lyric points to that as well. But it also speaks to what I mentioned above: This is not a show trying to make up its mind about whether or not these kids are still human. Nobody is wondering if it’s the eye-ctopus or is it still a sheep or maybe a third being made from the fusion. This is very much just the eye-ctopus doing eye-ctopus things. This is a show about what the Alien franchise has always been about, people thinking they can control these creatures and as weird as it is to write this, a Godsmack song perfectly captures that idea.
