“The Fly” Is The Sweatiest ‘Alien: Earth’ Episode Yet

There’s plenty to enjoy in “The Fly”, the latest episode of Alien: Earth, including the proper introduction of the series’ fifth big alien creature, the titular flies, and some significant plot turns in the narrative arc of the season. But this is also the episode which feels like it’s working the hardest to execute those turns, sacrificing character development and pacing to put narrative pieces in place for the series’ (season’s?) big finale.

There’s a lot of “stuff” happening here. Arbitration is happening between Prodigy and Weyland-Yutani, in a scene that is most designed to let Samuel Blenkin cook while underscoring what we already knew: there’s a fight coming to Neverland. Meanwhile, Arthur (David Rysdahl) refuses to wipe Nibs’ (Lily Newmark) memory and gets fired (and divorced?) for it, sealing his fate as Slightly’s (Ardash Gourav) victim. The Nibs situation, along with a growing rapport with the xenomorph, further radicalizes Wendy (Sydney Chandler) just as Hermit (Alex Lawther) plots to escape the island with her. And we get our first seeming Hybrid death as Isaac (Kit Young) runs afoul of the flies, with a little prodding from Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant) and our old friend Mister Octo.

That’s a lot of plot developments for one episode — arguably more than in any previous installment. And unfortunately, a lot of important character beats gets pushed aside to make room for it. Perhaps the biggest culprit is the Family Sylvia. That someone between Arthur and Dame (Essie Davis) would hit a red line with the Hybrids they’d refuse to cross has certainly been setup. And having it be Arthur rather than Dame who objects is an appreciated inversion of the more overtly motherly figure being the one to do it. But Arthur loses his job and gets thrown under the bus by his wife with nary a reaction — the next we seem them, Dame is being confronted by Wendy and Arthur is packing up his belongings just before getting pulled into Joe’s escape attempt. Some reaction on Arthur’s part to his wife’s betrayal or rationalization for blowing up her marriage on Dame’s part would have been good to see.

Similarly, while the seeds have been planted for Wendy to cast off the yoke of Boy Kavalier (Samuel Belkin) and go her own way, her journey from “I don’t want to leave” to “let’s burn this place to the ground” happens awfully fast in this episode, sparked mostly by one (horrific) conversation with Nibs (which kicks off an awkward bit of sequencing: Wendy learns Nibs has had her memory wiped, then visits the xenomorph, then confronts Dame Sylvia about Nibs?). The Nibs/Wendy convo also begs the question: why was Nibs just back in her room like normal in the first place? They wipe her memory and that’s it? No continued oversight, no concern of any potential dissonance when she runs into someone whose memories of a shared experience conflict with hers — which is basically what happens immediately?

Even the metaphors are getting tortured in “The Fly.” Boy’s loudspeaker reading of Peter Pan this episode concerns a passage about Pan threatening the Lost Boys, a clear parallel to the fate of Isaac. Yet Isaac doesn’t die because of anything Boy (the metaphor’s Pan stand-in) does, at least not directly. Kirsch sends him into the lab, and watches as he gets trapped/attacked, with an assist from Mister Octo. Sure, you could argue that Boy is responsible for ordering the flies to be brought back to Neverland in the first place, but that’s just another example of how hard this episode is working to make all its pieces fit.

In a show as languidly and almost lyrically paced as Alien: Earth can be sometimes, we were bound to run into an episode like this at some point, one which has to largely put aside character and thematic concerns in the interest of getting the story from point A to point B. Even the horror sequences are more workmanlike — both Isaac and Arthur’s fates are heartbreaking and feature at least a few moments of classic Alien-style suspense, but I wouldn’t put either sequence on the list of the series’ best such moments. Hopefully, all the business “The Fly” performs will pay off in the form of a banger conclusion.

Stray Thoughts

• The alien flies that finally made their debut this episode are significant because they’re the one creature that is direct threat to the Hybrids: as evidenced by their food rations (spare parts) and the acidic nature of their excretions, they consume inorganic/metal material, making the Hybrids a tasty snack compared to regular humans.
• Mister Octo sure seems to fall on the “evil” (or at least chaotic) side of things here, acting directly to get Isaac trapped in the enclosure with the flies. While one could argue it was again trying to warn someone, creator Noah Hawley said in an interview that its actions in the last episode were meant to distract from the actions of the blood ticks rather than serve as a warning, so while it clearly doesn’t like xenomorphs, apparently it is not as heroic as it may have appeared.
• The conversation between Morrow (Babou Ceesay) and Kirsh in the elevator is the highlight of the episode, just two great actors snarking back and forth with each other.
• While this series has done amazing things on a TV budget, one place it shows is the fact that, for all Atom Eins (Adrian Edmondson) is blustering about the imminent product launch of the Hybrids, Prodigy seems like a company with a staff of a half dozen at most operating out of their headquarters (and one of those is their barefoot CEO and another is a Synth with his own agenda). If the Hybrids are as vital to business interests as Atom insists, you’d think they’d constantly be monitored, to the point where a thousand alarms would go off once Isaac’s face started melting.