There’s manipulation and intrigue in Alien: Earth episode 3, but has the title creature lost its scare factor? Our spoiler-free review: NB: The following keeps things spoiler free for Alien: Earth episode 3, but does go into plot details from episodes 1 and 2. In the rush of events in Alien: Earth’s debut episode, there’s ... Alien: Earth episode 3 review | It’s a trap
There’s manipulation and intrigue in Alien: Earth episode 3, but has the title creature lost its scare factor? Our spoiler-free review:
NB: The following keeps things spoiler free for Alien: Earth episode 3, but does go into plot details from episodes 1 and 2.
In the rush of events in Alien: Earth’s debut episode, there’s one charming detail that was easy to miss as it whizzed past. Wendy’s weapon of choice is the blade from an old-fashioned paper cutter – the sort you’d have in schools in the 1970s. Why a high-tech company like Prodigy has this in its facilities is a mystery, but it’s a fun, comic book-y detail. Perhaps inspired by some anime she’s watched, Wendy (Sydney Chandler) carries the blade on her back like a samurai sword – and without going into spoilers, the blade gets a bit of a workout in episode 3.
The episode also does something that is always a risk in an ageing franchise, however: it both over-exposes and demystifies the alien. Once a barely-glimpsed menace, the beast is on full view in this episode – and, again without spoiling things, showrunner Noah Hawley introduces some ideas about its various life-cycles that are likely to be divisive among fans.
One thing that can be said about Alien: Earth, though, is that Hawley isn’t afraid to probe at the nastier edges of the franchise. Years ago, director James Cameron briefly wrote in Starlog magazine about the future of the series after his 1986 classic, Aliens. The xenomorph, he said, isn’t “in the goddamn cat and it’s not in Newt, either. I’d never be that cruel.”
Well, Alien: Earth really is that cruel; episode 2 saw the Jones-like cat from the USS Maginot possessed by the hideous T Ocellus creature – a hybrid of octopus and parasite that likes to burrow into eye sockets and take over minds. It was certainly a statement of intent from Hawley’s perspective, and with the alien cargo from the Maginot now in the clutches of the Prodigy corporation, we’re sure to see a lot more of that monster (and others) in future episodes.
Morrow, the unpredictable cyborg played by Babou Ceesay, is understandably unhappy about this. He’s spent his entire life travelling to parts unknown to retrieve all these monsters, and now they’ve been whisked away from him. Everyone he once knew on Earth has died – including Yutani’s previous CEO, who we learn used to be an acquaintance of his. Morrow may be a dark, maybe even sociopathic character, but we can at least understand his motivation: he’s sacrificed too much to let all the xenomorphs be spirited away by a bunch of upstarts.
Read more: Alien: Earth episodes 1 and 2 | Spoiler-free review
There’s a running theme in this episode about manipulation, as Morrow tries to wheedle his way into the affections of one of Kavalier’s test subjects, Slightly (Adarsh Gourav) – Morrow has a high-tech means of remotely communicating with the hybrid, who’s too naive to realise he’s almost certainly being manipulated into what amounts to industrial espionage.
Meanwhile, Kavalier, being a raging narcissist, enjoys playing his test subjects off against the other; knowing that Wendy is his ‘favourite’, the smart, ambitious Curly (Erana James) vies for the CEO’s affections, and Kavalier is only too happy to use her drive for his own obscure purposes. Samuel Blenkin, with his mop of hair and air of barely-contained mania, is again terrific here.
As with previous episodes, Alien: Earth continues to look top-notch. It may be a TV show, but there’s a cinematic quality to its production design, and the visual effects are superb and often bracingly grotesque.
But having watched episode 3, however, I can’t help wondering whether audiences will ever be frightened of the xenomorph again. It’s now been subjected to such scrutiny, and so much dissection, that it’s now lost much of its terrifying mystique. With five episodes to go, it’s possible that the other creatures devised for Alien: Earth will take up the slack; none have been truly terrifying yet, but the aforementioned eyeball monster has a certain icky appeal.
Or, despite the events of this episode, perhaps Alien: Earth will still find some way of restoring it to what it was back in 1979: a truly unearthly-feeling creature, and one capable of instilling real fear in its audiences.
Alien: Earth episode 3 airs on the 19th August on Disney+.
