Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Tori Preston | TV | September 10, 2025
Before I dig into episode six, titled “The Fly” — or as I like to think of it, “The One Where It All Goes Wrong” — I’d like to acknowledge the one where I went wrong. Last week, while discussing my favorite monster, the Eyeblobby, I wondered if there was a chance it might be an ally to humanity because it seemed like it was trying to warn Chibuzo, the science officer of the Maginot, when that rogue tick was squirting its babies in her water cup. It turns out that I had it all wrong, and the Eye was actually trying to distract her to ensure the tick’s success. How do I know? Because creator Noah Hawley gave an interview to Polygon about the episode, where he explained the correct interpretation point-blank:
“I think it was creating a distraction to allow the creature to do its thing,” Hawley says. “As you keep watching in the season, one might begin to suspect that this one [species] is smarter than the other ones, and that it thinks in a longer-term way.”
Of course, if Hawley had just sat back and let his work speak for itself, I would have realized my error eventually anyway. Which I literally did last night, when Eyeblobby did the exact same thing in a less ambiguous, clearly nefarious way. Thanks to my main orb, we lost our first Lost Boy! We had to say toodles to Tootles! I mean, presumably. Can Boy Kavalier make a new “Hey, what’s Jesper from Shadow and Bone doing here?” body and dump a backup file of Tootles into it? Guess we’re about to find out.
But I digress. It turns out that episode five wasn’t just a flashback, explaining how everything went sideways up on the Maginot - it was a blueprint for how things would go wrong in the present, on Prodigy’s Island. And as always, it comes down to human error (with a nudge from a certain Eyeball). While Boy Kavalier is off negotiating a settlement with Yutani that allows him to keep the specimens for the required six-week quarantine period (very much against Yutani’s wishes), those very same specimens are doing the inevitable. They’re breaking containment, and this time it all starts with the mysterious flies.
Kirsh accompanies his boss to the negotiation and entrusts Tootles with caring for the species in the lab in his absence. Though he reminds Tootles to follow protocol and to take Curly with him, Tootles does no such thing. He goes alone to feed the critters, and when he accidentally breaks the door to the feeding slot on one of the cells, he decides to risk entering by himself to drop off the meal tray. Unfortunately, the cell he enters is right next to the Eye’s cell, which is still in the body of that sheep. Eyesheep watches as Tootles uses his foot to keep the door propped open and takes the opportunity to ram the glass wall separating them. Tootles is so startled that he slips, and the door closes behind him, locking him inside.
As Eyesheep continues to watch — it’s always watching — two giant alien flies emerge from their hive and spew acid in Tootles’ face, which they then proceed to eat. So now we know: At least one species of alien can dine on inorganic flesh and components! The hybrids, cyborgs, and androids ain’t safe, either!
Tootles isn’t the only man down this week, though. Slightly is still dealing with Morrow speaking inside his head, urging him to sacrifice a human to the facehuggers before he kills the kid’s mom. Despite losing his chance to drag his chosen target, Wendy’s brother Joe, to his doom, another opportunity presents itself: Arthur Sylvia. Arthur is fired when he refuses to edit poor Nibs to resolve her whole pregnancy delusion, and when Joe comes knocking as he’s packing up his desk, Arthur once again lets his conscience prevail and secretly gives the man the means to help escape the island with his sister. In the process, Arthur disables the tracking on the hybrids, which is how he discovers that Tootles is offline. He goes to the lab to investigate, and Slightly leaps into action, opening the cell with the eggs and then locking Arthur in the lab until a facehugger emerges and, uh, does its thing. Now with a convenient body hosting a parasite ready to deliver to Morrow, Slightly drags Arthur into the ducks and closes it behind him… just before the flies reach him.
Inevitable death isn’t the only sign of trouble this week, however. Dame Sylvia agrees to do the work her husband refused and resets Nibs, removing her memories of the crash and the aftermath. Wendy quickly clocks how her friend has changed and confronts Dame Sylvia, understanding, possibly for the first time, how the company treats the hybrids as property more than people. Meanwhile, she’s also spending more time communicating with the xenomorph, and clearly believes these creatures are innocent victims of humanity’s greed and hubris rather than dangerous predators (they’re both, Wendy!).
Kirsh is the one to watch, however. After a great scene in an elevator where he and Morrow antagonize each other, inviting comparisons to these two company men with varying degrees of allegiance, Kirsh finally does something truly unexpected: He lies to Boy Kavalier. Kirsh is looking at the security cams from the lab as he flies back to the island and sees what Slightly has done to Arthur - but when Kavalier asks if everything is OK, Kirsh responds, “Affirmative.” Or perhaps that’s not a lie! Perhaps a couple of dead bodies and a potential alien outbreak isn’t cause for alarm in Kirsh’s book. I wouldn’t call him a saboteur, exactly, since he’s always tried to steer everyone in the right direction. He knew Kavalier shouldn’t bring the aliens back when they already have a project to finish. He tried to intervene with Slightly a few episodes back, and he told Tootles to stick to protocols. Still, he lets them make their mistakes as if he’s observing his own specimens. Or maybe he’s just a contractor who ain’t about to go above and beyond his job description.
It’s a good thing he’s an android because if Eyeblobby ever got its tentacles into Kirsh, we’d be dealing with one seriously monstrous voyeur.
