‘Alien: Earth’ Episode 7 Recap: Let’s Talk About the Death Toll So Far

As you’d expect from a penultimate episode, plot threads and narrative themes began coming to a head last night on Alien: Earth. Hermit attempts his grand escape with Wendy, only she insists on trying to save her fellow Lost Boys as well — though they only manage to convince Nibs to come along. Meanwhile, Slightly recruits Smee to help him haul Arthur’s facehugger-ed body to the beach for the big hand-off with Morrow, only to get an unexpected assist from Kirsh. Boy Kavalier realizes just how smart my main dude Eyeblobby is because even in a sheep’s body, it’s able to communicate (by stomping out the digits of Pi). Oh, and Wendy’s pet Xenomorph makes for a very effective guard dog.

With the season finale just around the corner, I wanted to take a minute to run through the death toll so far, because in a show with androids and synths around, it’s not so easy to tell who is really dead-dead and who’s just temporarily inconvenienced.

Tootles - Very Dead (for now?)

“Where are we with reboot and restore?” Boy Kavalier asks Kirsh when he learns what happened to Tootles — the same question we were all wondering. “Conceptually, it’s possible,” Kirsh replies. “Practically, we haven’t cracked it yet.” Boy Kavalier just nods. “There goes that six billion, then.”

It certainly sounds like Boy Kavalier is writing poor Tootles off, although I suppose there’s the possibility that the kid gets revived somewhere down the line, whenever Prodigy figures out the mechanics of it. Or maybe I should say “if ever” since, you know… there’s a good chance this whole project gets derailed thanks to all the freaking aliens they hauled in!

Arthur - Super Dead

I pronounced Arthur dead last week, on account of that facehugger he took to the face, and that was true. It was just a delayed death, since the chestburster didn’t finish him off until this week’s episode (titled ‘Emergence,’ natch). Between sloughing off the hugger and getting burst by the burster, though, Arthur got to have a nice little stroll on the beach with Slightly and Smee, so that’s something, I guess. And so did the chestburster, who skedaddled straight out of Arthur and into the jungle. Ah, freedom!

The Children - Dead-ish (Open To Interpretation)

The philosophical question of whether Prodigy really saved those sick kids by downloading their consciousnesses into synthetic bodies, or if the children died and whatever is walking around now are machines that think they’re children, is the main mystery of the show. And considering the show is sometimes painfully obvious — as Kaleena noted in her review — that question was made very literal when Wendy, Nibs, and Hermit stumbled across that tiny, tucked-away cemetery during their escape. On each gravestone was the name, the real name, of one of the Lost Boys. This is where their human bodies were buried. “It’s not us, we’re still here,” Wendy tries to reassure Nibs. “I don’t think I am anymore,” says Nibs.

Certainly, within the show, characters have different thoughts on the Lost Boys. Hermit, who should be the perfect judge of the matter, seems to believe Wendy is, in fact, his sister Marcy — though he is also facing the idea that she might be something more than Marcy, too.

A Bunch of Prodigy Soldiers - Doornail Dead

Wendy’s Xenomorph was a busy bee last night, taking out a wave of soldiers sent to recapture her. Then Nibs tore the jaw off another one, when a security team ambushed them at the boat. Wendy joins the action, and I lost count of how many were injured or killed, but the point is that between the synths and the aliens, the body count for plain ol’ humans was pretty high last night.

Nibs - Try Again Later

To defend his former teammates during the ambush, Hermit shoots Nibs and knocks her out, gurgling — but it was an electric blast, not a bullet. Did it temporarily stun her, or did it fry her motherboard or something? We’ll find out next week, but whatever happened was enough to enrage Wendy, because either her brother just tried to kill a child, or her brother views her kind as something other than human and thus a threat.

Human Sacrifice - Will Die Soon

Boy Kavalier has it in his head that he’d really like to talk to Eyeblobby (extreme same!), and instead of waiting for that sheepsuit to figure out how to tap dance in Morse Code, he plans to offer up a human body with speaking capabilities. Probably won’t be the only person to kick it during the big finale, but it’s almost certainly going to happen. I’m very much looking forward to it — and the inevitable way it goes sideways.

Kirsh - NEVER

Look, Kirsh is forever. Not because he’s an android but because he’s a whole-ass mood. He’s the coolest cucumber in the drawer, if that cucumber were also somehow a master tactician. Remember how last week it looked like Kirsh lied to Boy Kavalier about the whole “Slightly siccing a facehugger on Arthur” situation? Well, this week, he seemed to turn total traitor when he expedited Slightly’s escape to the beach. Of course, it was only a ruse so Kirsh could well and truly button up the threat of Weyland-Yutani like the perfect right-hand manbot he is. He allowed Slightly and Smee to make off with Arthur, predicting that Morrow wouldn’t be satisfied with just one measly little chestburster. And sure enough, Morrow brings an entire infiltration team to the island to break into the facility, which lands them all squarely in Kirsh’s clutches. Oh, and remember how the chestburster launched itself out of Arthur and into the undergrowth prematurely? Kirsh captured that little bugger, too.

With an overprotective Xenomorph on the loose with a synthetic handler who is feeling pretty down on humanity these days, an Eyeblobby about to get opposable thumbs, and that ever-present room full of parasitic aliens at the ready, next week’s finale is shaping up to be a bloody affair. But whoever else falls by the wayside, my guess is that Kirsh will still be standing as the dust settles. After all, Noah Hawley would have to be an absolute fool to cut Timothy Olyphant out of this show now. Don’t be a fool, Hawley! Timmy O and Eyeblobby forever!