Recap: The ‘Alien: Earth’ Finale Needed More Eyeball

From the very first episode, a common critique of Alien: Earth has been that it’s all rather obvious. So when I tell you that the season finale is titled “The Real Monsters,” I can assure you that it’s not talking about the aliens. The people were the monsters all along, get it?! That it was unsubtle does not mean that it was unsatisfying, though. Humans being the freaking worst was always the point, so seeing that theme play out to its fitting conclusion — with Boy Kavalier and co. locked up under the watchful eye of Wendy, her Lost Boys, and her pet Xenomorph — made sense. And with the greater forces of Weyland-Yutani set to descend on the now Synth-and-Alien-occupied Neverland island, it’s as fine a setup for an as-yet-unconfirmed second season as it could be.

In fact, so much of the finale made sense that I wondered why it still felt somehow hollow and anticlimactic, and then I realized it’s because it only paid off about half of what the series seemed to promise heading into this final chapter. Aside from Wendy’s big coup, the show delivered on the long-awaited Kirsh vs Morrow throwdown, with the pair finally trading up from insults to fisticuffs in a brawl to see whether half-machine or all-machine is superior. Morrow seemed to gain the upper hand when he broke Kirsh’s back, but the wily android still managed to knock the cyborg out cold. Since they both ended up in Wendy’s custody, though, I’d call their showdown a draw. Probably gonna need to see them wail on each other a few more times until we get a decisive victor, honestly.

The show also revealed who Boy Kavalier would sacrifice to Eyeblobby: Joe Hermit, Wendy’s handy human brother. He was always a likely target, given his unique position as an annoying pest (to Prodigy) with sentimental value (to Wendy), and he’s weak to boot. And though the plan goes awry just as everyone assumed it would, it doesn’t go pear-shaped in a way that leads to any immediate blowback. Wendy simply arrives just in time to save Hermit, then proceeds to fight Atom while The Eye scuttles away to find another host: Arthur’s convenient corpse, still hanging out on that beach. By that point, though, there isn’t time left in the episode for our favorite extraterrestrial to do anything. There’s no meeting of minds between Boy Kavalier and Eyeblobby, conversationally or tentacle-y. There’s no face-off between The Eye and Wendy’s Xenomorph. Alien: Earth decided to kick the Eyeball can down the road for the next season to pick up, which was a major letdown - although I can almost excuse it since it means the gag of Arthur seeming to die only to come back again continues.

The aliens never broke containment, either. Or at least, not entirely. Eyeblobby’s gone, obviously, and that plant creature ate Hermit’s friend, but otherwise all the specimens are locked up and accounted for, which was not at all how I expected the season to play out. It makes sense, though, since the finale was about Wendy realizing she and the kids were the real threat to the humans all along. They were the ones who broke containment and took over. The episode ends with Wendy declaring, “Now we rule,” which means that containing the aliens - or not - has become Wendy’s problem moving forward.

If the show didn’t deliver all the big swings I was expecting, it did offer some smaller moments that I enjoyed. Remember the chestburster that killed Arthur? It’s grown into the Xenomorph’s Xeno-bro now! They’re buddies! Which means Wendy’s got another guard dog, assuming baby-bro also heeds her commands. The best moment, though, came when Wendy was reading Kavalier for filth at the very end of the episode. “You’re not Peter Pan,” she tells him, while he’s chained up alongside Kirsh, Atom, Dame Sylvia, and Morrow. “He was a boy who never grew up, but you … you were never a boy. You’ve always been a man. A mean, angry little man…” And then the camera cuts to Dame Sylvia, smirking while her boss gets the dressing down he so richly deserves. Of course, the reason she’s able to enjoy that moment is because nobody bothered to tell her that her husband is dead yet. But hey, I’m sure that’s another thing that can wait until next season, too. Ideally before Arthur pops up sporting a brand new Eyeblobby in his socket.