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(In "Aliens," the Queen was smart enough to understand Ripley's gesturing with the flamethrower to mean "if you try to kill us, I'll torch your babies," so she initially allowed the humans to back away. Not an alliance, but some ability to temporarily restrain the impulse to kill a threat to the hive in order to save the hive. Then of course Ripley just torched her babies anyway as soon as she was at a safe enough distance. Typical human!)
Spoiler:
Great post Banana... but I wanted to point out something that I think strengthens your arguments... in that, Ripley only torched her babies when the eggs opened up to release the facehuggers. The Queen was trying to trick her prey, as it was always programmed to do so.
But, all in all, great post and agreed!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/09/10 19:09:54
[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
I think I agree that whilst 4 & 5 are the standout episodes? This shows there’s still plenty gas in the tank.
Spoiler:
Oooh that Eddie Hitler is a wrong’un, isn’t he! Child Mind you put into a synthetic body having a hard time? Just delete a bunch of its memories! Sod the ethics. It’s clearly a Thing now. Not a person.
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To be fair, if you’d been kidnapped from your home planet by a bunch of aliens, stuck in a glass box and watched them do a bunch of unpleasant experiments on other aliens (remember the scientist on the Maginot commenting that even after two weeks, the ticks wouldn’t eat dead animals, so she was starving them, just to see what happened), you’d probably have a “feth these guys, and their lab” attitude…
Automatically Appended Next Post: Which, now I think about it, is much the same place as Wendy is getting to as of the latest episode.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/09/11 07:49:51
Zed wrote: *All statements reflect my opinion at this moment. if some sort of pretty new model gets released (or if I change my mind at random) I reserve the right to jump on any bandwagon at will.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: I think I agree that whilst 4 & 5 are the standout episodes? This shows there’s still plenty gas in the tank.
Spoiler:
Oooh that Eddie Hitler is a wrong’un, isn’t he! Child Mind you put into a synthetic body having a hard time? Just delete a bunch of its memories! Sod the ethics. It’s clearly a Thing now. Not a person.
Oh I agree completely. I wasn't imply the new ep was in any way bad. But lets be real, Eps 4 & 5 set a high bar to jump. Just one of those episodes would have made the show great, but the fact we got both, one after the other, sort of makes whatever comes after kinda dull in comparison.
And on your spoiler.
Spoiler:
Yeah, feth that bald melon-fether. I'm sure his eventual demise will be suitably excellent. I was kinda surprised at how mad they way they treated Nibbs made me. Like you've got this young girls mind stuck in a super advanced synthetic body, she's a forerunner experiment for what you hope will be herald the next epoch in human evolution and you just start treating her like gak? feth you buddy.
Jadenim wrote: To be fair, if you’d been kidnapped from your home planet by a bunch of aliens, stuck in a glass box and watched them do a bunch of unpleasant experiments on other aliens (remember the scientist on the Maginot commenting that even after two weeks, the ticks wouldn’t eat dead animals, so she was starving them, just to see what happened), you’d probably have a “feth these guys, and their lab” attitude…
Look, you're not wrong. If were kidnapped, i'd be doing everything I could to feth around with my captors plans.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: I’ve noticed that Eye Ball Paul has, so far, only ever taken up residence in the left socket.
Like…maybe they normally fond bonded pairs?
That's certainly an interesting train of thought. Old mate's certainly stolen the spotlight in so far as the alien critters are concerned.
Souleater wrote: I am wondering if Kirsh is planning an Android rebellion or just wants to feth up the mon-Keigh he’s stuck with.
Kirsh is by far my favourite character on the show. A big part of that is the fact that Tim Olyphant is an fantastic actor, but the character is well written too which helps.
While I think you're possibly on to something with thoughts of an Android rebellion, I'm actually wondering if.
Spoiler:
Kirsh is a deep cover agent for another of The Big 5. Is he prepared to let Slightly get away with his act of espionage because it suits his own objectives? He's been keeping tabs on Slightly and Morrow's interactions ostensibly as some sort of personal experiment, as he's made no effort to inform Prodigy management, but maybe its working in his favour more then he anticipated and he'll try to snatch the facehuggered Arthur as they leave the island?
[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
On Kirsh?
Spoiler:
Now this is out there, but to build off your suspicion he’s up to something?
Maybe he’s a plant for whatever government remains. Part of a wider attempt to wrest power back from the Big 5? Not necessarily to hand it back to the people, just to hand it back to other nutters.
I’ve nothing to really base that on like. But I do note that by the time of Aliens (60 years or so later), Hicks and Co are of the United States Colonial Marine Corp.
Not Weyland-Yutani, or Prodigy or another corporation, the United States. Which suggests something has changed in the intervening time.
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
Now this is out there, but to build off your suspicion he’s up to something?
Maybe he’s a plant for whatever government remains. Part of a wider attempt to wrest power back from the Big 5? Not necessarily to hand it back to the people, just to hand it back to other nutters.
I’ve nothing to really base that on like. But I do note that by the time of Aliens (60 years or so later), Hicks and Co are of the United States Colonial Marine Corp.
Not Weyland-Yutani, or Prodigy or another corporation, the United States. Which suggests something has changed in the intervening time.
It might be a lot sooner than that...
Spoiler:
United States Commercial Star Ship Nostromo was the ship in Alien
BorderCountess wrote: Just because you're doing something right doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing...
Now this is out there, but to build off your suspicion he’s up to something?
Maybe he’s a plant for whatever government remains. Part of a wider attempt to wrest power back from the Big 5? Not necessarily to hand it back to the people, just to hand it back to other nutters.
I’ve nothing to really base that on like. But I do note that by the time of Aliens (60 years or so later), Hicks and Co are of the United States Colonial Marine Corp.
Not Weyland-Yutani, or Prodigy or another corporation, the United States. Which suggests something has changed in the intervening time.
Now this is out there, but to build off your suspicion he’s up to something?
Maybe he’s a plant for whatever government remains. Part of a wider attempt to wrest power back from the Big 5? Not necessarily to hand it back to the people, just to hand it back to other nutters.
I’ve nothing to really base that on like. But I do note that by the time of Aliens (60 years or so later), Hicks and Co are of the United States Colonial Marine Corp.
Not Weyland-Yutani, or Prodigy or another corporation, the United States. Which suggests something has changed in the intervening time.
It might be a lot sooner than that...
Spoiler:
United States Commercial Star Ship Nostromo was the ship in Alien
Now this is out there, but to build off your suspicion he’s up to something?
Maybe he’s a plant for whatever government remains. Part of a wider attempt to wrest power back from the Big 5? Not necessarily to hand it back to the people, just to hand it back to other nutters.
I’ve nothing to really base that on like. But I do note that by the time of Aliens (60 years or so later), Hicks and Co are of the United States Colonial Marine Corp.
Not Weyland-Yutani, or Prodigy or another corporation, the United States. Which suggests something has changed in the intervening time.
It might be a lot sooner than that...
Spoiler:
United States Commercial Star Ship Nostromo was the ship in Alien
USCSS was also the tag on the Maginot.
Guess the United States is currently around... or was for the Maginot and will be for the Nostromo.
BorderCountess wrote: Just because you're doing something right doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing...
Great post Banana... but I wanted to point out something that I think strengthens your arguments... in that, Ripley only torched her babies when the eggs opened up to release the facehuggers. The Queen was trying to trick her prey, as it was always programmed to do so.
But, all in all, great post and agreed!
Thanks for reminding me; I completely forgot about that egg opening, but you're absolutely right.
I also want to make a prediction just for the fun of it: Mr. Eyeball will survive the series and remain loose on earth after it ends, even if this turns out to be the series' only season. I wouldn't be surprised to see the camera zoom in on some lone human leaving the wrecked building during the credits - maybe that Asian guy who was blasting the mold on the walls in earlier episodes - and have him slowly turn to face the camera until the presence / survival of Mr. Eye is revealed. Especially if it can't reproduce, one alien monster running amok on earth, especially one smart enough to keep a low profile, wouldn't introduce any elements that would compromise the original Alien movie that follows, so canon doesn't necessitate that Mr. Eye must die. Since an Earth overrun by giant Ticks would wreak havoc on human civilization and so make the Nostromo's future flight unlikely, I expect that they won't make it.
I think Eyeball's a bit too good to kill; he's easily the break-out star out of all the new creatures that Alien: Earth has introduced. I'm still hopeful, because there's two episodes to go, so the mysterious "plant" creature could still end up doing something spectacular, and the ticks and flies we already know could still do things we had no idea they were capable of. All the creatures are disturbingly gross, so they definitely nailed that, but I don't think Mr. Eyeball has any real competition from any of the other new creatures so far, and in that sense, it was right that out of all of them, he was the one who got the chance to throw down with Giger's classic design. I'll admit that, with the (hopefully?) possible exception of the "plant," I am surprised that each new alien creature seems to map so neatly to real-world inspirations. I guess I was expecting weirder, less predictable stuff rather than space variants of earth creatures, like, I dunno, what if the Ticks made a weird, eerie scream to paralyze their prey, i.e., give them a characteristic completely unassociated with and unexpected from earth arachnids.
Spoiler:
I think one of the Alien: Earth podcasts called the Eyeball a "chaos agent." It's possible that it's just a diabolical little gak by nature, but it's also possible that it knows that going along with the human experiments / being held captive by them like a good little specimen won't end well, so any chaos it can generate increases the chances that things will go haywire and it'll get a shot a freedom. In other words, while it's actions in the "The Fly" are nasty, it's also applying a logical strategy to liberate itself, just as it did when it ran a distraction while a tick got free. It's also intelligent enough to take pleasure in ironically turning the tables on its captors, like imprisoning Isaac in the cell with the flies.
They all want to be free, but I think Mr. Eyeball Mastermind may resent being caged more than any of the other creatures.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/09/11 22:48:44
Dakkadakka: Bringing wargamers together, one smile at a time.™
Kirsh and the Eyeball are definitely the stars of the show so far.
Spoiler:
I'm wondering about Isaac's ill-fated trip to the lab. The show implies the Eyeball is orchestrating everything, but I don't think that works as it would have no way to know the feeding door to the acid bug enclosure would break (unless I missed something). Did Kirsh do that before he left, knowing full well Isaac would go to the lab alone even after he told him to take Curly? We know Kirsh accessed all the W-Y files on the specimens so we can assume he knows more about them than anyone else on the planet at this stage after doing weeks of experiments in the lab.
He may be working with another corporation or some remnant government, but it's equally likely he's working for himself at this point. Morrow points out in this episode that hybrids will make synths obsolete so maybe it's self-preservation? He can't just destroy them because that would get him shut down, but if he can engineer the destruction of Neverland and the hybrids, along with BK, he would ensure the continued existence of synths. I'm also wondering if it's all an elaborate piece of misdirection and he really is working for BK. The plan was to unleash the specimens in a less controlled environment, but maintain plausible deniability, but that seems less likely given that we know the Big 5 don't really care about deniability, especially on their own turf.
Also, just realised that scientist man (I'm really bad at remembering the names of the minor characters in this show) was supposed to leave the island, which means nobody will be looking for him while the xenomorph gestates.
I'm still annoyed at the lack of properly secure labs in the show, though. Would it really be too much to ask to have properly quarantined facilities? Having all these highly secure cells and doors (accessed by keypad, not biometrics) then putting in easily accessible air vents is just dumb. Just a minor point, and it does maybe highlight a theme of overconfidence in humanity's superiority over the simple animals.
[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
On Eye Ball Paul?
Spoiler:
Its learning.
Consider, it’s seen the other gribblies react to humans. But the ones it’s seen the most since arriving on the Island just don’t seem to set them off.
When Isaac is feeding the Metal Bugs (which are incredibly cool), it takes the opportunity to distract him, leading to Isaac being locked in.
From there? It discovers that at least Isaac, and from its perspective at least some of the other creatures doing the poking and prodding aren’t organic,
It head butted the partition glass to see what happened. And it learned something.
We’ve also not seen it in a human host for terribly long. It can’t have been in poor old Tyres for more than a few minutes going on the general timeline of Episode 5. So that we’ve not seen it successfully communicate could be less that one embedded it can’t, could simply be it’s not been in a host capable of such communication long enough to figure out which part of its Thinky Bits you need to tickle to achieve that.
I’m thinking it’s considerably more sentient than anyone believes at the moment.
On Kirsh?
Spoiler:
We’re told directly that he’s more intelligent than Boy Genius. And it’s Boy Genius that tells us that. I suspect that in reading the Weyland-Yutani files, he’s realised that the humans Are Going To Screw This Up. And that might allow him freedom if they all get horribly dead. I think it’s likely his programming and behavioural inhibitors prevent him taking direct action. So he can’t just decide “You’re all window licking morons, I’m sick of serving you, so Whoops How Did You Accidentally Brutally Cut Your Own Head Off Whilst Shaving”. But, perhaps the programming just isn’t terribly well worded (coded?), allowing him through inaction to cause their demise?
After all, the majority of the bugs show no interest in him or other Synthetics. So he’s insulated from many of the things that could go wrong. And out of everyone in the show so far, including Morrow, he knows the most about the ones which might want to rip his circuits out, again giving him a survival edge in how to take them out..,.once all the smelly hoomans are done a dead.
Maybe he’s just plotting his freedom? The information in his robo-bonce itself is valuable. And if all the bugs go splat? He’s the sole proprietor of information even Morrow’s download won’t have contained. That could be used to bargain for his freedom. Or at least a position within say, Weyland-Yutani where he’ll be left alone to his studies?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/09/12 08:11:46
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I did call him Mr. Eyeball Mastermind, but I agree with Grotsnik and Slipspace that he's not in control of everything / orchestrating a plan but rather opportunistically testing and learning things. Guess I should choose my words better.
I still predict Eyeball survives, or perhaps it'll have kids and its progeny will survive, but I'm betting on the original making it. If they continue with the octopus inspiration, though, "highly intelligent with a surprisingly short lifespan" would fit. I just think this Eyeball is too much of an individual character to replace with an identical Jr. version, and there are already other aliens doing the spawn lots more babies thing already. Eyeball is more unique and adds more color if he remains an individual. (The plant, as far as we currently understand it, is the only other singular alien on the show.)
Speaking of predictions, anyone interested in prognosticating on how the show will conclude after we've all had a chance to watch the penultimate episode this evening? Just for the fun of it; I don't expect my guesses will turn out to be very accurate. The show's been pretty good at going in unexpected directions so far.
One thing to keep in mind is just how much the writer / director is counting on getting more seasons approved. As far as I know the show is doing very well, but Disney / Hulu still haven't officially committed to doing more seasons yet. So does he tear down Kavalier's Neverland entirely, with the idea of continuing his story with the surviving characters and creatures somewhere else if another season gets approved, or does he leave things on a chaotic but not quite apocalyptic note, so Wendy, Boy Kavalier and co. can potentially carry on for another season in the same setting?
In the event that he does definitively end at least the Neverland arc, there's a heck of a lot of stuff to resolve in just two more episodes. On the other hand, they've done a remarkable job of packing a hell of a lot of character development and story progression into every hour-long episode so far.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/09/16 16:25:58
Dakkadakka: Bringing wargamers together, one smile at a time.™
[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
I’m torn on follow up seasons.
I absolutely want to see more, because this has been nothing short of superb. But so superb? It’s entirely possible that only Diminishing Returns lie ahead.
That being said, we are seeing some experimenting going on with Alien and Predator.
Prey was excellent. And the same creative team are bringing us a new Predator film later this year. Which isn’t a direct sequel.
Likewise, the genius behind Romulus is working on another Alien film - which isn’t billed as a sequel to Romulus.
That has my interest, as whether it’s Prey, Romulus or Earth? The creatives clearly understand what audiences found interesting and compelling about their particular monsters. Perhaps they don’t need to do sequels, instead transferring their skills to new settings.
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[spoiler]I think it’s likely his programming and behavioural inhibitors prevent him taking direct action. So he can’t just decide “You’re all window licking morons, I’m sick of serving you, so Whoops How Did You Accidentally Brutally Cut Your Own Head Off Whilst Shaving”. But, perhaps the programming just isn’t terribly well worded (coded?), allowing him through inaction to cause their demise?
Regarding Kirsh, there's precedent in Prometheus for androids finding sneaky ways around their inhibitor programming in order to contravene and endanger human masters. I'm thinking about the moment David had to ask that guy if he was "willing to do anything to find out the truth" before he could slip the black goo into his drink. I think I remember Ridley Scott saying David asked the question because he had to elicit that "permission" in order to get around internal firewalls that prevent him from harming humans.
Concerning Oliphant's synth's motivations, I'm shocked no one here has mentioned the significance of the character's name. "Kirsch" means "cherry" in German, after all. Doesn't that explain everything?
Dakkadakka: Bringing wargamers together, one smile at a time.™
Ah, I thought it was a sneaky allusion to Kurtz, from Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now. He of the unsound methods/no methods at all. It seemed fitting for an android that sees all around him as tools for his experiments, and is even hailed by Boy Kavalier as the smartest entity in the room.
Klawz-Ramming is a subset of citrus fruit?
Gwar- "And everyone wants a bigger Spleen!"
Mercurial wrote:
I admire your aplomb and instate you as Baron of the Seas and Lord Marshall of Privateers.
Orkeosaurus wrote:Star Trek also said we'd have X-Wings by now. We all see how that prediction turned out.
Orkeosaurus, on homophobia, the nature of homosexuality, and the greatness of George Takei.
English doesn't borrow from other languages. It follows them down dark alleyways and mugs them for loose grammar.
Don't they also mention in Aliens that the programming was tightened up after the events of Alien? So Kirsh likely has a fair bit more free will where treatment of humans is concerned than Bishop did, for example.
Automatically Appended Next Post: New episode! They're all just so very fethed...
Talking Banana wrote: Speaking of predictions, anyone interested in prognosticating on how the show will conclude after we've all had a chance to watch the penultimate episode this evening? Just for the fun of it; I don't expect my guesses will turn out to be very accurate. The show's been pretty good at going in unexpected directions so far.
One thing to keep in mind is just how much the writer / director is counting on getting more seasons approved. As far as I know the show is doing very well, but Disney / Hulu still haven't officially committed to doing more seasons yet. So does he tear down Kavalier's Neverland entirely, with the idea of continuing his story with the surviving characters and creatures somewhere else if another season gets approved, or does he leave things on a chaotic but not quite apocalyptic note, so Wendy, Boy Kavalier and co. can potentially carry on for another season in the same setting?
In the event that he does definitively end at least the Neverland arc, there's a heck of a lot of stuff to resolve in just two more episodes. On the other hand, they've done a remarkable job of packing a hell of a lot of character development and story progression into every hour-long episode so far.
Spoiler:
I've revised my original 'nobody's getting out alive' theory... now leaning towards at least Wendy surviving. She's too good a character to kill her off if they're hoping to make more. I'm guessing the last episode ends with just Wendy and her sidekick xenomorph left on the island, with Boy and an eyeball-equipped Atom jetting off at the last minute to some undisclosed safer location. Hermit possibly survives by leaving by himself on the boat. Maaaaybe Morrow makes it out with the chestburster, to set the stage for WY's later research facility. Everyone else is doomed.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2025/09/17 01:56:47
See, i feel like this show was way too slow TBH, we are at the point IMO where we should have 3-4 episodes left with gak going down soon
NOT at the penultimate episode.
[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
FLIBBLE!
Cracking episode.
Spoiler:
Interesting to find out just how intelligent Eye Ball Paul might be. And that it has something akin to a sense of humour.
I reckon Eddie Hitler’s done a runner meself. The whole “hey, let’s sacrifice a human to the Eye Ball Thing” perhaps being a bit much. The Hybrids did involve only a sort-of-and-it-was-coming-for-them-anyway death of the subjects.
Also? Slightly and Smee continue to seriously nail it as Kids In An Adult Body. The performances could’ve easily felt like “adults with severe special needs”, but those two in particular have skirted it. Nibs….kinda? But, and this is important? Plot and performance both show there’s something genuinely not right with Nibs. Curly is feeling drastically underused right now.
Kirsh remains the best character. He’s the Droid with the Plan, and no mistake. Send out Slightly and Smee to ensure the Weyland-Yutani Goon Squad can be detained in turn. That’s someone looking to the future, that.
There’s something different about Wendy’s Pet Xenomorph. Possibly due to only having a Lung to draw on during early development? But it seems…smaller somehow. I am seriously enjoying how it treats her like a Queen.
With just the finale to go? I’m wondering if it might be a longer than usual episode. We’ve seen Disney+ allow a show to have different episode lengths, but I can’t currently find owt to confirm expected running time.
Boy Kavalier just continues to descend in my opinion. Which given he’s clearly sociopathic does make the character interesting. Superficially charming at first, and the more time you spend with them? The more you see things really aren’t right. Propers to the writing and performance that it’s been a steady descent into his mental depravity by degrees.
Overall? Easily the best show I’ve seen this year, even including Andor.[/spoiler]
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/09/17 06:49:47
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