Episode Review: Alien: Earth Episode 7 - "Emergence"

Welcome back to the blog readers. In case you have been living under a rock over the last six weeks, Alien: Earth (2025-) has quickly catapulted itself into one of my favorite shows of the year so far. Everything has been firing on all cylinders, and I am finding myself get more and more invested in these characters (except Boy Kavalier) as we go along. Now that we have one episode left, titled "Emergence," written by Noah Hawley and Maria Melnik, and directed by Dana Gonzales, would we be heading towards a satisfying conclusion? Stick around to find out.

NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the episode.

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This show has done a fantastic job of adding some new lore to a nearly 50-year old franchise and it has been such a treat to be able to witness this. Plus we have the addition of two villains: one that is so god damn fascinating, and the other one that is easy to hate. This penultimate episode (by the way, I thought this show was ten episodes so forgive me) does a fantastic job of setting up an explosive finale. The performances (especially from Samuel Blenkin, Adarsh Gourav, and Sydney Chandler) were just as stellar as they have been, and the story is entering crazy levels of good.

Time to start by talking about Samuel Blenkin, who plays the easiest villain to hate since the piece of human trash Criston Cole (my hate for him knows no bounds, and I cannot wait to do it again in 2026). After having small roles in The French Dispatch (2021) and Mickey 17 (2025), he is not someone I have really had on my radar when it comes to performances. But he has completely embodied the character of Boy Kavalier in a way that is hitherto undreamt of. The cockiness he is able to imbue into this character makes me love to hate Kavalier, and the level of idiocy that he brings to the character makes me wish terrible things onto Kavalier. That is the sign of someone doing their job extremely well, and I hope this show gets a second season so Blenkin can continue to excel as this character (provided he is not killed in this finale).

Next up, I need to talk about the performance of Adarsh Gourav in this episode. Over the previous six weeks, I have praised his performance as being able to combine the childlike wonder he brings (since his character Slightly is technically a child) with a level of commitment to terror and fear based on what Morrow has been doing to Slightly. This week, he absolutely commits to the other side of fear and terror, and he gives his best performance in the show so far. He also goes as far as to excel in mixing that with the childlike wonder to transform his performance into that of a scared child. I am so curious to see how this show ends his arc (or concludes it for a possible second season) because if there is one character in this show that is in need of a little redemption, it 100% has to be Slightly.

And finally, I need to talk about the one person I have been "glazing" (as the kids call it nowadays) for what feels like all season: Sydney Chandler. Chandler has become a revelation to me with the release of this show, and knowing her father is about to be Hal Jordan (and is, in the words of John Campea, "Friday Night Lights Boi"), the genes for great talent had to be there. And there it is, as she gives possibly her most engaging and complex performance of the show to date. There is a confidence that she seems to have gained throughout the filming process of this season and it comes to a head here as she gives her most charismatic, most energetic, and possibly her most terrifying performance of the season thus far. I love what she has been able to do and what she has become, and I predict really good things are coming to her in the future, just you wait.

Now we get on to this week's story, and the penultimate episode gives us little nuggets on what we possibly can expect when it comes to the finale of this show. We pick up in the aftermath of last episode, in which Slightly allowed for a facehugger to latch onto the recently fired Arthur and took his body into a vent to avoid fly-looking creatures. He has hidden Arthur's unconscious body under his bed and he is sitting on the floor, pacing back and forth. He tries to give Arthur something to drink, but the creature tightens its grip on Arthur. Smee tries to get into Slightly's room because he knows something is going on, but he winds up barging his way in and discovering Arthur's body, leading him to grill Slightly on what he has done. Slightly admits the "man from the ship" (aka Morrow) threatened his family and he gets Smee to reluctantly help his friend get Arthur to the beach. The two leave the room and depart for a corridor when the guards that were patrolling the area leave.

Meanwhile, Kirsh enters the lab to the sound of the alarms blaring, Isaac (fka Tootles) dead, the door to the Xenomorph egg chamber open, and the fly creatures out of their enclosure as the Eye (that took over a sheep in the fourth episode) watches closely. One of the fly creatures spits through a fuse box before it and the other one are forcibly captured by Prodigy security and put in containment units. Boy Kavalier walks into the lab and is shocked at what he is witnessing, but quickly becomes fascinated at how these creatures digest food. Kirsh muses that their species lost real live food, so they resorted to metal and non-flesh. Kavalier is under the impression that this was an accident, but Kirsh has him watch the tape. Kavalier then does the smartest thing he has done all season: having the Eye be moved to isolation. Wendy walks in and the Xenomorph in the lab looks up with great intent as she asks what has happened. Kirsh lies to her that this was an accident, but she is not buying it and threatens to tell the other Lost Boys that they are not safe. She is prevented from leaving, but she chitters at the Xenomorph, who bangs its head on the glass to startle everybody and she walks out.

Back in her room some time later, Joe comes to visit Wendy and she tells him everything that happened. Joe admits it is time for the two of them to go, but she is hesitant until Joe tells her that her tracker has been disabled. She then tells him that she will not leave her remaining Lost Boys on the island, but Joe tells her there is not enough time. She convinces him to let her try, and they begin by trying to recruit Nibs and Curly. Curly outright refuses but Nibs seems a little more receptive to the idea, despite having her memory erased last episode. Curly tries to blame Wendy for this situation and tells them this is the best place she has ever been, but agrees to not rat the two of them out. In the same room, Wendy interacts with a computer screen which unlocks the Xenomorph's enclosure, allowing it to rip apart anyone who is unfortunate enough to be in the lab and escape. Also, Kavalier learns Arthur is still on the island after not making it on the flight, as he accosts Dame Silvia and accuses her of being involved, something she vehemently denies. He reveals he knows Arthur and Joe turned off the trackers of the hybrids, but his grilling of her is interrupted by an alert that the lab is breached and the footage of the Xenomorph ripping through the people.

In the chaos, Slightly and Smee are trying to smuggle Arthur (who still has the facehugger) out of the facility and on to the beach, but they are caught by Kirsh, who surprisingly helps them by giving them a faster way to the beach and reveals he knows everything that has been going on between Slightly and Morrow. Later on, they hide from some soldiers and put Arthur down, but are shocked when Arthur disappears minutes later. After looking for him, he appears without the facehugger and is confused on why the three of them are there. The two hybrids lie about a gas leak, but Arthur urges the three of them to turn back and talk this out when they get back to the facility. This conversation is short-lived, as he writhes out in pain and an alien creature bursts out of Arthur's chest, killing him (I mean, we knew he was a dead man once the facehugger latched on to him). Slightly looks for the creature, but it had scurried into a bush. Smee grills Slightly and tells him he only agreed to help his friend because he thought Arthur would be okay, as they build a makeshift raft so they can transfer Arthur's corpse to the beach. They are met by armed soldiers led by Morrow, who he is only concerned about the creature. Slightly tearfully asks about his mother, but Morrow has the children accompany them to search for the creature.

Meanwhile, Wendy, Joe, and Nibs have escaped the facility and come up on the graves where the bodies of the children whose consciousnesses now inhabit the Lost Boys hybrids are buried. Joe goes to Marcy's body to mourn, but Wendy reminds him that they are still here. Also while this is happening, Kavalier and Atom Eins are discussing the hybrids getting out as Kavalier then does the dumbest thing he has ever done on this show and blurt out that he wants to talk to the Eye. He then quizzes the creature on the mathematical number pi, and it surprisingly gets the subsequent numbers right. On a side note, this fucking thing knows math? We're all doomed. That's not the dumbest thing he did. What he says next is next-level stupid. He wants to transfer the Eye into a human so he can talk to it, and immediately shuts down Eins' protests against this. Back on Wendy, Joe, and Nibs, the two find themselves surrounded by a bunch of Yutani soldiers, but Wendy chitters and the Xenomorph appears to rip all of these soldiers apart as well. It jumps in font of Wendy and allows her to rub its head, then runs off after she chitters again. Joe asks her what she said to it, and she thinks it was "Hide and follow."

Back outside, the baby Xenomorph that burst from Arthur's chest is caught in a net. When Morrow waltzes in to the facility with Smee and Slightly, he is surrounded on all sides by Prodigy forces, Kirsh front and center with the creature where he tells the cyborg "Finders keepers." Morrow is taken into custody and Smee and Slightly are "grounded," revealing Kirsh's decision to help the two children was solely a strategic one (and a pretty genius one to boot). Meanwhile, Joe, Wendy, and Nibs have made it to the dock and board the boat they think is going to take them off Neverland Island, but Siberian and Rashdi emerge from the poop deck, revealing they knew what he was attempting. Soldiers surround the boat and one pulls Nibs' toy away from her and throws it into the water, leading her to begin brutally attacking the soldiers, ripping that one soldier's jaw off. Wendy chitters, but Joe puts his hand over her mouth. Nibs almost kills Siberian, leading Joe to hit her with a stun gun. Wendy screams at Joe asking him what he did, and the Xenomorph watches from the distance. And maybe the Eye is even watching something, somewhere. That's all it seems to do these days, and I am hoping we get a payoff with this creature in the finale I thought was not coming for another three weeks.

Alien: Earth's penultimate episode is setting the stage for a climactic finale that will see multiple storylines collide and the brakes to be thrown out of the car entirely. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.