Episode Review: Alien: Earth 1x8 - "The Real Monsters"

Welcome back to the blog readers. To say that Alien: Earth is one of the best shows of the year would totally be an understatement. This series has made a nearly 50-year old franchise relevant again with some new twists and turns to put a fresh coat of paint on some tired wheels. And the results have been shockingly fascinating so far to say the least. I am so upset that we are at the end point (since I was under the assumption that this series was 10 episodes), because I have loved the results. Would this finale, titled "The Real Monsters," written by Noah Hawley and Migizi Pensoneau, and directed by Dana Gonzales, be worthy of all that came before? 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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After I have been wowed for seven weeks straight with insane quality, rich characters, and just a hell of a time, I was expecting the same thing with this finale. Because as you know, shows nowadays have not had the easiest time sticking the landing, especially if they are under the Disney umbrella (I'm looking at you, Secret Invasion (2023)). And I am happy to report that this finale is...not as good as the rest of the season has been, but it is not terrible by any means. There were unfortunately no performances (outside of the creatures) that I gravitated towards this time around, but I do want to talk about the story and the potential future of this show.

So let's get the story out of the way I guess. I am a bit disappointed that this episode does not satisfactorily wrap up all of the story beats we have gotten over the previous seven episodes, but it does leave the door open to revisit these characters in the future. We pick up from last week with Arthur's corpse left on the beach, and the adult Xenomorph hovers over the body before scurrying off. It watches Dame Silvia bring a flower to the graves of the bodies of the children. It sneaks up on her, but Prodigy soldiers shoot at the creature before it can attack her. Atom Eins gives an update on the status of the island: ccommunications are down and Yutani were the ones that jammed the signals; the surviving Lost Boys (Wendy, Nibs, Curly, Smee, and Slightly), Joe, and Morrow have all been captured; and the other creatures (including the Eye) are still in containment. Boy Kavalier's forces are hunting the Xenomorph, but it is kind of busy ripping them all apart. Eins thinks it is time to evacuate, but Kavalier is focused on watching Marcy become Wendy. He focuses on the Eye (still in the sheep), and tells it he wants to hear its voice.

Wendy discusses the graves she saw and muses on being alive: they can no longer be children but Prodigy will never let them be adults. Nibs believes the five are ghosts before Wendy decides that the humans should fear them. She begins to chitter and Kavalier starts to get afraid. Systems begin going down as Kirsh (who is watching over the baby Xenomorph that burst from Arthur's chest) tells Kavalier to play this smart, since he knows Yutani is on the way. Kavalier wants to fight Yutani, and wants Eins to come to him as he vows to give the Eye to someone weak. Meanwhile, Silvia is brought to her quarters by Prodigy forces and Wendy forces her to watch old footage of the kids discussing their transition to becoming hybrids, including Marcy asking if they will be okay on repeat. While this is happening, Joe is pacing back and forth in his cell and wakes up Morrow, while they discuss his stunning him from the second episode. Morrow maintains that he saved Joe's life, and muses that being more than human comes with a price. After asking Joe what that price is (and his response of everything), he tells Joe that everything does not even begin to cover it. Wendy is upset that Joe chose "them," but Smee tells her that Joe is one of them.

After Smee tells her that, Wendy decides to let Joe and Morrow free, and Morrow kills the lone guard protecting their cell and unlocks his arm from the shackles it was in. Joe wants to save the ones he can, but Morrow tells him to hurry and save the children since he plans on burning this place to the ground. Meanwhile, the four-person team that includes Siberian finds itself on an elevator that Wendy and Smee manipulate into initiating a self-destruct sequence. They stop it and later find themselves in the lab, where Siberian is consumed by the plant pod creature (known as D. Plumbicare), and she accidentally kills her squad mates with her errant gunfire. Before this happens though, Morrow sneaks up on Kirsh but he was ready and the two engage in a brutal brawl that leaves Kirsh short circuiting and his back broken. Morrow muses that man always wins, and the plant creature escapes, leading Kirsh to choke out Morrow. Smee and Slightly later tie up both synths declaring it is their time now.

Before the two synths are tied up, Kavalier visits the Lost Boys in their cell and complains he has nobody to "play with" anymore. Wendy snaps her fingers and opens the cell door, leading Kavalier to come inside and tell them about his father's alcoholism. He also explains how he built his first synth at six years old, making it his new "daddy." He killed his own father because a child could not run Prodigy, so he built himself a father figure instead. He then insults all the Lost Boys, calling them floor mats to what he plans on building. They surround him, leading him to signal to his bodyguard to help him, leading Nibs to brutally beat the bodyguard. Wendy forces Kavalier to run and instructs the Lost Boys to find their adversaries. Later on, Eins goes to Kavalier with a proposal as Nibs sneaks up on Silvia and the adult Xenomorph wipes out any soldier in its way. The proposal rears its ugly head when Eins brings Joe to Kavalier's office with the Eye's containment pod empty. The creature makes its way out of the sheep and towards Joe, but Joe is able to fight it off until Eins takes him down. Wendy makes the save and disables Eins, leading the Eye to retreat into the gutters.

Joe and Wendy have a heated conversation, where he apologizes for stunning Nibs, but she does not forgive him. She accuses him of not seeing them as people and says she likes the aliens because they are honest. She does not know what she is, but she knows she is not powerless as the two of them (and the Xenomorph) find Kavalier in a courtyard. Wendy sics it on the incoming soldiers and Joe kicks Kavalier unconscious. Curly knocks Rashidi (who survived the plant creature) out as Yutani forces arrive on the island and the Eye (which made its way to the beach) possesses Arthur's corpse. To end the episode, the Lost Boys have imprisoned Silvia, Morrow, Eins, Kirsh, and Kavalier. Wendy declares that Kavalier is not Peter Pan as he professed himself to be, but just a mean, hateful man. Eins cannot help him so he just has to take it. When asked what they do now, with Joe in the background and both Xenomorphs crawling on the cage, Wendy replies, "Now we rule."

I do have to say that the story of this finale is not as satisfactory of a conclusion as I was hoping for (and it does kind of feel rushed), but it definitely does leave a lot of things unanswered in the hope that we get at least another season to resolve all these lingering plot points. Like you cannot show Arthur's corpse getting possessed by the Eye and leave on that note; I want to see how that plays out. I want to see how the conflict between Yutani and Prodigy is handled. I want to see Wendy and the rest of the Lost Boys give Kavalier his just deserts and have him pay for his actions. Since this show was almost universally beloved, I cannot see Disney not greenlighting a second season of this show, and I really hope they do it soon because we deserve these answers.

Alien: Earth does not end its run on a highly satisfactory note, but it does leave a lot of questions for a potential second season. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.