Spoiler Alert: Spoilers follow for the first two episodes of Alien: EarthAt long last,Alien: Earthis here, and if the two-part series premiere is any indication, we’re in for an excellent debut season. In bringing the beloved franchise to television for the first time, creator and showrunner Noah Hawley has been delivering on the Xenomorph action that fans have been clamoring for, while also giving us interesting new characters to root for.
But the show doesn’t just feel like a collection of the greatest hits:Hawley has already been expanding on the franchise lorein interesting ways. In being the firstAlienstory to focus on what’s happening on Earth, we’ve already gotten fascinating glimpses at the inner workings of Weyland-Yutani and its corporate competitors, as well as the introduction of “hybrids.”Of course, we’ve already been introduced to some nightmarish new creatures that can proudly sit alongside the Xenomorph.
‘Alien: Earth’ Somehow Makes Bugs Even More Terrifying
AsAlien: Earthopens, we’re introduced to the crew of the USCSSMaginot, returning from a 65-year journey to collect various specimens from across the galaxy (one of them being the facehugger).These early minutes give us quick glimpses at some of the show’s terrifying new monsters, accidentally set loose after the ship crashes.
To begin with, if you have adeep-seated fear of bugs, we’d caution against watching the premiere ofAlien: Earthwithout a word of warning. And even if you don’t, that doesn’t make the blood bugs any less unsettling. Maybe the most prominently featured new additions thus far, these creepy crawlers fully emerge shortly after the mysterious Morrow ties up and strands two Prodigy search and rescue members in the ship’s lab.
With the poor soldiers unable to escape, the bugs promptly bite into their necks and begin draining their blood while burrowing into their insides. After they’ve finished feasting, we see the sacks on their tails, swollen to abnormal degrees and so inflated with blood and guts that they could seemingly pop at any moment. It’s incredibly disgusting, and while it’s been hinted that the bugs can reproduce inside their hosts, much like the Xenomorph, we (thankfully) haven’t seen that in action yet.
But there’s another bug-like creaturethat’s mostly only been hinted at so far: as the hybrids enter the ship,we see a giant flower bud having grown on the ceiling. It seems to be an even more monstrous kind of Venus flytrap, but we’ll have to see what the weeks ahead give us.
You Won’t Believe Your Eye at the Best New ‘Alien: Earth’ Addition
Yet the blood bugs are a walk in the park compared toAlien: Earth’s most unsettling new addition.While the tentacled eyeball monster had already been teased in the show’s trailers, actually seeing it in action was a whole new level of creepy (another word of warning to potential viewers,this time to cat owners). Formally known as both T. Ocellus and Species 64, this delightful monstrosity takes center stage in arguably the premiere’s most twisted action setpiece.
As the hybrids enter the ship’s lab, they come across a cat with a badly mutilated face. We immediately realize that the cat is already dead, and Ocellus has taken the place of its left eye, allowing it to take control of its host’s movement and motor functions. As Ocellus finally makes its presence known by attacking the hybrids, we see from a POV shot that the creature has multidirectional vision, like that of a fly, and is thus able to see almost any threat coming. Fortunately, the hybrids manage to contain the monster without any casualties, but it’s clear that Ocellus is a major threat because of its unpredictability. Indeed, as a recent interview withBusiness Insiderdetailed, that unpredictability is exactly what Noah Hawley was going for. He stated:
“I had to bring back the feeling of discovery of the lifecycle of a creature that every time you thought it had gotten as brutal and awful as it could get, it got worse… You think about, well, what are the things that upset me the most? The bodily autonomy, parasites, all of it. And then you’re doing an almost comedic game of what’s the worst thing that could happen?”
If this week’s premiere is any indication, Hawley has certainly been delivering on these goals.And the weeks ahead are already promising even more of the new monster action; as previously mentioned, we’ve yet to see the flower bud in full, and we only got a hint at what looked like an oversized fly in the opening scenes. We can’t wait to see more, and it’s only one of the ways in whichAlien: Earthis fully deliveringon its astronomical hype.Alien: Earthis available to stream onHulu, with new episodes on FX and Hulu every Tuesday night.
