So did the finale of Alien: Earth disappoint, or is it everything we hoped it would be? I think you’re going to be surprised, because I don’t necessarily know that it landed on either side of the fence.
Funny enough, this has been arguably one of the most fun seasons of television I think I’ve personally experienced in a very long time. I’m not saying it’s head and shoulders the greatest thing ever. It understood the assignment. It knew what it wanted to be, and it has ultimately ended in a way that I find very satisfying.
Now, are they potentially going off book in terms of what the future holds canonically? I suppose. But I don’t necessarily know that it matters.
A Finale That Breaks the Rules
This episode breaks a lot of rules for a finale. Last week’s episode was good, but I don’t necessarily know that I felt there was a clear climax for the season there. When the penultimate doesn’t have that, it means it’s setting up bigger things to happen.
The problem is I don’t necessarily know how much bigger the events were in this episode, in terms of how they were presented. It wasn’t an unsatisfying ending, but I also don’t know that I was that surprised by how it ended. I think I was more surprised by the fact that a lot of the things we’re seeing have seemingly happened within a vacuum. At one point you see the Yutani forces arriving, but at the same time the kids have pretty much taken over the island.
Spoilers.
The Kids Come Into Their Own
Come to find out the head of security guy is actually the very first synth the boy ever built. Apparently the boy is the one who either invented synths or is very much working very hard with them. Kirsh seemingly has his back broken. Morrow is taken captive. Everyone’s taken down on some level, and the kids have pretty much come into their own.
Not that I thought they weren’t going to. There’s a brief moment, a blip, where Slightly questions what they’re doing and whether they should be doing it or not.
“We did a bad thing, Slightly.” “It’s not our fault. They made us.”
And Wendy, more or less, is like, I’m nobody. Curly’s decided to go by the name Jane now, because Wendy told her the story about how Peter kidnapped Wendy’s daughter. It’s this whole thing.
“Curly, you get the soldiers.” “Jane. My name’s Jane.”
The Boy Genius Is Legitimately a Boy Genius
You find out the boy genius is legitimately a boy genius. His backstory is tragic. No lie.
“So the boy, me, built a machine. My first synth. I was six. I made him, you know, a grown man. Yeah. One day my daddy came home from the factory and there was my synth, and that was the end of daddy.”
So at six years old, he has built his chaperone, who gets to be the figurehead, and that’s the head of his security.
We also figure out that Wendy apparently can control anything on the network, which includes Mr. Head of Security. So this whole thing is pretty much setting itself up. Wendy has been sending the alien creature out to be her hound. Oh, yeah. It only goes in one direction. This whole thing goes downhill.
The Comic Book Ending
That’s why I said normally, when you have an episode like this that doesn’t feel like there’s a big climax of any kind, the penultimate episode would have filled in that gap. I went back and watched the penultimate episode just to make sure I understand what I’m talking about.
So again, this breaks a lot of the rules of storytelling. It does it in a very engaging way, though. Not to mention the fact that clearly we’re going into season 2 with a purpose.
This is what I kind of call the comic book ending. Comic books perpetually live in what’s called an act two. This has ended, and that means the next season is going to be an act two.
You have several ways that stories break down. Episodes have to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Seasons have to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. And at this point, that’s where we are. But you still need to be able to lead into the next season effectively without it being just a restart. In that regard, I’m excited to see what they’re going to do next season, because I feel like they have the ability to really build some groundbreaking serialized entertainment.
Now They Rule
I wish there was a longer thing to tell, because there’s not really much more to tell than that.
Wendy has her moment. She decides she’s going to leave Hermit, and that’s when Slightly steps in, and it’s like, he’s one of us. I thought that was a very interesting outlook, especially because at the very end of this thing Wendy declares what’s next. Now they rule.
So I mean, I don’t know, man. I’m excited. This is the first time in a long time that I feel like a season has ended in such a way that I’m genuinely excited for what comes next.
Hopefully they ride that wave and FX continues to do a really good job, through the institution of Hulu and Fox and whatever else they’re doing. I don’t want to see them meddling. Keep on this trajectory. Keep taking us to these places.
This is the epitome of what I feel like rehashing something should be. Tell us something new and original. If Star Wars did this, and Andor kind of does that. John Boyega recently talked about exactly that, and I’m going to bring it up on the Nerd Fights this week.
Where I’m Coming From
Go back and check out the rest of these episodes and the analysis we’ve been doing. I do my best to be as good at communicating those things as possible, and not only from a commentary standpoint. There’s an awful lot of YouTube channels out there doing exactly what I’m doing. Few of them come from the place that I come from. Having been in film and TV on the development side, having had a pilot, having talked to Netflix, having had a script on the desk of the president of Warner Brothers, I feel like I come at these things from a very unique perspective, and hopefully you find some value in that.
I do intend to start changing a few things up, and there’ll be more announcements about that. By that I just mean I’m going to start doing some long form work. We’ve also got a podcast that just started called Knowing More.
The Verdict
The Alien: Earth Season 1 finale is an 8 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
Okay, look. It is good. You absolutely should see it. Don’t miss it. It’s definitely important and it’s definitely going to matter. From an individual storytelling standpoint, though, it was kind of an unsatisfying finale, even if overall it didn’t commit any sins. At the end of the day, I expected a bigger finale, and it didn’t really give me that.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the season. I know that I have. I can’t wait to talk more about it with you next season. I might go back and do some other reviews, too. I may redo my Alien: Romulus, and I may do some other Alien stuff. I’m feeling kind of alieny, and I know Predator’s got some things coming out that I’m excited for.
Never forget, everyone loves a know-it-all.
Do you agree, or do you disagree? Were you expecting a bigger bang for the ending than we got this season, and are you excited for the trail they’re blazing moving forward? I know I am. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
