‘Alien: Earth’: The Stars & Creator Answer Burning Season 2 Questions
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Alien: Earth, Season 1 Episode 8, “The Real Monsters.”]
Alien: Earth‘s Season 1 finale left us with more than a few burning questions as the series from creator Noah Hawley closed out its eighth episode.
While Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and the Lost Boys lorded over caged prisoners in Prodigy’s Neverland base, she was supported by the Xenomorph and her brother Joe (Alex Lawther), the latter of whom appeared to be reluctant about the power dynamic shift. Tied up in the cage were Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), Dame Sylvia (Essie Davis), Morrow (Babou Ceesay), Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant), and Atom Eins (Ade Edmondson).
A brief moment teased the impending arrival of Yutani at Neverland, but for now, Wendy intended to rule over those whom she believed had wronged her, with the Xenomorph at her whim. But what could possibly be next? Below, the cast and creator answer some of the biggest burning questions as we await a Season 2 renewal announcement. They cover everything from Arthur’s (David Rysdahl) eye midge reanimation to the revelation about Atom’s synth origins.
Scroll down for a closer look and stay tuned for updates on a potential second season.
Alien: Earth, Streaming now, Hulu
What is the real story behind Atom Eins?
In the finale, Boy Kavalier spins a tale about how, as a child, he’d built his first synth, which killed his father and assumed the role, and it was implied that, after Wendy managed to control and reveal to viewers that Kavalier’s right-hand man, Atom Eins (Ade Edmondson), was a synth, he’s likely the individual at the center of the tale. But what is his purpose, and was he created to look like Kavalier’s real father?
“I don’t know if he was designed to look like his dad or whether he designed someone who looked like the CEO of a corporation,” Noah Hawley says, “but he was definitely thinking 10 steps ahead in terms of a six-year-old boy’s version of what building an empire looks like.” Meanwhile, Blenkin shares, “Atom was that same synth [from the story].”
Who is Wendy?
As viewers saw, Wendy experienced a bit of an identity crisis as she told her brother Joe that she wasn’t Marcy anymore, but she wasn’t sure she was Wendy. Torn between the human side of her mind and the synthetic body she inhabits as a hybrid, we can’t help but wonder, who is Wendy, and will we learn that answer in a second season?
“I think she doesn’t know. I think she knows what she doesn’t want to be, and her path is narrowing,” Chandler tells TV Insider. “In the first episode, she asks [Kirsh], ‘Well, what am I?’ And he says, ‘Whatever you want to be.’ And throughout the majority of the rest of the season, she’s trying to figure out what she is. Not until the end do I think she starts to chew on [that idea].”
Could Wendy bridge the gap between alien species?
We’ve seen that Wendy could communicate with the Xenomorph, but could she possibly bridge the gap between the species? As the season uncovered, there’s some serious beef between the T. Ocellus, a.k.a. eye midge, and the Xenomorph. Considering Wendy’s advanced abilities as a hybrid, could she deliver an explanation for that apparent rift between the aliens?
“I feel like she wouldn’t want to talk to [the eye], to be honest. I’m excited if we go to a Season 2 to figure out the ground rules as far as the language,” Chandler shares. “I do feel like the connection with the Xenomorph… they do have the uniqueness of being raised in captivity, just like her. And so I think that is also a reason why they are connected,” she explains. “But I don’t know where it goes from here. While she has this connection, I really wanted to hold on to this idea that there’s still a fear. It’s her and a wild tiger that’s just walked up, and it’s not eating her.”
Will Arthur come back?
Unfortunately, for scientist Arthur Sylvia, he fell victim to a facehugger-turned-chestburster alien encounter, but a brief scene revealed that the eye midge lodged itself into his body to reanimate it. So, if the show does return for Season 2, could Arthur come back?
“When I read that, I was so excited,” David Rysdahl gushes. “I love eye midge. I don’t know what we’re going to do with it yet. There are some ideas that are really fun,” he teases. “It creates a huge opportunity as an actor to play something that is unlike anything I’ve ever done before.”
What is Morrow's next move?
While most of the individuals imprisoned on Neverland belonged to Prodigy, Morrow was the outsider as an employee of Weyland-Yutani. When he was initially freed alongside Wendy’s brother Joe, he vowed he’d kill Boy Kavalier. Now, as they shared the same cage at the end of Season 1, what would Morrow’s next move be?
Ceesay says, “He’s biding his time; they haven’t killed him, which is a good thing. And he knows, Yutani is coming; whatever distress signal that needed to be sent has been sent, so he’s biding his time. But I think the thing that really knocks Morrow over at the end of this season is Wendy with the Xenomorph calmly under control,” Ceesay adds. “I think that made him go, ‘Where are we going with this?'”
Why did Wendy's words trigger Boy Kavalier so much?
In the final moments of the finale, Wendy confronted Boy Kavalier and told him he wasn’t a boy, but a mean little man, and her words appeared to strike a chord.
“I really liked in that episode, we get a little flicker of him losing control and the beginning of the unraveling of his world,” Blenkin says. “There are a couple of moments in that episode that shock him. I love the ambiguity of the ending as well, because there’s that laugh, which is verging on madness. He’s kind of proud of the Lost Boys for doing what they’ve done.”
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