Spoilers for Episode 4 of Alien: Earth to follow.

After spending 2.5 episodes dealing with the fall-out of the crash of the Maginot, including the two-part opener and last week’s third episode, “Observation” settles into ‘Neverland’ in order to put everyone under a microscope.

Written by Noah Hawley and Bobak Esfarjani and directed by Ugla Hauksdóttir, the fourth episode of Alien: Earth does a lot of work laying the groundwork for things to come.

This includes…

• Hermit (Alex Lawther) being told by Atom (Adrian Edmondson) that he’s only being kept around as long as he’s useful to Prodigy (ie: a warning not to distract Sydney Chandler’s Wendy).
• Morrow (Babou Ceesay) teaches Slightly (Adarsh Gourav) about “restitution” and “right and wrong” when it comes to stealing Yutani property, all while Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant) listens in.
• Dame Sylvia (Essie Davis) learns that she’s not in control when Nibs (Lily Newmark) displays aggressive behavior during a therapy session.
• We get confirmation that Hermit’s old crew, Rashidi (Moe Bar-El) and Siberian (Diêm Camille), are now working full-time on patrol on the island, and;
• Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) naturally makes himself the center of attention while also shifting his fixation from Wendy and the Xenomorph to the The Eye, which proves to be a very resourceful communicator despite being inside a non-verbal sheep.

There’s plenty of meaty stuff going on, though this episode is quite a bit lighter on action. Still, Nibs’ belief that she’s pregnant, Wendy’s unique tie to the baby Xenomorph that bursts out of the impregnated lung (which is revealed to be Hermit’s!), as well as Kirsh’s refusal to intercede as Morrow manipulates Slightly, is all fascinating stuff.

Plus: there’s some slight world building as we learn about the other members of The Five corporations (in addition to Yutani and Prodigy, we have Threshold, Dynamic, and Lynch).

“Observation” is a character-driven episode, but there’s so much groundwork being laid that will undoubtedly pay off down the line. At this point we have one Xenomorph free and the Eye has got to escape at some point, right? The only question is when!

Listen to Trace and me discuss the episode in full below on the Horror Queers Patreon:

Coming Up Next: Next week we’re discussing episode 1.05, “In Space, No One…”

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