Earth Season 2 Wants To Preserve Exploring The Present’s Best Rivalry

This text incorporates spoilers for the season 1 finale of “Alien: Earth.”

The protagonist of “Alien: Earth” could also be Wendy, aka Marcy (Sydney Chandler), and the primary villain could also be Prodigy Corp. CEO Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), however probably the most attention-grabbing character dynamic on the present arguably includes neither. A lot of the story of “Alien: Earth” season 1 follows the hybrid youngsters of the Neverland facility, whose minds are transferred from their terminally sick prepubescent our bodies to immortal artificial grownup our bodies. Over the course of this season, we have seen lots of the unsettling ramifications of that process play out, however the finale escalates the battle to indicate a full-on army battle between Prodigy and the rival Weyland-Yutani Company.

That company rivalry has been personified all through the season by the person rivalry between two supporting characters: Prodigy android and scientist Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant), and Weyland-Yutani loyalist and cyborg Morrow (Babou Ceesay). The 2 cross paths early within the present, and it is clear from the leap that they do not like one another. That is partially as a result of their respective company loyalties, however it has extra to do with sci-fi racism. The cyborg hates the android, and the android hates the cyborg, each declaring their very own supremacy as the way forward for the human race.

Within the season finale, this ideological rivalry turns into bodily, with Morrow and Kirsh duking it out in a brutal hand-to-hand brawl within the Neverland lab, which leaves each of them near loss of life. Although they solely spend a handful of scenes collectively over the course of the entire season, this climactic battle is among the finale’s most attention-grabbing elements, and the present ought to completely proceed exploring the rivalry in season 2.

Greater than aliens themselves, because the identify of the present would counsel, “Alien: Earth” is about human consciousness. It is a very classical sci-fi story at its root, displaying a number of completely different concepts of what a futuristic “human” might appear like. The androids — or synthetics, as they’re referred to as within the present — have extremely sturdy our bodies and extremely superior minds, that are additionally able to sure types of emotion, however they’re completely man-made, and due to this fact lack sure ineffable parts of humanity. Cyborgs are the other — people who permit their our bodies and minds to be altered by robotics and computer systems till they turn out to be one thing very completely different, however nonetheless retaining their origins as absolutely natural people.

“Have a look at you,” Kirsh says to Morrow in episode 6. “The virtually human, self-hating machine. How it’s essential to envy me.” Morrow fires again shortly, calling Kirsh “yesterday’s mannequin, the extremely irrelevant robotic,” and later an “outdated toy.” The dialog, carried out within the elevator after a gathering between the leaders of Prodigy and Weyland-Yutani, shortly devolves into grotesque jabs and counter-jabs about how a lot every character enjoys killing members of the opposite’s race.

So clearly, there isn’t any love misplaced there.

With Prodigy’s hybrids probably making each cyborgs and androids out of date, it is as if Morrow and Kirsh are each preventing the tide of historical past, making an attempt to say themselves as the required factor for the long run. Morrow even references how he might theoretically get one of many absolutely artificial our bodies for himself, since he has a human thoughts — one thing that may not likely be attainable for a full synth. And but, each males are nonetheless the identical type of servant to a company ruling class, left to combat towards one another whereas richer pursuits see them merely as instruments.

Whereas they each get some nice moments in season 1, culminating of their frenetic brawl within the season finale, Kirsh and Morrow deserve extra highlight in “Alien: Earth” season 2. For one factor, Olyphant and Ceesay ship two of one of the best performances, with Ceesay specifically stealing the present each time he is on display. There’s additionally a lot enjoyable thematic materials tied up in that specific character relationship, from the strain of differing paths of synthetic human evolution to the lifelong loyalties demanded by Earth’s megacorporations.

“This is not over,” Morrow says to Kirsh after being captured by Prodigy troopers on the finish of episode 7. “Nothing ever is,” Kirsh replies. It is a imprecise, considerably complicated response. Maybe he is simply saying that he enjoys holding grudges, however with the factitious longevity possessed by each characters — exemplified by them actually beating one another to loss of life within the season finale and nonetheless surviving — the road may also be learn as a type of declaration for hope issues will go towards an period when loss of life is optionally available … a minimum of for some.