Alien: Earth - Episode 3 "Metamorphosis"
First Thoughts on the Latest Addition to this Sci-Fi series
There will be spoilers in this review. If you don’t want to read it, watch the episode first. If you want my thoughts on episodes 1 and 2:
Episode 3 “Metamorphosis”
The Kids Are Not Alright
I want to be clear up front: I am enjoying Wendy as a main character.
However, I have some very mixed opinions about the other hybrid 'kids'. I should say that my biggest complaint about this episode is the scene where the hybrids interact with each other (and are then juxtaposed with their interactions with the 'adults'), especially in what should be intense situations. I can see that the moments earlier on were done this way to counter some suspenseful ones in the latter part of the episode. I still do not like it. Let me explain—
Scene Issues: "The Omelet" and the Shipping Container
The Omelet
The way the eggs are presented in the crashed ship, juxtaposed with how they are treated and framed in the scene with two of the hybrid children making jokes - even saying SCI-FI audibly in regards to the other parasites on board - I'm just ... I ... it was so poorly put together that the Cyborg, Morrow, HAD to intervene and save this scene.
Again, the scene is saved by Morrow's game of cat and mouse with the hybrid kids (which would come back later in the episode to great effect).
There have been moments throughout the first three episodes where director choices - including how shots have been framed and how characters are blocked - have let the air out of narrative tension.
The Shipping Container Scene
The last episode ended with a cliffhanger; Wendy has leapt down to try to rescue her brother, Joe, from the Xenomorph. So this episode begins with Wendy's pursuit of the Alien and to find Joe. This leads her to a parking garage in the building that was struck by the crashed ship from previous episodes. Wendy is 'feeling' the presence of the xenomorph. As she enters the parking garage area, she sees a row of shipping containers, and she hears her brother cry out to her, telling her that it's a trap. SO... she goes right to him.
Joe has been captured and is stuck at the far end of the shipping container. Wendy goes in, pushing aside some plastic curtains at the front end of the container, to help him loose. (I'm not sure why this shipping container has plastic lab curtains on it... well, WHY is for plot purposes)
Joe says it's coming for her. And we see the Alien move in, its silhouette behind the slitted, plastic curtain (in some ways harkening back to a pivotal scene in Alien 3 for the Alien fans out there). But Wendy and Joe are so far away from the Alien that the reveal is a letdown and lacks any suspense. Wendy picks up Joe and pulls out her 'sword' and walks toward the Alien. The Alien pushes her head through the slits in the curtain... snarls a touch and then ... LEAVES.
The Alien jumps on top of the shipping container, stomping towards them from above... for ... *reasons*. Wendy stabs through the container, and acid blood streams down, cutting a hole in the container. The Alien shrieks and then flips the container over, knocking out Wendy. Joe gets up from the wreckage and walks to the end of the container, trying to wake Wendy.
The Alien attacks Joe, impaling him with her tail. Joe falls to the ground, and the Alien crawls up on him (almost exactly like episode 2) and is about to inner-jaw chomp him, when Wendy grabs the inner jaw with a hook. Then they play tug of war for a bit before getting tossed behind a garage door - out of sight - and then it is revealed that Wendy has chopped the Alien's head with her paper cutter sword...
Stupid Humans and the First Pancake
I am starting to think that there is something psychological/biological enticing humans to shove their faces in Xenomorph eggs. Boy Cavalier was inches away from getting face huggies if it were not for the synth, Kirsh, being like ... "Seriously?"
On the other end of the spectrum, we have one of the hybrid kids, Curly, who seems to be adapting far better than the others at taking advantage of her new capabilities.
And she spars a bit with Boy Cavalier, and we get a proper look at perhaps what the young trillionaire was considering when he created the hybrids in the first place. It is clear that Wendy is the favorite. Still, Curly wants to take the spot, mentioning that her father always threw out the first pancake (in regards to Wendy being the favorite because she was the first, by Cavalier's own admission).
This exchange is an excellent example of the latter half of the episode on the island has a lot more to offer than the opening scenes back in New Siam's burning building.
"When is a machine not a machine?"
The latter half of this episode is what saves it. From the return to the island lab onward, the episode intensifies and reveals its premise: mad science, playing god, hubris, corporate subterfuge, and what could potentially be the season’s thematic question: When is a machine not a machine?
(Including… when is a killing machine not a killing machine?)
Alien: Earth episode 3 gives us just enough of a peek at what is to come that I’m willing to look beyond a few of the poorly directed opening scenes.
Score: B
(The first half is a C-, but the second half is an A-)
