It has been said that great storytelling is the equivalent of placing a loose noose around an audience’s neck and then gradually tightening it over the course of the tale. With its sixth episode, “The Fly,” Noah Hawley’s science-fiction horror series, Alien: Earth, serves as a uniquely potent encapsulation of this approach.
Directed by Ugla Hauksdóttir and written by the team of Hawley and Lisa Long, “The Fly” showcases the full curvature of the arcs and thematic threads woven into the very fabric of the series like never before, and delivers a rip-roaring, adrenaline-pumping ride while doing so. The resulting hour of television is nothing short of astounding.
One of the chief benefits of Alien: Earth has been just how patient and willing the series is to put in the work. In this day and age, many a show attempts to leap straight into the meat of its story, without ever properly laying the foundation for it. Alien: Earth is a delightful antithesis to this, the full promise of which has begun to truly blossom across the last several episodes.
Uniquely, the series never felt like it was delivering a slow-burn experience early on, seeing as within the first episode alone, Hawley and co. showed off some grisly Xenomorph action and staged remarkably grand action sequences, such as the Maginot ship crashing into the city. However, the more time one spends with the series, the grander its ambitions seem to grow, and the realization dawns that even with those big setpieces and creature reveals in the initial episodes, Alien: Earth was keeping its strongest cards close to its chest.
“The Fly” sees the series building on so much of the foundational groundwork that was laid in prior episodes, as characters and events overlap, intercross, and derail one another. The genius of Hawley and Long’s writing here is in how inevitable and satisfying it all feels; in taking these seemingly disparate narrative threads that have been developed predominantly in isolation and then setting them on a collision course, it makes for extremely suspenseful and unnerving material.
A good micro-encapsulation of this approach comes in the form of Wendy (as played by Sydney Chandler) and Nibs (played by Lily Newmark) having a conversation shortly after the Prodigy workers have tampered with the latter’s memories, so as to make her a more palatable hybrid and attempt to subdue her adverse emotional reactions.
The conversation itself is wonderfully acted by both performers, shot in a dynamic and compelling fashion by Hauksdóttir and cinematographer David Franco, edited with profound motivation and strong choices by Curtis Thurber, and made all the more potent by Jess Russo’s articulate and incisive musical score.
Despite the fact that on its surface, this scene is little more than a conversation between two children whose brains have been placed inside the adult bodies of synthetics in a bedroom, it feels monolithic in scale. This is due to how well Hawley and his team have established, developed, and fully fleshed out not only these characters but their respective arcs.
So when the wiping of Nibs’s memories ultimately not only leads to larger issues for her but also serves as the straw that seems to break the camel’s back with regard to Wendy’s wavering allegiances to humanity, it feels both tragic and inescapable. In short, great writing.
This works exceedingly well throughout the episode, with the show’s large ensemble of characters all interweaving to a greater degree and the focus of the series tightening in its ferocity and concentration. The greatest example of this is undoubtedly the climax of “The Fly,” which I would argue is among the very best setpieces in the series thus far.
On paper, the idea of having the efforts of Morrow (played by Babou Ceesay) to get Slightly (played by Adarsh Gourav) to lure Joe (as played by Alex Lawther) go so poorly is both humorous and fitting. Slightly is, after all, a child, and his aggravated attempts to get Joe to follow him to the lab falling flat feel authentic to the tone of the show and its handling of the heightened science-fiction nature of these interpersonal relationships.
But when Slightly’s own arc brings him colliding head-first into Arthur Sylvia (played by David Rysdahl) at the lab, the ensuing mayhem is so utterly enthralling and feels so deeply motivated by these characters, their wants and desires, and their unyielding motivations.
On top of all of this, Hauksdóttir’s direction is absolutely splendid throughout the episode, but really gets to shine in this final setpiece. The way she utilizes omniscient, craning camera moves to sell the sheer terror of the setting of the lab, so wonderfully realized by production designers Andy Nicholson and Jason Knox-Johnston, is incredible.
Furthermore, the way she keeps such a clear and precise track of the individual cells, the various monsters held within them, and what characters are where within that geography is great, and it also allows her to milk the scene for maximum suspense and terror when she suddenly deliberately loses track of something like a rogue facehugger.
The number of scenes from across the Alien franchise that feature characters in a lab with a facehugger on the loose is more than you can count on one hand, and yet this scene feels so visceral thanks to the craft on display. It’s telling that when Arthur eventually meets his unfortunate end, becoming the first human audiences have seen get properly facehugged in the entire series, it feels so earned and invasive, in a way that it hasn’t felt in decades.
In addition to the stellar craftsmanship being exhibited on all fronts across the episode, the performances have never been better.
Established and reliable heavy-hitters such as Chandler and Ceesay continue to not only bring their A-game but push even further and deeper into these roles, with phenomenally exciting results. Chandler, in particular, shines throughout “The Fly,” with numerous big scenes in which she has to sell Wendy’s gradually evolving arc, and she does so with aplomb.
Other performers who have been doing great work throughout rise to the challenge of great material in especially exciting ways here. I found Samuel Blenkin’s performance as Boy Kavalier in his meeting with Yutani (as so wonderfully played by Sandra Yi Sencindiver) to be some of his very best, most gutturally impactful work of the season. Similarly, Rysdahl’s empathetic and subdued work as Arthur in this episode feels like a high-water mark for him even before the finale, which makes the third act that much more affecting.
Also, Timothy Olyphant continues to shine as the series’s ever-present observer, Kirsh. Hawley and co. frequently call upon Olyphant to deliver entire thought processes and motivations using solely his eyes or minute expressions (as the character’s final shot in this episode so palpably captures), and Olyphant has never done anything but exceed those lofty expectations.
I especially adored his quiet, simmering confrontation with Ceesay in the elevator, which felt like Hauksdóttir carving out this intimate space to deliver a thesis of sorts for the series’s themes as a whole, all while these two incredibly gifted actors went pound-for-pound on some of the episode’s best dialogue. The stuff science-fiction lovers’ dreams are made of.
Overall, “The Fly” is yet another stupendous episode from the Alien: Earth team. It features incredibly compelling and deftly crafted interpersonal character arcs, prescient thematic material, and some of the most heart-pounding and grotesque true-blue creature-feature action you’re likely to ever see on TV.
With the last three episodes, Hawley and co. have truly hit their stride, and it can’t help but make one immensely excited to see what the last two episodes have in store for us.
Grade: A