Alien: Earth Finale – I Have Thoughts…
Alien: Earth messed up. I loved it. But it messed up.
You’d be forgiven after watching the latest episode on 24 September that the season finale next week is going to be amazing! Well, there is no episode next week… That was the finale.
I was so ready to rave about the successes of the show, because there are so many! The character work was astonishing, the plotting was impeccable, and the production design was unrivalled.
And if the show had ended, I would be writing about that.
But it didn’t end. It just… stopped.
I should preface this with the stipulation that I love the ending of House of the Dragon season two, which you could argue suffered from the same problem. The reason I loved the cliffhanger at the end of House of the Dragon is because, while it set up a major battle, it had finished the thematic story the season set out to tell. The battle to come isn’t the end of this story, it’s the start of the next one (and buckle up… it’s going to be amazing).
On the flip side, Alien: Earth resolves exactly one characters thematic journey in a central cast that boasted at least three central characters. The threads of the now walkabout eye, the impending invasion of the Yutani forces, and Hermits reckoning with his sister are enough to get audiences excited for a week, not the potential years before a new season, if we even get one…
While Wendy/Marcy’s thematic journey was completed, the show cuts off at the narrative point known as the ‘false victory’. Without even knowing why, audiences knew that something is missing. Not knowing what’s missing has led to the likes of Eric Kain at Forbes nitpicking the specifics, rather than dealing with the actual issue at hand.
If you’re not aware, the false victory is the moment where the Protagonist has the Antagonist at their mercy, their plan has worked, and they allow themselves to believe that victory is theirs. Then, in that moment of reverie, the antagonist returns, or something in the narrative twists, and the protagonist is forced to improvise in order to win. Their improvisation will embody the intrinsic change they’ve gone on throughout the story so far.
It's the moment in horror films where the monster is defeated, only to burst forth in one final horrifying attack.
You know. Like in that film Alien?
If taken as that narrative moment, this finale is impeccable. Through her victory, Wendy/Marcy has set herself up as an antagonist of iconic proportions. The Xenomorph has been tamed, the ‘bad guys’ are in a cage, but the final threat of the eye and Yutani loom large. Here comes the final confrontation, where all the dominoes were bound to fall…
Oh. Never mind, then.
This is the internet, so it’s easy to criticise, but unlike the Eric Kain’s of the world, I’m not out to attack something because of the sex of the protagonist (I really can’t stand lazy reliance on sexist rhetoric – Sorry Eric). What I set out to do here was share in the collective pain audiences are feeling after the end of an otherwise exemplary instalment of the Alien franchise, while also reminding you that its failure isn’t political. It’s in the craft.
Fix the craft, and the other problems sort themselves out.
Noah Hawley is known for his writing ability, and it is on full show in Alien: Earth. Doing something new with an established franchise is hard work, and what he did with the lore is nothing short of perfection. The questions raised, the stakes, and the worldbuilding are all laid out in meticulous detail. Setting the series on Earth beforethe events of the original film immediately hooks fans without alienating (heh) new audiences. New audiences can follow the story for what it is, while fans will question how the show will explain how a Xenomorph could be on Earth and it not be galactic news.
Stories of corporate espionage and Xenomorph blood-baths are to be expected. And embroiled at the heart of the story is a suitably science fiction coded relationship between two siblings.
It’s just such a shame that, despite all that brilliance, it didn’t end. Endings can tease stories to come. They can be loose. They can be open. But they must exist.
Imagine if Spider-Man 2 ended with the moment Otto Octavius’ biochip fried, finally releasing him… What happens to MJ? The literal sun that’s brewing?
Imagine if Knives Out ended with the moment Benoit Blanc pointed at Ransom. Okay, he did it, but why? Where does Marta fit into it? Why is Benoit even there?
In the end, it doesn’t matter how good the writing is. Or the production design. Or the acting. There is nothing in this world that can justify a story without an ending. And as I hope I’ve now convinced you, a story without an ending might as well
