Alien: Earth Episode 4 Reveals Shocking Survival Tactics That Will Push Your Limits—Are You Ready to Face the Unknown?

Ever paused to wonder why the first step in science—the oh-so-crucial act of observation—sometimes feels a bit like staring through frosted glass? Well, that’s exactly the vibe episode four of Alien: Earth, titled “Observation,” throws at us. Imagine watching a gruesome spectacle unfold… yet feeling as detached as if you were behind a reinforced window. Weird, right? There’s plenty simmering beneath the surface—Wendy’s unsettling bond with a chestburster, for one—but the episode’s slow churn and juggling of multiple story threads create this odd emotional no-man’s-land. Most of the action traps itself within Prodigy’s island confines, ping-ponging between the same few rooms, making you wonder: when does meticulous watching cross the line into tedious stagnation? It’s like getting served the gnarliest alien horror you’ve seen, but being told to “stay calm and observe”… without really feeling a thing. If science is supposed to be thrilling, why does this feel like taking notes during a dreary lecture? Buckle up, because here’s the full lowdown on what “Observation” unravelled for the curious—and the brave. LEARN MORE

The first step in the scientific method—observation—basically amounts to witnessing a phenomena and asking questions about how the hell it’s happening. So it’s oddly fitting that “Observation,” the fourth episode of Alien: Earth and the show’s first-ever dud, actually feels like we’re watching things unfold through the filter of a glass pane.

A lot of important stuff is indeed happening on Alien: Earth, culminating in Wendy (Sydney Chandler) fostering a disturbing connection with a chestburster that practically sees her as its caretaker, if not its mother. But the plodding pace and story-juggling of “Observation” imposes such an emotional distance that even when you’re watching the creepiest, goriest shit you’ve ever seen on a TV show, it’s impossible to feel anything.

With all the action contained to Prodigy’s island (mostly) and its characters ping-ponging between the same four or five rooms, “Observation” is a comedown that traps its subjects in a confined space to let nature run its course.

Here’s everything that went down in episode 4 of Alien: Earth.

Hear No Evil

Rendered immobile after last week’s cliff-hanger, Wendy wakes up with Prodigy’s scientists, the married Sylvias, and Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant) observing her as she struggles to regain her hearing. The psychic noise of the embryo that Kirsch was testing in the lab was clearly too much for Wendy’s synthetic body, resulting in the disabling of her audio settings. Thankfully, it’s nothing a little maintenance can’t fix.

When Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) arrives and pushes everyone’s buttons (including yet another indignity towards Kirsh), Boy pushes to have Wendy tested in order to further explore her connection to the embryo. “It’s an IT issue, not a gab session,” Boy tells Essie Davis’ Dame Sylvia, a passing remark that seems to cut deep.

While Hermit (Alex Lawther) protests—and is sternly reminded that his newly-replaced lung is the property of Prodigy—Wendy insists on continuing on, and manages to vocalize the sound she originally heard. (She also demonstrates her first assurance of her independence—the first time she acts and behaves more like her adult body implies. “I can speak for myself,” she says, quite alarmingly.) The noise she generates are like crickets rubbing their legs together: screeching and chittery, like bugs in the night.

From here, Alien: Earth provides a glimpse at the unusual, albeit cozy life of the hybrids. They have personal bedrooms—though none of them sleep, in the usual sense—and have ways of “eating” (slips of paper with codes on them). Wendy shows Hermit her bedroom, a space full of stuffed animals and crayon drawings—and of course, more Ice Age.

They also have a critical conversation that will surely resolve somewhere down the road. In her rooom, Wendy openly wonders if her big brother is mad at her. He says he’s mad “at them,” because of the secretive nature of the hybrid project that made him believe his kid sister has been dead this whole time. “If there was a way, I would have found it,” Hermit says to her, adding that his obligations as a medic during a war kept him from her. But even when they put on Ice Age, an ominous narration from Boy Kavalier reading Peter Pan transitions us out of the scene suggests trouble in this paradise.

The Lost Boys of Alien: Earth are slowly but surely being torn apart, as Slightly is secretly working for Morrow while the others have different ideas about their stay on the island.

See No Evil

Meanwhile, Kirsh’s close study of Slightly’s (Adarsh Gourav) camera footage makes him believe that Morrow (Babou Ceesay) might have him under his thumb. When Kirsh confronts Slightly—with a little help from the Three Wise Monkeys, who adorn Slightly’s wall—Kirsh grills Slightly about where his loyalties lie. When Slightly nervously tells him, “I would stand up for my friends,” Kirsh tells him, “Good.” Bad. Kirsh is no dummy and knows that Morrow is likely manipulating him to betray Prodigy. But Kirsh knows he’s not going to get that information out of Slightly, especially with Morrow listening in. This is a fight that they’ll simply have to pick up another time.

But Slightly feels like he’s dealing with Morrow entirely on his own. In private “phone calls” away from the group, he endures Morrow’s psychological torture, which includes tricking him to give away his identity. (Listen for the ominous musical note when Morrow learns his full name.) Kids should never give away their information to strangers on the internet, and Slightly learns this the hard way when Morrow pressures him to steal from Prodigy by paying a visit to his vulnerable mother.

Now feeling the barrel of Morrow’s gun on his head, Slightly tries to leverage Hermit’s unfair presence on the island to demand that his fellow Lost Boys also get to see their loved ones. (More chances to have a human body as bait to retrieve a Xeno egg for Morrow.) But only Smee (Jonathan Ajayi, arguably the only one in the cast committed to acting like a child) is on board, and only briefly. The rest quite like the isolation and freedom to become grownups, while Hermit is infuriatingly empathetic to Slightly’s cause. Seems Slightly will have to find some other way to get the egg for Morrow…

Wendy is willingly participating in Prodigy’s tests to understand the aliens, all for the sake of keeping her brother around. But how will Hermit actually take to his restrictive “employment” with Prodigy?

Speak No Evil

While a turd of an episode, “Observation” crams important stuff that’s worth knowing about. As if the pilot episode’s prologue wasn’t enough, a key scene involving Hermit and senior Prodigy executive Atom (Adrian Edmondson) verbally states that Prodigy and the rest of “The Five” are in the immortality business, with all of them seeking the riches to cheat death. You know, in case anyone needs the reminder.

For the sake of efficiency, here are the other critical parts of “Observation” in convenient bullet point form:

• The Sylvias, Dame and Arthur, serve to prove that people can still have a conscience even in this depraved future where corporations are governments. In a secluded corner of the island, this husband and wife pair of scientists argue over the morals of their actions; Arthur is livid that Boy is jeopardizing their groundbreaking work, while Dame is trying (and failing) to keep a neutral position. Despite their love for each other, they’re on opposite sides. Something tells me this might play out into something much bigger in the future, and not very long from now.
• Sylvia and Arthur are interrupted by Nibs (Lily Newmark), whose condition is worsening by the minute. Convinced she’s pregnant—and she just might be, only not in the way anyone can fathom—Nibs is easily the loose cannon of all the Lost Boys, exhibiting a penchant for violence when she doesn’t get her away. (Credit to Lily Newmark for making Nibs generally discomforting to watch; her performance strikes that delicate balance of Nibs being unlikable, but not unwatchable.) It’s hardly a shocker that a shaken Sylvia orders Prodigy to deem her a “level three event.”
• Prodigy has serious power over the siblings. While Hermit is essentially forced into employment by virtue of his lung, Boy Kavalier leverages Hermit’s presence (and presumably, his safety) over Wendy, to get her to continue communicating with the Xenomorphs. Unbelievable that Wendy is trusting enough to swear it over a pinky promise—but then again, she’s only a kid.

Lastly, just to put it out there: The violence of that octopus-alien thing burrowing itself into the eye socket of a sheep is the gnarliest thing I’ve seen on mainstream TV in a minute. The Alien franchise has always been one of the more visceral horror franchises around, and it’s great to know Alien: Earth isn’t softening things up in the franchise’s Disney era. It’s just a shame that the rest of this episode isn’t half as interesting. But no one said science was all fun.