TITLE: Alien: Earth
EPISODES: “The Fly”
DIRECTOR: Noah Hawley
NETWORK: FX & Hulu ($9.99 (USD) per month)
RELEASE DATE: September 9, 2025

The following review contains SPOILERS for episode 6. If you wish to see our spoiler review of episode 5, click here. If you haven’t watched Alien: Earth yet, we encourage you to bookmark this review and return after viewing.

Episode Synopsis:

If you wish to skip the detailed recap of “The Fly” continue reading at the section marked “Analysis”.

We begin in the Secure Lab at Neverland watching Wendy speak with the newborn Xenomorph. Joe and Kirsh watch from outside the lab and talk about what they each want for Wendy. Meanwhile, Nibs is getting a diagnostic checkup from Arthur and Dame Sylvia. Atom Eins directs the doctors to erase Nibs’ memory of the last few days. Arthur refuses to do the procedure, but Dame Sylvia agrees to it. Eins ends the conversation by informing Arthur that he is fired for disobeying a direct order.

Back at the Secure Lab, Joe meets up with Wendy. The two share their opinions on the creatures’ nature. Joe views the Xenomorphs as killers with no higher thought or community. Wendy projects personality on them and views them as somewhat sympathetic with a cultural comparison to bees. Wendy confronts Joe about his negative views and recites Boy Kavalier’s rhetoric on how the word “No” stifles the potential of creativity and discovery.

Ms. Yutani and Boy Kavalier meet with a legal moderator to negotiate the return of the USCSS Maginot and its contents to Weyland-Yutani’s territory. Yutani immediately claims that the ship is lost property, and it should be restored to its owners. Boy Kavalier interjects that the crash may have been intentional, which would put Yutani at fault. Yutani offers financial compensation which Boy Kavalier rejects.

Boy Kavalier reveals that Yutani’s ship was in posession of alien species, which violates dozens of inter-corporate laws. This revelation throws Yutani onto the back foot. Yutani again offers financial compensation as part of a settlement. Boy Kavalier haggles the price up to 20 Billion dollars and agrees to return the specimens, but only after the legal six week quarantine period. After the meeting Morrow confers with Ms. Yutani. Morrow shares new intel and opts to begin a secondary plan. Kirsh and Morrow both enter an elevator and take verbal jabs at one another.

Back in Neverland, Dame Sylvia initiates the memory wipe on Nibs. Nibs wakes up with Wendy at her bedside. Wendy proceeds to immediately ask Nibs about information that was just erased, which puts Nibs into a state of panic. Off in the forests of Neverland, we watch as Slightly has a conversation with Morrow. Slightly briefly speaks with Smee in the woods and then tries to begin the plan that Morrow has forced him into. Slightly meets with Joe and tries to convince him to go on a quick walk together. Slightly’s behavior is noticeably odd, and the conversation is interrupted by Rashidi bringing Joe out on an island patrol.

Rashidi, Joe, and Siberian are together again and are operating as security patrolling the island. Joe discusses what transports the island has, making it clear he’s looking for a way out. Siberian tries to convince Joe to abandon the idea of escaping. While on a transport back to Neverland, Kirsh contacts Isaac about feeding the subjects and conducting more experiments. Isaac lies to Kirsh about Curly being around to help, so he can do all of the work by himself.

Isaac makes his way to the lab alone and begins preparing food for each of the entities. Isaac goes about the feedings; but in the process of feeding the Flies, things go awry. Isaac rips the secure food port door off its hinges, and has to manually open the containment door. While trying to balance the tray of scrap-metal food, Isaac trips and the door shuts behind him. Isaac is immediately approached by a Fly that spits out a substance that instantly begins dissolving Issac’s skin. Isaac’s body convulses as he slides to the floor, seemingly dead. Two of the Flies land on Isaac and begin to dissolve and consume what remains of his face.

Wendy confronts Dame Sylvia about messing with Nibs’ head. She says that Prodigy studies the new species in the same way they study the Hybrids. Wendy also has a revelation that she doesn’t need to be emotional or feel things the way people do. Dame Sylvia is very plain and earnest with Wendy about how much she and Arthur care about the children on Neverland. Dame Sylvia admits she wants to help find the problem and help the children fix what’s wrong. Her words seems to connect until Wendy asks, “What if you’re what’s wrong?”

Arthur packs up his belongings from the Hybrid maintenance lab. Joe strolls in and interrupts Arthur, thanking him for taking care of the Hybrids. Joe also shares that he’s grateful to see how much Arthur clearly cares for the kids. Joes asks if his sister is safe in Neverland. Arthur looks at a camera obviously and regurgitates company mantras. While Arthur speaks he also types up a message for Joe on the computer terminal, “Take her and get out.” Arthur also provides an access code for a boat in the harbor. Arthur then give Joe a helping hand by turning off the trackers on all of the Hybrids. Joe thanks Arthur for the help and leaves to find Wendy. Before Arthur leaves a message on the computer says that Tootle’s tracker isn’t connected. Arthur sees the message and heads to the Secure Lab to investigate.

Just outside of the Secure Lab, Slightly hypes himself up to execute Morrow’s plan. Kirsh is watching the monitors remotely from the transport he’s on. Slightly tries to put in the door code but has a breakdown, and Morrow threatens his mother again. Arthur arrives at the lab and finds Slightly—becoming the unwitting human Slightly needed for the plan. They both head into the lab and find Isaac on the ground inside the Fly’s chamber. Arthur opens the door and begins hauling Isaac’s body out.

Behind Arthur, Slightly quietly unlocks the egg container. Arthur asks for help moving Isaac’s body, but Slightly is nowhere to be seen. The door to the egg chamber is shown to be open with a hatched egg. Arthur realizes he’s in danger and tries to flee. Slightly is at the exit, keeping it locked. A Facehugger skitters around the room and suddenly attaches itself to Arthur. Kirsh watches all of this unfold quietly on his monitors. Boy Kavalier checks in and asks if everything is okay. Kirsh responds with a simple, “Affirmative.” The Flies exit their containment and chase down Slightly while he heaves Arthur’s body into an air duct, which he seals behind him.

Analysis:

The weakest part of this episode is that it wasn’t the direct follow-up to Episode 4. That said, all of the moving parts and plot threads are beginning to fall into place. The manipulations and multiple plans that are running concurrently are beginning to bump up against each other in fun ways. Boy Kavalier may have more foresight than we could have imagined. I doubt his end-goal is going to come to fruition, but he has been able to absolutely dance around Yutani politically. Not only was Boy Kavalier able to engineer the crash in his territory, but he was able to secure the specimens and then also get Yutani trapped in a legally binding deal for 20 Billion dollars. I cannot fathom what else this horrible little man might do next.

The final section of this episode is a major standout. The writing was able to set up one of the most satisfying narrative moments I’ve seen in a while. Isaac has established that he wants to be more independent and adult. He’s also still a child, so of course he would lie and say he isn’t around Curly, just so he could tackle the science by himself. Unfortunately, Isaac died exactly because he opted to go alone. Following that was Slightly’s plan to use Joe as a human host, which was interrupted by Rashidi’s patrol invitation—perfect. That allowed Slightly to panic a bit more and increased the tension. Finally, Joe checked in with Arthur, which reminded us how much he cares for the children. This whole chain of events unfolds with incredible groundwork to establish it. The episode consistently builds on itself until we get our first full-on Facehugger encounter. We’ve certainly seen other people interact with Facehuggers, but we hadn’t seen someone trapped and desperate to escape their impending demise like this. It took six episodes to get to, but it was very much worth the wait.

Final Score

The moment the message about Tootle’s tracker being offline gave me a full-body chill. I had the most genuine, “Oh no,” reaction when I realized that Arthur was the final piece of the puzzle that would kick off the rest of the chaos. This one definitely had very high points for the series as a whole. The folks playing the Hybrids continue to tickle me with their performances. Slightly and Smee are the two that I appreciated the most in Episode 6. I also cannot fail to mention how much I enjoyed the scene of Morrow and Kirsh attempting to intimidate each other. All of that, combined with the amazing payoff at the end of this episode, makes it another phenomenal entry.

Really the only complaints I have for this episode are quite minor. Erasing Nibs’ memory has to be a setup for something later. Dame Sylvia always talks about Nibs’ trauma from her past, and we’ve seen Nibs act erratically since being on the USCSS Maginot. My complaint here is just from a lack of understanding where the writers are going. Especially considering Nibs loses her memory and is instantaneously confronted by Wendy with the fact that she is now missing information. There was no time for any tension to arise around it, and I think it was deployed a little too early.

Another small gripe is that we have to say goodbye to Kit Young, who portrayed Isaac/Tootles. I really liked where they were heading with Isaac, a Hybrid beginning to explore the potential of their potential. I also think that Isaac should have used the communications system that is built into him to call for help. I’m willing to give grace to the fact that he was panicking, or that he didn’t want to come across as incapable. I think Isaac’s clever mind would have quickly made the judgement to call for help.

What will Boy Kavalier get up to next? Will you miss seeing Kit Young on the show? How did you feel about episode six of Alien: Earth? Let us know what you think! Share your reactions in the comments below or join the conversation on Boss Rush Network’s Discord, Facebook, and Twitter.

Featured Image: FX Networks