Alien: Earth Ending Explained (How It Sets Up A Wild Sci-Fi Horror Story For Season 2)

Alien: Earth has reached the high-stakes climax of its first season, and as we said after Episode 7, “Emergence”, there were a lot of dangling plotlines that needed to all be tied together in the finale. We don’t know yet if Alien: Earth is guaranteed to get a Season 2 renewal, but showrunner Noah Hawley definitely seems to be banking on it, given where he leaves things by the end of Season 1.

Obviously, this post will be breaking down the Alien: Earth‘s (Season 1) ending in full spoilers, while also discussing how Hawley has set up a very interesting sci-fi/horror storyline that could be explored if Season 2 gets greenlit.

Alien: Earth Ending Explained: The Hybrid Supremacy

Alien: Earth Episode 8, “The Real Monsters”, sees Wendy (Sydney Chandler) fully come of age (so to speak) as she fully turns on Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) and her Prodigy handlers. Episode 7 saw Wendy, her brother Hermit (Alex Lawther), and other members of the “Lost Boys” hybrids try to stage a jailbreak using a xenomorph drone as their ally. That attempt failed, and Episode 8 finds Wendy and the rest of the hybrids getting rounded up by Prodigy and locked in a jail cell, where Boy lets them know in no uncertain terms that they aren’t people, they’re property – “floor models” to sell the concept of hybridization to the world. However, like in real prison, putting all the prisoners together proves to be a mistake: Wendy and the Lost Boys finally have reason to fully reject the fantasy Boy tried to sell them on, reclaiming their human names (after visiting their own graves) and finally claiming their own agency.

The Lost Boys split up into groups: Wendy saves Hermit and hunts down Boy Kavalier; Slightly and Smee subdue their synth handler Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant) and his cyborg rival Morrow (Babou Ceesay) after their duel; while Nibs (Lily Newmark) apprehends scientist Dame Sylvia (Essie Davis). In the end, the hybrids gather all the leading “adult” figures and lock them in the cell, while using Wendy’s pet xenomorph to eliminate the Prodigy and Yutani military forces stalking them around the island.

Alien: Earth Season 2 Would Be A Great Sci-Fi Story (With Some Horror)

With Boy having evacuated the island before Wendy’s takeover, and Weyland-Yutani cutting off the island from the outside world for its strike, Wendy and the Lost Boys have the Neverland facility totally under control. The only lingering danger is that some of the monsters (like the maniacal, scheming “Eye” creature) escape in the chaos and are still at large.

This sets up immediate stakes for Alien: Earth Season 2, which are exciting to consider. The Eye inhabits the corpse of Arthur Sylvia (David Rysdahl), who is the sort of ‘perfect candidate’ that Boy Kavalier wanted: big enough brain for the Eye to manipulate and possibly learn from, but not physically that much of a threat. Still, Eye-Arthur is lurking around the island and the Neverland facility, and the creature’s unrivaled intellect means it could do all sorts of sabotage that would possibly put the Lost Boys (or others) in peril. It’s also hard to believe that the Eye has forgotten that it was Boy Kavalier who tried to make it submit to his will, or will let that grudge go. And everyone should be scared of what would happen if the Eye ever gets itself into Boy’s head.

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Of course, the richest soil for Alien: Earth Season 2 to play in will be less about the horror and more about the sci-fi. Hawley is clearly intrigued by the sci-fi themes and subtext of Alien, from megacorporations to the artificial lifeforms and general technology of the franchise. The hybrids were curious if not compelling protagonists to focus on in Season 1, but now we know why Hawley made that narrative decision. The metaphor for maturation has proven to be more profound than anyone could’ve surmised, and the Lost Boys’ teenage rebellion is a great throughline for the second season to build on. What does Wendy’s “rule” look like? What are the hybrids’ ultimate goal? Is there even a place on Earth for them, or is space their final frontier? Is there any way for the heads of Prodigy and Weyland-Yutani to regain control? Or will the hybrids topple the entire balance of power between the five megacorporations? And what would happen if the world learns that the first hybrids turned on their creators?

If nothing else, Hawley has succeeded in expanding the world of Alien. Corners of this franchise that few fans looked into are now wide open with thought-provoking concepts, while the story is firmly grounded in characters/actors that fans are rallying around (Morrow, Wendy, even the Eye). With the Alien and Predator franchises both in the midst of major resurgences, Alien: Earth Season 2 seems like a no-brainer.

Alien: Earth is streaming on FX-Hulu.