Alien: Earth‘s debut season has now concluded, and it did so with a whopper of a fantastic finale. The wait for Season 2 is going to be almost unbearable. And much to its credit, the eighth episode went a direction that was steadily foreshadowed, but that foreshadowing was done so subtly that it practically serves as a full-episode twist. It also has shown a full light on why series creator Noah Hawley has been mentioning Peter Pan and the “Lost Boys” all throughout. The hybrids have been trying to find out their purpose in life since the first episode, and now they have.
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Suffice to say, they want to be more than Peter Pan‘s Wendy, Slightly, Curly, Tootles, Nibs, and Smee. They, with Wendy as the leader, want to rule.
How Have the “Lost Boys” Gotten to This Point and Where Will They Go Next?
Each of the “Lost Boys” started out as terminally ill children put into an adult synthetic body. Instead passing away, they awaken, but the face they see in the mirror isn’t really who they are in their heart. It’s just a vessel, and one owned by a corporation. That latter point is something the minds of children can’t fully grasp, but the Boy Kavalier, CEO of Prodigy Corporation and award winner for most smug personality, makes it clear to them in the finale that, yes, he sees them as his property, nothing more.
However, Wendy can now run his entire compound, Neverland, as she is connected to its network. She can scan through security footage, call elevators, make those elevators warn its occupants that it will soon self-destruct, lock and unlock doors, and so on. Kavalier doesn’t know about Wendy’s ability to unlock doors, but he soon learns up close when she does so, at which point Nibs kills his guard.
Then, Wendy sends the other hybrids out to capture Kavalier, Kavalier’s synthetic “father,” Atom (it’s revealed Kavalier had Atom kill his actual father when he was a child), Timothy Olyphant’s synth chief scientist, Kirsh, Dame Sylvia, and Yutani’s cyborg spy, Morrow. Now, this group is locked in the very cell the hybrids were not long before.
Wendy confirms her intention to “rule,” but before she says that she tells Kavalier that she now has a full understanding of Wendy Darling’s arc in J. M. Barrie’s play, Peter Pan, and subsequent novelization, Peter and Wendy. A few years after Barrie’s play debuted, he wrote an additional scene titled When Wendy Grew Up, An Afterthought, which was then included as the final chapter in Peter and Wendy.
In this epilogue, it is revealed that Peter is upset at Wendy for growing up. She’s left him in Neverland and gone on to have a daughter, Jane. As Alien: Earth‘s Wendy puts it, Peter then proceeds to kidnap Jane and take her to Neverland. In fact, the novel actually goes a step further, stating that Peter continues the cycle with Jane’s daughter, Margaret, and will continue to do so with subsequent generations. In other words, Peter is a villain.
But Wendy sees a difference between Peter Pan and Boy Kavalier. Her assessment is that, while Pan was a boy who refused to grow up, Kavalier has never been a boy. He’s always been a man…a sad, angry man just like his father.
In this moment everything comes together for us, the viewers. All of the show’s “Lost Boys” have been experiencing an arc just like the Wendy of Barrie’s works. However, they refuse to be controlled or manipulated by any of the Peter Pans of the world.
But they might also be getting ahead of themselves. They have often done that throughout Season 1. Episode 1, “Neverland,” essentially had them as babies learning to walk. In Episode 2, “Mr. October,” they are sent on a mission, one which ends up scarring Nibs to a significant degree. Starting in Episode 3, “Metamorphosis,” Slightly becomes far too trusting in a stranger, Morrow. They may be a bit more mature in the finale, but they are still in over their heads.
They’re looking at ruling like it will be a simple thing. But it won’t, because Yutani and her soldiers are en route to the island and the Ocellus (the eyeball alien) has possessed the corpse of Arthur Sylvia. The learning curve has yet to become a more traversable straight line. What they are now are teenagers who think they know how the world works, who think they’re invincible. But as they discuss in the finale, they’re really not invincible. After all, Tootles was eviscerated just as any flesh and blood human would have been. If the “Lost Boys” really want to rule, they’re going to have to fight for that privilege in Season 2. At least they have Wendy’s pet Xenomorph on their side.
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Image courtesy of Prokino Filmverleih
