46 Years Later, ‘Alien’ Has Finally Challenged One Huge Plot Hole

So far, Alien: Earth has been a game-changer for the long-running franchise. Not only has the show totally changed our perceptions and understanding of Weyland-Yutani, but it’s also remapped the status quo of the future Earth. On top of all of that, the show has also created an entirely separate conversation about competing types of artificial life, with each seemingly poised to define the future of not just life on our planet, but in the larger Alien universe, too.

But somehow, even with all of those various plot threads unspooling, Alien: Earth has managed another almost heretical upheaval in the most simple way possible. What if the titular xenomorphs aren’t actually evil? Mild spoilers ahead for Alien: Earth Episode 6, “The Fly.”

Wendy’s bond with the xenomorphs changes everything

As revealed in previous episodes, Wendy (Sydney Chandler) has the uncanny ability to communicate with the xenomorphs and can, somehow, sense their presence telepathically. As a hybrid, Wendy is both human and also not; her mind and memories are human, but her body is synthetic. Does this fact alone give her the ability to communicate with the xenomorphs? Maybe, maybe not. None of the other “Lost Boys” hybrids seems to share this ability, meaning Wendy has a unique link with the xenomorphs, which is somewhat new for the franchise as a whole. Yes, in Alien: Resurrection, a clone of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) had a special relationship with the xenomorphs, since we learn that she comes from a combination of human and alien DNA.

But, even if we don’t consider Resurrection to be apocryphal (it seems unlikely showrunner Noah Hawley was thinking about it much), the fact remains that Wendy’s connection to the xenomorphs is a new direction for the franchise. And it’s not just her ability to communicate with the creatures that feels so transgressive. Instead, it’s something she says to her brother, Hermit (Alex Lawther).

Alien: Earth is making a bold claim about the xenomorphs

In “The Fly,” as Wendy and Hermit talk about the xenomorphs, Hermit expresses the feeling that we’ve all had about these aliens since 1979, but especially since 1986, when the creatures were unrelenting, murderous, and without mercy in Aliens. Hermit points out that the xenomorphs are murderers, but Wendy says, “We do that.” And also, adds, pointedly, “They didn’t ask to come here.” Later, she reiterates this point to Dame Sylvia (Essie Davis), and makes it clear that the line between the Hybrids and the xenomorphs isn’t clear.

This cuts in two interesting ways. First, this is a larger philosophical point, that no living creature asked to exist in the first place, and only behave according to its nature. But Wendy is also pointing out that in most cases, the aliens in the Alien franchise are being transplanted from wherever they were before. The aliens in Alien didn’t want or ask to be on the Nostromo, nor did this batch of creatures want or ask to be on the Maginot, or now, in the lab of Prodigy.

Wendy doesn’t need to have a special and mysterious telepathic bond with the xenomorphs to make this point. It’s actually common sense. The xenomorphs are, to humans, terrifying and reproduce in a way that destroys the host body of another creature. The creatures we designed by Ridley Scott and H.R. Giger to have a visage derived from human nightmares. But if we were able to take the alien point of view in the Alien franchise, this viewpoint would be reductive and close-minded. Or, as the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) in Doctor Who once put it, having a horror movie simply called “Alien” is “really offensive.”

Alien: Earth is by no means trying to humanize the aliens, because on some level, that too would be intellectually dishonest. Instead, the show is letting the aliens be deeply otherworldly, relentlessly, and perhaps, for the first time, blameless.

Alien: Earth streams on Hulu.