‘Alien: Earth’ Just Aired Its Best Episode With a Tribute to the Original ‘Alien’ [Review]

‘Alien: Earth’s’ strongest and scariest episode brilliantly fills in its blanks as it chronicles the tragic events behind the USCSS Maginot’s crash.

“They want the monsters. Here they come.”

There is something to be said for the art of simplicity. Sure, it can be a terrifying experience to be constantly overwhelmed by unprecedented and diverse dangers that pivot at every turn. However, horror is a genre that truly understands how less can be more and how potent a simple story can be when it truly commits and delivers. There’s an incredible confidence in being direct with an idea and executing it without fat. This direct simplicity and the ability to trust the process is part of the reason why Ridley Scott’s original Alien is such an evergreen classic. The same principle can be applied to the Xenomorph itself, who instills fear and dominates as an apex predator and the ultimate killing machine. 

“In Space, No One…” is an incredible experiment that honors this element of the franchise as it operates as a challenging lesson in simplicity. The latest episode of “Alien: Earth” tells a story that the audience already knows – at least in a broader sense – while each scene presents a very simple goal. These disparate pieces are finely-tuned to clinical perfection and a seemingly simple episode becomes the purest distillation of the series. “In Space, No One…” is an episode that would make Ridley Scott proud, but also Alfred Hitchcock and Michael Haneke.

For an episode that’s all about precise simplicity, “In Space, No One…” begins with a structural swivel that gives the audience a little more time to process “Observation’s” disturbing cliffhanger. Instead, the episode turns the clock back 17 days to chronicle the events that kicked off the series involving Morrow and the rest of the USCSS Maginot before their ship crashed. It’s fascinating to revisit these characters now that the stakes are a little more clear and Morrow registers as an actual character. That alone makes this extended flashback a worthwhile experience. 

It’s debatable as to whether this degree of backstory is absolutely necessary as an episode on its own. Alien: Earth has had fun with the narrative breadcrumbs from this massacre that it’s dropped throughout the season, the majority of which have been details that the audience could have ostensibly intuited. Viewers may lament how this time might be better spent in a season of only eight installments. It’s also become increasingly common for “prestige television” to indulge in a flashback episode that’s set before the series’ chaos. “In Space, No One…” runs the risk of feeling more like it fulfills this expectation instead of being a story that needs to be told. However, it’s hard to complain when it’s easily the season’s best installment. 

“In Space, No One…” is an episode that plays better and creates more palpable dread and suspense precisely because the audience knows the broader fate of these characters and their mission. Alien: Earth could have easily aired “In Space, No One…” as its first episode and that honestly would have been the “safer” move. Noah Hawley and company deserve even more respect for showing restraint in this regard and holding this stellar episode back so that it hits as hard as possible. This episode basically begins with Hawley and company doing their own speedrun remake of Alien (right down to the episode’s title calling back to the movie’s iconic tagline), before it evolves into something even better.

Every single sequence in this Alien: Earth episode is a triumph, but the “spiked water bottle” scene is such a masterclass in tension that might as well have a ticking time bomb on the table. It’s the episode’s most brilliant execution of cutthroat simplicity and quite possibly my favorite scene from the series to date. The information in this sequence is seismic, but what’s even more impressive is the way in which it’s conveyed. The camera brilliantly stays on the water canister while an argument breaks out around it in order to tap into the maximum level of anxiety. It’s such a well-directed sequence by Noah Hawley, even though the audience already knows where all this is headed. This dynamic is present through most of “In Space, No One…”, yet it never drags the suspense of storytelling down.

There’s a truly harrowing cause-and-effect infiltration of the Maginot crew as this creature takes them out, one-by-one. It’s a disturbing experience that’s haunting on a psychological level just as much as it delivers very real, visceral terrors. “In Space, No One…” also features powerful pangs of John Carpenter’s The Thing, in more ways than one. To this point, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant explored Xenomorph genealogy in a fascinating manner, but Alien: Earth adds enlightening details to the established evolutionary chart that will launch endless theories. Wētā Workshop and Alien: Earth’s entire Creature Creation team are guaranteed to launch a million nightmares after this episode. The fact that the capture team needs to use electric, non-lethal weapons because the Xenomorph’s blood will eat through the ship’s hull is also such a fun complication that needs to be negotiated around.

Beyond the brutal massacres and white-knuckle tension, “In Space, No One…” also excels through its taut interrogation sequences. It’s deeply compelling to watch Morrow engage in these tense one-on-ones with other characters. Morrow has carried a certain gravitas from Alien: Earth’s first episode, but he really gets to lead the show and assert control over the Maginot crew here. It’s such a good showpiece for Babou Ceesay, who is without a doubt the episode’s MVP. Morrow’s actions get results, yet the Maginot seems destined to fail, as if a black hole slowly pulls them to this grim fate. It’s heartbreakingly tragic – and ironic – that the person who betrays the Maginot and gets the Xenomorph on Earth for Kavalier doesn’t even survive to receive his bribe and enjoy his happily ever after. It’s the sort of cruel karmic development that one would expect to find in Hawley’s other FX series, Fargo. It’s all for naught while corporations fail upward and humanity slouches backwards.

“In Space, No One…” is Alien: Earth’s best and most terrifying episode. For an episode that’s largely set in the past, it paints such a clear picture of the Alien franchise’s future, which has never felt like it’s in better hands. The opening frames of the episode literally look like a descent into Hell and it follows through on this front. It’s a sublime palate cleanser before Alien: Earth barrels forward into its endgame, now with newfound context and clarity. “Nothing matters more than the cargo,” is a directive that explicitly refers to the Xenomorph. However, “In Space, No One…” reaffirms that now, more than ever, there’s a case to be made for how everyone is cargo, in their own way.

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