The episode kicks off with Joe, Siberian, and Rashidi delving deeper into the crashed ship. The med bay reveals suffocated crew members and telltale signs of chest bursters. Joe instantly knows they are dealing with aliens, but the group pushes on. A sudden xenomorph attack scatters them, leaving Joe stranded in an elevator, cut off from the others.
Flashbacks show Joe wanting to quit, though his request is denied. Meanwhile, Wendy’s failed attempt to hack a bot underscores her determination to protect her brother. On Neverland, Dame Sylvia listens to children dream of ending death, while Kavalier grows obsessed with finding someone who can intellectually challenge him, setting his sights on Wendy.
Back on the ship, Wendy and Slightly try to rescue Joe, while Smee discovers Species 64, a grotesque, tentacled eyeball. The tension escalates when Joe ends up in the middle of a massacre at a lavish party, only to survive yet again thanks to sheer luck. Morrow briefly subdues the xenomorph with a strange gel, but chaos follows as soldiers arrive and the creature slaughters everyone except him.
Wendy and Slightly eventually reunite with Joe, who reluctantly accepts the truth about Marcy living in a synth body. Soon after, Kirsh spots alien eggs on the monitors and sends Smee to investigate. Wendy also joins, leading to the grim discovery of eggs in the cargo hold. The episode ends with a cliffhanger as the xenomorph hurls Joe into the abyss, prompting Wendy to leap after him.
Here’s the thing. The episode has no shortage of action, but the character work is flimsy. Joe has faced the xenomorph twice and somehow survives without real fear or trauma, even stopping to think about baseball in the middle of all this. It feels like plot armour, not character resilience.
Wendy and Joe’s sibling dynamic should be the emotional anchor, yet it comes across strangely hollow. Kavalier’s obsession with being intellectually outmatched could have been interesting, but instead, he feels like a cartoon villain, smug for the sake of it.
The world-building also raises eyebrows. Yutani’s supposed inability to intercept a massive ship heading toward Earth makes little sense, especially given their control over Mars and Saturn. These inconsistencies break immersion at crucial moments.
What’s left is a series that leans too heavily on nostalgic cues from the Alien franchise while lacking the grounded tension and raw fear that defined the originals. There are glimpses of potential with Wendy’s perspective and the sinister corporate angle, but right now it feels undercooked. Unless the writing sharpens, we may be watching a hollow echo rather than a worthy expansion of the Alien universe.
