Please be aware: This article contains spoilers for the finale.
After a preceding episode concluded with Joe (Alex Lawther) choosing his Prodigy guard allies over Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and her Xenomorph companion, the concluding episode of showrunner Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth TV series seemingly inaugurated a new societal structure on Neverland island.
Titled “The Real Monsters,” Episode 8 brought the power struggle between Wendy and trillionaire Prodigy CEO Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) to a critical point. Wendy united with her fellow hybrids to seize control of the boy genius’s complex. After utilizing her newly discovered ability to infiltrate the Neverland security system and liberate herself and the Lost Boys from their holding cell, Wendy assigned each hybrid a specific target: Smee (Jonathan Ajayi) and Slightly (Adarsh Gourav) pursued Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant); Morrow (Babou Ceesay) and Nibs (Lily Newmark) went after Dame Sylvia (Essie Davis); and Curly (Erana James) targeted the Prodigy soldiers. Finally acknowledging Wendy’s crucial leadership role within the group, Curly also expressed her desire to be known as Jane, the name of Wendy Darling’s daughter from the Peter Pan narrative.
Wendy herself went to rescue her brother, whom she saved at the last moment from becoming the next human host for the killer eyeball alien. This scheme had been orchestrated by Boy with the assistance of his bodyguard Atom (Adrian Edmondson)—who was revealed to be the very first synth created by the boy genius. Fortunately, since Atom was mechanical and linked to the Neverland network, Wendy managed to disable him and rescue Joe. The siblings then confronted each other about Joe’s perception of her and her position in the world. “I don’t know what I am,” she despaired. “I’m not a child. I’m not a grown-up. I’m not Marcy. I’m not Wendy. And I can’t be what everyone wants me to be.”
Nevertheless, one truth Wendy was certain of was that she was not powerless. Consequently, after gathering all the adults who had attempted to manipulate the hybrids into a detention cell, Wendy declared the new rules of the territory while her Xenomorph and its chestburster offspring observed menacingly. “Now we rule,” she proclaimed as the Lost Boys awaited her command.
Had the series concluded at that point, it wouldn’t have been the worst cliffhanger globally. However, numerous questions remain for the show to address in a potential second season, such as the eyeball alien’s subsequent intentions now that it has taken Arthur’s (David Rysdahl) deceased body as its new host; the mission of the Weyland-Yutani forces arriving on the island; and whether Wendy can truly control the Xenomorph. While Alien: Earth has not yet received an official renewal, Hawley has discussed his future plans for the series.
“I believe I have a narrative destination in mind, which enables me to understand the story I’m telling and its significance,” he explained to TIME. “And I don’t know how long it will take to arrive there, but I do have a sense of where we proceed if successful. And you know, the question becomes: how efficiently can we manage the process so that viewers aren’t waiting for three, four, or five years for more content?”
