The scene sees Ripley and the rest of the USM Auriga survivors looking out on the desolate backdrop of Paris. The same movie referred to Earth as “uninhabited,” but away from popular fan theories that a xenomorph outbreak turned things to shit, Alien: Earth backs up another theory that corporate greed is responsible for Earth’s demise. Despite Hawley stating he drew from only Alien and its sequel Aliens for Earth, episode four “Observation” pushes us one step closer to Resurrection’s grim future when it reveals how five corporations run the planet.
The first episode mentioned Weyland-Yutani, Prodigy, and Dynamic before it cut off the final two, but episode four adds the final pieces in the form of Threshold and Lynch. The conversation unfolds between Alex Lawther’s Joe Hermit and Wendy’s “Lost Boys”, with Hermit explaining how the old democracy of Earth fell apart. This forced “The Five” to create a council, meaning “now they work together to run things.” As the race for the alien specimens aboard the USCSS Maginot and the frosty relationship between Kavelier and Ms. Yutani prove, it’s not an easy alliance.
This isn’t the only time other corporations have been mentioned in the Alienverse, with Seegson, Jĭngtì Lóng Corporation, and Hyperdyne Systems (as a potential wink to Terminator’s Cyberdyne) all being Weyland-Yutani rivals. We don’t know what the newcomers all do, but Alien: Earth has established that Weyland-Yutani lays claim to most of the Americas as Prodigy controls Asia, half of Africa, and most of Australia and Greenland. Rounding off the pack, Threshold has a stake in Western Europe, Lynch is in charge of what was once Russia, and Dynamic plants its flags on the other half of Africa, the Middle East, and the Moon.
As for what happens next, Hawley previously teased how these megacorporations could be responsible for Earth’s loss, telling Den of Geek how he wanted to mirror real life and the idea that just five companies running the world is only “two or three steps ahead from where we are right now.” Reminding us that we’re working toward private currencies like crypto, he added: “How’s that going to work? That doesn’t seem like it’s a great idea. It’s going to make a lot of people really rich, but as a structural concept for a society, it’s not the world’s best version.”
It just so happens that Weyland-Yutani had collected five unique specimens and stored them on the USCSS Maginot. We know that Weyland-Yutani will soon be hunting after the xenomorphs during Alien, while Boy Kavalier looks to be particularly drawn to the terrifying eyeball monster (T. Ocellus). This could leave the Blood Tick, Fly Nest, and Orchids/D. Plumbicare for each of the other three corporations.
