Earth’s Callback To Jonesy The Cat Explained

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Alien: Earth season 1, episode 2.The two-episode premiere of Alien: Earth included a callback to one of the Alien franchise’s oldest and most beloved characters, but it put a terrifying twist on them. The premiere of Alien: Earth introduced a lot of new lore into the Alien franchise. From Alien: Earth‘s five corporations to its setting in a previously unexplored location and setting in the Alien timeline, the show is breaking new ground.

Alien: Earth also has several callbacks to the Alien movies for longtime fans of the franchise, though. Weyland-Yutani’s presence is a clear one, as is the general look and feel of the retro-futuristic, cassette punk world Earth has created. One of Earth‘s most significant callbacks, however, also introduced a sinister twist to a beloved Alien character.

Alien: Earth’s Maginot Crew Has A Cat Like Jonesy From The Original Movie

Both the original Alien and its sequel, Aliens, feature a cat named Jonesy. Jonesy was presumably the ship cat for the USCSS Nostromo, meaning he was likely on board to control vermin on the ship. Jonesy was also responsible for a few jumpscares as the crew searched for the Xenomorph in Alien, but by the end of the film, Ellen Ripley went back into an exploding ship just to save him.

Jonesy was also one of just two survivors, alongside Ripley, of the Nostromo‘s destruction. He went into cryosleep with her and awoke 57 years later in Aliens. Over the years, Jonesy has become one of the most beloved parts of the Alien franchise in real life. He’s a cute and likable cat, and he’s even sparked theories that Jonesy is a synthetic or that Jonesy is a stand-in for Alien director Ridley Scott.

Alien: Earth‘s USCSS Maginot also features a ship cat like Jonesy. The Maginot‘s cat, while unnamed, immediately reminded viewers of Jonesy, partly due to its orange fur and the fact that it was onboard a ship alongside a Xenomorph. There was also the fact that the intro to Alien: Earth is so similar to the intro to Alien, and the cat just tied the entire vibe together.

Alien: Earth’s Cat Features A Terrifying Twist

Unfortunately for Jonesy fans, the USCSS Maginot‘s cat had one massive difference from Alien‘s ship cat. Unlike Jonesy, the Maginot‘s cat did not survive its horror story. Instead, the Maginot cat was infected with T. Ocellus, one of Alien: Earth‘s new hostile alien lifeforms that is capable of burrowing into a host’s head, removing their eye, and taking over their brain like a zombie through the optic nerve.

Alien: Earth‘s first shot of the Maginot‘s cat after the crash-landing was the stuff of pure nightmares. Its fur was caked with blood, its eye replaced by the bulging body of T. Ocellus in uncanny fashion, only for T. Ocellus to dislodge itself and leave a cat that was half alive, half skeletal. It was utterly jarring, and not only because seeing a cat so disfigured is horrifying.

Alien: Earth is very overtly trying to recreate the look and feel of the original Alien. Showrunner Noah Hawley outright said that was the goal. Earth isn’t just recreating the aesthetics of Alien, however, it’s weaponizing the audience’s familiarity and nostalgia for the franchise to find new ways to scare us. Nobody expected the cat to die specifically because Jonesy was so beloved, but Alien: Earth subverted our expectations.