Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Alien: Earth Episode 5.
Through four episodes, Alien: Earth has riveted audiences due to its captivating way of being able to blend the past with something new. Noah Hawley‘s series gives us the xenomorphs we love and fear, while also introducing original characters led by Wendy (Sydney Chandler), a hybrid made up of a synthetic body and the consciousness of a human girl. In the fourth episode, “Observation”, Alien: Earth digs even deeper, revealing that Wendy is able to communicate with the infamous creatures, so what could possibly happen to her next?
Well, you’re going to have to wait a little bit to find out, because in the fifth episode, carrying the clever title “In Space, No One…”, we go back to the beginning. In the season premiere, we were introduced to Morrow (Babou Ceesay) and the crew of the doomed Maginot in its final minutes before it crashes into Earth. In the latest episode, we’re back on the Maginot to finally see what caused the chaos to break out. And in a twist, the villain of Alien: Earth is shown to be more sinister than we already knew.
Someone Has Sabotaged the Maginot in ‘Alien: Earth’ Episode 5
The episode begins with the words “17 days from Earth.” We’re going back to before the beginning of the series’ events, with Morrow being woken up on the Maginot by Clem (Tom Moya) because a fire has broken out, and two alien specimens, including that creepy eyeball one, have gotten loose. Two crew members were attacked, and the Captain is dead. Morrow walks into a medical bay where two people lie unconscious on tables with facehuggers attached to them. Uh oh. The captain is indeed dead because Rahim (Amir Boutrous) tried to cut off the facehugger, resulting in its acid blood going right through his neck. Morrow wants to know why the egg crates were open and how the fire started, but no one knows.
Not knowing what to do with the scientist, Bronski, who still has a facehugger on him, it’s decided that he’ll be put in stasis in his pod until he returns home. Morrow wants to know if the other aliens are secure, but no one has an answer to that either. Leaving the bay, a worker tells Morrow that the fire destroyed the navigational system. “We were a spaceship, and now we’re a missile, and we’re headed towards Earth.”
In a conversation with Zaveri (Richa Moorjani), Morrow tells her that sabotage or incompetence caused the fire. As head of Security, he knows she was having a relationship with Bronski, which goes against protocols. Because of this, she might just take command of the ship, not her. And according to Yutani, nothing matters but the cargo. To prove the point, Zaveri goes to the command center to let Mother know that she is now in charge of the Magniot. The computer authorizes this and asks about the cargo. She asks for permission to destroy the cargo if it becomes a threat, but is declined and told that the cargo is the top priority.
Morrow goes to the deck with the alien specimens and checks out the damage left behind by the ones that escaped. In the control room, he watches video playback of the fire breaking out and the facehugger attack. Someone else he can’t make out is in there too. “Who are you?” he wonders. Later, reading letters from his young daughter, Morrow remembers talking to her on the beach about where he was going. At the end of the letter, it’s noted that his child died 12 years into the mission from a fire. Morrow has come across as cold and almost robotic so far, but this gives him some humanization.
The Specimens are Loose in ‘Alien: Earth’ Episode 5
The group talks about the saboteur, revealing that their fuel is down to 8%. Within 24 hours, they will crash. They’re trying to weld together the navigational controls, but that’s not enough. It’s time to wake up the rest of the crew. No sooner does that thought come from Zaveri than an overhead announcement speaks about a cryo-pod breach. At the pods, as we guessed it, Bronski is dead, his abdomen blown out, and what hatched has burst through the glass and is on the loose. Morrow gathers some weapons for the crew that shoot an electrical current, meaning the xenomorph can be stunned without spilling any of its acid blood.
Meanwhile, in the lab, as Chibuzo (Karen Aldridge) studies the alien specimens, the eye octopus (classified as T. Ocellus) watches from its vial. She’s so engrossed in her work that she doesn’t notice that a small, leech-like alien has escaped. The eyeball creature watches more intently, now, and shows off its intelligence by banging on the glass. With her attention focused elsewhere, the leech spreads larvae into her water bottle. The creature is captured and put back, but it’s going to be too late for Chibuzo the next time she drinks water. To make everything much worse, the smart octopus eye continues to throw itself at its glass container until it topples over and breaks, leading to it quickly scurrying away.
Sitting at the dining room table for a meeting, Zaveri talks about what happened. Everyone is being paired up, and a sweep will be conducted to find the xenomorph. Then, instead of Chibuzo drinking the water, it’s Malachite (Jamie Bisping), coughing on his food, who drinks from it instead. Later, he and Schmuel (Michael Smiley) are working on fixing the ship when Malachite’s stomach starts to hurt. He throws up blood and immediately falls unconscious.
Morrow speaks with the creepy Teng (Andy Yu), where they come up with a theory about the saboteur: someone sleeping in the pods is awake. Morrow starts going through videos that the crew made to send back to their families on Earth. He comes across a video from Petrovich (Enzo Cilenti), who is shown to be talking on a video call to none other than Boy Kavalier. Petrovich is the saboteur. He’ll help the boy genius get the creatures, but he wants to have his consciousness put in a synthetic body.
Gun in hand, Morrow takes off for the cryo-pods and finds Petrovich gone. An alert comes on about a containment threat in the med bay, so he takes off there to find out about Malachite. The doctors are working on him, but he’s losing a lot of blood. They need to open him up now, but when they do, his insides are lined with ticks. When Rahim tries to extract one, it releases a toxic gas that causes him and Chibuzo to start bleeding from their eyes and fall over dead. Meanwhile, the xenomorph does some good by taking out Teng. The remaining crew decides it’s time to seal themselves on the bridge, wake up everyone else, and aim straight for Earth as soon as possible. With Zaveri freezing in fear, a confident Morrow tells her, “I’m taking command of the ship.” Despite how it will turn out, it’s the best idea at the moment.
Morrows Makes It His Mission to Kill Boy Kavalier in ‘Alien: Earth’ Episode 5
Heading back to the ship, they’re fired at by Petrovich, who kills Chen with a headshot. He’s no match for Morrow, though, who sticks the blade that forms from his fist right through his back. Before Petrovich dies, he tells the new captain that he can’t stop what’s about to happen: “They want their monsters. Here they come.” He’s not lying either, because the leeches are going straight for Chen, as the alien eye slides off in Morrow’s direction. Meanwhile, the xenomorph pops out behind Zaveri and takes time to stare her down before taking off after her in a sprint. She manages to seal herself inside a room with Schmuel, but that is a bad idea. As he turns around, his eye bulges at her right before he attacks. The alien eye is in control of his body now.
Morrow points his weapon at the thing controlling Schmuel. It makes a strange noise, calling the xenomorph. Sending an electric jolt its way, Morrow runs for it, leaving what’s left of Schmuel and the xenomorph to fight to the death. With such a weak human host, the xeno easily wins, but the alien eye leaves Schmuel’s skull and launches itself at the xenomorph head. We’re now back at the beginning of the first episode, with Morrow sealing himself in the control room away from Zaveri, leaving her to die at the xeno’s claws. Entering the commands, he thinks only of his daughter and what he’s lost.
The episode ends back on Earth, as Morrow meets with Yutani (Sandra Yi Sencindiver) after the crash. He tells her that the crew of the Maginot is all dead, but the cargo survived, and he will get it back, then kill Boy Kavalier next. She wants to go through lawyers, but Morrow insists on doing things his way. Leaving, Yutani tells an associate, “Whatever he wants, he gets.” In a world of villains and monsters, Boy Kavalier is the biggest, and his time on Alien: Earth might not be long.
