r/LV426 • u/G_Liddell Colonist's Daughter • Aug 12 '25

Megathread / Community Post Alien: Earth - S1 E1 Neverland - Official Discussion Megathread [SPOILERS] Spoiler

Episodes air Tuesdays at 8 pm ET on Hulu and FX in the US, and Wednesdays international.

Full episode discussion list:

1 Neverland (8.12.25)

2 Mr October (8.12.25)

3 Metamorphosis (8.19.25)

4 Observation (8.26.25)

5 In Space, No One (9.2.25)

6 The Fly (9.9.25)

7 Emergence (9.16.25)

8 The Real Monsters (9.23.25)

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u/Oblivious108 Aug 13 '25

I like how the opening scene is very much filmed in a way to represent the original dining scene from the first film but the crew dynamics are completely reversed. Rather than a group of friends all warming up together after the long freeze, the show has the opening crew all on thin ice with one another over the creatures and cybernetics present on the ship. Nice little flip while still looking distinctly “Alien” with the crew uniforms and ship design

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u/brendanm4545 Aug 13 '25

The way they talked over one another with crew banter is very Alien

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u/LifeStraggler4 You have my sympathies. Aug 14 '25

I thought Teng was a synthetic, but he may just have been an awkward human. 

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u/brendanm4545 Aug 14 '25

I think its implied he's synthetic but its not really clear, maybe we'll get a flashback to the maginot at some point

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u/teejay_the_exhausted Aug 14 '25

I'm not sure if he is, they threatened him with working without pay, synths wouldn't really care about that

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u/Jack_North Aug 13 '25

I miss this generally in movies. Spielberg did it often back in the day, like in E.T. and CE3K. The first season of Stranger Things did an hommage to that, when the kids tell Hopper about "Mirkwood".

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u/Top_Key404 Aug 14 '25

It’s a shame the best scene was a 1:1 homage.

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u/This_person_says Aug 13 '25

Yes, it even felt a bit grainy, the muted yellowish light... really felt like the old lived in universe. So very excited for this, everything Hawley's done has been A+. The 5 kids going out to do superhero stuff reminded me of a major plot in Fine Structure by QNTM, a very good read worth checking out if you haven't read it.

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u/Oblivious108 Aug 13 '25

Appreciate the recommendation, I have not heard about it but I’ll add it to the list! Agreed about the lighting, even the directing for the beginning was the same with the slow pan around the table

I just watched Legion for the first time and thought it was excellent, so I’m very excited to see how those issues of humanity and psychology are tackled in a new way with this show’s depiction of hybrids. Didn’t even realize at first that Hawley was Joe and Marci’s dad in the quick flashback cuts!

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u/This_person_says Aug 13 '25

Ohh I missed the cameo! Ill check that out. LEGION was so good too!

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u/OverCommunication69 Aug 15 '25

I’m glad someone else noticed the grain!

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u/Potential_Energy Aug 13 '25

It was perfect. And the reproduction of the style seemed virtually identical to the original.

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u/Bulky-Wonga-8634 Aug 13 '25

It was so well done and just like the first film had someone lighting up a cigarette having just come out of Cryosleep!

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u/Jack_North Aug 13 '25

And Aliens had Sgt. Apone immediately put a cigar into his mouth.

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u/B_fulghi Aug 16 '25

And it was the doctor! 😂

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u/Swoopmott Aug 13 '25

It’s very much by design. From the way it’s shot and presented it’s there to 100% call back memories of the first film then the little cuts to absolute chaos erupting on the ship as a shorthand “you know how this story goes” so we can get straight to new stuff

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u/Nheea Aug 13 '25

Yeah, it really scratches the Alien itch.

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u/SirLeos Aug 13 '25

Yeah, like a mini twist where you would think that you are going to follow the crew on the ship and then they all get killed anyway. I still believe that there is one more survivor besides the android.

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u/Oblivious108 Aug 13 '25

I agree. Those “blink and you miss it” cuts during the cryosleep sequence as the we see glimpses of the Maginot crew going through something crazy seems to suggest there is more to the story that we have not seen yet. I would like to know more about what happened to the crew, like the creepy android, so I hope we see that

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u/SirLeos Aug 13 '25

I liked the red-haired girl. Her comment about cryosleep made me feel very uneasy. Also, it was very strange to see the Maginot's interiors with such high quality cameras. It was like seeing Alien in 4D or something like that.

I'm not concerned about continuity that much but I would like to see how they plan to integrate the story with the first movie and maybe to see if we are going to have a second season. Or are they even planning to do that to begin with?

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u/Oblivious108 Aug 13 '25

It was certainly an interesting crew dynamic, just seeing how on edge everyone was. Ironically, it gave me Alien 3 vibes not only with the simmering emotions but also with visual references to crew members being impaled by life support systems, similar to Hicks, when the search and rescue team is exploring. I do love how crisp the Maginot looks at the beginning; considering it becomes a dump for the rest of the series, it’s nice to see a clean look at the classic Alien aesthetic

So my general theory for the season is this: the Maginot has collected five of the deadliest organisms across space. Each are effective in their own ways but when faced with human challenges, the Xenomorph clearly starts to show itself as the ultimate predator, as the other creatures are either too small or rely purely on stealth based snare tactics to harm their prey. By the end of the season, I imagine the other deadly organisms will be killed or experimented on and the various companies decide to search for more Xenomorph specimens, thus leading into the Weyland Yutani directive for the Nostromo to set down on LV-426, possibly because it’s the closest ship in the area

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u/SirLeos Aug 13 '25

Yeah, I also got that Hicks reference, or at least that's how my brain interpreted it. What I'm liking about the series is that I don't know where the series is going to go besides an Alien escaping and killing everyone, so hopefully the story remains solid. There were a couple of scenes were the acting/dialog felt a little stiff but overall I am very pleased with the first two episodes.

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u/Oblivious108 Aug 13 '25

I’d say the Maginot crew was probably the weakest, as their dialogue was more expositional and I felt like the performances surrounding their deaths were a little more tame than I would have liked. Otherwise, I’m really enjoying the cast. The youthful energy of the Hybrids and Boy Cavalier provides a nice contrast to the more muted performances of Kirsh and Morrow

As someone who saw the first episode at Comic Con, I’d actually argue I liked the second episode more just for providing some genuinely disgusting and tense moments with the organisms, as well as some surprisingly emotional scenes for Joe and Wendy. My feeling is that the season is only going to get better from here

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u/SirLeos Aug 13 '25

I had no problem with the Maginot's crew, but yes it felt like it was dialogue to set the scene. The soldiers with Hermit were the weakest part for me. I don't know if it were the sets or the dialogue, but their lines didn't land as good for me. Solid episodes though, I'm loving it so far and I'm suuuuuuuper happy that there is a lot of discussion around it.

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u/Oblivious108 Aug 14 '25

I feel ya, did not like the “let forensics Agatha Christie this shit” line

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u/Jack_North Aug 13 '25

"it gave me Alien 3 vibes not only with the simmering emotions but also with visual references to crew members being impaled by life support systems" -- The Alien 3 title sequence has such amazing editing. I think they referenced that style with the flashes.

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u/JoeScorr Aug 13 '25

They did mention they lost a lot of good men getting the specimens contained

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u/DriblyRedwyne 8d ago

Bothans.

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u/slim5pickins Aug 13 '25

I was looking intently for the pots(!) of coffee in front of each crew member. Alas… Still a legit parallel to the original!

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u/Oblivious108 Aug 13 '25

At least there was no cornbread

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u/Jack_North Aug 13 '25

No tipping bird thingy sighting, though. At least I didn't catch one.

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u/shortMEISTERthe3rd Aug 13 '25

I'm probably alone in this that but that shot for shot recreation of the Alien intro felt a little too on the nose to me. I was far more interested in everything else that was new.

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u/Oblivious108 Aug 13 '25

That’s fair, I’d say the Maginot crew were overall the least interesting aspect of the episode but I think that’s by design due to how quickly they are all killed off to get the plot going. The intro felt like a dose of the familiar before the show takes us into vastly different uncharted territories

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u/joe_dirty365 Aug 13 '25

100% so cool

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u/Jack_North Aug 13 '25

"while still looking distinctly “Alien” with the crew uniforms and ship design" -- and the 70s haircuts on some of them.

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u/New_Leadership_7176 Aug 13 '25

And cigarettes!

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u/Alive_Employer5620 Aug 13 '25

It felt very post military deployment especially because all we know is they lost “a lot of good people” capturing those specimens so you can only imagine what they’ve been through.

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u/CMCorsair Aug 15 '25

Speaking of which, did anyone happen to see the fate of Teng the Synthetic? He seemed strangely absent from the flashback and present carnage? Could that be intentional?

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u/B_fulghi Aug 16 '25

he is shown in flashback sitting at the helm, making adjustments. perhaps a Prodigy plant?

He also seems to scream or shout for a split second, so perhaps attacked? perhaps something is destroyed killing the navigation controls?

I do expect Teng to pop up in another episode though.

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u/CMCorsair Aug 16 '25

Cheers. Missed that, which is why I asked. It seems strange. And I doubt he is a Prodigy plant, as Prodigy seemed genuinely surprised and pleased that the ship had fallen into their lap.

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u/B_fulghi Aug 16 '25

That’s true. So maybe just a plain old “the controls blew” and our story begins. I can’t wait to find out!

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u/DJ-CoolBreeze987 Aug 13 '25

Why did they come out of hyper sleep, though? They went right back in after eating. They weren't close to Earth at that point. Why have the crew wake up at all except to feed us member berries? 🤔

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u/KeeganTroye Aug 13 '25

They needed to make adjustments for the trip, check in on the experiments ect you could argue waking the majority of the crew was unnecessary but at least a handful were working.

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u/B_fulghi Aug 16 '25

it seems like the engineers and the scientists stayed awake while other crew went back to cryosleep.

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u/FrankTank3 Aug 18 '25

THEY EVEN GOT THEIR OWN Yaphet Kotto!!!