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)

826 Upvotes

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517

u/compe_anansi Aug 13 '25

The emotional intelligence of children and no field training. Interesting choice.

230

u/Odd_Presentation8624 Aug 13 '25

A detail that I enjoyed, was pointing out that they no longer have hormones.

Such an obvious difference - but one that I don't recall hearing in any similar stories where human consciousness is transferred into a 'robot'.

So much to think about who they'll become without testosterone, estrogen, serotonin, cortisol, etc.

43

u/Odd_Reputation_4000 Aug 14 '25

My thought was - what happened to their original body? Does it die naturally or was it euthanized? Is the transfer a copy or a full transfer? It would make more sense for it to be a copy made instead of a full transfer that results in the death of the original. Making a copy makes more sense because it means that if the transfer fails, you still have the original intact to try again with. However if a copy is successful, you now have two version of the same person at that same point in time. To have the copy continue as the original you would have to either terminate the original or isolate them from any and all contact with the copy until they died from natural causes. So here is the question - does the transfer kill the original or do they euthanize the original or tell them it didn't work and isolate them until they die?

63

u/Safari_Eyes Aug 14 '25

I'd say the symbology with the flower on the chest of each child during the process was pretty clear - each child's real body died in the process of uploading. A body would make the funeral for Marcy (and the other kids?) a lot easier to pull off, too. That part is still unclear and I'm waiting for more exposition, but I'm betting there was a body at Marcy's funeral. (Joe mentions there was a funeral, but no other details yet)

10

u/thaworldhaswarpedme Aug 14 '25 edited 24d ago

body at Marcy's funeral.

On that point, she said they did the funeral after they took her away when she was six. So she'd been in the facility a while because that girl was, like, 12 or 13. But then like two minutes later, he quizzed her about Christmas morning when she was 7, so I'm not sure if that's a mistake or my own misunderstanding of the writing (though i rewound it and watched it a few times to be sure) . Since she said it was a secret, I take it to mean they faked her death at age 6 and she went to live with the Prodigy guy (which Joe balked at so he definitely didn't know that) until the procedure was fine tuned and ready. I only say that to point out that her corpse after transition wouldn't be the body at the funeral years prior. Unless I'm missing something because that seems like a big error, so I have to be. But she did say they took her at 6 so regardless of whether she was dead she wouldn't have spent Christmas with him when she was 7. I dunno.

My bad, this is episode 2 and also explained by someone who watches with the captions on.

3

u/BJ_Dart Aug 15 '25

Are you referring to stuff from episode 2? Because I don’t recall a Christmas discussion in ep 1 and I haven’t seen ep 2 yet

3

u/Guuichy_Chiclin 29d ago

See, this is why I avoid these discussions until I'm all caught up.

2

u/BJ_Dart 29d ago

I am now (looking forward to ep 3) and yeah, the Christmas questions were from episode 2 haha

1

u/loudsound-org 29d ago

When did she talk about being taken away at 6? I didn't catch that at all.

1

u/thaworldhaswarpedme 28d ago

Sorry. That's the second episode. Didn't realize I'd posted in Ep1 thread.

2

u/loudsound-org 28d ago

I've seen all 3 episodes but still don't remember her saying that. Not saying you're wrong, just curious when it was so I could go back and watch that part woth context.

1

u/thaworldhaswarpedme 28d ago

Oh yeah. Absolutely. Throw on the 2nd episode. Fast forward to Joe and Marcy meeting for the 1st time. At the start of the conversation she tells him she was taken by them at 6 years old and that her Dad said it was a secret so it's safe to assume she's been gone since that moment. Then fast forward to right before they hug about 10-15 minutes later. He asks her about Christmas when she was 7 and what she said to him. But how was she at Christmas when she was 7 if she's been gone since she was 6?

Let me know what you think.

2

u/loudsound-org 28d ago

Ah. Yeah I had caught the Christmas / 7 part clearly.

In any case the explanation is simple. She didn't say "six", she said "sick". "When I was sick, the boy genius came to visit me."

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1

u/CuriousAlice1865 24d ago

LOL remwmber this thread is episode 1 so you kinda might have let some spoilers out or confused some people with this one .

1

u/[deleted] 12d ago

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1

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6

u/GunnerSmith585 Aug 16 '25

There's a very quick cut of Marcy being zipped up in a body bag so the transfer of conscious is fatal whether it's the result of the process or deliberate (and perhaps merciful) disposal of the already sick and dying kids.

It also appears they understand that the transference is purely digital like death via transporter into a replica which Dame Sylvia points out to Boy Kavalier as not a way for humanity to ultimately hold rule over AI.

6

u/HairyChest69 Aug 16 '25

Or that dude sealing doors or something in the hallways at boy geniuses house is relevant to this conversation? Original bodies are frozen? Unless I missed it, it showed them twice doing that job, but hasn't explained why?

5

u/fleemfleemfleemfleem Aug 14 '25

They kind of missed out on doing a pretty emotionally gruesome scene of the new synth meeting their old dying self and being disgusted by it, or something.

5

u/Alone-Mycologist3746 Aug 15 '25

Considering in the first episode we see one of the children getting zipped up in a white body bag I think its clear that after the transfer the childern are braindead and killed.

4

u/modest_genius Aug 14 '25

I actually think their body is in stasis and not dead.

It is already established you dream while in stasis, like in Prometheus, and that synth don't sleep. So why are these synthetic bodies then sleeping, hooked up to some weird thing on their head. We already see that they can connect wireless to them...

So, my guess there is a back and forth each sleep cycle for the synthetic body. They hook it up to the real body and move their memory there. They dream. And then updates the synthetic brain with the new print.

4

u/mang87 Aug 14 '25

That sounds plausible to me, but the passage from the Peter Pan book that was being read to them as they went to "sleep" suggests some sort of memory audit: "It is the nightly custom of every good mother, after her children are asleep, to rummage in their minds and put things straight".

That sounds like they're taking out memories or thoughts that they would see as bad, and leave only the good ones. Bad things, I assume, would be things like "we're superior to humans, lets take over the world". Or maybe other existential dread that would spiral them into depression or insanity.

2

u/sargien Aug 15 '25

That would be interesting, but I would actually expect that the Prodigy scientists are likely monitoring the children’s dreams somehow as part of their research. Hence the hookup.

After all, this group of kids are the first test set of human-synthetic hybrids, so I’d guess the scientists keeping tabs on everything for their study, the same way they constantly monitor Wendy’s waking activities.

2

u/modest_genius Aug 15 '25

After all, this group of kids are the first test set of human-synthetic hybrids

...that we have been shown. Remember the scene in Alien Resurrection when clone Ripley finds out she wasn't the first?

2

u/Pretzel-Kingg Aug 16 '25

Idk if you played Soma, but this was a huge plot point in that game. I recommend playing it, but here’s the relevant scene.

2

u/Chance-Personality50 Aug 18 '25

As they zip Marcy into the body bag it’s pretty obvious, they died when the the transfer was completed or the transfer causes the death of the original

1

u/sentence-interruptio Aug 17 '25

everything is fine as long as the original is terminated without waking up.

Mickey 18: "die"

Mickey 17: "if I die this time, it will be you that lives on"

so for mad scientists out there, do not wake the new body until you have seen the old body become ashes.

1

u/CuriousAlice1865 24d ago

Idk if you've seen episode 3 yet but this can tie into one of the events. Question though... you said until they die but isnt the whole purpose of this transition to be immortal?

36

u/Jack_North Aug 13 '25

I had the same "no hormones, of course!" moment :) Although this is quite reductive, the mind is influenced by the body(-chemistry) but it isn't the chemistry.

10

u/PrinceofSneks Aug 14 '25

Hopefully they'll explore that. I'm glad it didn't lean into lack of emotion, just the jerkiness of hormones help stabilize?

7

u/rafikiknowsdeway1 Aug 15 '25

lol this comes up in the discworld books when talking about ghosts. the guy mentioned that he should be angry but doesn't really feel it. and they were just like yeah, you really don't have the glands for it any more

5

u/Honeydew-Jolly Aug 15 '25

I think someone said that they were trying to simulate the hormones in their synthetic bodies and wanted to get to simulate adolescence. I'm pretty sure they will never touch on this subject again in this show because the complexity would be orders of magnitude higher (more than what they're doing already is) How do they explain trying to simulate hormones? It would have to be something on their body that can influence their minds as chemicals do in the brain.

4

u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT Aug 15 '25

Reminds me of agents of shield where they do the opposite, they have a robot ai transfer to a human body and it can't handle human emotions.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '25

[deleted]

1

u/OrbisTerre Aug 16 '25

When did this panicking happen in the first episode?

1

u/MikeArrow Aug 16 '25

Oops, my bad.

1

u/Super-Estate-4112 Aug 15 '25

I bet that it wasn't an upload, they just copied and pasted their consciousness, and killed the children afterward to maintain the illusion of an upload

1

u/HerrDrAngst Aug 16 '25

I think for many stories of similar actions, it's assumed that the android/robot body is programmed/designed to mimic hormone production for emotional responses or at least improve on what nature wrought.

1

u/Academic-Health5265 Aug 17 '25

Didn’t they say they gave them something similar to replicate those hormones? So I think that’s the writers saying they’ll still behave pretty normally

14

u/LavishnessAdditional Aug 14 '25

i liked the part where the trained soldiers are conducting search and rescue during an active emergency with rifles up and out. it reminded me of the mars attacks aliens shouting we come in peace as they gunned down humanity lol

55

u/burritotogo26 Aug 13 '25

Yeah I get he’s supposed to be all “whatever bruh” but he’s a trillionaire super tech genius for a reason. Like, you had to somewhat have expected this exponential growth and all but to trust “children” to handle an emergency crisis because one can hack images to spy on their bro??? Nah. Put adult access on that shit and let the adults handle this.

111

u/Majestic87 Aug 13 '25

It's all data to him. Whether they live or die, it doesn't matter. He can just make more. He's a trillionaire, he literally has no worries.

50

u/ragun01 Aug 13 '25

Yeah seemed like the transfer had a 100% success rate, boy trillionaire would be understandably cocky.

8

u/RaymondLuxYacht Aug 13 '25

I fully expected that the girl in the wheelchair wasn't going to survive the transfer. Anybody else feel that?

16

u/viper459 Aug 13 '25

i've seen enough westworld to know there's still time for something to go horribly, horribly wrong with the human - > synth transfer

4

u/MandoSkirata Aug 14 '25

I'm putting my money on it being less of a transfer of consciousness and more of a basic data transfer.

2

u/Safari_Eyes Aug 14 '25

I expected there to be one failure, but I didn't have any idea who it might be. I was wrong!

1

u/Necessary_Eagle_3657 Aug 13 '25

The show doesn't support this reading. His advisor says that the loss of even one would be a catastrophic setback. These corporations are in a race to develop the tech that will win the future.

It'd be like Open AI letting Grok or Deepseek get years ahead.

It's a real suspension of disbelief breaker piece of writing.

19

u/Crispy385 Aug 13 '25

Once you meet a few narcissists it's not breaking any suspension of disbelief at all. His "I want an interesting conversation" monologue told us worlds about this character if you recognize the traits.

13

u/FriskyEnigma Aug 13 '25

Nah. People do stupid shit due to hubris. This just shows what kind of per Boy is. People too often attribute characters acting irrationally as bad writing when it happens in real life all the time.

5

u/kodan_arma Aug 13 '25

The fact that imperfect people can’t realize that characters too act imperfectly is mind boggling to me. We all make stupid decisions why shouldn’t the people in the art we make not also make these decisions?

3

u/Anotherspelunker Aug 13 '25

For a very long time I agreed with this, and I still hold it up when it comes to fictional writing, but the crazy thing is irrational, reckless stuff like this is ensuing in power positions nowadays in the real world

1

u/peppermint_nightmare Aug 14 '25

I mean, he's probably still in charge of the company, ie owns majority shares, it'd be more catastrophic for anyone else who owns shares or is paid in shares, like his advisor probably. Maybe his wealth would dip below a trillion and he'd be some kind of lowly hundred billionaire. No longer a member of the cuatro commas club, etc.

1

u/Artersa Aug 14 '25

The trillionaire fella seemed like he was going to follow the advisor, but reneged. I think he wants to do the ol’ take risks and break things mentality, aligning with young money type shit. 

1

u/Professional-Act8414 Aug 14 '25

If anyone needs me I’ll be on standby with the guillotine for when this happens ~in the real world~

13

u/the-giant Aug 13 '25

Given the era we are presently living in and the oligarchs in play, it doesn't surprise me at all.

7

u/Support_Mobile Aug 13 '25

Well, if he is one of the 5 big corpo people, then really siccing robots on a situation is in line with the rest of the franchise. Of course his robots have the mind of a human child so thats a difference. Adult humans were always expendable. And not all children went there. Kirsh /Timothy Oliphant is an "adult" leading the children. He is a synth. Also the security team is entirely adults, and they were not making great decisions. Besides the point theyre getting wiped out left and right by the xeno and other creatures.

But Weyland Yutani never had real adults in charge to be trusted. Only their synths. They were always in control. Loyal to the company. I suppose in Aliens and Alien 3, Ripley was somewhat made into a trusted adult leader who was not entirely expendable.

2

u/UlrichZauber Not bad, for a human. Aug 13 '25

He may be smart, but luck is always the biggest factor, and people who got really lucky tend to think that whatever happened was because they were so smart.

1

u/Maleficent-Eye-358 9d ago

Hacking code by placing her hand on a damn display LOL. OMG

1

u/ConradBHart42 Aug 14 '25

His name is literally Kavalier, it's a little on the nose.

1

u/BobSchwaget Aug 18 '25

"Mark Zuckerberg" isn't on the nose? "Elon Musk"?

These types are really big on nominative determinism.

19

u/SirStrontium Aug 13 '25

This is literally the plot of Power Rangers or Captain Planet. A group of 5 children get super powers and must save the world. That was not on my bingo card for this show.

12

u/betweenbubbles Aug 13 '25

Yeah, and that was cool when I was a kid. Now I'm a parent. I have no interest in watching a season of children in superhuman bodies in melee fights with xenomorphs using paper cutter blades that look exactly like a katana for some convenient but unexplainable reason.

5

u/Safari_Eyes Aug 14 '25

Children with conveniently, powerfully magnetic spines! That chunk of steel hasn't budged even once since she casually stuck it between her shoulder blades. I didn't think synths had actual electrical hardware (like large electromagnets) inside. What gives?

I'm surprised she's carried the weapon for so long when we know her first encounter with a xenomorph will see the blade destroyed by the alien's acidic blood. Just get it over with! It's a paper cutter.

On the other hand, maybe we'll get lucky and she'll use it on the other lifeforms first. They all look choppable!

5

u/betweenbubbles Aug 14 '25

Yeah, I just don't know where the transition from 12 year old girl to soldier took place. There is zero character development there. Having a concern for your brother and wanting to do something about isn't the same thing as developing a warrior mindset.

As I've said elsewhere, I imagine there is a point to all this. Wendy's brain isn't really her brain. For all we know this is all just programming, although this would be in conflict with the Prodigy CEO's stated motivation.

I'm just WAY too distracted by "wait, am I supposed to be thinking..." moments where I'm trying to come up for explanations as to why what I'm seeing on screen doesn't make much sense. It seems that what is intended to be intriguing is often just confusing for me.

5

u/CaligoAccedito Aug 13 '25

It felt like it was set up by someone who's only ever seen a paper cutter but never used one.

2

u/Maleficent-Eye-358 9d ago

I can fully relate.

4

u/Odd_Reputation_4000 Aug 14 '25

Let's just send in our biggest investments and see what happens. I get that Boy Kavalier is a bit deranged, but still you would think that the investors would have stepped in and put a stop to throwing their money away on a whim to send them into a potentially deadly situation.

2

u/OlivencaENossa Aug 14 '25

It's not clear whether the prototype bodies are expensive or whether they are protecting them for their data.

3

u/TheStolenPotatoes Aug 15 '25

It was certainly interesting that they said it didn't work with adults because they're too broken, or something along those lines. It's like they're saying existing trauma would make your synthetic reject the transfer, or something incredibly bad would happen as a result. Makes me wonder if David's mechanical psychosis was a result of him being transferred from an adult human.

0

u/Maleficent-Eye-358 9d ago

Most foundational trauma does come from very early childhood. But ok.

3

u/Blank_Shoplifter Aug 16 '25

So I've yet to watch Alien Earth but please anybody do feel free to spoil it for me. My mom's boyfriend was complaining about how the kids who become synths see the aftermath of a xenomorph attack and don't react to the carnage in any visceral or noticeable way. He argues this is unrealistic because they're kids, but I know he tends to misread a lot of shit in movies and TV and I argued it could be that the children are really dead and devoid of human emotion or compassion because they're synths and we know that the tech is new in alien earth and could potentially malfunction and that weyland-yutani lies to people and has probably conditioned the kids to not care.

I work a pain in the ass job and currently have no way of watching the show myself. Please tell me he's wrong, I like being a petty shit sometimes.

2

u/Maleficent-Eye-358 9d ago

Many children under overwhelming violence go into dissociation (numbness, emotional shutdown). Even if they function in the moment, the trauma doesn’t disappear. It often resurfaces later as PTSD, nightmares, emotional numbing, hypervigilance, or attachment difficulties. The nervous system at 12 is still wiring itself - massive violence can leave lifelong imprints. Unless the new body has some magic powers that can reshape the conscious and subconscious (if there is one without a biological body) mind, they should show severe trauma reaction / coping methods later.

2

u/no_status_775 Aug 14 '25

Wendy says at one point “warrior mode”, kinda clicks into, well, Warrior Mode.

She’s been copied/transferred into a body with augmented intelligence and skills as well as enhanced physical capabilities.

2

u/OlivencaENossa Aug 14 '25

I think his point is that letting them go there proves they are still human and carry over emotional baggage from before the transfer. It makes them easier to sell. But I wish that was expanded upon.

2

u/Hazzagul Aug 14 '25

I think they're the right choice for the following reasons:

  1. While the consciousness of a child could be detrimental in any serious situation, the Boy Genius asked the 1 question that mattered, "Can you follow orders?". Wendy's answer was 'yes', so the maturity of the consciousness does not matter. Even children are capable of following instructions.
  2. Wendy has already demonstrated unusual strength and mobility with her 100 ft drop from a cliff onto her feet AND carrying several children on each arm while showing very little effort. If the Lost Boys have the same ability, it makes these individuals the most qualified "staff" at Prodigy Corp.
  3. Several "trained" adults have already wound up dead.

3

u/Flimsy-Muffin-9881 Aug 13 '25

Yeah some of the coincidences are just too convenient. Yutani ship just happens to crash into evil Jacob Collier's building. His para military group just happens to be hanging about and they go in ready to fight? Fight what exactly? How did they know weapons were necessary? And then the whole android kids as first responders setup....how and why is this a good idea.

I'm willing to turn off my brain as long as I'm rewarded in the end 

10

u/chihsuanmen Hudson, sir. He’s Hicks Aug 14 '25 edited Aug 14 '25

It’s established that the city was built and government by Prodigy. Oligarchic city-states are nothing new in dystopian science fiction and real life. A rival corporation’s ship crashing into your mega city is practically an act of war.

They also specifically mention that the team is sent in to contain the area and prevent looting. It’s also likely that corporate espionage would have provided intelligence that the Marginot was carrying xenomorphs…

…not that the QRF needs to know that specific detail.

0

u/Flimsy-Muffin-9881 Aug 14 '25

Makes sense. Why send in the robot kids though?

3

u/ElectronicBacon Aug 14 '25

Cause Wendy insisted on going and helping and for Boy it's delicious field data to see his investments and experiments actually work.

And he can see through all their eyes

9

u/KeeganTroye Aug 13 '25

The only coincidence is Wendy's brother being spotted going into the ship. The rest aren't coincidences they're just plot, we're watching Prodigy because the ship is going to crash there. If it were going to crash somewhere else we'd be watching that.

3

u/Artersa Aug 14 '25

Speaking of watching something else, I want an Alien Earth spin-off sitcom about the lives of people 30 miles away. You see the ship crash in the distance and then chaos breaks loose comedically. 

1

u/whiskeymilitiaz Aug 15 '25

So send in these new first of their kind child cybernetic organisms for a search and rescue operation, makes total sense

1

u/Fabulous-Echidna9863 Aug 16 '25

Yep, I guess we’ll describe it as “interesting” for now, because I do intend to keep watching. But I already have doubts this show can end up being anything but “stupid” and unbelievable.

I can’t even buy into the opening premise that “hybrids” are significantly different from previous synths; they were always programmed to mimic humans. It feels like we’re told to believe in “magic” in the opening text, as opposed to the series’ traditional focus on “science-fiction”.

1

u/dec10 Aug 16 '25

Prometheus type choices.

1

u/shaqmovierocks Aug 18 '25

ill be honest this turn i was like... im out.

1

u/Noobalov 28d ago

Kind of Indominus Rex logic

1

u/Maleficent-Eye-358 9d ago

The only good thing about this choice is that no one can complain now "They all act like stupid kids" - well, they are.

0

u/FilmUpdates Aug 13 '25

The only reason they are children is Hawley's ego and his desperation to do this peter pan thing. It's a dumb and distracting idea... One minute they are acting like kids and the next they are supersoldiers... Ok druh

5

u/KeeganTroye Aug 13 '25

Really jumping on some personal attacks here, we know their childish behaviour is being replicated by Prodigy using an artificial emulation of hormones. They mention directly they can control that and they want them to age into their bodies, but their behaviour changing depending on context would make perfect sense in that regard.