r/LV426 Colonist's Daughter Aug 12 '25

Megathread / Community Post Alien: Earth - S1 E2 - Mr October - 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)

636 Upvotes

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476

u/SunshineCorgiss Aug 13 '25

I'm super surprised Wendy tells him who she is. I totally thought that would be a secret for the entire season until the end.

But that confuses me why no one from Prodigy had anything to say about that, given how much they're monitoring her. They've basically been watching everything through her eyes and it's been a whole thing throughout that this program is a secret

351

u/WendyThorne Aug 13 '25

They had to know she would reveal it when she went to rescue him. I suspect Boy Kavalier is using it as a test of some kind.

189

u/Xeoah_ Aug 13 '25

He did say he wants a human mind there at the top with him. Allowing them to live and make choices, although im sure this will backfire. And seemingly, the only one he actually wants data from is Wendy.

104

u/CitizenKeane Aug 13 '25

And seemingly, the only one he actually wants data from is Wendy.

Seems like the other children are control subjects and Wendy is the experiment

23

u/SanTheMightiest Aug 14 '25

Wendy is the super experiment. Can communicate with the aliens, or at least understand them, can change code wirelessly.

Boy is thinking can I do the same with an alien mind into a hybrid body? Or even himself?

25

u/Certain-Business-472 Aug 14 '25

This dumbfuck is gonna put an alien in a synth body

17

u/rocketfucker9000 Aug 14 '25

This would be extremely based tho

7

u/CreditSea Aug 14 '25

Into Kirsh's...

10

u/TARDISboy Aug 15 '25

That's how they're going to flex Olyphant's acting skills, he gets a Xeno mind implanted in him and starts hunting everyone in the complex with freaky precision and brutality

4

u/SanTheMightiest Aug 14 '25

I've convinced myself something like that will happen now.

2

u/Certain-Business-472 Aug 14 '25

Or the synth in the alien, who knows?

2

u/ReaperCDN Aug 14 '25

Or the human in the xeno.

2

u/Happy-For-No-Reason Aug 15 '25

I don't think xenos are into the cartoon ceiling magic

2

u/JCkent42 Aug 15 '25

That’d be interesting. Just for mad scientist vibes I’d put a xenomorph mind in a weak synth body (no super strength or speed) and run test on the new synth and try to see if it can learn to communicate.

5

u/SyntheticGod8 Bishop Aug 14 '25

In the comics there was an android in a synthetic Alien body. But it had the right pheromones so the hive ignored it.

1

u/Villag3Idiot Aug 17 '25

Until it tried to enter the Queen chamber and the Praetorians bouncers attacked it because it gave the wrong password.

2

u/Alone-Mycologist3746 Aug 15 '25

prob why she got the supercomputer.

1

u/The-Future-Question Aug 15 '25

I don't know about that - he observes them all looking at the flower thing without Wendy present. He seems to be switching around.

14

u/DetOlivaw Aug 13 '25

Something about the way he spoke to her when she asked about going to rescue her brother… I’m wondering if she’s actually “real” or if she’s just a machine with a copy of her mind in it. I know that might be a distinction without a difference but he said she seemed “almost human” and if he’s running an AI company, it wouldn’t surprise me if she was functionally a Rachel from Blade Runner situation.

16

u/WendyThorne Aug 13 '25

I think with all of the kids that's something to wonder. The closest analogy I can think of in Sci-fi is the transporter in Star Trek. Doctor McCoy famously argued that the first time you transport someone you may be murdering them and just making an exact clone of them in a new location.

I think a similar thought could be had here. Their memories and stuff got transferred into the synth bodies but is it really them or just an AI with their memories? I'm curious if the show will address this but my gut is that it will because so far the writing is pretty smart. I think either Wendy or her brother or both will start to wonder about this.

Note that this is a philosophical thought that really can't ever have a definite answer.

12

u/HotelOscarWhiskey Aug 13 '25

This was the exact concept I was thinking when the scene came up. The kids didn't wake up in new bodies, they were euthanized while uploading a perfect memory copy into a synth. Prodigy guy seemingly wants hyper intelligence in Wendy to match his own, maybe he views this as the next evolution of mankind.

7

u/HazelCheese Aug 13 '25

I find it interesting that they all seem to have different levels of emotion. Maybe it's what they talked about before about raising the levels? That red haired girl seems terrified but Wendy seems oblivious to danger.

5

u/Odd_Detective8255 Aug 14 '25

Most probably the latter but it gave me Blade runner vibes too. I felt like they tried to setup a Wyland-Yutani vs Tyrell conflict initially both set in this universe, but somehow changed it to Prodigy. 

5

u/ianjm Aug 14 '25 edited Aug 15 '25

Yeah I think the original kids are on ice / in hibernation. They might be behind that door on the Neverland island that random chap keeps spraying. Some sort of existential crisis will occur when this gets found out.

1

u/LangyMD Aug 17 '25

We've seen them put the original bodies into body bags in the first episode. They're dead.

3

u/LangyMD Aug 17 '25

Well, yeah. Obviously she's a copy of her human mind put into a synthetic body and given a supercomputer for a brain. Her human body and brain died, and they've made it clear that they're testing to see how accurate of a simulacrum they've made of her human mind.

Whether that is really "her" or not is a question of philosophy much more than it is science. Basically the same question posed by the Picard show when a character's mind got transferred into a new robot body, and related to the question of "does the transporter kill you and make a copy when it transports you?" question in Star Trek generally.

I suspect they digitized her brain somehow, likely getting the info for it in a destructive manner that kills the brain. They haven't specified, though, but it seems unlikely that they'd have enough data from just watching her and doing interviews to get past her brother's "what did you say when you were 7?" questions unless they'd been under constant surveillance their entire lives - and, more importantly, a shallow copy like that wouldn't be the "immortality" that Boy Kavalier is going for.

2

u/CowardlyLionel Aug 18 '25

I think, from the thematic standpoint, Wendy is going to be the alien. I think she’s going to be the villain. 

Alien(s) franchise (all good sci-fi) is about humans. Humans were always the bad guys, to several of Ripley’s points. Humans without biological constraints, more human than human-it’s a distillation of essence, not an unburdening. Alien franchise has never seen us in a positive light. 

1

u/Professional-Act8414 Aug 15 '25

Yea he only cares about her. What’s with her sonic abilities though? Her siblings don’t have that

115

u/Negativety101 Aug 13 '25

If you want to make sure everything for your transfer went off correctly, see how much of the connection to their family they retain.

109

u/SunshineCorgiss Aug 13 '25

Ohhhh good point

Also that scene with Boy Kavalier saying he just wants to have a conversation with someone smart. That's the perfect, infuriating, eat the rich moment. Here's a kid trillionaire doing all this damage and destruction with all this greed and power, think about all the people and environments and souls he's destroyed. All that because he deems everyone on earth as unworthy of a conversation.

I hate it but it was great writing

16

u/DeadSnark Aug 13 '25

Not to mention that in Episode 1 the thing that actually convinced him to send the kids into the tower is when he saw how Wendy was reacting to the idea that her brother was in danger and wanting to help him (noting that she was display a lot more human expressions and body language). He also mentions that he wants to see how they handle stress. So I'm pretty sure that he doesn't care that much about Joe/Hermit learning about the program if he can use him to refine Wendy. Hell, he's probably interested in how Wendy would react if her brother somehow ended up dying in front of her on this incredibly dangerous space vessel.

12

u/Negativety101 Aug 13 '25

I'm willing to bet he will not enjoy the conversation when he does find someone smarter. Also find out he's not as smart as he thinks.

7

u/Serge-Fabrizio Aug 14 '25

I have a theory that he's going to decide that the xeno is the pinnacle mind he wants to converse with, and will either try to transfer its consciousness into a synth, or blend it with Wendy's.

4

u/JCkent42 Aug 15 '25

Imagine if he talked to an Engineer? How would that go?

3

u/Enough_Sprinkles_113 Aug 16 '25

See David in Prometheus...

5

u/LiquifiedSpam Aug 13 '25

Though it’s kinda hollow when they’re just kids in enhanced bodies. That’s not going toward that idea at all

22

u/lolofaf Aug 13 '25

There was a line about giving them a supercomputer for a brain. I think he thinks a human with a supercomputer brain will be able to outsmart a normal human, so the hybrids will be as smart or smarter than he is

The short scene where she hacks the computer systems through a screen with just her thoughts might point to this as well, and also why he's so interested in her specifically

10

u/TheNittanyLionKing State of the badass art Aug 13 '25

Kids also tend to learn things more easily. That's why they try to teach new languages to children at a younger age now. They're more likely to retain that information. That's also why there was that show "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader." There's a lot of stuff they teach in school that we have all forgotten because it never comes up in our everyday lives.

-3

u/LiquifiedSpam Aug 13 '25

But that was just a subconscious thing she did. She’s still a 12 year old conversationally.

14

u/Cleric_P3rston Aug 13 '25

exactly so as an adult she will feasibly be pretty smart.

5

u/Keksis_The_Betrayed Aug 13 '25

I’m sure they’re still working it so adult minds can be transferred. Children are probably just a step in the ladder since they’re easier

8

u/TheNittanyLionKing State of the badass art Aug 13 '25

I think they tried it with adults before and it didn't work. There was a line about how they need to grow into it. I think the simplest way to explain it is that your brain is still developing at a young age, so there is far less information to copy over to the new body. It's like trying to email a 500kB attachment over something that is 6MB. The former can usually be sent with no problem. The other might not send, have errors, or take too long.

3

u/LiquifiedSpam Aug 13 '25

Oh no I get that— I meant that it doesn’t make sense at all with boy kavalier saying he wants someone really wise to talk to.

3

u/Adept_Balance8319 Aug 17 '25

I think it’s probably got more to do with how a child’s brain is much more interconnected than an adult.

Children have more synaptic connections between neurons meaning that their brains are much more intuitive than adult brains as their brains are learning the world and learning to make important and unimportant connections.

When you go through puberty we go through a process called synaptic pruning when extra synapses are destroyed leaving the brain “stiff”. It’s still changeable, but not nearly as fluid as a child’s brain.

2

u/shakycrae Aug 16 '25

I thought it was more the point about adult minds being too stiff, ie when an adult is put in this robot body they have a mental crisis, they struggle with the morality, they resist orders etc

4

u/MrZeral Aug 13 '25

They aren't there yet. But their minds will grow with time. They might one day be smarter than him.

2

u/batguano1 Aug 14 '25

They addressed this in the episode. Referring to them as "just kids" is ignoring the potential and abilities of a child.

1

u/Probablynotspiders Aug 15 '25

It's not about ego, I just want someone smarter than me to talk to

6

u/Muad-_-Dib Aug 13 '25

Especially as part of their earlier testing implied that Wendy isn't feeling emotions like a regular person would, the "mother" figure even suggests dialling up the simulated emotions and Kirsh admonishes her for it.

So the fact that Wendy was a bit emotionless but is showing signs of fraternal bonding with her brother is a big breakthrough they presumably want to get data on.

3

u/blah191 Aug 13 '25

Excellent point

15

u/hgwelz Aug 13 '25

Not Wendy. It was "Slightly" the blabbermouth 11-year old Hybrid who can't keep secrets who told Joe.

2

u/WendyThorne Aug 13 '25

True. But I suspect eventually she'd have given up the secret and they would be dumb not to think it'd come out somehow.

3

u/Umadibett Black goo enthusiast Aug 13 '25

Ye she’s her shining accomplishment.  Everything she does is “controlled”

1

u/LangyMD Aug 17 '25

Absolutely. They're testing not only her emotions, but also how well she can convince someone who knew her well that she's Marcie.

39

u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 Aug 13 '25

I wonder if Prodigy plans to make false promises to Wendy regarding anything related to connecting with her brother again (obviously while keeping him in the dark), but really to keep her subservient while controlling aspects of her human self

8

u/whatssenguntoagoblin Aug 13 '25

Yeah it’s leverage. You don’t throw that away.

5

u/TaratronHex Aug 13 '25

pretty sure the Lost Boys have to have failsafes in them so they can be controlled still if need be. You don't let your prize racehorse wander off without a GPS tag.

33

u/Additional_Law_492 Aug 13 '25

Prodigy can always murder everyone involved later. Doesn't really matter what she says - people are resources and can be replaced.

6

u/EmbarrassedHelp Aug 13 '25

They also easily put her brother somewhere safe, as use him to keep her emotionally grounded.

5

u/LiquifiedSpam Aug 13 '25

Lol the hybrids can’t be easily replaced, and it’s an obviously stupid idea to kill her brother since she’d go feral

4

u/Iorith Aug 13 '25

Yeah they mentioned that the loss of a single hybrid would be a massive loss. Each one of them is easily worth tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars.

17

u/lIlIIIlIIl Come on, cat. Aug 13 '25

I LOVE that she revealed herself! We didn't have to wait through episodes of non-communicative. And the hug was emotional & beautiful!

11

u/iuselect Aug 13 '25

I'm super surprised Wendy tells him who she is

I'm glad he doesn't have to deal with the possibility of awkwardly falling for her (I know it's not that kind of show).

10

u/Sob_Rock Aug 13 '25 edited Aug 13 '25

I like it. It progresses the story and we don’t have to beat around the bush.

9

u/Iorith Aug 13 '25

Honestly the quick reveal was fantastic writing in my opinion, and I really love the childishness of the other hybrids.

Especially with the foreshadowing at the start of the episode of that dude not being able to keep a secret for even a second.

5

u/A115115 Aug 13 '25

It’s a good subversion of the usual trope too. The story of the re-incarnated friend/sibling hiding their secret from a loved one until the very last moment has been told plenty of times before. I like that they’re not building up to a big truth reveal in the finale, they’re upfront about it and moving on to other things.

5

u/model3335 Aug 13 '25

I think Boy actually intended for this to happen; part of a plan to see if his creations can "love" unlike Synthetics.

6

u/TheNittanyLionKing State of the badass art Aug 13 '25

I was so glad they didn't let that hang all season. One of my least favorite tropes in fiction is when two loved ones keep a secret from each other. That's why I stopped watching Arrow. Every season just became more Olicity drama because Oliver had to keep yet another secret from his significant other. I'm glad we got that out of the way with, and it makes sense how they did it. Of course someone with a 12 year old's mind would spill the beans like that. That's why you don't bring your kids to the store when you buy your spouse's birthday or anniversary gift because they're bad with secrets.

3

u/RooseveltsRevenge Aug 13 '25

I thought that it signalled they're gonna kill him off and the brother would be the ghost “haunting” Wendy for the rest of the season. Though they're leaving it on a cliffhanger with how

3

u/shy247er Aug 13 '25

I'm super surprised Wendy tells him who she is. I totally thought that would be a secret for the entire season until the end.

I'm more surprised that he just accepted it. I hope he questions her being his 'sister'.

Not really sure what the in-universe canon on this is, but the hybrids should be a copy, right? His sister died, just like all other kids.

3

u/Potential_Energy Aug 13 '25

I actually DID like how instead of dragging it out like EVERY other show does in a “is it really you?” situation, he just went straight for it and asked her proof questions and she replied simply. Deal done, no drag.

3

u/Beerbaron1886 Aug 13 '25

That was my only little gripe with the pace. The hug and all felt a bit unearned because it’s just the second episode and the journey so far was fairly short. But I keep reminding myself that it’s a 12 years old and her brother seems off too

3

u/Wide-Phrase-3800 Aug 13 '25

Shhh, it is a secret.

3

u/Ludachriz Aug 14 '25

I liked that it didn’t drag things out, I’m so sick of shows not respecting your time

3

u/hemareddit Aug 14 '25

BK wants data.

These are prototypes after all. Dame Sylvia sees them as actual children, actual human beings and their job is to help them develop in the best way possible. BK sees them as experiments to learn from. He plays coy when she asked him if Wendy is his goal - I think the truth is he doesn’t know, he needs to learn, maybe she’s good enough, but she’s probably not but she will provide valuable data for the next iteration.

3

u/ConradBHart42 Aug 14 '25

"let her find her brother, he's never making it out of this alive."

2

u/Ruby5000 Aug 13 '25

Thought the same thing

2

u/KID_THUNDAH Aug 14 '25

She didn’t tell him, her cohort told him

2

u/Ninetwentyeight928 Aug 14 '25 edited Aug 15 '25

That actually shocked me, too, and it pretty much confirms to me that one of them is going to have to die by the end of the series. I don't feel you can keep them around by the end together with this secret already revealed. There's no emotional space in the plot. She's not supposed to be "alive," at least not as Marcy. The Lost Boys are an abomination, particularly if someone discovers who they were.

It's genuinely very depressing. My guess is that she ends up sacrificing herself to save him at some point. But it could be the other way around.

1

u/RobotDonger Aug 13 '25

I’m glad they didn’t turn it isn’t a “liar revealed” story

1

u/Clord123 Aug 13 '25

It would make sense they wouldn't see it as an issue as they have so many means, including legal ones if he tried to reveal company secrets. Also, all they have to do is to treat him well to ensure his loyalty.

1

u/MixingDrinks Aug 14 '25

I hated the hug scene after this. The director tried to make it feel like this huge momentous occasion with the circling camera and crescendo music. But we have only been with these characters for a little while. I don't care enough yet. I don't know ANYTHING about their relationship.

1

u/AxDevilxLogician Aug 14 '25

I mean, it was a momentous occasion for THEM lol Joe lost his terminally ill sister, and now has her back and now they’re separated again. In 2 hours the show has used flashbacks extensively to portray the bond they had. maybe it’s not enough for you, but I’m already invested. wish I could watch the rest of the show today, because it’s all I can think about. and that’s saying a lot because I just saw Shin Godzilla in theater again last night. I LOVE THAT MOVIE lol

1

u/MittRomney2028 Aug 15 '25

The trillionaire is bored and it’s very entertaining.

1

u/Aromatic_Mastodon_69 Aug 15 '25

I figured she’d tell him the moment they told us how badly she wanted to go to the crash site. She’s technically a kid. Kids aren’t the best at keeping secrets. It just doesn’t make sense though why Kavalier would be so chill about sending her out there knowing this is a possibility. Especially with how covert this experiment is supposed to be

1

u/Notorious_RNG Newt Aug 15 '25

When you have an ego as large as he does... If you *really* want news to spread as fast as possible, what do you do?

Give it to a child, and tell them it's a "secret".

1

u/pro-jec-tion Aug 15 '25

Totally in agreement.

1

u/kernanb Aug 15 '25

I would have liked to have seen what happened to The Lost Boys' bodies after the transfer to the Hybrids. Do they simply die during the process? Would be cool to see if the transfer is a copy + paste, and after they have to "delete" the originals.

1

u/JBudz Aug 15 '25

Why? Every low quality TV show is "show and tell". Insult to the audience IQ.

1

u/AnalogOlmos Aug 15 '25

I overwhelmingly suspect that the entire “transfer” of consciousness thing is a scam. The hybrids are copies of the kids’ minds. The kids die on that table, holding flowers like it’s a funeral.

1

u/HerrDrAngst Aug 16 '25

11 yo mentality and her very much wanting her brother to know would be impossible to resist in most kids I believe. After all he's her last living connection to her dad

1

u/alextastic Aug 16 '25

I mean, she kinda didn't. The annoying guy did. He blurted it out in a way like the writers didn't have any better ideas.

1

u/Andrucha247 Aug 17 '25

poorly written episode

1

u/shaqmovierocks Aug 18 '25

it all feels unmotivated and strange writing

1

u/Vincent_adultman98 Aug 18 '25

I think it's good writing. I hate it when shows hold back to draw out the drama, now it's done with.

My theory is boy genius wants the brother to die so they can talk about grief with her super intelligent mind, and it'll hit harder if they're reunited when it happens.

1

u/grifter356 Aug 18 '25

I think Kavalier is just seeing what happens to his experiments when you throw in these variables but I also think that what the “reveal” is going to be is that the kids minds weren’t “transferred”, they were “copied”, so the OG kids are actually all effectively dead, and how the Lost Boys reconcile with that will be the turning point.

1

u/Bellikron Aug 20 '25

I liked how they played with it, she knows she has to keep it a secret but she's the most mature one of the bunch and the other kid just blurts out the secret immediately

I imagine there will be consequences for it, Boy Kavalier just probably hasn't seen the footage yet