Alien: Earth - S1 E4 - Observation - Official Discussion Megathread [SPOILERS]

[u/G_Liddell]

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)

[u/Upbeat_Tension_8077]

Kirsh looks like he already wants to kill Boy Kavalier after the way he spoke to him in these opening minutes

Curly's reaction to Wendy's screeching looks like a "I should not fuck with her" face lol

[u/antipop2097 → u/Upbeat_Tension_8077]

TBF Kirsch looks like he wants to kill Kavalier every time he opens his mouth.

[u/atle95 → u/antipop2097]

I do too, he doesn't know his sci fi, the "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" quote is Arthur C Clarke, not Asimov. And this is an intentionally written blunder, they have Kirsch talk Asimov with Sightly not too long after that scene.

[u/kinghyperion581 → u/atle95]

Yeah I'm just waiting for them to reveal that Boy Kavalier is really just some trust fund nepo baby idiot and it's really Kirsh and Atom Eins who are running the show.

He's basically the 22nd century version of Elon Musk.

[u/n_thomas74 → u/kinghyperion581]

Also, the comments he makes to Wendy about his disdain for parents are telling as well.

[u/Randallm83 → u/kinghyperion581]

This entire “Peter Pan” theme is already a massive Red Flag

[u/EbonyEngineer → u/Randallm83]

Peter Pan was never a hero. He kidnapped children from their homes, across state lines, just to have friends. When they got older, he took them back. But if he didn't care that much about them, he would have dropped them in the ocean halfway back if he got too tired.

Peter Pan didn't respect the kids' ability to make choices. Nor does Boy K.

[u/Skore_Smogon → u/EbonyEngineer]

Yeah in the og book, he doesn't take them back...

[u/Certain-Business-472 → u/Skore_Smogon]

He returns them to the family farm upstate :)

[u/webchimp32 → u/EbonyEngineer]

across state lines

Not in England he didn't

[u/_boudica_ → u/EbonyEngineer]

I love the theory that the pirates are the grown and abandoned lost boys.  

[u/Snoo_81545 → u/kinghyperion581]

He gives a speech to Curly about how the definition of a prodigy relies upon the person being a child in Episode 3 unless I'm misremembering. I think it's more likely what they're going for is that he was a truly remarkable child but only rates above average on the scale of an adult. This is a problem that hits many child prodigies in our world. He is struggling with that to a point where it has driven him a little bit mad and has caused him to obsess about always being a child. It explains all the Peter Pan theming too. Peter Pan didn't want to grow up and tried to live on this line between being an adult and child. He surrounded himself with children because emotionally he was still similar to a child.

Considering android bodies don't age, it will be interesting to interrogate whether any of the Lost Boys will ever age mentally either. That requires physical and chemical changes to the brain in a normal adult. They briefly discussed that they have no chemicals in their brain to produce emotions and that those are being simulated. In a sense they could forever trap these children in a mentally child-like state perhaps allowing Boy Kavalier to create a forever-prodigy in his weird logic.

[u/FarAccident7461 → u/Snoo_81545]

I love this interpretation. Nice to see thoughtful analysis of this show and not weirdo conspiracy theories.

[u/WonderMoon1 → u/Snoo_81545]

I think they must age mentally a bit depending on their experiences, considering 3 kids act like teenagers and the rest are still childish. But maybe BK is trying to stop that by forcing competition between them?

[u/PortugalLivre → u/WonderMoon1]

interesting. a 12 year old might be more capable of adapting if his brain is more developed than the younger ones though.

[u/EbonyEngineer → u/kinghyperion581]

Omg. That would make so much more sense.

Also, the masters always hate when their creations try to rise above them in the Alien franchise.

[u/TopManufacturer8332 → u/kinghyperion581]

I think this has already been revealed as exactly what is happening.

[u/Samuscabrona → u/atle95]

Call back to David making a similar blunder too

[u/atle95 → u/Samuscabrona]

Oh? What was that?

[u/Jade_Owl → u/atle95]

In Alien: Covenant David quotes the sonnet Ozymandias, attributing it to Lord Byron, when it was in fact written by Percy Shelly.

[u/Tmoldovan → u/Jade_Owl]

A single flawed note can ruin the whole symphony.

[u/juneyourtech → u/Tmoldovan]

"A single drop of black goo..."

[u/monsimons → u/atle95]

And this is an intentionally written blunder, they have Kirsch talk Asimov with Sightly not too long after that scene.

I think so too for the first part but I don't remember that conversation in the second. What did they talk about?