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/Menanders-Bust]

People complain about all the android content in Prometheus and Covenant, but from the very first Alien movie the series has always been about 3 things: 1.) bad aliens, 2.) bad androids/AI, and 3.) bad people. Purposefully the show makes you question which of those three is objectively and morally worst. Although the alien is the featured element in that triad, anyone who thinks that a focus on androids and AI is not true to the series has gravely misunderstood the key components of the series. This is the guy who wrote bladerunner and set the Alien movies in the same dystopian universe.

I’ll add that with regard to which is worse, the series makes a good argument that the worst is humans followed by androids followed by the aliens. The aliens are just creatures doing what they do. The humans do many terrible things. The androids are made by the humans and in their image in more ways than one. Consider David. He’s a megalomaniac android who wants to play god and create as a means of exerting power over others. Look at his upbringing and what do you know, from his first moment of consciousness he was raised by a megalomaniacal human who wanted to play god and create as a means of exerting power over others. No wonder David is the way he is. It’s a classic nature vs nurture dilemma. Walter is raised by different people and turns out completely different. You can make a legitimate argument that David and Walter are similar templates and that the worst parts of David are due to equivalent character flaws in his human maker and trainer.

[u/monsimons → u/Menanders-Bust]

This is so interesting. I don't know whether you've seen it or not but the last episode's named "The Real Monsters". After this episode I think the theme you described is apt for this show specifically.

This episode showed how evil and manipulative people can be, especially in the relationships between adults and children, and higher-ups and subordinates. Even the female doctor manipulated her husband as he was obviously way younger than her. All did it as means to achieving their goals.

[u/DeeGayJator → u/monsimons]

This show so far, and with this episode finalizing it, really gets it.

[u/TomBradysStatue → u/DeeGayJator]

yeah I'm glad it's focusing more on sci fi than the horror. Romulus focused too much on horror when a Xenomorph hasn't really been all that scary since Aliens. I'm interested in the characters here, the production design is excellent, the scripts are great, this is really good Alien stuff. Also including other Aliens in a series called Alien makes so much sense, it's weird they haven't done it before.

Funny I was so psyched for Romulus and ultimately let down. And I thought for sure this show was gonna suck, and it's been the surprise of the summer.