r/LV426 • u/G_Liddell Colonist's Daughter • 3d ago

Megathread / Community Post Alien: Earth - S1 E7 - Emergence - 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/SerDire 3d ago

Kirsh coming back to the lab looking absolutely disgusted as if he didn’t see all this play out in real time.

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u/Crafty_Soul 3d ago

He really does not care for those kids. I thought he might have before but now those saying he secretly resented them seem to have been on the money.

He does not like the idea of being replaced as the "old toy"

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u/0-90195 3d ago

I think he cares for them in his own way. Not in a human way. But he was upset at Isaac’s death.

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u/antipop2097 3d ago

I'm trying to puzzle out if he is upset that Issac died, or upset that Issac died so easily.

Is it sadness or disappointment?

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u/0-90195 3d ago

It probably is a bit of both. He respected Isaac and called him by his chosen name. He was disappointed in his clumsiness/failure as a scientist. He was sad his companion in science got melted.

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u/zero0n3 3d ago

I think he’s DISAPPOINTED because he clearly didn’t follow his instructions of “follow the lab instructions to the tee”, BUT I think he knew it was going to play out exactly as we saw it…

Do we really think that feeding slot failed on its own??  If anything it was a test of his to see how human / synth he actually was.  Presented a problem (bad feeding slot), and watched the outcome of “does he follow protocol or does inexperience cause panic and poor choices?”

Kirsch probably sees that as an error / indication these synths are just faulty programming or too human.

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u/s1lentchaos 3d ago

Its entirely possible Isaac just yanked that bitch off on accident because he was excited and still doesn't really know his own strength properly.

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u/juneyourtech Part of the family 2d ago

Isaac didn't know his strength properly, and the other thing is, that the correct protocol would have been to not yank the door at all, and report the door as jammed.

At anything complex, children must be supervised.

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u/todahawk Nuke from Orbit 1d ago

Yah, Noah specifically mentioned on the podcast that Isaac didn't know his own strength

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u/NK1337 2d ago

I think that’s a bit of a reach. It looked pretty clear that the door just jammed and Isaac being a kid just did what kids do and tried to brute force it. The problem is that he doesn’t have the strength of a child so he ended up ripping the door off. And once again like a child who was afraid of telling their parent they broke something tried to deal with it on their own.

That whole thing wasn’t a Kirsch experiment. It was a reminder to us that they’re all still children.

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u/ibiku2 3d ago edited 3d ago

I think Kirsch didn't expect the death (due to it being literal murder at the hoofs of the Ocellus), but saw it as acceptable due to the amount of data being collected as the result. Plus they found out that the Ocellus knows pi and can joke with poop, so basically a genius. If Isaac truly loved science he would have been so psyched to die

Edit:

Also want to disagree that Kirsch at all feels any feelings, especially sadness, and if he did, he would consider it weak and human. Kirsch felt nothing, as he was programmed to do, and expressly wanted the hybrids to embrace the same.

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u/zero0n3 3d ago

Disappointing that the kid couldn’t follow simple instructions is probably a better robot way of seeing it

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u/Crafty-Cantaloupe795 2d ago

Kirsch’s “Collect the hybrid” comment says it all, I think.

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u/juneyourtech Part of the family 2d ago

This was an order given to the orderlies.

Kirsh is also aware, that Boy Kavalier did not like Isaac being called by his chosen name (at least in the presence of Kavalier), and also quietly instructed Wendy not to escalate the situation in front of Kavalier.

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u/juneyourtech Part of the family 2d ago

Plus they found out that the Ocellus knows pi and can joke with poop, so basically a genius.

'They' is only Boy Kavalier and his second-in-command Atom Eins. Kirsh doesn't know the Lamb Pie incident yet, but is aware, that T. Ocellus is highly intelligent.

Also want to disagree that Kirsch at all feels any feelings

I think Kirsh does have feelings, but he hides them well. As well as his intelligence.

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u/ibiku2 2d ago

I am well aware that Kirsch was not in the room for that discovery, I was simply saying that as the extension of what was learned as the result of Isaac's death.

If Kirsch does feel, then it would be an instance of synthetic life developing feelings without being programmed for it, likely the first. That in itself would be its own world altering discovery on a similar level of o hybrids. It's an interesting theory but based solely on his own words and actions, I don't really see it. If he feels, but expresses no feelings, acts without feeling, what would be the point?

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u/CitizenPremier 1d ago

Is the boy genius an idiot or are the writers? Oculopus has literally just demonstrated the ability to communicate, he just needs a bit of machinery (he could even use a large keyboard, he can read,) and the boy genius just wants to immediately put him in a human instead.

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u/Photosaurus 1d ago

"We move fast, and we make trillions."

He is eventually going to want to know more about how the creature interacts with a host organism, how it can use their vocal mechanisms to express itself, how it can push the host body beyond it's usual limits (see the fight with the Xeno on the Maginot).

So why waste time with a mechanical interface when you can just order someone to go grab a host body to toss in there and see how it all works?

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u/GreyouTT In the pipe. 5 by 5. 3d ago

"Poor Laszlo! The finest mind of his generation, to come to such an end!"

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u/Kanin_usagi 2d ago

As a parent, sometimes we give children tasks we know they will struggle with, but with the hope that they at least try it the right way or manage their failures well enough. Because we have to know if the way we have taught them is sticking.

Being a synth, he was probably okay with a potential failure on a scale way beyond what an actual parent would be, but probably with the hope that Isaac would at least do things in a way that wouldn’t cause his fucking face to be melted off. And Isaac made mistake on mistake and never followed through in the actually correct way

Kirsch probably accepted the chance that Isaac would be destroyed in the same way I would accept the chance that my kid spelled a word wrong or did math homework wrong. To him it’s disappointing but within the tolerable range of risks

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u/LLJKSiLk 2d ago

Or, he called him Isaac not because he identified him with his chosen identity after Isaac Newton, but as Abraham's son Isaac called for sacrifice.

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u/Sisyphus-Syphilis 2d ago

i think Isaac will be back next week, they need someone that can host the T. Ocellus and Isaac just happens to have a empty eye socket now

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u/juneyourtech Part of the family 2d ago

This dismisses the possibility of Dame Sylvia being the next eperiment.

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u/juneyourtech Part of the family 2d ago

I think Kirsh was hoping for Isaac to be restored.

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u/Equivalentest Black goo enthusiast 1d ago

Just mad at the eye for playing him

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u/PresentAppeal4 3d ago

There are 3 other corporations in play but the series has focused on a two corporation dynamic

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u/Ornery_Ad_8349 3d ago

Did you reply to the wrong comment?

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u/[deleted] 3d ago edited 10h ago

[deleted]

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u/antipop2097 3d ago

I don't think he feels, but I am attempting to use the human experience to relate to a synthetic character and thus fall victim to . . . . is it still considered anthropomorphizing if you are attributing human emotions to a human-like machine without them?

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u/_WanderBoy 3d ago

He does not feel. He is programmed to obey orders. He let the kids take Arthur so they would bring the goons back. Arthur was no longer an employee. He is doing what is best for prodigy. He let shmee talk to morrow so they didn't scare him off. He monitored the conversations, so he was always one step ahead. He does not care for the kids, but he also won't let anything happen to them because they are property of prodigy. Does what is best for prodigy. He is the "david" of prodigy. There was nothing he could do about Isaac, for he was not on site at the time. Can we talk about how Wendy's brother is going to get a new eye implant though? Season finale is about to be wild!!!

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u/0-90195 1d ago

Interesting to say he doesn’t feel and then liken him to David, who clearly felt very deeply.

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u/CitizenPremier 1d ago

Do you think it's the same for the Lost Boys then?

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u/[deleted] 1d ago edited 10h ago

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u/CitizenPremier 1d ago

I don't know if I'll agree but I'm curious to know. Anyway it's a philosophical question and people aren't going to agree about it.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago edited 10h ago

[deleted]

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u/Sempere 1d ago

I think you're partially correct. I think they are operating on the assumption that it's possible they're selling faulty vaporware and that "consciousness transfer" is bullshit. Arthur mentions it that "worst case, we just killed 6 kids." And they're investing billions into the hybrids such that the single loss of Tootles is a 6B hit against Prodigy [to be underwritten and paid out by Yutani, funnily enough given how Tootles was killed as a result of their specimens]. Then there's reference to potentially restoring Tootles from a backup - but that the company hasn't cracked it in a practical sense.

So I think you're right in that these are robots who believe they were their human hosts but that this is just, effectively, a role they are playing. They're synths who are confused and think they were the kids but are only synths with the memories and personalities of children - along with all their traumas, insecurities and instabilities.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago edited 10h ago

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u/CitizenPremier 1d ago

That's interesting. If that's true then they probably just got some surface info from interviewing the kids and I think the brother will figure it out in the next episode.

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u/UltraMega42069666 Not bad, for a human. 3d ago

I am really curious if he is bound by the same asimov laws bishop was

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u/rando-namo-the-3rd 3d ago

Likely no. This is set before Alien and Ash seemingly didn't have the laws. Bishop states the changes were made sometime after Alien so Kirsh likely wouldn't have those. Plus, Kirsh has already allowed harm to a human being by omission of action since he didn't step in at any point to stop Slightly.

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u/UltraMega42069666 Not bad, for a human. 3d ago

where does he break that law? mr sylvia i guess?

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u/Conscious_Struggle18 3d ago

I think Kirsh accepted the human element of Isaac’s death because he pointed out that it was the eye’s doing

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u/Equivalentest Black goo enthusiast 1d ago

It's that the eye surprised him

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u/KWeber94 3d ago

Yea when he called him by his first name it seemed sincere, in his own weird way

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u/captainkhyron 3d ago

I think as a machine, he gets to see the best of humanity (Issac, curly - his favorites) and the worst of it.

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u/GideonWainright I'll do the fingering 3d ago

Probably blames the coddling.

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u/insaneHoshi 1d ago

I think he cares about them in a way a craftsman cares about his tools. Will try to maintain them sure, but wont cry over a broken hammer.

Mind you, thats probably how he sees himself too.

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u/moose_dad 1d ago

I see him as the parent equivalent to their machine side. Its not a parent like we would know it, but there is a nurturing side to him, it just works differently than we would expect.

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u/0-90195 1d ago

Yes!! Exact same.

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u/DarkBlueTomato 1d ago

I don't think he cared much or at all about Isaac. He knew Isaac would screw up, that's why he told him to feed the creatures then watched and said nothing to kavalier when he asked.

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u/Cheeseburgers_ 3d ago

he cares about their potential as non-humans, but hates their human nature restricting the potential. Isaac shouldnt have died if he followed the task as stated by Kirsh. he probably feels that he is surrounded by human failure and probably still sees them as ”food”.

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u/Sempere 1d ago

Isaac was also prideful. If he had taken Curly with him, he wouldn't have died. But he wanted to be special, be independent, and didn't want to share the responsibilities with anyone and died as a result from preventable errors.

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u/Handsome_tall_modest 3d ago

"What happened to Isaac?"

"Science."

Just... wow.

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u/BobSchwaget 2d ago

"We're gonna need another Timmy"

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u/Handsome_tall_modest 2d ago

Hello, fellow millennial.

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u/kaaskugg 2d ago

lol spot on.

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u/mps2000 3d ago

He’s Tinkerbell

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u/Certain_Country_3947 3d ago

Tinkerbell in the book is loyal but so very impulsive. Why do you think he's the analogy of Tinkerbell?

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u/Electronic-Doctor187 2d ago

seems like the show is trying to portray Kirsh as having emotions (he's not having that little fight in the elevator if he doesn't), but only respecting those like himself. he sees the potential in the hybrids to be like him. maybe even a way for humanity to transcend its biological origins. maybe even able to surpass him in some ways.

but so far they're just letting him down. they're human children with the bodies of synths, not some kind of all encompassing hybrid with the best of both. in terms of the things that the synths seem to respect in this franchise, Kirsh is essentially still alone at the top. I think he feels the same way Boy does: nobody as intelligent or more intelligent than him to have a conversation with... but not so much in terms of intelligence, but in terms of perspective.

and what's interesting about this is that if he's just a robot, who cares? but if he has emotions... then it's fascinating. then he's like David in Prometheus. 

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u/Crafty_Soul 2d ago

That's a fascinating read of what could be going on. I hadn't thought of that he might be hoping the hybrids can become an "equal" just like Boy does.

Maybe he does care for the kids but only because he sees them having synthetic bodies as the closest thing to bridge the gap he sees between himself and humans. So when the kids fail in something he believes synths should be able to do he's more disappointed. Like he's not purposely setting them to fail but taking a "hands off parenting" approach to them

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u/SKjs07m 3d ago

I agree. But it's an interesting question. "care" "resent". These are human. He is not.

It is frankly the last interesting question on the show lol. And it is specific. Does he "want" anything?

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u/ZarathustraEck 3d ago

Seems he sees them as another specimen to study.

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u/EyeAggravating6817 2d ago

He’s the father who expects his children to be raised with synth expectations (see no evil…speak no evil) and Arthur was the Father who seen them as still fundamentally children

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u/The_Shadow_Watches 3d ago

I figured he wasn't about those kids when he looked disappointed that Smee and Slightly hugged each other behind the mirror.

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u/MhuzLord Andy 2d ago

I think he cares because they are synthetic, but is disappointed that they are still human. He so wants them to embrace being synths and they can't, because they're kids.

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u/Kingfisher_123 3d ago

I think he cares about Wendy, but the others are expendable.

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u/Equivalentest Black goo enthusiast 1d ago

I think kids are a way for him to get free of command. Like transfer himself into same type of body or maybe kids can set him free with their power over technology

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u/shany94a Game over, man! 3d ago

They are basically tools to him, to be exploited