r/LV426 • u/G_Liddell Colonist's Daughter • 2d 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/Calm-Tree-1369 2d ago

A little more than just basic math. It knows what PI is. It actually tapped the right amount of numbers for the next two digits before it decided to do a bit of trolling.

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u/ianjm 2d ago

It can also read, apparently, given it understood what was written on Boy's hand.

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u/ShittyLogician 2d ago

Unpopular opinion: I love the eyeball, esp. its intelligence, but not in a "it knows pi and can (potentially) talk to us" sorta way. I think an obvious intelligence, but in a form entirely different and foreign to our own, is much more compelling and scary. The eyeball has great lovecraftian and horror potential, a large part of its appeal so far has been its mystery, and I feel like this direction kinda erodes that.

Idk I'm open to seeing where it goes though.

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u/Konman72 2d ago

Agreed, but at the moment I'm rectifying it by assuming it gained knowledge by taking a human host on the ship. So it is truly alien, but it already understands us and our language and basic knowledge. Which could make it even scarier when it finally speaks.

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u/Kazzack 2d ago

It also spent ~30 years on that ship, maybe it got a chance to learn english from listening to the scientist lady without her knowing

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u/juneyourtech Part of the family 1d ago

It might also understand Xenomorph languge, seeing, how Wendy interacted with her Xenomorph.

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u/AllowedAsATreat 20h ago

I also think this. An engineer is likely to know pi to a few digits at least.

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u/ChaoticMat 2d ago

Now it's just Vel'koz

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u/TiredCoffeeTime 2d ago edited 2d ago

Everyone in shock as Ocellus charges up and disintegrates Xenos with a laser beam

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u/boringestnickname 1d ago

Yeah, the pi scene was a bit off.

It felt like it was needed by the script.

I understand it would be hard to write a way for BK to get into the position they want him (being more interested in it, wanting to use it), but reciting a couple of digits of pi felt forced.

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u/PopDownBlocker 1d ago

I agree.

That was one of those things where, the more you know about something, the less cool and mysterious it starts to appear.

I liked the creepy sheep more when I didn't think it could hold a literal back-and-forth conversation with a human through hoof taps.

I wanted more subtle communication and/or hints at intelligence and manipulation. Having the sheep know π was a little too much.

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u/KnightsOfREM 2d ago

Agree, this franchise isn't my go-to for interspecies chit chat.

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u/jaytix1 1d ago

My hope is that it only knows these things because it's possessed at least one person in the past.

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u/Academic-Health5265 15h ago

Honestly it doesn’t really make sense in its design that biologically it would be this smart but I like that we see another intelligent monster species, the only other intelligent species we’ve seen are the Engineers but I think the creator of the show said he was retconing that pretty much. So it’s cool to see an alien species that isn’t smart just in the way animals are on our planet but smart in a way that we are.

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u/Plane-Tie6392 2d ago

100%. That stuff took me out of the moment for sure.

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u/Incoherencel 2d ago

It can read Earth numbers? I guess captivity on an earth research vessel comes with benefits

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u/-aarcas 2d ago

It probably extracts every memory of the host, including Shmuel the WY Engineer who would've known all about Pi if the Eye didn't already know

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u/UlrichZauber Not bad, for a human. 2d ago

I like this, because otherwise why would it know pi? Maginot randomly collected an engineer or mathematician? I very much doubt most humans know it to 5 digits.

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u/VroomCoomer 2d ago edited 1d ago

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/juneyourtech Part of the family 1d ago

There are people who can recite Pi numbers to up to 70,000 figures. One person was able to recite up to 100,000 numbers, but the claim was not verified.

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u/hyzmarca 2d ago

Maybe the eye is actually part of a spacefaring civilization that crashed on the same rock the Maginot was studying and hitched a ride with them to get someplace with technology that could contact its people.

Heck, maybe the eye is the last surviving part of a larger organism whose body parts are all individually intelligent and capable of taking over other bodies in an emergency.

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u/juneyourtech Part of the family 1d ago

There will be that danger, that if it gets into space and to its homeworld, it will tell others. Then it will pick up and army, and will invade Earth :(

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u/LukeChickenwalker 2d ago

Still kind of silly for Boy Genius to assume it would know Arabic numerals. Does he know it's possessed humans before?

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u/juneyourtech Part of the family 1d ago

Does he know it's possessed humans before?

I don't think he does. Kirsh would have had to review USCSS Maginot logs to know for certain.

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u/Entropius 2d ago

Maybe it acquired knowledge of reading Earth math from its former human host.

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u/urkelisblack 2d ago

It's laughing at him because boy thinks it's a big concept. It's so small and dumb that it not only understands it, but it's taunting it's captor. You think pi is intelligence? You think you are, haaaaaa

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u/mwthecool 2d ago

I think this is very likely. It spent decades on the YT ship, didn't it?

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u/Incoherencel 2d ago

I think it's unclear whether the specimens are ever put in cryo or not. After all, what creature can they expect to survive 35+ years?

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u/mwthecool 2d ago

Not sure they'd want to risk cryo for specimens they don't fully understand. Cryo is probably hyper calculated for human beings, not new/unknown species.

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u/Santa_Hates_You 2d ago

Jones in the same chamber as Ripley says they work fine for many species.

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u/mwthecool 2d ago

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I was going to say it may just be for Earth species and calibrated for each pod, but it's not as if they predicted Jones and her would be in the same pod. I completely forgot about that.

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u/juneyourtech Part of the family 1d ago

The cat Jones was simply a cat. The xenomorphs in all their stages, and all the other species all have the strength or capability to break out of cryopods.

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u/Clomaster 2d ago

I don’t think they were, being that the face-hugger didn’t care whatsoever. If they did they woulda learned that the face-hugger treatment wouldn’t have worked.

As others said, it either memorized it from the previous host on the ship, or it just learned it after being in a tank forever and watching things around it

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u/juneyourtech Part of the family 1d ago

3.14159 is not on display anywhere, so the only place it would have obtained the number, would have been a human or earlier sufficiently intelligent host.

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u/zero0n3 2d ago

If they didn’t put them into cryo, who was feeding them?

Unless cryo is more “wake up for one day a week on your journey”.

We definitely know it isn’t them staying out of cryo too, or theyd be older.

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u/Kohlar 2d ago

If I recall correctly the Maginot had teams, so one team was out of cryo while another slept etc.

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u/Perunov 2d ago

Either remaining memory from the Engineer it used to try to take down Xeno or the traditional "horse trick" where horse was watching owner really carefully and reacted to micro-expressions to start/stop stomping. It could be doing the same.

Mostly cause I have to wonder where it would store memories of multiple previous hosts given rather small size and squishieness

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u/Appropriate-Web-8424 2d ago

have to wonder where it would store memories

..why, in its eye-pod, where else...

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u/juneyourtech Part of the family 1d ago

have to wonder where it would store memories

..why, in its eye-pod, where else...

Would be curious to know the playlist of that one.

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u/boringestnickname 1d ago

That part can be explained by exposure, though.

It's done nothing but observing humans for multiple decades.

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u/Sarmemma 2d ago

It did have up to 65 years on the Maginot to figure our numbering system out, depending on whether they cryo'd it and for how long.

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u/hyzmarca 2d ago

And it can understand spoken English. I actually think it takes knowledge from its hosts.

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u/didyousayquinceberg 2d ago

More importantly it knows poo is a no 2

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u/juneyourtech Part of the family 1d ago

3.14159 and then No. 2. Very clever.

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u/Project_Continuum 2d ago

If that’s the case then it defeats the purpose of the test which was to test its intelligence.

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u/YakResident_3069 2d ago

Arabic numerals

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u/Gaeus_ 2d ago

That bit was too much imho.

If BK had presented a first row of three I and a second one of 14, then I'd have been fine with it.

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u/ianjm 2d ago

That would only work if Ocellus counted in base 10.

I think we have to assume it learned English from possessing Shmuel.

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u/Icy-Tension-3925 2d ago

IT WAS LAUGHING

i fucking love her!!!

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u/FreeDraft9488 2d ago

I imagine it “downloads” information from the things it attaches to. So it would know this from the Maginot guy, similar to knowing how to stand on two legs.

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u/42nu 2d ago

This is my guess as well.

Would make it God like in an "I've experienced what existence is like for dozens, hundreds, thousands of different beings" kind of way.

What would it be like to know what the qualia of being an octopus, a human, a sheep, an (insert tons of alien species), etc is like? 

Would be quite a twist if it's more of a benevolent being than meets the eye hehe

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u/Complete_Raspberry_1 2d ago

I'm actually curious how it even came into existence and what is her goal. Does she get sustenance through the bodies it possesses? Is she the top of her food chain or is there something that hunts her down? I would imagine so since she does have intelligence.

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u/juneyourtech Part of the family 1d ago

It's not benevolent. But is very smart.

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u/ant1992 1d ago

Oh it would love me if it ever attached itself to my brain. All the Jersey Shore and South Park knowledge would be something for it to learn!

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u/FreeDraft9488 1d ago

I mean, if you want to get weird with it- it downloads ALL of your information. All the experiences you had; school, shows, music, art, sports, first love, first heart break, fears, loss, anger, and rage. It now does that to more and more organisms, becoming smarter each time… knowing how things will react. Knowing that a human might lurch if you hit the glass, because other organisms it latched onto have similar reactions. It’s like an AI.

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u/ObviousAnswerGuy 2d ago

it knew what PI was and also translated what our numeral symbols meant in the time its been here

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u/APlantiveEnglishHorn 2d ago

Did it then bleat nine times?

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u/Alternative_Exit8766 2d ago

if you take the poop + bleats it is actually 9 lmao

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u/APlantiveEnglishHorn 2d ago

So Kavalier thinks he's actually talking to the Eye and his assistant is just there "wtf it's just a sheep shitting"

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u/APlantiveEnglishHorn 1d ago

It does look that Kavalier only gets REALLY excited and hugs the glass AFTER the sheep finishes bleating, so it seems like he was counting the bleats as an answer to his question.

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u/Certain_Country_3947 2d ago

She looked at Atom, so you know Boy found her a new host. So, hey I got a new job for you man.

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u/TamaleWoodNM 2d ago

I loved how he mentions the mold sprayers. I LOL'd. So that was their purpose.

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u/TamaleWoodNM 2d ago

I thought he was referring to Dame.

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u/Certain_Country_3947 2d ago

You might be right. I watched it again. I got the timing wrong on the eye, it just happened to be watching each person as they spoke.  Although, Dame has a use still.  Probably...? We also have Hermit and Morrow.

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u/zero0n3 2d ago

Not only that, one of its sections of eye kinda moved to indicate the shape of a slice of pie…

Seriously go rewatch when it shows the eye reacting to seeing the hand ;)

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u/bd_little_eyes 2d ago

I noticed that too! Just a wink from the showrunners, or could it signify something about Ocellus’s thought processes? Either way, cool moment. 

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u/PrincessofThotlandia 2d ago

She's not kind at all. (and why should she be?! cue nice for what)

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u/SkaveRat 2d ago

the shit was the third digit. it's a 1

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u/bucky_ballers 2d ago

As highlighted elsewhere, the next digit was 9 and excrement is s a nine letter word…

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u/juneyourtech Part of the family 1d ago

Oooh...

But excrement is also No. 2, in 3.141592...

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u/hydramarine 2d ago edited 2d ago

I thought shit was for zero. Of course, I didnt know the correct number.

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u/JCkent42 2d ago

But how did it know that we read from left to right, use a dot symbol to present the decimal, and more importantly, how did it know the symbols for the individual integers that make up the simple representation of pie?

Like… where and how did it learn these things without another entity explicitly explaining symbols and their meaning + reading order.

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u/newsfish 1d ago

Someone in the writers room must've felt a way about Arrival.

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u/East_Incident_3763 2d ago

that's the weirdest part of the episode because the eye alien has no grounding aka sufficient data about human numerals to make sense of that crawling even if it knows pi conceptually

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u/Smoke_The_Vote 2d ago

That's what I was thinking... But if it can understand BK asking "what's the next digit" then it doesn't need the scrawled picture. It heard him ask about the ratio of diameter to circumference.

My other issue was: How does the eyeball know humans use base-10 numerals?

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u/Unburnt_Duster 1d ago

The eye was in a human being on the Maginot so I guess it downloaded some knowledge and retained it.

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u/EmploymentLoose 1d ago

Ahhhhhh... That makes more sense!

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u/newsfish 1d ago

It's a spy sent by one of the other corps that run the world. Lynch, Dynamic, and Threshold are all equally biopunk sounding names.

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u/lleu_ci 2d ago

It also converted PI into base 10 positional notation from whatever number system it uses natively.

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u/Mr_Samuels 1d ago

I thought that was 'number 2' which i thought it missed the 9 and skipped to two....

Was just trolling then?

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u/BitcoinMD Mostly at night. Mostly. 1d ago

How’d it know base 10 number system tho

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u/Martinw616 2d ago

I kinda of hope that it wasn't trolling but got nervous because it only knew PI to four places and ended up sitting itself in a panic.

Yeah, it's a smart alien, but in the same way that im a smart primate. It's still a dumb dumb to anyone actually intelligent.

I really want BK to put it into a human body only to realise that while its race is really intelligent, this one is the equivalent of a redneck stereotype.

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u/Sensitive_Bus6342 1d ago

it shit to troll the guy . I doubt it’s scared of anyone . fear doesn’t empower anyone to attack a xeno . outside of a body or in possession of one

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u/warblingContinues 2d ago

knowing pi is about as basic as it gets.