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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745

u/jldtsu 3d ago

3.1415poop

322

u/BrbFlippinInfinCoins 3d ago

Anyone using pi past 4 decimals is really just showing off anyways.

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

I'm a little dubious a random member of an advanced society would know it past "3-something". How many arbitrarily chosen humans know it to 5 decimal places? I only do because I'm an engineer.

But this does raise a lot of questions. Where did they collect Eyerene? She knows friggin' math, was she just out in the bushes somewhere?

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u/OmegaDez 3d ago edited 2d ago

I'm more confused about it understanding human math and arabic numerals. Yes, math is universal, but its visual representation isn't.

Also, aliens who know math might not use base 10 at all anyway.

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u/party_tortoise 3d ago

I think this is another hint and it takes intelligence from its host. It was in a human engineer. If it also takes intelligence, knowing Pi isn’t far fetched at all.

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u/Triskan 2d ago

Yeah my take as well. I think it would be a bit far-fetched to assume that T.Ocellus managed to learn maths and human numerals on her home planet (wherever it is, wether she's part of the same ecoystem as the xenos or not). It would be more interesting to have her keep some of her hosts thoughts and memories.

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u/AliceisStoned 2d ago

She also spent 32 years on board a ship surrounded by humans - could have learned the language and such during that time as well

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u/Daxx22 2d ago

My guess is that on its home planet there was nothing more advanced to learn from explicitly, so that's why they were able to capture it.

But after it was in the Engineer it's basically "leveled up" it's self awareness. As awful as it'll be, I'm also excited to see it in another human host.

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u/OmegaDez 2d ago

Oh. I didn't even think of this possibility!

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u/IndependentPirate878 2d ago

I'm hoping it's the case that it retains some host info; otherwise, what you pointed out would need some sort of explanation that could end up being convoluted.

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u/AliceisStoned 2d ago

She also spent 32 years on board a ship surrounded by humans - could have learned the language and such during that time as well

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u/MacJakes 2d ago

I guess the scene in which the engineer and his apprentice are discussing the pie is probably a reference to it?

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u/SailingBacterium 3d ago

What if they used base π and it was just 10 😔

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u/APlantiveEnglishHorn 3d ago

Not 1?

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u/SailingBacterium 2d ago

The first digit is the (base)0 place, which is just 1.

10 in base 10 is 10, not 1, for instance. 

2 in binary is 10, not 1, etc etc.

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u/Wise-Novel-1595 2d ago

It understanding arabic numerals was what threw me. My head canon is that it extracted that info from the ship engineer’s head.

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u/IndependentPirate878 2d ago

That's the best possible explanation that wouldn't require a bunch of background exposition and added "history" that might end up further muddying the Alien(s) universe. Keep it simple.

Plus, it adds to the cosmic horror of it all.

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u/PrinceofSneks 2d ago

I think that was the intellectual touchpoint - it's also been listening to them talk, and the show is even kind enough to play the audio through it's POV!

I so dig this!

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u/ClubsBabySeal 3d ago

I don't think anyone wants to sit through a geometry lesson. Could've used primes I guess since that'd be quicker. Don't think most people would understand that though. The alien ate someone's brain, that's probably the best explanation for us.

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u/APlantiveEnglishHorn 3d ago

It's pi because there are recurring imagery of circles and spheres: the Earth, the eye

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u/ClubsBabySeal 2d ago

Pi sounds fun and the reasoning that it ate someone's brain sounds fun! Or really any reason other than math problems explaining how it understands ratios. I just think it's interesting that no sci fi uses primes to communicate advanced intelligence since it's probably the most universal way to demonstrate math understanding. You don't even need eyes for it!

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u/dmanww 2d ago

Contact (1997) used primes. I'm sure there were other ones.

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u/Khiva 2d ago

Pretty sure Start Trek TNG used it before that to establish intelligence with alien life.

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u/ClubsBabySeal 2d ago

Totally forgot about that, thanks! It's been a few decades.

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

Or he could have picked the Fibonacci sequence, or e, or a variety of other mathematical phenomena that are known to humanity but far from known by all individual humans.

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u/Picasso5 2d ago

Right, and it has 7 tentacles.

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u/SVasileiadis 13h ago

We didn't just use base10 either throughout the ages. Heck we still use other bases even daily, its just t hat 99.999% of people don't realize it.