New Horror Movies Ep. 157: Alien: Earth (2025) - Episode 3

And welcome to Jay of the Dead's new horror movies. In 1979, we discovered in space, no one can hear you scream. In 2025, we will discover on Earth, everyone. can hear you scream. This is our weekly coverage of Alien Earth, the first television series in the Alien franchise. And if you were here for the previous episode when we covered...

episodes one of two of Alien Earth, you will know that each week we intend and endeavor to bring you a spoiler-filled discussion of Alien Earth episodes. And I just gotta say, I'm a little self-conscious. Because one of my co-hosts is here in person. And I talk with my hands a lot in order to give the podcast performance when I'm hosting. And usually nobody can see me, right? Except the cat.

And she's always looking at me weird anyway, but it's extra self-conscious because I know that he's judging me. Jason, I actually think you look awesome talking with your hands. Oh, thank you. I wish we could record this and put it onto the video or something. Yes, I love it.

Alright, so this week we're going to be covering Episode 3, Metamorphosis. And as you heard, we have some wonderful, wonderful people with us. I'm your host, Jay the Dead, podcasting from Pleasant Grove, Utah.

And then I have one of the biggest Alien fans I know here. You heard his voice just now. Welcome, Macula. Yes, yes. I can't stop thinking about Alien. I was talking about it today with someone just... can't wait to show it to my son you know that kind of thing yes yes yeah and as i said mac is here in the home studio and that's really fun to have somebody podcasting with me i don't get that opportunity too much and then i want to

Welcome. Also in Utah, we have the Utah contingent activated today for the Horror Avengers, except he's down south a little ways by way of Southern Utah University. I want to welcome Dr. Walking Dead, Kyle Bishop. Welcome. Hey. I love it. He had all kind of colorful things to say when we first got on the mic. Yeah, before we were off air. And now he's bashful. I'm a very quiet podcaster. Yes, we know. We know that about you. And then last, but certainly not least, he may have the record for...

Everyone's favorite horror podcaster in America. He is the southern gentleman himself, Greg Mortis. I know he's my favorite podcaster. Oh, now hush. He's my favorite person. Ooh. Yes. And I'm not in Utah, but. But we love North Carolina. You know, it's just the outskirts of Utah. It's just right outside. It's just on the edge. It's on the edge. It's on the slight edge. It's just a four-day drive away.

Greg, you getting any of that air and moisture? Did you get storms and stuff, or was it too far out to sea? It was too far out to sea. I think the... ocean itself was a little choppy but we're about six miles off the ocean we didn't get anything so we're good we're good we didn't even get rain it was crazy yes wow we dodged that one so we're good good

That's good. Plus, I lied. You're my second favorite person. Pearl, of course, is my favorite. Of course. Thank you. There you go. There you go. The twisted temptress. And you three are like... my favorite person so all three of you tied into one so how does that work out like in thirds yeah we're 33.3 we need to do that again where we all have pizza at a place together you know that's so good

That's right. And Kyle gives the best hug, by the way. I'm just saying. I'm not going to lie, Jay. You give a mean hug. I'm going to be honest. You know what's funny? We do talk about this a lot. Ron Martin hugs, though. I just want to prepare you all if you ever meet him in person. He's a bear hugger. One of those people that'll, you know, give you alignment. You're on your tippy toes when you're getting your hug from him kind of thing. Well, he squeezes you, man. I mean, it's serious.

So just be prepared. Cool. Anyways. Okay. We're going to get underway, but I just want to say since Greg Mortis and Dr. Rocking Dead weren't with us last time.

I wonder if you guys would kind of catch up the listeners on how you're feeling so far. Hopefully they've heard the first episode and they know how Mac and I are with it. But Greg, just give us a sense of...

how you feel about episode one and two combined overall. I loved it. I was absolutely hammered by it, especially. You got to love episode one. I was absolutely a big fan of episode one. Episode two was great, but I really enjoyed episode one, man. I loved seeing the universe come together.

we are spoiling so i'm a huge huge fan of peter pan that's like my my jam that was my childhood and man as soon as i saw neverland and i'm like oh is this going there and then we see windy and i'm like they're doing peter the lost boy oh my god dude i was like sold i like y'all had me forgive me for laughing during your thing there because when you said Peter Pan was your jam the dad in me was like isn't it your peanut butter

Yeah, that's right. Did they do peanut butter and jam together? Well, they used to have a brand called Peter Pan, didn't they? Yeah, Peter Pan's peanut butter. That's right. Hence the joke. But I don't think they do the combo yet. I don't think they... They expanded yet, so I don't guess they are. That's called goobers. The goobers. Remember? It's your new name, G-O-B-E. I love hearing you say that in your southern accent. Do it again.

goober nailed it all right that was awesome greg we use that as an insult down here yes right that's right goober yeah but except except in cedar city they say

You fetching goober, right? You fetching fetcher. Yeah. So, Kyle, what did you think of episodes one and two? Well... He really is a quiet podcaster. Here's the thing, boys. I really love Noah Hawley. Yes. I'm a huge fan of the Fargo series, four seasons so far. And what really works amazingly in Fargo is the writing, the dialogue and the cleverness. But there's also a lot of really interesting cinematic moves and weird, quirky plots.

bizarre characters and split screens and non-chronological plot structure, etc. So one of the things, Noah is what we would call in film theory, he's a montage director. He wants to draw attention to the art form by using a lot of clever techniques. And so I was really kind of interested in how's Noah Hawley going to, you know, what's he going to bring to Alien?

How is he going to craft a story? Is it going to be really revolutionary in its structure? Is it going to be really clever in its dialogue, etc., etc.? So, I think my expectations were too high. Because... I'm not going to bag on the series because I'm still, you know, jury's still out. It's not over. But I found it...

pretty straight ahead in terms of what we call anti-montage. Anti-montage which is the standard American filmmaking style which is you don't necessarily draw attention to the cuts or the camera movement. You just kind of tell a straight ahead story that the audience can easily follow. And I think that's what we're kind of getting from this series so far. That's so crazy you're saying that because I actually felt like...

We got too many dissolves. We got too many like flash, flash, flash, flash, flash, you know, cuts throughout. I was like, oh, this isn't meshing with like my normal alien universe. That. Okay, I would agree with that, but I don't think the cuts are artistic. I think they are frequent. But I don't know if he's doing anything particularly revolutionary with it. And again, I'm not bad-mouthing it yet.

I was a little confused with, and again, this is all about preconception. And I do want to emphasize that because... Expectations, what Giannetti calls the horizon of expectation, can get in the way of your reception and your enjoyment of the text. Is that Louis Giannetti?

Well, yeah. That's one of the reasons why I like films where I don't know anything about them because then I don't have any expectations. So I was really much, okay, alien, alien, alien, alien, right? I was a little... surprised and slightly concerned about this being a prequel.

And that does kind of lay some stuff out because we don't know what the alien is. Therefore, we have a sense of where this series is going to conclude because it has to end in a way that doesn't mess up the continuity of the first alien movie. And they did that. really, really cleverly by creating the interior of the spaceship to match the Weyland-Yutani vessel that we know so well, which is the Nostromo. And that's amazing production design because I don't think they...

got the original set out of mothballs, they probably had to reconstruct it. Right, yeah. So the command center, like that lit up inside of a golf ball.

That's super cool. You're talking about the mother room? Yeah, the mother room and the flower-like hypersleep chambers and the mess hall, etc. I was a little... confused because the nostromo is a small commercial shipping vessel like a tugboat yes and this is a huge ass science vessel so it seems a little weird that it would have this same interior but you know that's how

Weyland-Yutani saves money. They mass-produce everything. But what about the rest of the ship? Well, we see the rest of the ship later, of course, after the crash.

And so I was a little underwhelmed by the first episode because we spent so much time with the hybrid synthetics. I'm starting to shift my attitude a little bit because I'm realizing it's just not... it's a different narrative than i maybe thought it was going to be so i need to allow myself to enjoy the story that that holly is telling and not necessarily the story

i would have told were i telling the story so i know that's super long-winded and um greg was nice and concise i'm just i i wanted to explain away some of my negativity so people don't hate me but I just I'm a little concerned I was a little concerned with that first episode where it was kind of like I'm not sure This feels like the universe we know and love, but it also seems really, really unfamiliar. And that makes sense, right? Because we're on Earth. Well...

Yeah, I agree with what you're saying there. And my love comes from the characters. I love Wendy, the character. I love the characters. But when the alien, the xenomorph is introduced, I mean, it looks small. It looks. body suit it looks you know those type things so some of that throws you know threw me off a little bit but i did like the introduction of some of these new

I mean, you got the xenomorph, you got the face hugger, you know, but now we got this little weird octopus eye thing. You know, there's some new things that they're throwing at us, which I appreciate. Yes. Like, okay, give us something and you've done it. The blood bugs are...

or whatever they are. The blood bugs. Yeah. So here's my take on the first two episodes was that I think they're going into it realizing that most people watching this show know or knew about the universe so you're not just watching a show as somebody novice you're most people watching this is people that have watched at least alien

You know, aliens, maybe alien resurrection, whatever. So, you know, I think most people are already versed. So they already know about the xenomorph. They already know about the facehugger. So you don't really have to. develop that character, right? You can throw them at them and people are going to already understand that. Agreed.

And I think that's the way the director and the writer came at it. You know, they already know. Most people already know this. I don't have to spoon feed them that. But now we're introduced to these new, you know, whatever they're going to be in the future. And I appreciate it, Miles.

dude that's cool i love it i love the blood sucker that looks like a big tick getting ready to burst and yeah you know whatever the heck that thing is going to eventually be the octopus eye thing is super cool man with the wicked little tentacles or whatever uh so

there's some cool things that I think we're going to be looking at in the future. I think in the next few episodes, we'll start getting into more of the creatures since they, well, we won't get in that. We got to get to episode three, but anyways, I just, I feel like one and two was kind of a cool little.

nod to us, you know, a little wink, wink. We're going to give you a little xenomorph. We're going to give you a little face hugger. You know, we'll give you a chest burst and, you know, we'll let you go with it. And we get to see the synthetics, you know, there's three. these three types of beings, the cyborg and the, uh, what was the cyborg descent and the, uh,

Oh, the hybrid. So, you know, those three. So it's really cool, man. I like it. I like the synths. I like that we know where they started. You know, Wendy the first. Yeah. I like it. So, yeah. Yeah, no.

Okay, so you made some really good points there, Greg. The things that are unfamiliar are kind of the best parts. And I kind of wish, and I know they're... i know why they're doing it but i i wish they'd embraced a little bit more the mystery of like the prometheus the two prometheus films yeah where it was putting us into something that was in a familiar universe but wasn't familiar at all yeah and and so i i feel

this frision between okay i don't know what this is i don't know what these things are this is cool but then there's like oh it's the same bridge it's the same command ship it's the same xenomorph but slightly different and so yes i agree with you there I think this idea of introducing these hybrids with the framework of...

Peter Pan is very cool. And I like getting a little bit ahead. I like that the characters themselves are starting to say, why are we Peter Pan characters? I kind of like that they're bringing attention to it. Wendy is super great. The actress, Sydney Chandler. They're all doing a great job at acting like children. Like the way they move and the way they sit. Yeah.

Do they feel like the commercial? You remember the commercial with the little gummy bear looking things and the adults are acting like kids, you know?

I'm going to eat this. Yes. Go out there with the football players, and they don't want to go in because they're eating their little – this is what I feel out of that, though. It's a little goofy. It's a little like – trivial it's like oh come on guys come on no i i agree with that to a certain extent but i think it's clever and i think they are doing a a cool job with it um and then like you said greg we have three different kinds of things we're dealing with

And it's an interesting move to make the cyborg so villainous. This idea that he seems to kind of hate humans because he's not human, but he seems to hate synthetics because he's not completely synthetic either. He just seems to hate everything. Are you speaking about Murrow? Yeah, I'm trying to get it.

yeah because i think he's just super scary in his impassivity and cruelty yes and and also he's just he is cold as a cucumber when that xenomorph is about to kill him and he's just casually getting in his little protective Yeah. ready for the plane crash, you know. But I really want to shout out Oliphant. So Terry Oliphant as Kirsch. Yes. I did not recognize him at all. in a good way yeah a lot of stuff and it's like

Who is this guy? And his performance is so great that there were times when I thought, wait a minute, am I watching Blade Runner? Or am I watching Alien? Yeah, I felt that too a little bit. And he had the hair, the hair. Yeah. What would you say, man? Just that there are a lot of moments in this, which I think are appropriate. You know, when you look back at like Blade Runner, there's a lot of like.

similar production design moments and obviously they're both Ridley Scott and so I was feeling a little bit of honor like towards Blade Runner with this you know obviously bringing this idea of robot humans you know and and yeah you're right all fun is like he is unrecognizable in a good way i love it i love the way he looks and i love the kind of the way he you know moves around and

And the way he behaves, his demeanor, he affects this demeanor that is so, it's hard to even put my finger on it, but it's almost, I don't know, he's very, he's kind of judgmental. He's also like a little condescending, but he's also like, yeah, I don't know. I just love every time he's on the screen. I'm just like captivated.

Yes, I like that. I know we need to move on to number three, but I'm really curious. And Greg, you can jump in here, too. But I want to know like a professor's kind of standpoint on this weird morality decision here, because. What we're doing is we're taking kids that are terminally ill. They're not going to grow up, you know, right. They're going to die pretty soon. And we're copying their brains into.

machines so that they can continue onward but what i wanted to know that isn't clear i don't think in the first episode i don't think it's supposed to be clear but it's like when you copy the brain over does the body of the child immediately die Or do you wheel the sick child into a room where the synthetic can't see the child anymore? And do you take care of them? Yeah. Like, well, what's happening there, you know?

It is entirely possible that that is being kept vague for a later episode reveal. Because sometimes when you have a narrative like this one, there could be a resolution that includes being returned back to the body. Well, and there is one moment. direction there is a moment where they're zipping up a dead kid and my question i suppose is does the kid die because there's no more consciousness in them it transferred over to the machine

Or did they die because, well, now that you've transferred over the machine, we don't need you anymore. Yeah. I think they're going to reveal that. Yeah, that would be interesting. I do think that's going to come back. Sure.

now i think that this this is pushing a little hard now granted all the alien movies do this to a certain extent but i think the series is being more uh blatant than everything else which is this is about corporate greed and corruption and the lack of ethical uh control when it comes to corporate corporatization i mean we've got this boy genius who is the stand-in for every weirdly morally corrupt

billionaire. It's Zuckerberg. It's Musk. It's all these guys rolled into one. And so we've made him a bad guy because he seems to have no actual... empathetic understanding of the rest of the world it's just like i'm a spoiled rich boy and i'll do what i want and obviously he's trying to find unlock the secret of immortality for himself i mean he's not like he's altruistic

He's trying to perfect this thing so he can put himself in the body because you'll notice none of the hybrids are called Peter. Because he's Peter. Wow. I did not catch up with that smart. He's the one who wants to live forever. And so that's why he's experimenting on these kids. And then one last thing, Jace, before we move into episode...

three. Just want to agree with Greg up until episode three. then i'll have more to say but i was a little bit bored with the face hugger and the eggs because it's like but what about these other things these other things are really weird and they're really scary and the idea of of a parasite that replaces one of your eyeballs and then takes over your body i guess until it decides to attack somebody else that thing's creepy and of course it's it's a little spider-like

how i feel about that i'm curious i want to see more about the one that just hangs from the ceiling right so so i love the idea that we have these prometheus like mutations are they part of the black goo from that or are we just going to ignore prometheus completely and not delve into that backstory i don't know I don't know. We got more. What it is, is it's, um, flight of the navigator situation where he's just been picking up aliens on different planets and he's bringing them back. Right.

I'm going to read this thing Pearl sent me real quick, and then we'll go to three if you're ready, Jay. But this is an AI overview. And you're talking, this is what you were talking about, Mac. It says in the recent TV series, Alien Earth, it's implied that the children are actually synthetic copies of their consciousness with the original children being killed and their bodies disposed of when the transfer occurred.

sylvia believes the children are gone not the original copies and that they were murdered with only their personalities existing in the synthetics you see that is crazy because that's not immortality right that's exactly something else you know, but it's like, um, the prestige, which one is it where they, yes, yes, yes. Interesting ethical, uh, choices for, for a type of cloning. Really. So cool. Yeah, absolutely.

Boy Cavalier, Trillionaire Boy Cavalier. Yeah, I saw like a little video on the internet that was like, if we ever do invent teleportation, what... teleportation doesn't do is take you and put you on mars you know what it does is it destroys your physical body here and it makes a copy on mars and now there is a different version of you on mars It's a fax machine where the one end is also connected to a paper shredder. Yes. Yikes. Oh, boy. Well, I hate that. That's why McCoy wouldn't use them.

Amazing. That's so funny. All right. Well, the last thing I'll just end cap all this with you guys, because I love your discussion. Kyle.

I don't know if you'll permit this. I'm thinking that because, and a couple of you've hit on this, the fact that we're so familiar with how the aliens work. What makes me most excited about this series thus far is the fact that we do have these other storylines within this universe. So what I'm saying is it's not just about... the monsters. And I think that's actually a smart move because for a series to expand this out, I don't know.

Perhaps they were worried that it would get a little repetitive if there weren't other genuine subplots and other arcs happening. And so that's what I'm really excited about is all these other. arcs, which is kind of surprising for me because you'd think I would just be like, give me the monster. Where's the monster? But I, I'm very excited about these other things. See, I thought you were thinking 54 minutes.

Yeah. Can't we tell this story in 30? Yeah, I liked it. So episode three here, Metamorphosis.

The first thing I wanted to just ask you guys about metamorphosis is, one thing occurred to me. In Aliens, they gave us... like fairly competent soldiers. They were like the special forces type soldiers versus aliens. And what's interesting about this is we're, we're essentially getting super soldiers versus aliens. So that's kind of a neat little angle that we're seeing already.

I love the fact that this opens and it picks right up with the action because we know that the brother was abducted and Wendy just went chasing after him and I love how this this hits the ground running and so I was extremely happy again with where this particular episode went like i was just absolutely um dazzled by it but um but mac what did you go ahead i just need a point of clarification please do when you say super soldiers do you mean the like

hopped up security guards or do you mean the kids? The kids. That's what I thought you meant. I guess I'm trying to remember in other alien movies if they're like... super strong i feel like there's sort of normal ish i guess in alien romulus there was some kind of like he's holding the door open and you're like okay yeah he's strong but this this they definitely are like they can jump

They can run. They're super soldiers. But that's kind of a good point. It's interesting to see that. But what I was thinking, Jason, is there were a few moments in this episode where I thought... I wish there was a little bit more of a cleverness on how to preserve our main characters because I feel like there's times when the xenomorph ruthlessly tears apart a room and there's other times when it decides to just like...

turn and go a different way i feel like it's a convenient way to keep our main characters alive and i just wish there was a little bit more of like they're fighting in somewhat realistic way to get away from you know this xenomorph so but there is an awesome fight in this one

And some of what we get to see and some of what we don't. And I know that was something we talked about, Jason, in some of the other episodes where it's like we want to see it. And sometimes it's off camera and sometimes it's not. But I will say, Jason. I feel bad about this, but when this episode, episode three ended, my first thought was this is a bridge episode and it's connecting episode two.

Episode four and it's just creating a bridge, you know, which was sort of not what I wanted. I want each of these episodes to be like a masterpiece of its own, you know, and something to watch.

i don't know did you guys did anyone else kind of feel like that or is that just me i didn't kyle i can see i can see somewhat what you're saying because we get like a you they're bringing the the cargo in right so we got that whole scenario now where we're you know boy cavalier whatever you want to call them so i don't want to get too far into it till we start talking i'm talking about it but i can see where you're going with it mac but it didn't bother me i don't

I didn't mind the quote unquote bridge. I think I'm okay with what they're, what they're doing with it, but I see where you're going with it. Yeah. I don't think I'm not reading it as particularly episodic. I think they're really going for one, like 10 hour story. and so i just i just read it kind of more as the next installment yeah the next chapter i guess this is just the scene like you said greg where they've got to move the

alien specimens from the shipwreck to the headquarters and how else do you do that aside from back them up and wheel them down the hallway. I get a 54 minute episode of wheeling in. creatures and see i gotta push back there was more than that yeah i gotta push back on macula here like tell me tell me why you feel this is a bridge episode because personally i felt like you remember how i said um last time

I feel like the A team of writers did episode one. Then they took a vacation. The B team did episode two. And now the A team was back for me because we actually had some significant things happen. But like, for example. I loved that we got the dissection of the face hugger and they took out the embryo to the alien and they're testing. But no, I mean, were there other things?

It wasn't just about... Go ahead. There's a whole conversation where one of the kids... is approaching this boy genius guy and she's like, how come Wendy's your favorite? And then we get this kind of long scene where she's just like wishing she was the favorite. And I really did feel like it was, yeah.

I guess what maybe to Kyle's point, this is just what we're feeling here, maybe, or what I'm feeling here is that, you know, if this is one 10 hour movie, we're definitely in that sort of beginning part where.

we're not getting a middle, beginning, middle, and end. We're just, we're getting something of the middle. You know, we're like, here's a scene about this person and that person. Because a quick question on that, because when she was asking all those questions, I started feeling the narrative tension.

because I'm like, oh no, we've got us set up here for a huge betrayal. We have treachery in the mix, Mac. She currently is hitting boy genius work because you remember in episode one i think it was or episode two where he mentioned the whole reason of this all together is just because he wants to have a communication he wants somebody yeah he can actually have an intellectual you know

text and a talk with and somebody that might even be smarter than him and here she is already evolving above and beyond what some of these synths already at most of the synths are still wanting to play gi joe or whatever you know i'm just saying but she's already you know she's looking at the bigger picture man she's already like yeah and i definitely picked up on that you know and that

That will be interesting because I guess that's what I'm saying is that we're setting up for a betrayal or something, but we're not seeing the betrayal yet. And that's fine. That's fine. I mean, we're only episode three, so...

I'm not even saying that I didn't like this episode. I just I felt like it was sort of a bridge, which is good. But now that you say that, Jason, that's a good point is like it was awesome to see them cutting up that face hugger and finding the actual little like the embryo. Yeah. The little, you know.

xenomorph embryo and sticking it in that lung you know but that was great yeah was that a liver or a lung i thought it was a lung because it was it was the brother's lung yeah it was it was a lung oh well i'm terrible at They took one of Joe's lungs out because I think maybe that's the most likely organ that it eats because eating one lung wouldn't kill the host. So that's why they can still be alive. And it's proper placement for a chest burst. Yeah, it's in the right spot. Wow, okay.

I think that's pretty clever. You're right. That is a lung. I looked it up just now. I actually looked up the pictures of real looking lungs. I was surprised that Joe was able to take a tail pierce, you know. yeah and just like he took it like a champ yeah he took it like a champ he did but he was motivated and uh it wasn't like he walked it off no that's true it just happened to uh

You could get stabbed with a machete, and if it just misses everything, you'll still make it. It won't be fun. It does crack me up, though, in movies where you get shot.

like all the way through and then you put a bandaid over the wound and then you keep going and it's like that's not how wounds work you know it's like you've been damaged all the way through your body but they did they did a good job of like you said he's he's highly motivated and they did wheel him out on a stretcher you know and i mean great thing i love that thing yeah that was i'm coming out together it was pretty cool

well i want i want to touch on something that's back in episode two but that that max kind of bringing up i again i'm hoping because i know noah holly as a writer and showrunner i think that this stuff is going to make sense later Because the xenomorph that we get in this show, and we've learned, right, every iteration of the xenomorph is slightly different because of...

hosting conditions and gestation and all that kind of stuff yes so this xenomorph is just like a mad dog it's not trying to capture hosts for implantation it's not it's just slaughtering when it goes into the weird 16th century France costume party. It just slaughters everybody, right? But it has repeatedly chosen not to slaughter Joe. I'm hoping that that has some greater significance and it's not just sloppy writing because it seems to be trying to wound Joe, to put Joe down.

Yeah. Because Joe is the only one who gets like slimed and stuck to a wall. So what is it about him that's different from everybody else that it's just been indiscriminatingly killing? Well, that is interesting to me. Well, but OK, so isn't it isn't it as simple as I mean, the reason they stick them to walls and the reason he didn't want to kill Joe.

is because among these people, he's one of the only actual human hosts. So I think that the intention is to have an alien inside of him. Right. But what about all the other humans? Which ones?

at the party yeah at the party and there was a lot of uh there's a whole bunch of soldiers that in the hallway yeah so one thing we don't know that hopefully we will know is that at some point on this ship uh you know one of the facehuggers got into one of the suspended animation chambers impregnated somebody and created a xenomorph and the only assumption we can make is that morrow did it on purpose because he's working for somebody yes well why not

impregnate all of the crew or why didn't that xenomorph you know cocoon the crew instead of just killed them all so i think there's something more going on And that's where the mystery folds in, which is more... I think that is more important for a series than a movie. We have to keep not only giving cliffhangers each week, but also tantalizing us with unanswered questions.

and i'm intrigued at the end of this episode that will make me feel so much better kyle because i was thinking that they were just doing it because he's a main character and he can't die yet that would be disappointing yeah But that would be much cooler if we find out there's something about his DNA or his blood that the xenomorph knows, hey, I need to preserve this for a little bit longer. Because one thing I do like about this series so far is...

How ruthless and like how ferocious. We do get a moment when like the Xenomorph first attacks one of the crew members. And what is that gentleman's name? You just said it. recently but yeah who's the guy who's in mother's room and he's like a cyborg you said that's more yeah he's like in there and the last crew member is like let me in

there's a pretty good moment where you're like, oh, he's going to let her in. Oh no, he's locking the door. And then, you know, she gets it and she gets it hard because his xenomorph is just so ferocious, you know? And so it's like that. That's something I like about the Alien series is that this thing is not, you know, like a lion that we can kind of corner or maybe get away from if the lion is like, he just ate, so he's not that hungry, you know.

it's like these things are killing machines and they are good at what they do, you know? And yet though, somewhat strategic. One of my favorite scenes in this third episode is when, when the xenomorph encounters Wendy. It perceives her, meaning I think it perceives her formidable nature and maybe also that she's a synth and it backs away. Yeah.

Which I thought was really cool. And, by the way, speaking of just cool moments, if I just want to geek out for a second, the fact that she hooks the inner mandible and pulls that out, that is so bad, A, you guys. I love that.

anyway i didn't know where they were going with on that when i was like what are they doing and they go in that room and then we don't know what happens until she comes out and you're like dude she truly is bad a but here's the thing like i know they still don't know their full potential right i'm talking about the synths okay they're still learning they can do certain things and here's here's a little quirk for me

They're supposed to be super fast running. Don't show them running because they look like you're just trotting. Some of that comes off looking really hokey, man. Some of the CGI is pretty crappy in this show, too. Yeah, her first jump off the cliff. it was rough it's it's basic cable give them a break i know right but it's like for me you know oh they can be super fast this reminds me of watching the six million dollar man like this is what okay here we go and this is what

It looks like when she's running, I'm like... Have you guys seen the behind the scenes of Twilight where they've got people on treadmills? And then the treadmill is on the back of a truck. So they're running. And then the trees behind them are going like three times as fast as they should be. Maybe they should do that here. I don't know. It just comes off a little.

But anyway, I can't wait to see the powers that they truly possess. There's got to be some superhuman strength that they haven't possessed yet.

maybe one of them can do karate chops or something i don't know and to go back to something that was mentioned earlier remember these synths that have human consciousness they are designed by a different company These are the boy cavalier synths. We've never encountered those before. So we don't know what they're capable of. Whereas we know the Weyland-Yutani synths. They're all based on that one actor from the Prometheus.

from the all of david yeah so we know who invents them and they are much more like um isaac asimov robots you know i cannot hurt a human and i have amount of strength and intelligence but they are not these synths yeah and i think holly is messing with us because it's like you think you know what the xenomorph is you think you know what an android is you think you know these things And so I think that we're getting deliberate surprise from this because I can't imagine.

either ash or bishop decapitating a xenomorph no no not at all but this wendy apparently can so what is up with these yeah that's what is up with these creatures these robots

It is also interesting to me that I don't know how it detects, but the eggs are able to detect whether they are in the presence of a human being or a robot. Love it. Just body temperature, man. Yeah, I guess that's it. I guess that's it. That's so cool, though. And creepy. I love when he escorts Boy Cavalier out. He's like, you out. Yeah, like you're getting out of here.

You don't want to be here right now. I was waiting for it, though. I was like, man, is he going to get face hugged right now? Yikes. Cause you guys are right. Like he is the villain in so many ways and they are doing such a good job. Jason, I already talked about this, but they're doing such a good job.

making us hate this guy I mean the way he eats an apple and the way that he skips around in his bare feet pajamas just dude makes you want to beat this kid up it just but I still what about when he's talking to the woman and like The woman that we don't know who she is. but he's sitting there just talking to her nonchalant with his feet you know and he's like now i want them oh yeah yeah he's holding his ipad with his toes on the bed yeah typical trillionaire right he's like i'll get what i want

Okay, you guys can straighten me out on something because I was confused by this. Maybe it hasn't revealed how this happened yet, but how does Morrow speak? through the mind or connect how did he end up connecting was it some sort of computer internet interfacing where where the the one of the lost boys can hear him when morrow is away

Oh, I thought he just hacked into, didn't he just hack into a computer? Well, no, when he talks to the boy. Yeah, he's hijacked his transmitter. Yeah, remember he put his hands on the phone. Yeah, he put a tiny little transmitter in his neck, right?

Yeah, that's right. There was something he did to his neck. Oh, I must have missed that. Yeah, it was hard to see, but he had a tiny little... It almost looked like a contact lens with... technology in it but he put it on the side of the kid's neck and it went into his skin okay so that's how he's doing it that's how he's talking to him interesting okay yeah because i was very confused i guessed he did something like that but i also didn't see it jay so okay it was really subtle yes it was okay

Wow, interesting. Anything else you guys want to talk about specifically in this? Yeah, I have a big grape. Okay, let's hear it. And I'm, you know, jury's still out. I said that. Yeah. I don't like that Wendy has a psychic connection.

to the xenomorph yeah i don't know what that's what i missed what do you mean about that i don't remember when things happen to the xenomorph or to the the face hugger oh that's right she could hear the sounds you can hear them talking but or chittering but then she also seems to be in pain that's right and so it's like well wait a minute she she's a robot

So it can't be psychic because she doesn't really have a conscience anymore. It's just data that's been downloaded into this artificial matrix. So I don't know why she seems to have some kind of unique connection to the creature. And unless they explain that in a way that is interesting and cool, I'm going to be really ticked off because I think it's a little bit of lazy writing.

when you have this and the character just knows the character has a sense of it a feeling and so as of right now i'm just going oh come on don't do this cliche yeah because if she she had super hearing or something like that then why didn't the other kids get that no there's something about her now this is why

theoretically we could have an answer that would explain both wendy and joe what is it about these two kids these siblings that they have this weird connection to this this race of aliens well I want a satisfactory revelation there, or I'm just going to be annoyed. But do you feel like, because she didn't start having the feelings and the visions and the pain and all that until after she destroyed that one in the room by itself, and we don't know why.

what happened she could hear the chittering from the moment she stepped on the ship yeah i know she didn't have this weird kind of psychic connection i just wonder if maybe something happened inside that we don't know what happened i don't know and again holly's a really good writer uh the fargo all four seasons of fargo there's really no plot holes so i think it's going to come out in the wash but i'm trying really hard not to be impatient

I'm still not sold though. You guys seem to think that it was strictly a download of consciousness. I still am not 100% sold that they didn't somehow transfer. the little children's individual conscience into the sentence. I would love for Wendy... Or what's her name? And, you know, she's got a name. Marcy. Marcy. Like if Marcy and her brother are really connecting, like I got emotional when they first connected.

And the other thing that I think that the Alien franchise speaks to with this is we know that Ripley in, let's see, it wasn't three, it was four, right? Resurrection. Alien Resurrection. She was sort of connected.

psychically as well so well but that's different and that makes sense because they're cloned from the same uh materials right but i think that might be a clue kyle maybe there's some sort of for it dude i am totally open for it But any conversation of transplanting consciousness has always been about converting the brain to data. Now if we get to a point where it's like, no, the technology, what makes the technology so unique is we're actually transplanting the soul, then cool.

But as of right now, we don't have enough information. And that's why I'm not saying this sucks. I'm saying I don't know yet. And I'm along for the ride, but I'm going to need some answers here.

I asked Jason this question, but I wanted to ask you guys too, because like, I think this is slated for 10 episodes as of right now for season one. Correct, Jason? I think it's eight. Eight episodes. So we're close to halfway. that's right and then but but what i'm wondering is are you guys going to be excited if they announce season two season three season four or are you guys going to be kind of afraid that we're going to go down like the lost trail or something like that where it's like

You know, last of us. Yeah. I'm sorry, Jay. No, I mean, yeah, it's a heartbreak. It depends on how this ends.

I'm going to throw one thing out there, and this is total speculation. With Fargo, the Four Seasons... are completely separate stories that take place in completely different times in different periods of history dang that's if molly says i'm gonna do that so season two of alien actually takes place right after resurrection you know if he if he says each season is going to be a different story in the universe then i am 100 in and super excited yeah i guess you're right

kyle because like you know there there are moments in star wars episode three that you're like well yoda's not gonna die because he can't i know he's gonna be in these other movies right so it's like like you said it's like These events need to lead up to the movie Alien in such a way that things make sense. So like you said, it's like we know things have got to play out a certain way. So if they end these eight episodes right there...

then that does leave the question as to like, okay, if there is a season two, where do you go from there? You know, but that would be a good idea though, is if it's, if we just skip ahead 500 years or. Or something, we just move to a totally different planet so that we're doing something else. But then again, I guess it is called Alien Earth. So does it all have to take place on Earth? Sure.

I don't know, but we'll see. Yeah. It could end up in Mars. So as far as like the beastly freak aspect, so I told you that I was getting a little bored. with the xenomorph and the eggs. I did like, so we already mentioned one. I like how the egg is like, starts to open up and then it's like, nope. And it's like, oh, the human left the room. So I'll wait. I thought that was clever. I like how everyone's favorite synthetic...

Cuts the side away from the egg but doesn't rupture the membrane. That's pretty cool. That was awesome. And we get a subjective point of view from the... Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yes, but I will say the most excited I've been for the three hours so far is when he drops that that zygote into the into the vat and it immediately burrows into that lung and it's like oh yeah we're gonna be able to see what the what the xenomorph is doing when it's inside your chest

because that's where Kirsch is so terrifying he has no emotions he's like I don't care I'll take Joe's lung I'll kill this facehugger I just want to know what happens next and that is going to be so freaking cool to see what happens next week. Are we going to get a montage of that thing getting bigger and bigger in the vat? Or not? Are we going to get something else? I'm more excited for next week.

week than i've been so far yeah the whole story and i guess in reality too like they did set that up with the very beginning of episode one where we see the scorpion and she's like do we kill it And he's like, what do you think we should do? You can tell that in his mind, he's like, he does not want to kill the Scorpion. He wants to study it, understand it, see what it can do.

and so that's exactly what he's going to do he is never going to destroy this xenomorph if he has anything to do with it you know Good reference. Well said. Well played. Yes. And Kyle, thank you too for correcting my anatomical terms that was a zygote and not an embryo. My apologies, everyone. I do enjoy. Pointing out when Jay's wrong. Yes, I know. It's a lung, Jay. Not a liver. Yes, it's a lung. Yeah, I'm way off on all the body parts and stuff. That's why we have human biology.

I guess I know what's going on. That's why we have a professor, you know, on here. Right. Sure. But you got the name of that. What did you call that thing that that. their second mouth that comes out. You got that right, Jason. Oh yeah, you got that one. The intermanable. Oh my gosh, I just called you Jason. I never call you Jason, but Mac's been working on me. Mac always says Jason.

yes all right well um let's let's start to wrap wrap up our thoughts here on episode three and um guys in case you didn't hear the previous episode

Mac doesn't rate TV series. So you're going to start with me? Well, I guess. So what do you rate episode three? I guess I could go down to the 10 scale maybe or something like that. But it really is hard to rate TV episodes for me for some reason. But... Yeah. See, this is something, Kyle, I was actually going to have like a lengthy conversation with you on a different episode just about like why I actually prefer movies over TV and why movies feel more like a big epic event.

even though TV series have the ability to kind of go and, you know, continue the story. But I did like this episode, Jason. Again, I mean, I guess that's where I struggled to rate it because it's like, I know one of the big things that we... do this podcasting for is to recommend whether people should buy it or rent it or skip it. And it's hard to do that with episode three. You kind of either got to...

If you're going to watch the whole series, I would say you've got to watch the whole series. But I will say I'm very excited for the next episode as well. Like it's definitely working on me where it's like I almost watched episode three again. just because I had that hankering for, like, I want to see more of this story, you know, and the next episode's not out yet, so I'm finally living that life, but I loved it, Jason. I don't know what to tell you.

Okay, but no number. That's all right if you don't have a number. I just want to. What's your number, Jason? Or are you saving yourself? Oh, no. Yeah, Jason, what's your number? Well, I freaking love this episode. I loved it. This is 9 out of 10 for me. And I was extremely excited. My biggest gripes. Two big gripes. Unlike you guys, I despise, I loathe, and if I had a genie with one wish and my one wish was able to change something about alien earth, I would get rid.

of the eyeball octopus thing i hate the look of that it is so cheesy to me you guys it does look you you might as well have Some kind of a Muppet in there. Like a stitch coming out of there. It's slimy, man. Did you see the tentacles wrap around the girl, man? It looks like something out of Rick and Morty. yeah i'm just saying anyways i hate that thing but setting that aside the other thing that um my other critique was

They totally copped out on showing us the battle where she beheaded the Xenomorph. Yeah, but that's financial. They couldn't pull that off on their budget. i agree with you but there's a reason why they couldn't do it you don't think they could cg that battle a little bit it would look so bad i mean that would have to and plus by doing now it's in our imagination which is so much cooler But did you hear the budget, though, for this? Yeah, it's like $25,000 an episode.

no no no no it's way that's my budget i could do that right now in fact in fact this was um as i recall but yeah it was like double it was like 31 million an episode Come on. They could give us something. Kyle's imagining them spray painting cardboard, you know, and getting Christmas lights and stringing them. Wasn't it convenient that they just happened to have like a load lifter that was resistant to acid? Oh, yeah.

Very, very convenient. I did see that. I did notice that. One thing, okay, here's one tiny more detail that I did like, Jason, is speaking of that load lifter, isn't there a forklift? in this that has that look that we get from aliens right where you know how Ripley uses that thing to fight the queen yes we got a similar looking forklift I don't know if you guys saw that but I did yeah cool that's awesome

Okay. Yeah. So anyway, I'm a nine and I say definitely check this out. Metamorphosis. Greg Mortis, what's your rating? Final thoughts. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm a nine on this one as well. I was... about a seven and a half eight on number two i was a nine on number one so this one right here definitely definitely hit home man i love the the introduction or not the introduction but the bringing in of

bringing in the she's uh it's bringing in the the creatures man i love that and seeing them you know kind of getting examined now so i'm curious i'm i'm eating i'm waiting for episode four now because i think it's going to really start ramping up a little bit more than what it has so I'm all about it, man. She's okay. And is the Twisted Temptress, is Pearl enjoying this? Yeah, I think she is. You're liking it, right?

yeah she's liking it a lot too okay she's a big alien fan too so yeah yes yes good well she has good taste obviously so all right this episode of nate oh cool okay thank you and then uh dr walking dead Can't have a story. I got home from work and I started watching it and then I woke up and it was over. So then I went back, I rewound until something looked familiar. You rewound it? And then I rewatched, and then I watched the ending, the second half. So take this with a grain of salt. Okay.

But I'm giving, yeah, I'm going to give episode three here a 7.964. Because... Because when I rate TV episodes, I use a 10,000 point scale. Oh my gosh, stop it. What did you say? I have to listen to that again. Well, Kyle, be honest with us. 7.964. Yeah, yeah. Be honest with us because Jason talks about this every once in a while where it's like, you know, because I put a movie on at 2 a.m. before and I wake up for that thing, you know, even though I'm exhausted. But there's other times.

When Jason's admitted that it's like, you know, it's the middle of the day or first thing in the morning and he's put this movie on and it just lulls him to sleep. So do you feel like there's no way this thing put you to sleep, is it? Or do you think you were just so exhausted? It could have been anything.

sleep apnea i would have fallen asleep okay i was tired um and i've been really struggling with it with the sleep apnea but also i don't know getting old because i'm i've been falling asleep in the movie theater which i never used to do and it ticks me off because it's like what a waste

of money yeah yeah i just i just missed 30 minutes of this movie right but if i'm wiped out not a lot is going to actually keep me awake unless it's you know angst and anxiety and that'll keep me up but uh because more than once Have I fallen asleep to the dulcet sounds of Gregor Mortis while I've been trying to listen to Land of the Creeps? And then I wake up and I'm two episodes further along.

Greg could read nighttime stories to people and it would be like therapeutic I feel like I gotta say Greg you have a soothing voice and that drawl is just like butter squeal like a pig baby squeal like a pig Well, that would wake me up. A little Ned Beatty action on here. Yeah, so, yeah, eight out of ten. Eight out of ten. This was my favorite so far, mostly because of what Greg said. So I agree with Greg's assessment, and I'm really looking forward to four. All right. Well.

All right, listeners, make sure you keep watching along with us. We hope you do. Yeah, our buddy Gilman Joel, he... He's out, I guess. But he said if this ends up being a great series and we tell him that it's great, then he'll give it a chance. Is he out because he's busy or because he hated the first episode? Well, he watched the first two episodes, and yes.

And yes, both are true. He is very busy. He just tapped out because he didn't like it so much. He said, life is too short, is what he said. Whoa. Yeah, so. She's on watch almost anything. And yet, our beloved buddy, he watches... You know, those low-budget regional flicks. That's right. He's okay with those. SOV movies, man. Yeah. He's fine in the sci-fi where they literally are spraying cardboard to look like metal. You know, it's like...

They spray it silver. We miss you, Joel. We do. We do. But yeah, if this ends up being awesome, we'll have to tell him. And I'm excited because that'll be great to have him catch up with it.

Anyway, that wraps up this episode of J of the Dead's New Horror Movies. We hope you're enjoying this coverage. This is kind of fun. It's fun to have more people. Kyle and I love, for the most part, don't we, Kyle, reviewing The Last of Us when the season are good but um it's exciting to have you guys on board here with alien earth and um anyways absolutely yes so so kyle do you have any parting words or final thoughts for the listeners as we tell them good night

I do. And it's listen to Land of the Creeps. You guys are doing such fun work over there, Greg. I've been really enjoying the 1990s coverage. Yes. There's been a caller named Carl Pope that's been crushing some calls. Carl Pope? Yeah, I don't know who he is. That's a stupid name. He is. But, yeah, you listen to Land of the Creeps. It's good stuff over there, and they're working really hard to redeem the 90s. So that's nice coverage. And apparently...

I saw on the Facebook, your next episode is Horror Makeout. Yeah. I'm really looking forward to that episode. So there's weird stuff going on at the end of the conversation. I bet you, I have a prediction. I bet you that... A cabin in the woods is gonna come up.

in that episode see you it's gonna come up at least one time yeah because it's not on my list because horror make out but yeah so there there's a plug uh because greg's on the line here and and thank you sir they're doing good work And then, yeah, of course, support our other segments and subcategories with new horror movies.

It's worth your time, folks. And one more shout out for you, Greg. You made me so proud on your 1997 top five, your number five pick. I was very pleased. I wanted to give you a big hug for number five. I won't spoil it. So people will go hear what it is, but I was so happy, brother. Okay. Greg, what do you have for us?

Nothing. Okay. Jason, I meant to ask Greg a question and I guess Kyle could answer this too, but how did you guys feel how each of these three episodes has ended with like a credit song? Oh, God, yes. Yeah. Metallica, baby. Like, where are they getting the money? There's where the money's at. Oh, there you go. Yeah. Yeah, there you go. $30 million budget.

I sometimes bristle at kind of anachronistic song choices, but I think that he's been nailing the selection. It makes each episode end with a particular vibe, and so it's been a lot of fun. All right. All right. Okay. It's extra textual, guys. It's not part of the show. It's the credits. It's paratext. That's right. It is non-diegetic music, right, Kyle? Exactly. Embrace it. Okay, Mac, any final words?

my only my thought is yet again just how much i wish ridley scott could do his two he's supposed to do two movies that combined they go from alien covenant to alien That would be so cool if we got two feature films right in between there. So Disney, come on. If this does well, just let them do it. Or let me do it. Screw it. I'll do it. Yeah, Mac is open. He'll take care of it. And my little promotion here is make sure you are listening to the solo cast.

Dead Man Still Walking by Dr. Walking Dead here. Because speaking of good work, he's doing great things over there. Very exciting episodes coming up as well. And Kyle, you did a top 10 zombie movies. all time i mean haven't you all wanted to know what kyle's top 10 zombie movies are very interested in that yeah so anyway make sure you check it out and jay was there I was there, and I tried not to ruin it. You didn't. It was a revelation.

Yes, it was a revelation. It was very surprising. Yes, it was indeed. All right. Well, that's it. So on behalf of the Southern gentleman, Greg Mortis, Dr. Walking Dead, Kyle Bishop, I just want to say. even though he's not here, Mr. Watson. Count Macula and all the other boys here. I am your host, Jay of the Dead, and thank you for listening to Jay of the Dead's new horror movies. the gold standard of horror movie podcasts.