New Horror Movies Ep. 158: Alien: Earth (2025) - Episode 4

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. Each week we are bringing you spoiler-filled discussions.

of the Alien Earth episodes. So just make sure you're watching along with us each week, please do. And this week we are going to be covering episode four, Observation. Along with a number of other things, because you know how we do, we like commentary. And I am your host, Jay of the Dead, podcasting from Pleasant Grove, Utah. And I am so pleased to welcome three more of our horror Avengers.

He has done more and more impressive ladder falling stunts than Jackie Chan. He has traveled to the actual. Transylvania on three different occasions with co-ed groups of youth. only half his age, and he is the host of the solo cast, Dead Man Still Walking. Welcome, Dr. Walking Dead, Kyle Bishop. Thank you, Jay. I also appreciate the implication of pedophilia. That was a nice thing to answer there.

uh happy to be here happy to be here i'm very excited to talk about alien earth i went back and i watched prometheus and covenant this weekend to get a better sense of the timeline so we'll be probably talking about that well this evening or well it's this evening for us yes glad to be here jason thank you thank you very much and no i just want everybody to know

Dr. Bishop was a chaperone. He is a respected professor. He was chaperoning. Nothing weird. Okay. Next, this host's favorite snack to eat while watching horror movies is... ice cream flavor vanilla he is a fierce and devoted collector of old tv guides and he has a chia pet head of the shape Michael Myers. Welcome, Greg Amortis. Yo, and I do have a chia pet, Michael Myers, now. And I will be progressing that. on a regular basis progressing that i will be putting my progress i should say

over in our group chat. So everybody will see Michael's hair going, cha-cha-cha-cha. No, I'm excited, man. I'm super excited, man. They need to do a Jason Voorhees one of those because it could be like, cha-cha-cha-cha. Ha ha. Right. Anyways, yours was better. I just blew that. I like it. I like it. And last but not least this evening, this host.

purchases Blu-ray cases of various color varieties if the original case clashes with the physical media's artwork. He is the colorist of the Christmas horror short film gift wrapped and his favorite sandwich at Jersey Mike's is number 17. Mike's famous Philly with no onions, giant size. Welcome count Macula. Thank you. And you know what?

We've got all three. We are podcasting super late so that all my kids would be asleep by now. And every single one of them is a night owl. And they're just partying right now and talking into my ears. We're going to just have fun with this. Then I'm going to be on mute probably as much as I can. That's a wonderful introduction. Thank you, Jason. Who's going to introduce you, Jason?

This is Jason Pyle is joining us. He is a famed architect, the youngest astronaut ever to circumnavigate the globe, and a lover of fine women. and he is also the pod father oh yes let's not forget he is the pod father thank you thank you every time he tries to get out we pull him back in boy that is

That's right. That is the truth. More than you know. I love it, though. So we have a lot to discuss this evening. But before we get underway, first things first. For those who have been longtime fans of Horror Movie Podcast, they have just released a brand new episode. It's episode 228. where the show owner over there, Pastor Matt Rawlings, and his son Jackson welcomed two brand new official hosts that will comprise the new roster for its third year.

official incarnation HMP 3.0. Now I won't announce the name of the new host here because I don't want to spoil it. And I want you to go over there and listen to find out for yourself, of course, but. You know who it is, huh? You know everything. Yes. Greg is, he's on the inside is what it is. He's the man. In addition to Matt and Jackson, that episode features some OG host emeriti, namely yours truly, Jay of the Dead.

We have Dr. Walking Dead Kyle Bishop on there, as well as... That's me. That's me. That's right. As well as humorous appearances by Dr. Shock and Gilman Joel. Now, here's the... This is kind of exciting. On that same episode, you will get more than 50. Horror movie recommendations of cold, hard horror. That's horror movies set in the snow. We don't spend time covering the obvious ones like The Thing and The Shining, although we love those.

There are more than 50 lesser seen picks. Wait till you hear what Kyle throws up there. Love it. That was a good one.

And be sure to check out Horror Movie Podcast 3.0 episode 228. You can find it at horrormoviepodcast.net or anywhere that you find and subscribe audio podcasts. Now, Greg, did you say... listen to that episode already yes oh man you're so supportive it just dropped man good job hey man you know how it is i loved your first choice your i'm not going to say what it was but your first choice that that was

Hearing Jay try to pronounce the movie was awesome. How do you spell that, Jay? I'm just kidding. Oh, thank you. Did you see that first one? Because that first one is money. Never heard of it. I'm with the rest of the guys. You can dug that one out of your deep, deep pockets there, Kyle. Yeah, Kyle's is wild.

Okay, so let's get underway with some alien stuff. So the first thing, speaking of Pastor Matt, our friend, the good pastor said, he finds the timeline for alien earth to be confusing. And my apologies, because I didn't get... a chance. I tried, but he's very busy. I'm very busy. I didn't get to clarify the specific nature of his questions. And I know actually Kyle's going to be bringing us some observations here to the table this evening.

So I think that all that will be well served by doing just a quick overview of the alien universe timeline. And we're doing this for you, Pastor Matt. We're going to keep it just simple and high level so we don't eat up a lot of time. I think there are two reasons why people may be finding the alien timeline chronology confusing. These are my theories. Number one, almost all of the alien saga.

occurs far into our future. And I think once you get into like the 22nd century dates and even the 24th century. with resurrection, anytime somebody says a year like 2179 or 2381, my mind kind of flops over and I just don't register it. So that's one thing, but I suspect with Pastor Matt, And I'm sorry if this is wrong.

Maybe it's the varying alien species and the variations of the species that we're encountering at different times through the series that might be throwing him off because it's not like they occur at some sort of... a gradual step stool progression or do they so just to keep it simple first of all did you guys have any comments on those two theories off the top or maybe you have better theories than mine i have a comment

because i was thinking about this today last night and i was just like i really like alien being the first like 1979 i like that being the first time we ever encounter the xenomorph. And I guess in a way, right, that movie was made to exist on its own. So when you watch that movie... You can think, oh, this is crazy because this happens before and this happens after. But you can watch that movie by itself and just live in that universe. But I get it. We want more.

you either got to have your story take place at the same time as alien or after or before it, you know? And so. That's what's happening. This is happening before the events of Alien. But it is interesting to me that it's happening only two years before. That, for some reason, is interesting. And Kyle, maybe you know the name of this, but also in our world as just viewers, movie lovers.

Like prequels become kind of problematic, right? Because in our mind, our experience, we encounter the films in release order. And once you get prequels, it's not always story order. So then that kind of screws things up. So I wonder if that's a phenomenon that throws people as well. Kyle, do you have any? I have thought about. Sorry, I jumped in instead of Kyle.

You know, it's like it's that question of how what order do you watch Star Wars in or even like more recently with the Marvel movies. I mean, timeline wise, you're supposed to start with movies that were filmed and released later. if you're going in the timeline. But I kind of like the idea of going in the order of release, personally. Sorry, go ahead, Kyle. Well, I mean, obviously, when you're doing prequels, it's...

It's really complicated because on the one hand, you have, as a filmmaker, you have to say, okay, how do I not mess up? continuity how do i not ruin the original films etc but on the other hand i think we can give some freedom and some latitude to that because Just because something happened in the past relative to one film doesn't necessarily that what happened in the past has directly influenced the narrative of the later film. Now, Star Wars...

Everything really does have an influence on the later films and one thing that came up before is this idea of How come the technology is more advanced in the Star Wars prequels than the original Star Wars movies?

well you have to answer that question in two ways the one is the boring pragmatic reason which is the prequels were made later so the films were had access to greater technology and were able to up the stakes on in that regard and so there's got to be a little of suspension of disbelief because prequels have a narrative that's going backwards while the filmmaking has been going forwards but If filmmakers are somewhat skillful and if fans want to make it work...

It doesn't bother me in Star Wars because the Empire is mass producing everything as fast and cheaply as possible. So their ships all look terrible because they don't care. They have no sense of aesthetics. whereas the rebellion they're pulling together like garbage trucks and uh and tow trucks and and old computer parts and so it makes sense that the technology would be

would seem older because it's a time of war and rebellion so i think we can also get a little bit of that in alien earth because as i was being way too pedantic about this. We have we have a number of different ships that are made by a number of different companies, which can explain some of the aesthetic and technological differences. But the other thing we have to recognize is when we encountered this.

spaceships they are often much older than the time period in which they appear and so then to me it doesn't bother me at all so i wrote down some crazy notes The ship in Alien Earth that crashes is actually called the Magignol, which is a reference to the defensive line across France in World War I, which I think is a symbolic, I think it's an intention.

symbolism right that line of defense and we can tell from our movie our tv show here that that line of defense has failed but it leaves earth in 2055 well that's only 30 years from now So it would make sense that the technology on the Magagnol is not as high-tech as the stuff we see on Earth, or even the things we see in the Prometheus or Covenant movies, because those ships are much older.

So the Prometheus leaves Earth in 2089, whereas the Maganule returns to Earth in, what did we decide the year was of this show? Yeah, this show is 2120. 2120. So by the time... the Maganyol gets back to Earth, 65 years have passed. That's why Moro is like, hey, I want to talk to Yutani. And it's like, well, I'm her granddaughter.

Because you've been gone for 65 years. Well, the Nostromo, even though we encounter it in 21-22, which is only two years after this TV show, we already know the Nostromo is a bag of bolts. It's a super old commercial. tow truck.

which is why the it's always falling apart so the nostromo is of the same era as a magino which is why they look identical inside they have the same sleep chambers the suspend animation chambers and they're suspended animation chambers that don't match the ones that we see in the newest Alien film because that's a newer space station, so it would have newer technology.

Anyway, I could go much deeper into this, but that's maybe nerdier than me too. I love the nerdiness right now. We just have to recognize that we are pre-quilling, but we're pre-quilling with things that are not... current in the era of the prequel they may in fact even be older who was i was gonna say that jason and i talked a lot about like alien i i went back and listened to our

time talking and we actually spent a lot of time talking about alien covenant and i know when you jumped on last time you talked a lot about prometheus and i was reading some trivia which kind of bummed me out because i really like those movies but

I guess they're not saying that those films didn't exist, but I think they were saying that the creators of alien earth are largely going to ignore those films, whatever that means, you know? So again, I don't think they're going to like, deny that ever happened but they're just more excited i guess to show us you know like like you were saying that the interior of the spaceship that looks much like the nostromo and things like that but

Well, and it doesn't actually matter. In Prometheus, they discover the cave in 2089. The Prometheus then leaves Earth. And that movie takes place in 2093, and it doesn't come back to Earth. So nothing from the Prometheus film would impact the narrative of Alien Earth. Because they don't have any information about it. Well, The Covenant, that movie takes place in 2104, but clearly the ship left Earth.

years prior to that and as we know although we don't have the third film the covenant doesn't really come back either so by 2120 we don't know anything about that So because of the deep space nature of the other narratives and the fact that this one takes place on Earth, there is no overlap or interconnectivity between the narratives, which means alien Earth pretty much can do whatever it wants because the...

the earlier films have not come back and the later films haven't happened yet nice well said greg were you going to say something no i was like i'm just eating it up man i'm absorbing it i'm loving it so Pastor Matt, this is, so what I was going to just throw out there for you and anybody else who finds this helpful, and I'll write this in the show notes as well, because I know sometimes it's hard, and I'm going to try to leave off the numbers.

So the only thing that's really happened in present day for us on earth is alien versus predator and aliens versus predator requiem. Okay. Then Prometheus, then alien covenant. Then Alien Earth, which, as we've said, occurs two years before the events of Alien, the OG. And then Alien Romulus. Then Aliens. Then Alien... three

than Alien Resurrection. And in the show notes, just so I'm not throwing a bunch of numbers to the audio listeners, I'll write the numbers of how many years after and in between because it's a little more helpful to look at it that way. So, anything else on timeline stuff before we keep on trucking?

Kyle, did you get to say all the things that you intended and wanted to say? Because, yeah, that email that you wrote to us, it was super nerdy, but it was super fun and impressive. So I liked your explanation. Just the last thing, because I'm obsessed with spaceships. I don't know why. I love spaceships in film. Yeah. The one thing that I realized doing the research and episode, the fourth episode of the show confirmed this this week. The Magagnol and the Nostromo were both.

constructed by yutani Whereas the Prometheus was constructed by Waylon because those the manual and the Prometheus both predate the union of the corporations Which don't come together till 2099. That's when we get Waylon Utah So everything before that, they were separate. And it kind of makes sense that they would merge in 2099 because we find out that Waylon leaves Earth in 2089.

So he's not around. So it makes sense that maybe Yutani bought out Weyland or Weyland bought out Yutani, but it makes sense. And that's one of the reasons why the spaceship designs look different. But it also explains why Yutani is a big president. presence in this TV series. She's the one who's kind of calling the shots instead of Waylon because we know eventually we get another Waylon in control because isn't Bishop a Waylon?

I don't know off the top of my head. The human bishop? The human bishop, yeah. So I just wanted to throw out there, I do think as much as prequels can get sloppy with the lore, Alien Earth is very good with the lore, either intentionally or just accidentally. But they seem to know what they're talking about, and it seems to fit into the larger timeline, as far as I'm concerned. Well, just by... Everything you just described to us, you can tell that...

And I'm assuming you've either pulled this from the text or writers or trivia, Kyle, because I know you're a man of research. And so just that fact alone shows me that these writers have taken this seriously. The fact that there are backstories about.

who built which ship and so forth. Part of it is from... is is me watching the the films again and drawing conclusions through textual evidence i did then look at like fan wikis and stuff and they confirm what i had drawn from the text already so i feel pretty confident in my in my craziness okay well one last nerdy question

And then, and then I promise we'll get into episode four observation. I just got to ask, cause this is fascinating to me. And when Kyle and I do last of us stuff, we kind of wrestle with such things. So Kyle. how can we as fair and responsible viewers know how much to focus on the core narrative of the new property like alien earth in this case

Versus getting too distracted by peripheral details like all this fun stuff we're talking about. So what is that balance, do you feel, for a fair and responsible viewer? It's subjective. I think different people have different attitudes and it also depends on the property and someone's personal connection to that property. But the short answer is people need to just kind of chill out a little bit.

because even if a film or a tv show or a book in a series even if it exists within a larger universe i think primarily we need to approach texts alone as as what they are standalone text and i think to a certain extent especially on a first viewing just stop it Right. Just watch it and watch it within the parameters of the text itself.

I think that's important. Now, later, as we start to become bigger fans and we read the paratextual stuff online around the film or the TV show, we watch it a little bit more. Well, yeah, then I think it's a lot of fun. to kind of break it down and to look for connections and easter eggs and oh this is this and oh i bet that's this person's blah blah blah

But if we get too bogged down in that or if we get too caught up in places where the continuity editors doing their best make mistakes, I think then we're just sucking all the joy out of it. And so I would rather... focus on what the continuity does well and not worry so much about what the continuity doesn't do well because there's I loved Andor and I love Rogue One and people were like well wait a minute

This doesn't connect. Well, the short answer is, well, yeah, because they made Rogue One first. There's no time travel. Just accept it. Don't be that guy. And so I think to a certain extent, we just need to... relax we just need to let it go so a response a fair and responsible viewer what you said right a fair and responsible viewer should take the text for for what it is on its own yes

Don't get distracted. Now, later, sure, get into the bigger universe and have fun with it. But try to focus on the positive, not the negative. Yeah, brilliant. I love that. Yeah, go ahead, Mac. I wanted to mention something, Jason, because I've thought about this before and it finally dawned on me because everyone loves Star Wars, right? But sometimes I meet people and I think, man, Star Wars is so nerdy.

And then other times I'm talking to someone and I'm like, yeah stars is so cool and mainstream and i think the difference is you know stars is cool when you're talking about what color lightsaber you would have and how you think han solo you know

should have done shot first or whatever it gets really nerdy wait he did shoot first mac sorry he did that's what i'm saying no no that's what i'm saying and right now we're cool but you know what turns us into nerds is when we start saying now wait a minute what what planet is Chewbacca's mom from? Because his mom interacted with so-and-so in the book, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? So it becomes like, so I think, anyway, I think...

What I want to say is to back up what Kyle's saying is that there's this reality where we can take each episode for what we're seeing and it just exists sort of on its own. But then we can kind of later on, if we really want to nerd out. Then we can say, now, wait a minute. If he's a Waylon robot, what does that mean? Where did he come from? And did he ever, you know, because in theory, we could get a Michael Fassbender robot in this movie, right?

kyle like if we if he showed up and he's model whatever you know we could see that you know or it's like in romulus where it's like we get in uh it now he's rook he's not ash but he looks i mean it makes sense that they would make more than one of these robots you know and so anyway that's sort of what i'm thinking of it's like it's both cool and nerdy it just depends on how into it we want to get

Two last things and I'll shut up about this. Number one, if I never ever get a girlfriend again, it's all you guys' fault. You're welcome. That's the first thing. I know we're taking forever, but I wanted to add one thing to what Max said. We have not seen a cyborg in any of the alien properties before. Morrow leaves Earth in 2055. So we could assume that people realized the cyborg was a bad idea.

And particularly from this week's episode, Morrow is proving that cyborgs are a bad idea. Yes. So I just want to throw that one out there. Right. Now, we also are not aware... post this TV show, post-2120, we are not aware of any synthetic hybrids that have human consciousness, which leads me to believe that this is not going to super go well, especially with...

what nibs is going through right now yes so there's some indication that both cyborgs and hybrids have big problems that's right that's right I love it. The last thing I want to say there, Kyle, was that I'm reminded of a conversation once on the Slash Filmcast when they were fighting over Romero zombies and stuff. And somebody had a critique that...

But zombies couldn't be fast because their dead and rotting ankles wouldn't hold them up to run. And then somebody else on there said, yes, but... dead things wouldn't even be moving at all and they don't even exist so that's the funny thing in these kind of conversations it's like yeah but what about this and it's like all of it's made up so I love leaving a movie and hearing people say, those vampires weren't even realistic. Well, right. Thank goodness, by the way.

Okay, Greg Amortis, we're going to have you take us into Alien Earth Episode 4 Observation, brother. Full-blown spoilers. So, Greg, what did you think of this week's episode? I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought we were getting packed with a lot of things at one time. I mean, we're getting different, not timelines, but different stories going on. So we got multiple things going with Kirsch and Toodles. Isaac. You know, you got this whole Nibs thing going on. You got Wendy.

You know, not having sound and then learning that she can talk to or possibly talk to aliens. Like there's a lot to unpack in this episode, man, that I thoroughly enjoyed. I was all for it. I think the biggest part I got out of this was the whole weird nibs thing. on that that really has me going somewhere like what are we doing with nibs and the

I don't know. What do they call it? Level three or level five? It's not good. It is not good. I'm assuming that's probably a full meltdown or a full shutdown. I'm assuming. I don't know. We don't know. It doesn't. explain that by the end of the show we will definitely get into that but that whole meltdown of her and pregnancy thing was just so weird uh i had a lot man morrow man i love the whole situation with him using slightly and trying to get him you know to do he wants that that egg and

I don't know, man. I enjoyed it. I don't know about you guys. Take it over from there, man. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Okay. Thank you, Matt. Did you feel this was a... What do you call them, Mac? A transition episode? Did you feel this did that? A bridge episode. I was going to tell you, I do think...

In some ways, this felt like a bridge episode, but that's okay. Because you know what I'm realizing, Jason? What? The better way to put that is it's not the beginning of a movie, right? Because I think Kyle's on to something. He mentioned... that these aren't really, you know, episodic in that it's like, here's an episode that totally stands on its own. You know, I think about the shows like SpongeBob. I know that's like a super silly example, but it's like...

Bikini Bottom can erupt into an explosion at the end of one episode. And in the next episode, we start right back with him, you know. getting his keys and going to work you know so it's just like it doesn't matter they don't connect they're just you watch this one and you watch that one but this really is going to be built like an eight hour long movie so

I'm accepting these bridge episodes now. And instead of calling them bridge episodes, it is more of like, we're in that part of the movie where... The beginning was exciting, you know, and we're holding on to that climatic ending. But right now we're in the part of the movie where we're learning interesting things, you know, and this episode does start great with the.

there's a moment like just like you guys were saying wendy can't hear well they shut off her hearing because it was distracting her too much you know and then they slowly turn it back on and i love this this thing where I kind of actually liked this for once where the boy Cavalier was like, look, you're not a human being. So you don't have vocal cords in the same way that you and I have vocal cords, right?

And what you need to do is take that alien language that you're hearing and just project it through your, you know. through your robot body and that was a great moment because we get these alien language coming out of her and it was intense you know because and of course this is going to cause more contention with

Who is that one that's trying to become his favorite? Curly. Curly, yeah. It's like, yeah, Curly, you learned French in two hours, but can you do that? You know, like, I worked so hard. And now I'm back in second place, you know, but, but that was really cool. But so like, this is kind of, it's almost like.

the part in you know if we were to kind of shrink this down right and and think back to the original alien movie this is where we're going into the abandoned spaceship this is where we're finding the face hugger or, or even in the, you know, the medical lab where we're, we're trying to help, you know, trying to get this face hugger off, but we're learning things like.

The blood is acid and it's melting through the spaceship. So I'm liking these episodes. And there's a lot of other really cool things going on in this episode as well. Well, two things I want to respond to with what you said. Number one, two years. credit, I wanted to back you up on something. I actually started identifying something that is frustrating me a little bit and it occurred to me, I'm like, maybe that's why Mac is referring to these as bridge episodes.

What this series has done thus far is it'll give you these little tasty bits, these very exciting things, just a tiny little bit, especially with Timothy Oliphant scenes. And it'll give you a little bit and then it like pulls it away. And just little morsels. And it keeps doing that over and over. And the build, I mean, it's building multiple.

storylines you know you got these various subplots happening and it's just moving everything forward kind of slowly but I'm like maybe that's why Mac is feeling this way so so I got to give you some credit there Mac because that's starting to get annoying I want a little bit bigger sequences where a little more happens. I mean, give me a Timothy Olyphant scene where it's like, you know, at least like a full-blown event happens.

Anyways, but the greatest, go ahead. Go ahead, Greg. I was going to say, I didn't mean to interrupt, but you won't like impact, but I don't think we need like full blown action sequences every episode. I think you got to build. And I think what they did in this episode was gave us nuggets that they're going to introduce into episode five, six, seven, eight, that is going to be much bigger. You know what I'm saying?

I kind of, you know, the Timothy Oliphant with the whole listening in situation with Mauro and slightly, right? He knows what's going on, but he wasn't doing nothing. So we got that going. So what is this? Is Timothy Oliphant's character, Kirsch, is he working against? Does he want an egg? So there's a lot of stuff going on here that we just haven't quite got, but it's going to happen before.

episode eight i guarantee it agreed and yeah i uh so kirsch man yeah He's the best. He's awful. So a couple of things that I noticed this episode. The first is when Boy Cavalier dismisses him. Kirsch has a look on his face that is not that of a loyal obedient. And remember, we do not have experience with prodigy synthetics. So we don't know what this guy is capable of. He is making his own decisions.

He is often making decisions Boy Cavalier doesn't like. And he's got this weird alien egg fetish. So I think Kirsch is going to... And plus it's... Plus it's freaking Timothy Oliver. This isn't some guy out of acting school. So I think he's going to be pivotal. Yes. And I think he's going to mess stuff up pretty bad. Yes. And I'm very excited about it. Now, Moro is super loyal to Yutani.

and but he also as a cyborg he is human brain human emotions etc etc but we find out in this episode that moro is is a cold bastard yes and so he is really really chilling as that and then because this is not an alien heavy episode this is a synthetic heavy episode we do get All the hybrids go in eight different directions, all of which are concerning. Because Curly's whole...

Love me the most, daddy. And then all she wants is his approval. And then he's just rude to her. And then slightly he's like, I don't like this.

you we are not friends oh don't kill my mom so he's got this thing going on and then even the one who seems pretty stable he's like i named myself i want to be an individual but i also want to be kirsch's like like servant boy like intern and then Nibs is just freaking insane now and so i think nibs is gonna lose it yeah very soon because because fellas we are halfway through this narrative arc and we have set up that

All the various degrees of synthetics are super dangerous and not really stable. Oh, yeah. And then, you know, we've been growing a xenomorph in. Yes. Guys, do you know what has excited me and intrigued me the most in this? Because one of the questions that this sort of silently posed or suggested is.

Are we going to get a Rosetta Stone to understand what the xenomorphs are actually saying in their communication? Because we've never really understood what the xenomorphs have said, except the closest we've ever gotten was an alien. when the queen calls off her little minions by looking at them. But we don't really know what the aliens say. But I think that could be cool to learn what they are communicating.

i think they communicate kind of psychically which is why for some reason or another wendy is tapping into it even though no one else is and if if that's the case i think i'll be okay with it but like i said last week if it's some kind of cosmic connection i'm going to be really disappointed

I'm curious now because they mentioned in the episode where she's able to, as Mac said, I mean, basically projected as a speaker. So she's repeating what it's saying. But now they said they know that she knows. how to do the language so will they adapt to her being able to mimic and understand like you know what i'm saying so are the aliens going to have to do something a little different now you know so nobody knows their language i don't know man this is this is fun

I'm all about it, Jay. I'm with you, buddy. Me too. Me too. Is the... What does that mean? Does that mean like I'm hungry? Yeah, if we get a moment where Boyd Cavalier is talking to the Xenomorph with Wendy translating, I may... not love that but we'll see how they handle it because again like i said last week i trust mr holly that's gonna be trust he knows what he's doing dr bishop i agree with you that's gonna be execution dependent for sure like there was a little

part of me that was a little nervous it's like i hope the alien language i hope that once it's translated it's not super cheesy you know this is true Definitely listen to, I try not to fully listen, but I am listening to the official alien earth podcast. Because they do interview Holly and they do interview Wendy and they do interview cast members. So they do give you insights on each episode.

I try not to fully listen to them until I've listened to us talk about it, but still it's kind of cool to hear their takes. Neat. Very cool. Mac, what else did you want to bring to the table from episode four here?

He may have stepped away. I'm listening the whole time. I'm just baking potatoes. But Jason, I actually want to know something. This episode, we got... a whole lot of eyeball squid and i don't know if your feelings have changed at all because you know every time they show that sheep i always think they really are kind of in love with blade runner as well

And so, you know, do Android stream of electric sheep, but oh my gosh, I've got an alien falling on me. Okay. But what I want to know is, you know, they're doing a test, right?

yeah what does this thing do yeah you know and we get to see the actual moment because we did get to see the cat before but this time we're actually seeing you know we're actually seeing what happens to the animal as it attacks so yeah tell us what you think about that just just before you do jake because because i wanted to add something about

about the squid eyeball and then i want to hear how your attitude may have changed first off somebody on social media said that thing is totally stealing the show and i i kind of agree with that but one thing that just i loved is that this this squid eye takes over the sheep's brain yes like kicking out its other eye and you know the guy says oh the brainwaves have changed but i love the idea that it stands up on its hind legs

and then seems to realize oh wait i'm not supposed to do that i have to get back down on all fours because i'm trying to pass as a sheep but it also makes me think is this thing really gunning for a bipedal creature um is it like ah dang it i'm still in the wrong body try to cat try to sheep i think by the end of this show that eyeballs in a human And I bet you I predict it's going to be Boy Cavalier. It could be Boy Cavalier.

What if, this was something one of the guys at work talked about, what if that is able to get into one of the synths eyeball, right, and is able to tap into that brain computer cell? and overtake the computer. side of the body you know what i'm saying so it basically the tentacles go in it wraps around your brain and it takes over right that's what this thing does so what if it gets into the computer side of a synth

and is in there with the hybrid and takes it over. Ooh. Ooh. Now we got Curly walking around with this eyeball thing that's taking over, and bam. Well, okay, so I appreciate how nefarious this thing is. I mean, honestly, it's pretty scary. The concept of it is kind of ferocious. It's like... Because if you think about anything taking over something on your body, like your eyeball is probably one of like the least things you would want it to like displace.

But anyways, I'll come back to compliments because I do have positive things to say. But I want to sincerely know from each of you, have you guys watched Rick and Morty, that cartoon? Have you guys seen that before? I have seen that an episode or two, but never. okay okay no it's not for me yeah well yeah so it's very creative and imaginative and that's just the thing like

If this squid eyeball thing were just a little simpler, like all the various irises around it and stuff, it's just slightly over the top for me. But it is working its way into my cold, dark... heart because, um, that was pretty brutal when it took over the sheep and then it was just staring. Um, what is that? What is that fear of when things stare at you? My son spawned to the dead has that really bad.

Oh, good to know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he does not like that. But but yeah, so when that sheep is just staring, that's pretty freaky, even though it's a sheep, which is awesome, because that's like one of the gentlest creatures, you know. So that's pretty cool. So I'm softening a little, I guess. It is scopophobia. Yes. Scopophobia. That's right. Yes. Yeah. He hates that.

So good question, Mac. And Kyle, that was a great insight. I think you're exactly right. I think that is probably aiming for something higher up the food chain and intelligence chain. Because as they said... they indicated to us that this thing is very intelligent. So it probably is trying to take over something bipedal. That's like in a leadership type position, a human of sorts. Right. Well, and I got, I got the, Go ahead, Mac. What happens when scopophobia turns into approach aversion? Oh.

But Jason, I actually was going to say, you know, it's hilarious that you mentioned earlier, Kyle, about this idea of like those vampires weren't realistic. I must admit, I have thought. You know, if this thing is made up of an eye and tentacles, where is its brain? You know, it's just I'm just like this thing can't be that smart, you know, but I guess if it's.

connecting to your brain you know i don't know well interestingly let me just throw this at you guys and The octopus, which I believe is a genuine alien from outer space, but the octopus is actually supposed to be exceptionally intelligent and it is shaped fairly similarly to this thing. Sure. So, I mean, I could see it in an octopus. And they have a beak, which really freaked me out once I learned that the octopus has like a beak.

Same, same. I hate that. Yeah, I think you're right, Jason. That thing landed here in a spaceship and crawled out and we just never knew about it or something. Yeah, they are so, I mean, the way they can, I know this isn't the Discovery Channel, everybody, but the way.

way that they can not just change their shape to match their environment exactly, but their shape and their color with exact... i mean it's it's just remarkable anyways plus they can actually communicate with humans like they literally wait for you

to actually come talk to them and that, and they will get out of a tank and come towards you. They will do that. Watch Discovery Channel. That's awesome. Yeah. Some people online, and maybe we talked about it a little bit too. I got the impression that this deep space vessel, because of its size, well, we know for a fact it had a much larger crew.

We don't know exactly how large, but it's a big ship. I think they were deep space. It's been 65 years. They've just been going kind of randomly from planet to planet. And when they find something nefarious, they grab it. Because obviously they're not collecting butterflies and puppy dogs. They're just grabbing crazy stuff. So I don't think necessarily that these five different specimens come from the same planet.

light of the navigator yeah but that yes but that said they could all be the result of the engineers black goo and their genetic manipulation but one of the great questions is because technically in the lore if you dig deep like I have there's like naturally occurring xenomorphs and there's engineer engineered xenomorphs and eventually we could get david created xenomorphs so it raises the question of which xenomorphs are these

Where'd they pick them up? And a lot of people died, so obviously they knew they weren't just eggs. And then that opens the big question that all the films have in common. How long have these corporations known about these things? Why do they know about these things? And then why do they want these things? Which is probably the easiest question, because I think they want them for bioweapons.

Which leads me to one other point. One thing we haven't clarified is the brother says, well, yeah, when you died, I was in the war. What war? Right. So I'm really excited to learn a little bit more about that because apparently in 21, 19, 21, 20, whatever, there was a huge war, which could be one of the reasons why these five corporations have some kind of each have some kind of.

bioweapon division what isn't clarified because he says right the uh the countries didn't work so now we have corporations was that a result of this recent war or was the war between corporations we don't know And I love that Holly is giving us all these little, just little tastes of things without any information because we have four more episodes. I'm just saying that those details are quick.

and you can miss him but holly doesn't put anything in his shows on accident no no i'm excited to see what happens i kept joking about how this is like flight of the navigator where they've been clearly going to all these different planets and picking up alien specimen but you know what just dawned on me kyle is they are not landing on you know planet earth and gathering up a couple of hamsters they are finding the most fiercely deadly

creatures they can so you know we we've talked a little bit of all of us about that the one that hangs from the ceiling that almost looks like it's gonna open up to be a flower We all know that thing is not going to be a flower. You know, it's going to be a force to be reckoned with. It just dawned on me. Anyway, go ahead. I'm with you. I agree. I was just going to say that in terms of.

the questions that he's seeding along. He's actually giving us more in this episode. I feel like this episode was trying to push on us that question because I... I think, and you guys can tell me if I'm mischaracterizing you, it sounded to me in our previous discussions like you guys were leaning toward... The intelligence in these kids just being like an AI reproduction. But in this episode, they have that discussion where he says, best case.

we took the intelligences of children and put them in synthetic bodies and if but if we did this wrong um the best case anyway i'm screwing this up but he said we got a bunch of ai running around thinking that they're human. The worst case is we killed six kids. But I do think that there is the suggestion that maybe, maybe they actually transferred these kids' minds into these bodies? And I think that that is a genuine question for the show that even they aren't certain of.

Agree. And even leans to the fact that when slightly came up and there's the group. They're together playing, and the brother's there, right? And Slightly's already had the communication with Morrow, and he comes in pissed like, why is he here? you know and then they start becoming like why can't i have my family here you know and that's that whole so

To go to your question there, then I think the human side of their being, they're not humans. I mean, clearly boy wonder here has already said that, right? Like you're not human. You're never going to be human, right? So where are their conscience coming in to where they're feeling so much human-like? And I can't wait to see where that goes, but I thought that was such a powerful moment.

When he come up and then the next one's like, yeah, why can't I have my brother here? Yeah. Something like that. So there's those things. And Pearl's got a question I want to throw at you guys. She wants to know, she says, when, when. Wendy does show empathy toward the xenomorphs. We clearly know that, right? Raising questions about her role as human-synthetic hybrid. So this is another thing kind of with the human side of things. Is it because the xenomorphs

Always require one host. These creatures are highly smart. They mimic humans. But the creatures knowing Wendy is best of both worlds, is that why the communication begins? They feel her as much as she feels them. Does that make sense to you guys? What is your answer to that? I think that's a really great idea because we know the xenomorph on the ship really wanted to kill Morrow. Yes.

So the cyborg didn't work. But something about Wendy and her human empathy tied in with her cybernetic structure is clearly connecting with...

the xenomorphs so i think that's a good insight and i think we're going to find out a lot next week yeah yeah but historically have we ever really seen in the alien series have we seen these beastly freaks Other than Resurrection, when you got the newborn feeling, you know, maternal feelings toward Ripley, right? I mean, that's the only...

That's the only time I've, oh, well, and I guess, well, within species, within the same species, the, the mother alien, the queen, and, and it's, it's babies. I got a dumb, I've got a dumb insight. Okay.

so let's hear it we've never okay so this episode it's a are you my mother situation we've never seen a newborn xenomorph have the opportunity to connect with the synthetic right so we don't know i mean obviously they're not going to connect with a human the way the predators do uh the xenomorphs certainly aren't but we've never really had this kind of a situation the closest analogy to that is an alien covenant when one of the i can't remember what they call them it's it's not the full

to morph but it's the the weird blind ones yeah when it approaches david it like stands at attention even though it hadn't had any contact with him from its birth to that moment good so i do think we do have uh we have not pretense i can't think precedent precedent thank you we have precedence that there can be alien uh synthetic connection oh so so with alien synthetic connection and understanding their language maybe we'll be able to have a nice heartwarming

Little alien on the prairie episode. I'm feeling what Kyle's feeling. Like if we have to sit through a moment where, you know, Wendy and Boy Cavalier and an alien meet in a hallway and they have a which way to the restroom conversation because she can translate. I got it. I know where we're headed. What? Boy Cavalier is going to strap the Xenomorph down and transfer its consciousness into a human synth body. Stop that right now. I like it. I do. I like it. Or. Place versa.

sorry right what if what if you put it into an alien body what if boy cavalier wants his human consciousness transferred into an alien body so he can have more sense xenomorph power I just want to agree with Kyle on something, and I'm glad he pointed this out, but it's like, if we're not getting these sort of synthetics in the future...

That can really only mean one thing, which, you know, we have the technology for it. And there's definitely people who are dying who would be interested in, you know, being granted immortality life. That means.

things are going to go wrong and things are going to go very wrong you know because even with cars it's like okay we figured out that they kind of crash and and so we started to put airbags in you know but it's like we're not seeing this at all in the future so that's that's cool but the other thing i had to mention is we're talking about aliens connecting with other beings of any kind i also

Something popped in my head. And for some reason, I was thinking about it earlier today, too. But there's that moment in Alien Resurrection where you have three aliens, xenomorphs, in a cage. What does the Animorphs decide to do? They decide to, you know, they start to look at each other and they realize, let's kill the smallest of the three of us.

Let us two connect, I guess. But we're going to kill this so that we can escape, so that we can kill more things. So I think the Xenomorph connection... is not a stable connection. I don't think it's going to be one of those things where it's like, you know, dogs become extremely loyal to their masters. You know, I don't think, I hope not. At least if we see a xenomorph becoming extremely obedient to.

Anything else, I'm going to be kind of mad because I want to see that hostility where it's like, yeah, maybe I will connect with you if it benefits me for a moment, but I will turn on you. in a heartbeat if it means i can kill more things you know that's that's what i'm kind of hoping that goes to so yeah but nice good good stuff mac i like that

All right, let's start to wrap up with final thoughts and ratings because we got to get Greg to bed because he's got some traveling to do and, you know, so. I don't want you to be sleepy during travels, right? Okay, so let's start with Dr. Bishop. What are your final thoughts and ratings on episode four, Observation? So I like this episode because it's so tantalizing.

Not a whole lot actually happens, so I do agree with Mac on that one. But it sets up so much stuff. And if I was being super cynical, I would say this episode was important to give the xenomorph time to gestate.

so that's why we've been waiting uh for the action but what it does is it's it's tantalizing us with what's going on here and what's with this person and what's going and how are we going to do that and so um i like that it's setting up so much that's gonna probably pay out and hopefully pay out in a big way So I'm giving it an 8 out of 10 because I think it's keeping the tension high. It's keeping me interested. And just to let people know, I did go back and rewatch all of them.

to make sure I was treating everything fair and understanding everything. And I learned that I had slept through some pretty important sequences the first time I watched things. So I'm on board and I'm excited for next week. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I'll just go next, Kyle, because I'm right there with you. I'm at an 8.5 out of 10 on this. I freaking love this series so far. I'm very excited. I don't have very many complaints at all. You know what they are.

Don't love the eyeball octopus. And I'm starting to get annoyed with the little nibbles of goodness. And then they pull it away. I mean, I like I need just a little. I mean, I do have faith in this so far. I mean, it's building nicely. And I can't wait. And wouldn't it be tremendous if over the next four episodes, we just have like...

you know, all out hardcore craziness for four episodes. That would be amazing. Anyways, I'm loving this. I highly recommend it. And I hope that if people are listening to this. and you've given up or something, I hope you'll go back and hang in there because I have a good feeling. I think it's going to pay off well. 8.5, and I'm going to buy it on this. I'm going to buy this series thus far. Greg Amortis, what say you?

Oh, I'm 100% by this if we're going to have it out there. This is a nine for me all day long. This one unpacked a lot of stuff for us to get ready for in the next four episodes. They gave us so many nuggets that there's no way Holly is not going to deliver. in these next four episodes, Kyle. He's given us nibbles or nibs. He's given us slightly and more. Man, he's given us this octopus eye that goes in a brain. There is so much introduced.

Kind of almost like... teased and and even xenomorphized or whatever you want to call it like he's given us a lot in this episode right here dude this was the one that's gotten me so excited because i want to know what's going to happen happened to nibs why she thinks she's pregnant why does she freak out but we saw her superpower where she jumped up like a freaking ninja oh and jumped up on the woman and scared to piss out over like dude

These things have super intelligent strength, and it's like they don't even know what they got yet. She just found out. There's so much in this episode, Jay. This one is one of my favorites so far of all of them.

It's a nine for me all day long. Yeah, brother. And for the Canadian listeners out there, they've been giving us Smarties and nibs. Anyways, sorry. Macula, bring us home. As this goes on, I do – but here's the thing. I don't know if we'll ever see the Blu-rays of this. I don't know if they'll ever be released because I just –

I don't know. Don't you get the feeling that Disney will be like, no, no, no, sign up for, you know, the way to see this is to sign up for Disney plus, you know, but I don't know. But then again, you know, pray was able, you know, even though they were a Hulu released, we,

but they kind of society had to kind of beg them to release that 4k until we finally got it but but i am loving this jason this is turning into a buy i i'm kind of i still i know this is annoying and you don't know what to put on my little name you know but these are episodes all connect for me and I'm just enjoying them all. So let me just say that. And then, you know, I wanted to say something

I'm so glad I went and did my homework and I re listened to the episodes that we, or the podcast episodes where we discussed one, two, and three. And Kyle said something that I realized that we didn't actually get to see, which is. You know, they have that lung and that sperm like zygote goes into it. Right. And what Kyle suggested is we can now see.

You know, because we're not looking, you know, we don't have the skin anymore. We could just see what it's doing to that lung. And we don't really get to see. It's still kind of happening inside the lung. Well, wouldn't that have been cool? I know. Wouldn't that have been cool to see how disgusting and black and pussing that lung would have been? And then we all could have thought, well, what I'm saying is, wouldn't that have been cool to think, wow, that's what.

That's what was happening inside of Kane, you know, but, but that's not what we saw. It just was all kind of conveniently inside the lung. But I will say. i am so glad that we sort of discovered this idea of of like how could something that big you know be living and gestating in you that's brilliant that it's like if it destroyed and ate one of your lungs and your your heart is still beating your you know one of your lungs is still working your your

food you know your digestion is still working and then it bursts out of your chest and that's when you know things get scary and weird but i did love seeing that newborn we got a really good look so kyle you didn't finish this episode right No, I did. Okay, you did. So it was great to get a long look at that.

newborn but i but i was scratching my head as to yeah why are we connecting with the newborn though that's a weird reaction because if i saw a newborn man i would be scared out of my mind i would not be trying to pet it you know yeah that's i guess that's true that we know that we know that's right

That's right. Yeah, because part of the interesting thing about Marcy slash Wendy is we know how she sort of had a curiosity. compassion for the scorpion which was a dangerous creature so oh right so maybe she still has that but and and mac an answer to your question i answer your question about you know availability and getting this on physical media I answer your question by quoting Dr. Ian Malcolm. Life finds a way. I have a less quippy comment. Okay. Disney is a whore.

They will get as much money out of everything as they can. All the Star Wars properties are on... physical media, all the Marvel stuff is on physical media. They're going to try to get you to subscribe and buy everything three times. That's how, that's the Disney business model. Kyle. Are we going to get Alien Earth toys then? Because that would actually be kind of cool. I hope so.

I'm waiting for Lego to pick up the alien contract. Can you imagine a Lego Nostromo, an 80-inch Lego, Lego Xenomorph? They would just take all my money. Have you seen you can do the Lego bunny? And you can make a face hugger. My buddy did that. There are alternative instructions. Yes. Oh, my gosh. So cool. Oh, man. All right. Well.

That's it for this episode. No, it's not, because I have a bonus content. Oh, okay. Unscripted bonus content. So I said I went back and I revisited Prometheus and Covenant. And one of the things that bothered me about... covenant when i saw in the theater and what a lot of people have said about it is that the uh the facehuggers implant too fast and the aliens gestate too quickly but

as i was watching it again and doing some read around online these are not true xenomorphs these are the ones that david has been bioengineering for like a decade And when the Xenomorph baby comes out, and I'm thinking about it because we just saw a great close-up of the Xenomorph baby.

David's Xenomorphs come out with arms and legs. They're not snakes. They're little versions of the Xenomorphs. So I think what David's been doing is making sure that they implant faster, they grow faster, they come out more developed. Kyle, I love you. Oh my gosh. I just want to hear you talk about all the, all the, cause it really does break my heart. And I thought that too, when I first saw alien covenant, I thought, wait, wait a minute. We had an entire movie.

where we watch this thing gestate. And now we're just like, it's man, it was minutes, but that's such a great point is, is he is working on these things. So that's so interesting. Yeah. So there are no more alien plot holes for me. I've solved it all. I love it. And I love anybody who defends alien covenant, that movie. It's one of my faves.

so yes i like it much more now than i did it's it's a very entertaining film all right well thank you for staying up late greg mortis it's after midnight for him and um regular time for me buddy As we close out the show, in addition to promoting HMP 3.0 at the beginning, I'd like for everybody to please check out and support our friend Ron Martin's new show, Retro Sleepover, which is really fun.

podcast it's not always about movies it's about like cool 70s 80s anything retro and it's not and what I appreciate is Ron is not just getting the low hanging fruit it's like yeah everybody knows about Pac-Man and Rubik's Cubes and everybody talks about those things. He gets like a little bit more obscure.

type stuff so so if you live through that era it's really fun to have him jog your memory and I think Mac is a guest on an episode that's coming up and then um I'm a guest on his Halloween episode it's coming up so um Yeah, it's called Retro Sleepover. I'll link that in the show notes here.

In case you didn't know, we do have some brand new posts on our official YouTube channel for Jay of the Dead's new horror movies. That's right. A lot of people don't realize that. We do have a YouTube channel. And maybe people don't realize that because I... I suck at posting on it. But this weekend, my son, Spawn of the Dead, helped me to get a bunch of our backlogged videos posted. So for instance, we now have a short on Dr. Walking Dead's zombie fireworks.

We also have Kyle Bishop's review of In a Violent Nature. And then Spawn and I posted our review of a brand new 2025 sci-fi horror flick called Ash. And finally, Mac and I posted a two-part video where we went through some random horror movies that our film professor Dr. Moody gave to us. So anyway, if you like YouTube stuff and you want to see some of our mugs on video, then I'll have those linked in the show notes.

If you want to check them out. So on behalf of my good friends here. Dr. Walking Dead. The Southern Gentleman. Greg Mortis. Mr. Watson. I just had to put that in there. In Count Macula. Oh, Jason, I'm glad you said that. Why isn't Watson here with us? Isn't he like the alien movies? Yeah, yeah, that's a good question. He is so mysterious.

You just never know. Man, he's, come on. I think he has plans every Friday night that involve monkey butt. Yeah, but just what are you doing from 1 a.m. to 2 a.m.? Watch this TV show, right? Well, I can tell you this much. I doubt that Watson would talk like alien Legos with us because he's a karaoke man. But the thing is, Kyle is a musician too. I don't know if people know that he is a thespian. He performs. He's an actor. He's a musician.

Kyle, you're pretty much a renaissance man. Oh, well, I tried. I can't dance for shit, so. Oh, okay. All right. And yes, let's not forget Count Macula, though, our buddies that are here. And I'm your host, Jay of the Dead, and we want to thank you. Thank you for listening to Jay of the Dead's new horror movies, the gold standard of horror movie podcasts.