REVIEW: ‘Alien: Earth’ Episode 5 – “In Space, No One…”

It’s time to spend time on the Maginot in Alien Earth Episode 5, “In Space, No One…” as everything went straight to the gutter, and it wasn’t a pretty chain of events. Instead of jumping back and forth between what’s happening with Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and the events that led to Morrow’s (Babou Ceesay) decision to crash-land the ship, the episode takes its time exploring these events. And there’s no shortage of him proving that he’s a well-rounded antagonist. 

Alien Earth Episode 5 follows Morrow’s crew before the Maginot crashed and the disaster that happened on the ship, including how the xenomorph was birthed and the chaos it caused. It’s noticeable that Alien Earth Episode 5 borrows from Alien in terms of its overall premise, as well as callbacks to iconic scenes (chest bursting, anyone?). If you were hoping for a quicker pace and more creature feature action, you’re surely going to find that throughout “In Space, No One” and be satisfied. 

The beginning of Alien Earth Episode 5 is very much typical of an Alien film in the introduction of the crew, and very quickly it descends into one chaotic situation after another. Morrow butts heads with executive officer, Zaveri (Richa Moorjani), as well as other crew members. Most of whom do their best, and one of whom is actively betraying them by working with Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin). What the episode reveals to the audience is that Boy Kavalier knew what was on the ship and wanted his hands on the specimens all along. 

Richa Moorjani gives a standout performance as Zaveri in Alien Earth Episode 5.

Throughout the episode, we somewhat get to know what the crew members of the Maginot were like. The crew members all play their roles relatively well, and the standouts are Zaveri and Morrow. Moorjani plays her perfectly as the confident executive officer who gets way in over her head. Meanwhile, Cessay continues to deliver a performance that draws you in. Whether you enjoy him as an antagonist figure or not, there’s no denying that the performance is excellent. 

As soon as everything goes awry and the xenomorph is on the loose in Alien Earth Episode 5, it’s clear that nobody stood a chance of surviving, except for Morrow. Some of which is due to Morrow orchestrating some of the deaths of his crew members for his own personal reasons. Essentially, to the surprise of no one, Morrow isn’t an innocent bystander in the events that led to the deaths of his entire crew. He sabotages his own ship, lets some of the specimens loose to see what would happen, and tries to pass the blame onto any crew members who seem remotely suspicious.

Morrow’s behavior throughout Alien Earth Episode 5 further proves that he’s more like David (Michael Fassbender) from Prometheus and Alien: Covenant in that he’ll gladly watch the madness unfold. Is it partially due to him being a Cyborg, or has Morrow always had this morbidly curious nature in him? That’s ultimately for the audience to decide. 

Alien Earth Episode 5 is incredibly Morrow-heavy, and we learn so much about his motivations.

Instead of hopping around in terms of points of view, “In Space, No One…” is incredibly Morrow-heavy. We learn more about what he left behind and what he lost as a result. Though we also see that his choices are very much rooted in a lack of consideration for the lives of others. And if that’s not the way of Weyland-Yutani, then what exactly is the way? The bottom line of the company is all that matters to its most loyal employees, something that Morrow confirms he’s been for decades of his life. 

It’s just like how other characters prove their loyalty or lack of loyalty, and their bosses are all about power and control. Considering this is serving as a prequel series to show what happened before Alien, we know that the workers mean very little to those they work for. Boy Kavalier, in particular, isn’t any better than Weyland-Yutani, and Alien Earth Episode 5 reminds us of this fact. 

During the first four episodes, we were led to believe that Boy Kavalier was as clueless as the rest of his employees. Meanwhile, he was busy arranging for one of the crew members named Petrovich (Enzo Cilenti) to crash the ship and make sure Boy Kavalier gets his hands on the specimens. The purpose is that he wants them and essentially doesn’t want Weyland-Yutani to get what they want, and when Morrow finds out by way of watching the logs, he goes into fight mode. 

Alien Earth Episode 5 maintains its tone from beginning to end.

“In Space, No One…” maintains its tone from the beginning to the very end of the episode. Instead of focusing on scientific experiments or synthetics, we’re right in the thick of eerie creature feature madness. When the specimens are let out or break loose (the octopus eyeball gets up to no good), we get to see what some of them did to the crew members. It’s worth watching, but if you’re eating while watching, then you might end up putting your fork down. 

The xenomorph action in Alien Earth Episode 5 is very much in line with what people love to see in the Alien universe. When the xenomorph starts running around and causing havoc, it’ll make you scream at your screen, urging everyone to get off that ship, despite knowing that nobody else survives, not even Zaveri, who had tried to believe that Morrow would actually save her from a violent end. And the way she dies in the background, while Morrow is humming and trying to ignore the violence happening outside the room, is perfectly unsettling. 

At the end of Alien Earth Episode 5, we see Morrow meeting with Yutani (Sandra Yi Sencindiver) and making it clear to her that violence is the only way they can win. We’ll see if he’s proven right during next week’s episode and what exactly Morrow plans to do when he arrives on Prodigy’s private island. 

Overall, Alien Earth Episode 5 has a distinct atmosphere due to the moodiness of the ship and the tension among the crew members. At this point, it’s undoubtedly among the episodes of Alien Earth that’ll make people scream at the characters. It’s always quite the experience to react to something that deeply, and Alien Earth Episode 5, “In Space, No One…” is undoubtedly the one to respond to. 

Alien Earth Episode 5 is streaming now on Hulu and Disney+ internationally, with new episodes releasing every Tuesday.