The earth hides its darkest horror in sight (and it is not the xenomorph)

“Alien” has always been, above all, a horror franchise. The science fiction aspect of the film can shine more for those of us more inclined to that particular (guilty), but suspense, scares and monsters feel larger than the extensive construction of the world of science fiction, which tends to occupy the history of movies more than the foreground. Perhaps the reason why “Prometheus” of Ridley Scott divided the fan’s base so significant is because it brought more science fiction stories such as synthetic consciousness, corporate policy and old aliens to the avant -garde.

The new FX series “Alien: Earth” also does that, with the flesh of its history focusing on androids, cyborgs and experimental “hybrids” of the Prodigy Corporation. The scares still play a key role, but it is not until episode 5, an episode of flashback that explains what happened aboard the Maginot, which we get a full -fledged horror story in the style of the movies.

Episode 5 is basically an independent “alien” short film, and is one of the best episodes of the program so far. The episode follows the Maginot Morrow Security Officer (Babou Ceesay) while working to discover the identity of a sabotage aboard the ship’s crew, everything while that sabotage begins to let the various alien specimens leave their cages. While we get many classic ghosts and murders from Gory, the true horror of the episode is in the additional exploration of the corporate society of the program. With Morrow as our eyes, we see with a new detail how brutal life is under the autocratic corporate rule of the program, which essentially makes employees slaves for the whims of their rich funds. Of course, it is possible that some of these details have been lost, since they are included in the letters of Morrow’s daughter, which requires some pauses to be processed completely.

In the midst of “Alien: Earth” Episode 5, Morrow takes a moment for himself in his rooms, where he reads what they seem to be letters of his daughter Estelle by fax for the space to the maginot. Because it is a 65 -year -old mission, he would have lost most of his life independently, but the letters reveal that she died in a fire only a few years after the trip, shedding some light on the state of perpetual anger of Morrow. While that is obviously a tragedy, the other hidden details in the letters are possibly the most horrible bits.

“Mom says that Weyland-Yutani will pay for all my school,” says Estelle in a letter, where he talks about looking at the universities. “That’s if I go to a school sanctioned by Wey-Yu.” In the same letter, he mentions when learning that his classmates only obtain partial scholarships, revealing Morrow’s importance within the company.

In the face, this may not sound too crazy, but think about it for a minute. This is essentially taking the health system of the broken United States, one in which the coverage constantly refuses and adequate care seems to always be “out of the network”, and apply it to another basic need: education. We have seen in the current timeline “Alien: Earth” that medical debts and labor contracts can enslave people to their respective corporations throughout their lives. How face would a university education for someone whose father had not committed 65 years of his life to outside space? What about families who do not have corporate contracts? It is safe to assume that housing, medical attention, perhaps even access to food and clean water depend on corporate loyalty. After all, when the body has everything, why not demand everything from its citizens in return?

Estelle’s lyrics paint a gloomy image of the earth under corporate domain, but the maginot crew shows an even worse side of things. They are not paid in money, but, but in the company’s shares. And how many actions could you ask? For someone under the chain of command, a quarter -year participation for 65 years of your life. It is a horrible compensation, almost ridiculous, but well, it’s money, right?

However, here is the thing: paying an employee in shares, instead of cash, effectively keeps them for perpetuity. What is the value of a part of Weyland-Yutani if ​​it moved to a city directed by a different corporation? It is the last extrapolation of the company’s city, where workers receive tokens to spend in the company’s store and placed in the company’s homes, but without real means to escape, as Rick and Morty express it, slavery with additional steps.

As the corporations spend billions of dollars trying to make synthetic and organic life suffer, squeezed for scandalous life costs and a society that has eliminated all margins for the ascending impulse. It is a cyberpunk dystopia that might seem a bit more fantastic if it were not so depressing comparable to our present moment.