Alien: Earth's season finale is a cliffhanger not a conclusion – and I feel a bit robbed of xenomorph action

And so it ends... Well, sort of. In truth, Alien: Earth's final episode marks more of a pause than a conclusion to a show that has seemingly done great business for FX, Hulu, and Disney Plus. A second season renewal seems assured – though in the kerazy world of streaming metrics, who can honestly say for certain?

Still, having loved most of this journey, I must admit to a certain amount of frustration with the way that showrunner Noah Hawley and Co. brought the tale of Wendy, the Lost Boys, and the deadly cargo of the doomed USCSS Maginot into land.

My spoiler-free Alien: Earth review covered the season's first six episodes. I was thrilled with the direction the show was taking: thoughtful, dreamily-paced, and violent when it needed to be. Having seen the full season through several times now, I still love those aspects of the show but, equally, its flaws feel more pronounced and are highlighted in a finale that doesn't drop the ball, but which never quite feels exciting or conclusive enough to tide us over while we inevitably wait two to three years for the next batch.

Capitalism was the alien all along

I won't retread the earlier episodes too much here, suffice to say that, on a technical level, the show is genuinely impressive. It looks fantastic throughout, the slow fades between scenes lending a nightmare quality to each episode, even when nothing explicitly awful is happening. I even grew to love the classic metal needle drops that closed out each episode.

The acting is top-flight, too. Timothy Olyphant's Kirsh and Babou Ceesay's Morrow seem to be in some kind of constant face-off to determine who the coolest new Alien-verse character is (the jury is still out, but I'm leaning towards Morrow, simply because I have a stronger idea of what he actually wants). Samuel Blenkin's Boy Kavalier, meanwhile, is an excellent villain. Both vile and pitiable, he's the ideal personification of the show's "capitalism was the real alien all along" themes. A friend suggested that Blenkin, with his old/young face and mercurial quality, would make an excellent Doctor Who, and I can't get that idea out of my head. I really hope Russell T. Davies has been watching this, as it's a star-making performance.

I also grew in appreciation for some of the characters that didn't quite win me over the first time around. The goofy humor of the Lost Boys works a lot better for me now, and I was particularly taken by Jonathan Ajayi's Smee. He's probably the least-developed regular character on the show, but Ajayi does a superb job at conveying the character's kid-in-an-adult-body mix of loyalty, bravery, and confused terror. Hopefully, we'll see much more of him in season 2.

"We rule"

It's a very good show, then, with a lot going for it. So why did the finale leave me feeling frustrated and a bit let down? Perhaps it comes down to expectations.

Episodes 7 and 8 are, effectively, a two-parter. The different factions converge on Neverland, just in time to be wiped out by the adult xenomorph. Arthur, having been face-hugged at the end of episode 6, gives birth to a second alien and then becomes the unexpected posthumous host to the T. Oscellus eye midge (a genuinely fun twist, and I'm glad we'll presumably see more of David Rysdahl in season 2). Meanwhile, Wendy and the Lost Boys finally have enough of Boy Kavalier's manipulations and decide to seize control, with Wendy able to effectively use the older alien as a weapon to kill all the nameless grunts and force Boy, Kirsh, Morrow, and Dame Sylvia into a cage.

It's this development that I suspect many fans will take issue with. I'm all for the show going in a radically new direction, but like many Alien fans (and indeed Noah Hawley, if interviews are to be believed) I question the notion of tame xenomorphs. The good old XX121 lost its mystery many years ago, but Alien: Earth's earlier episodes did such a fine job of making them feel properly dangerous that reducing them to Wendy's attack dogs feels wrong. (It doesn't help that the last two episodes have such a vague sense of geography, with the xeno popping up wherever it was needed on the island at the drop of a hat – or, rather, a click and a whistle – from Wendy).

This, on top of her ability to simply switch off Atom Eins's motor functions at will, made Wendy feel invulnerable throughout the episode. If Hermit's final facial expression is anything to go by too, then we're meant to feel a bit scared of her, but it doesn't quite come across. On an emotional level, it just feels like the "goodies" get an easy win and the "baddies" are all locked up.

There was also far too much telling and not enough showing here. Perhaps expecting full-on xenomorph mayhem in the finale was a fool's errand – the season has spent the preceding seven episodes making clear that it's not quite that kind of show – but a few more scenes of the alien cutting through Boy Kavalier's private army would have been deeply satisfying and much appreciated. Hawley has described the beast as, "Maybe the best monster ever invented, cinematically," so it's odd that the show sometimes felt a little wary of letting them just do their thing.

Unanswered questions

Fundamentally, I think it was a mistake not to be clearer up front that Alien: Earth is an ongoing story. Sure, Noah Hawley has repeatedly spoken in interviews of wanting the show to run for several years, but it's never been entirely clear if that was as a series of standalone seasons (like his other show, Fargo) or as the serialized story that it clearly is.

That it's the latter is great. I love a lot of these characters and want to spend much more time with them. Still, a season finale comes with some not-unreasonable expectations. The Alien movies are all bloodbaths, so it's sort of wild that after Arthur's death early in episode 7, all the other main characters make it out alive. (Sorry, but Diêm Camille's Siberian getting planted by the D. Plumbicare does not count – we barely knew her.) Likewise, there's little sense of the alien threat escalating dramatically. Instead, we're left with most of the characters in precarious situations but alive, a lot of questions about Kirsh and Yutani, and likely a long wait to find out what happens next.

All of Alien: Earth is streaming now on Hulu and Disney Plus. Find out when the show is set in the Alien timeline and read our guide to the most exciting upcoming TV shows.