'Alien: Earth' Episode 5 Is the Franchise At Its Very Best
Briefly

Seventeen days before arrival on Earth, security officer Morrow awakens from cryosleep when the Maginot's captain is found dead after a fire. Alien creatures escape and latch onto crew, bleeding acid and resisting removal. With half the crew still in stasis, the awakened crew must establish a new chain of command and decide mission priorities. Morrow receives orders from Yutani to secure cargo and identify the fire's origin. Morrow's brutal, pragmatic choices and revealed backstory cast his ruthlessness in a sympathetic light while the ship devolves into suspense, horror, and looming tragedy.
Following last week's bummer fourth episode, Alien: Earth bounces back with an incomparably stronger fifth episode, "In Space, No One...." Essentially a prequel that revels in gruesome detail how the USCSS Maginot became a tomb that crashed in New Saigon, this new episode still unearths plenty of suspense, horror-even heartbreak-never mind that we know exactly how this journey ends: violently.
We follow who else but Morrow (Babou Ceesay) as the episode's main point-of-view character, whose moving backstory reframes his ruthlessness in a sympathetic light, Alien: Earth proves itself as a TV show that warrants the hype and the hoopla that it's the best thing on the small screen right now. That there isn't much competition ( for now) is besides the point.
A fire led to the escape of the "octopus with long fingers" to latch onto two crew members, among them the captain of the Maginot. There's no way to get the things off, and they bleed acid. With half the crew still in slumber, the woken half figure out what to do, from cementing the new chain of command to what, exactly, takes top priority of the mission.
Read at Esquire
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