At the end of Alien: Earth’s debut season, the kids take over. Having fully grasped Prodigy’s manipulations, Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and the hybrids weaponize their synth bodies, along with her nifty new ability to command Xenomorphs, to seize control of Neverland. What comes next? “We rule,” she declares, whatever that means, though the new order could be disrupted by Weyland-Yutani’s security forces closing in. The ending lands on the image the season has clearly been driving toward: Wendy, flanked by the other hybrids, her brother Hermit (Alex Lawther), and two Xenomorphs, standing triumphant over those who once exploited her.
Caught somewhere in the middle is Morrow. Originally the security officer on the ill-fated USS Maginot and then tasked by Weyland-Yutani with recovering the Xenomorph cargo lost when the ship crashed into New Siam, he’s played with icy precision by British Gambian actor Babou Ceesay in the breakout performance of the season (in the Non-Eyeball Division, anyway). Half-man, half-machine, Morrow is the grim endpoint of a universe ruled by corporations: a company samurai whose humanity has been stripped down and retooled in service of his employer. He is chilling in his precision: quiet, laser-focused, and unflinching in his willingness to use or threaten violence, even against a child (or, at least, a synth with the consciousness of one).
Through Morrow, Alien: Earth channels the franchise’s enduring class critique, crystallizing the question, What humanity remains when you’ve given everything over to a corporate overlord? For Ceesay, a warm and lively presence off-screen, the answer for Morrow is still galaxies away. “He’s a complex mix of bound-up feelings that he’s trying to figure out,” he says. “Or maybe he’s not even trying to. He’s just coping.”
The kids and the aliens get primary focus, but Morrow is the show’s most fascinating creation. Technically still human, though his augmentations and long life give him this bitter detachment from others. What does he represent within the show’s larger ideas?
Purpose. Boy K. stands for innovation on some level, and the kids are an experiment. The alien, to a degree, represents nature. But Morrow … he’s a man on a mission. Everything in him drives toward that mission goal. He talks about his life’s work, about spending 65 years in space. There was even a thing written in the original script where he mentions passing Neptune decades ago, and it makes you stop and wonder about the life he’s lived. Purpose is central. We all wrestle with it at times, but it’s a fundamental part of existence. Without a reason to be, then really, what’s the point?
Does he find whatever’s left of his humanity in his purpose?
That’s probably the only part of his humanity he wants to hold on to, you know what I mean? He feels the pain of losing a daughter. But he also feels duty toward Yutani for taking him off the streets. All those are things weighing on him. I think if he could find being a synth without the memories and the pain, that would be a liberation. I mean, come on: If you had the chance to offload the pressure on your neck, the anxieties that cling to you, if you could feel enlightened for even a month, you’d take it.
In the finale, the kids end up in control, at least of the situation, while Boy Kavalier and everybody else are stuck in the cell. But Morrow is in this strange middle space within the power dynamic. I’m curious how you interpret the ending and Morrow’s place in it.
He’s a man at sea. No question about that. At the very end, two things strike him. First is the fact that he’s still alive. He’s from another corporation, but he’s not dead. So why isn’t he dead? If the adults were in charge, the only reason they might not have killed him is because he still has some use. Maybe as a bargaining chip, or maybe he has some piece of information. But with the kids, it’s unclear. The other thing is Wendy, standing there like a warrior queen with a Xenomorph or two standing around the cage like pets. He realizes this and he’s like, Oh, wow, how is that happening? And what is she doing to be able to do that?
So Morrow is looking around the room for information and opportunity. He’s a predator in that respect. If there ends up being a squabble with the adults, it might be useful for him. So the question that hangs in the air — what’s going to happen now? Who knows? Hopefully we get a second season and that moment gets taken somewhere.
Morrow’s devotion to Yutani is pretty striking. As you said, the company pulled him off the streets, but going on those missions basically cost him his life since everyone he loves dies while he’s out there. So there’s a real tension there, maybe even a hint of doubt in his ongoing loyalty to the corporation. How do you read his motivations?
There’s definitely an element of loyalty, and loyalty means you have to suppress parts of yourself in order to reach the goal. You hear soldiers talk about that first person they had to kill. We all know killing is a sin, or at least most of us all kind of agree you shouldn’t do it. But on some level, in order to serve the bigger goal, you need to be able to do it, as horrific as that is. That’s loyalty. That’s patriotism. That’s being part of something larger than yourself.
Purpose, though, is personal. For Morrow, his loyalty to Yutani overlaps with his purpose, this drive to make his life mean something. There’s only a very narrow space where those two things blend together. And there must be some love there too, I think, because they saved him. They did him this massive favor. Yutani the elder was probably the closest thing he ever had to a mother figure.
So when he shows up back on Earth and realizes she’s no longer around, that loyalty shifts.
Exactly. Even if you have a rough relationship with a mother figure, there’s still love there on some level. Not that Morrow could ever define love for you — I don’t think he could. But he’s this complicated mix of feelings all bound up together. He’s not really trying to work them out. He’s just coping.
How does Morrow relate to the kids? Does he resent them?
He does on some level. He’s jealous. That great scene with Kirsh, played by Timothy Olyphant, who says, “your sad old body.” He’s picking up on him being jealous of the kids when he says, “I got to get me one of those.” It hits something. It should make him think, Imagine I was all synthetic. That would be amazing.
But then, how much interaction has Morrow had with kids over the last 65 years? Basically zero. Clem, the Maginot assistant security officer played by Tom Moyer, is probably the closest thing to someone young that he’s had around. And with Clem, something almost fatherly comes out. There’s his loyalty, sure, but also this other flicker; some enjoyment, some sense of being alive.
Still, at the end of the day, the mission trumps everything. Nothing matters but the cargo. Not you, not me. That’s always there for him, even if it’s hard to completely shut off those complicated human reactions.
Morrow gets to have some fun face-offs with Kirsh in the final stretch of episodes, like that snippy but revealing back-and-forth where he taunts the android, “What’s it like working for a company that’s made you obsolete?” And Kirsh cuts back, “Look at you, the almost-human self-hating machine.” How did the two of you figure out that dynamic?
You know, I came to set with my dark Morrow energy and Tim — who is a G, he’s a number one — came up to me and said, “What if these were two guys who work for opposing companies and they end up stuck in an elevator together and it’s like, So how is it over there?” What I loved about that idea was the fact there’s mutual respect and appreciation. “Okay, fine, you’re a synth, but you’re carrying the pressures of your organization dealing with Boy K., and I’m carrying the pressures of dealing with Yutani. So we get each other and we understand the deal. But of course, if I have the chance, I’m going to kill you.”
And they sure went for it. Did you enjoy the fight choreography?
I loved it. I was in Into the Badlands, so I was always fighting with Daniel Wu and Emily Beecham and a bunch of incredible people. For Alien: Earth, I did nine months of kicking, punching, and magnesium baths. Rob Inch, who I’d worked with on Rogue One, came in to do this, and I just love him. We came up with a gnarly, quick, tense fight, and I loved it. Timothy’s amazingly strong. He’s not easy to shift around. [Laughs.] Good core.
I’m curious if you have any thoughts about Olyphant’s hair on this show.
My favorite thing about that was in episode three, when I was doing the part where Morrow’s sweating and downloading information, Tim came up to me and said, “Oh, okay. My hair is my thing. Sweat is yours. That’s your thing.” Apparently, his wife didn’t want him to have the eyebrows done as well. And Noah was like, “If you’re getting the hair, you’re getting the eyebrows.” But I love it.
Morrow spends a good chunk of the season manipulating Slightly, played by Adarsh Gourav. Those tense calls require such control in your voice. How did you approach those moments?
I absolutely loved those scenes. They’re so wonderfully well written. Morrow’s predatory instinct comes out. That’s one of the most powerful places for it. All I did was try to figure out what Morrow was trying to get out of Slightly and then I had to figure out the right balance of threatening. Noah had this wonderful description of Morrow: “No one ever invited him to a party, ever.” The fact he said ever twice! I thought, Okay, he’s talking to a kid who he’s already grabbed by their throat and scared them, so the question is how do you then draw them back in to trust you, to know that you’re not really a threat. That kind of thing happens in real life. So I just try to walk that line as nicely as possible where he can remain palatable to this young boy and can therefore move on to the next place in the interaction.
Were you in the same room as Adarsh Gourav in those scenes?
He’s right there. He sits off-camera, so I don’t see him. We both get an earpiece and he talks to me. And when we cut, we’ll look around at each other and go, “Happy? Okay, good. Let’s do another one.” Adarsh is just wonderful. We rehearsed those scenes like a piece of theater. Then we met with the director as well — Ugla Hauksdóttir, who’s phenomenal — talking through all the beats.
Were you a fan of the Alien franchise before working on the show?
Oh yes. I have to check with my mom to be sure, but I believe I watched all the Alien movies for the first time between the ages of 9 and 12. I might’ve watched it off my parents’ cassettes, or maybe on French TV back home in Gambia. Either way, I saw it too early. That chest-burster moment bore into my soul. But it did instill in me a love for all that kind of stuff.
Oh my goodness, I love horror. Stuff like The Wailing, from South Korea, it’s one of my favorites, just blew me away. I saw The Ring, couldn’t sleep with the lights off for a week. The Conjuring is one of my all-time favorites. I still can’t watch it properly. Scares me. Yeah, I love horror going back to Night of the Living Dead. I watch all kinds of horror. Even crazy old stuff like Zombie Lake. Have you seen it?
I’m not familiar, but I can imagine what it’s about.
A great movie. Go check it out.
You got to briefly act with your daughter on the show; she appears in a flashback as the daughter Morrow leaves behind. Has she seen Alien?
She has not. She’s scared of it. She has not seen Alien: Earth. Her big worry is not the aliens themselves but the gore. She’s like, “Does anybody get cut up or anything like that? Is there blood?” I’m like, “Dude, yes.” So she’s like, “Let’s just leave it for now.” I’m like, “All right. Well, it’s right here for you whenever you’re ready.” She’s 12.
That’s about when you watched the movies, no? When do you think is the right age?
Oh, I would show it to her today. It’s all formative. She has to learn: “You’re going to survive. You’ll need therapy in future, but you’ll be fine.” I would show her everything. I watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy with her, and she didn’t find that gory. She loves Demon Slayer, which, like, dude, that is intensely gory. But she said, “It’s a cartoon,” so it doesn’t bother her. I don’t know. I think in a year I’ll sit her down and watch Alien. But I don’t know whether to show the series first before going to the movies, or the other way around. What would you advise?
I would say the series before the originals, because she gets to see her dad first and then you can go straight into it.
That’s brilliant. Deal. I love it.
