‘Alien: Earth’ Episode 2’s Goriest Moment Sees a Xenomorph Literally Eat the Rich: “They’re Really Radical in Their Politics,” According To Alex Lawther

Alien: Earth Episode 2 “Mr. October” brings one of the FX show’s most human characters face-to-face with two distinct kinds of monsters. In a chilling sequence, Prodigy medic Hermit (Alex Lawther) has to deal with both a blood-thirsty Xenomorph and an ultra wealthy party host completely costumed like he’s at Versailles. It’s one of the many cheeky moments in Alien: Earth that combines the horror of the original films with biting social satire.

It also, according to Alien: Earth star Alex Lawther, took weeks and weeks to nail down.

**Spoilers for Alien: Earth Episode 2 “Mr. October,” now streaming on Hulu**

In Alien: Earth Episode 2 “Mr. October,” Hermit finds himself separated from the rest of his team and stuck in the bowels of a futuristic high-rise. Hermit is only here because a Weyland-Yutani spacecraft crash landed into the building, killing countless civilians in the process. Besides the structural damage that’s occurred, the ship was carrying five aliens from the darkest corners of the galaxy. Now those critters are loose and hunting humans.

Hermit eventually reunites with fellow Prodigy security officer Bergerfeld (Dean Alexandrou) and they immediately set to work trying to evacuate the last apartment on the level. However, the aforementioned rich dude doesn’t believe anything’s wrong. He refuses to leave his opulent party. Then, a Xenomorph strikes.

“That sequence took quite a long time because there was so much gore and whenever there’s gore, you know, that took a long time,” Alien: Earth star Alex Lawther said. “Because there was a rig on the actor who gets his neck ripped out.” (That would be poor Bergerfeld.)

“There was like little explosion things with a bullet and then he also gets pulled up on [the rig]. There was a lot of technical requirements.”

Lawther’s co-star Sydney Chandler chimed in, calling it, “The long death.”

The noise of Bergerfeld’s death gets the door to open again and soon the Xenomorph is ripping the heads off of party guests. Hermit only survives because the Weyland-Yutani-loyal cyborg Morrow stuns him after stunning the alien.

“The real heroes of that scene are the background artists who get killed and they’re in all their finery,” Lawther said. “They’re sitting around a table, but they were sitting for weeks, sort of covered in that sticky fake blood with their necks at like odd angles, being so patient and polite and then having their lunch through straws so as not to mess up the bloody decor.”

“Yeah, the death and decay and destruction,” Chandler said.

“I felt like we were never going to leave that sequence of events. But looking back at it now, I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah, it was worth it,’” Lawther admitted. “Yeah, it was worth the weeks covered in …what is that sticky blood called? You know, it’s like glycerin or whatever. 

“I don’t know, bugs liked it,” Chandler said. “Bugs really liked that.” 

“Because it’s basically sugar,” Lawther said.

When DECIDER pointed out to the Alien: Earth stars that the Xenomorph literally ate the rich in the episode, thereby making them potential allies in the class struggle, Lawther chuckled. “Yeah. They’re really radical in their politics. They’re quite anarchistic.” 

“They’re equalizers,” Chandler said.

“Yeah, exactly. They’re extinctionists, I think is the word,” Lawther said. “So, they’re not humanists.”