Earth Hints at Kirsh’s Betrayal, Following Ash & David’s Traitorous Synthetic Legacy

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Alien: Earth season 1, episode 4.Alien: Earth is setting Timothy Olyphant’s synthetic, Kirsh, up to repeat a classic Alien franchise tradition, and it could have a huge impact on the show. Kirsh is one of Alien‘s synthetics, which are basically androids. Synthetics have a long history with Alien – one has appeared in every single Alien movie – but they’re a hard group to generalize about.

So far, Kirsh has been similarly hard to read in Alien: Earth. He seems to be a loyal and trusted part of the Prodigy Corporation in Earth. He has Boy Kavalier’s trust and even leads both the Lost Boy hybrids and the experiments into Alien: Earth‘s new alien lifeforms. There’s something brewing under Kirsh’s surface, though, and it may be one of Alien‘s oldest synthetic tricks.

Alien: Earth’s Kirsh Looks Like He’ll Be A Traitorous Synthetic Like Ash & David

Image Made By Yailin Chacon

The Alien franchise has a long history of making synthetics into villains. The franchise’s very first synthetic, Ash, turned out to be one of the main villains of the original Alien who was actively trying to protect the Xenomorph. Later, Michael Fassbender’s David would turn out to be the main antagonist of both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, despite some synths being depicted heroically.

Now, it looks like Kirsh is going to join the ranks of Ash and David and turn out to be a traitorous synthetic in Alien: Earth. We’ve already heard his very low opinion of humans as being animals that convinced themselves they’re not food. Alien: Earth episode 4 also hinted that he has a lot of pent-up aggression towards his employer, Boy Kavalier, especially when Kavalier hijacked the sheep experiment.

Kirsh has also openly defied Boy Kavalier in the past. He was tasked with protecting the Lost Boys during their search of the USCSS Maginot, yet he let Wendy roam free and nearly get killed by a Xenomorph. He also manhandled Boy Kavalier and forced him out of his own test lab, though that was ostensibly for his own protection.

Kirsh has also had more recent suspect behavior. As we learned in episode 4, he knows that Morrow is manipulating Slightly into delivering a Xenomorph sample to him, but Kirsh isn’t doing anything about it. That plan can only end in disaster, yet Kirsh is seemingly letting it run its course. He also didn’t intervene when the chestburster lunged out at Wendy at the end of the episode.

The simplest explanation for all of Kirsh’s odd behavior is that he’s a rogue synthetic. Maybe, after years of serving the notoriously arrogant and ill-mannered Boy Kavalier only to be tossed aside in favor of the Lost Boys, Kirsh has had enough abuse. Maybe his distaste for humanity has always been there, and now that he has access to killer aliens, he’s finally going to do something about it.

How Could Kirsh Ruin Prodigy’s Plans In Alien: Earth?

It seems like Kirsh is going to become a traitorous synthetic, but what isn’t as clear is how he’ll do it. The most straightforward way for Kirsh to ruin Prodigy’s plans is by unleashing all the specimens. He is the only person other than the Lost Boys with direct unfettered access to them, after all. If Boy Kavalier pushes the envelope too far, Kirsh could simply hit a release switch and watch chaos unfold.

Kirsh has more options than just the obvious, though. As previously mentioned, Kirsh knows that Morrow is manipulating Slightly into infecting someone with a Xenomorph and letting them out of Neverland. He could simply let Slightly continue that plan and let Morrow deliver the Xenomorph to Weyland-Yutani; that would certainly put a damper on Prodigy’s business interests.

Kirsh’s betrayal doesn’t even have to include the specimens at all. He does seem interested in and attached to them, so he may decide to go after the hybrids instead. Kirsh has been trying to convince them that they’re more than human. He may use that to goad the Lost Boys’ egos, then focus on the fact that Kavalier is keeping them from their parents to inspire Kavalier’s crowning achievement to turn on him.

There’s also the ever-present possibility that Kirsh isn’t a traitor. Alien: Earth has been chock-full of surprises so far, and there’s a chance Kirsh’s growing discontent is a red herring. He may have even told Kavalier about Morrow already off-screen. The fact is, Kirsh is a completely unknown quantity in Alien: Earth, and trying to predict what he’ll do next is very difficult.