Kirsh and David: The Striking Similarities Between Alien: Earth and Prometheus Characters

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Alien: Earth season 1, episode 3.Timothy Olyphant’s Kirsh in Alien: Earth has a striking similarity to Michael Fassbender’s David in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. The synths in the Alien franchise feature quite a bit of variation. From heroic, good hearted people like Bishop and Call to outright villains like Ash and David, individual synthetics are very rarely alike.

Kirsh and David, however, do have some similarities. They were both made very early in the Alien timeline, meaning they’re both somewhat more basic versions of synthetics, for example. They also both work for and are owned by one of Alien: Earth‘s five corporations, namely Weyland-Yutani and Prodigy. The most striking similarity, however, is fundamental to their characters.

Timothy Olyphant’s Kirsh Has The Same Relationship With Boy Kavalier That David Did With Peter Weyland

As previously mentioned, Kirsh worked for Prodigy while David worked for Weyland-Yutani (prior to its merger). Kirsh and David also had incredibly similar relationships with their creators, Boy Kavalier and Peter Weyland, respectively. Kavalier and Weyland were both psychotic trillionaires with no regard for human life, and they treated their creations in a similar manner.

In Prometheus and the intro to Alien: Covenant, we learned that Weyland viewed David as his magnum opus and his greatest attempt at achieving immortality, at least until his voyage to meet the Engineers. He outright told David that he wanted him to help determine where humanity came from. Weyland also viewed David’s heightened intellect as the only thing capable of truly challenging him.

In Alien: Earth, Boy Kavalier had almost the same thought in mind for Kirsh. Kavalier already said that his goal with Earth‘s human-synthetic hybrids is to create a being capable of having an intelligent conversation with him. Kavalier has moved on from Kirsh and synthetics, but he’s still using Kirsh to train the Lost Boys and usher in the age of human immortality.

Kirsh and David also both do similar things for their respective creators. They both engage in unethical experimentation; David on Prometheus‘ black goo and Kirsh on Hermit’s lung. They also both have a very outspoken distaste for humanity, which they likely inherited from Kavalier and Weyland. To top it all off, they’re both hyper-intelligent, even for synthetics. Kirsh is essentially just a newer version of David.

Unlike David, Kirsh Already Doesn’t Have To Live Up To Boy Kavalier’s Standards

Courtesy of FX Networks

There is one key difference between Kirsh and David, however, and it could be bad news for Alien: Earth. For most of his life, David was Peter Weyland’s “son” and his crowning achievement. Weyland came as close to loving David as he was capable of, and David always tried to impress Weyland in return. His most egregious crimes in Prometheus came at Weyland behest, after all.

Kirsh, on the other hand, isn’t as respected by Boy Kavalier. Kavalier has already moved on from synthetics like Kirsh, and he now views the Lost Boys as his crowning achievement. Unlike David and Peter Weyland, Kirsh doesn’t have to impress or necessarily even obey Boy Kavalier. Their relationship isn’t between a father and son, it’s between a boss and an employee.

That could be the groundwork for some truly despicable things in Alien: Earth. Think about what David did after Weyland’s death, when he didn’t have a human he liked anymore and didn’t have orders to obey. He did cruel and lethal experiments on Shaw and committed genocide against the Engineers on Planet 4. Kirsh is already at that point: he has no humans to impress or obey.

We’ve also already seen Kirsh buck against Boy Kavalier. He banished Kavalier from the lab and even convinced him to ban all organic people from the premises. Now, Kirsh has unfettered access to Alien: Earth‘s five alien lifeforms – including the Xenomorph eggs – and he may cook up an experiment just as deranged as David’s experiments on Shaw.

Alien: Earth has so far ignored both Prometheus and Covenant, but based on Kirsh’s similarities to David, it may be borrowing one of the prequels’ most iconic twists. Kirsh may be the most villainous and independent synthetic we’ve seen for a long time in the Alien franchise. If he is as similar to David as he seems, Kirsh could do a lot of damage in Alien: Earth.