Alien: Earth Episode 4 Redefines Xenomorph Chestbursters

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Alien: Earth season 1, episode 4.Disney and FX’s Alien: Earth has already drastically altered the Alien franchise, but the newest episode completely changed the way you’ll see Xenomorph chestbursters. Alien: Earth has changed everything from the history of the Weyland-Yutani corporation to the actual details of how Xenomorph facehuggers work. Now, the newest episode has tackled Xenomorph chestbursters.

Every type of Xenomorph is frightening, from facehugger all the way to grown adult, but the chestburster is among the most iconic. Its namesake – bursting from the chest of its victims in a spray of blood and viscera – is ingrained in every Alien fan’s memory. They’re the perfect horror monsters, but Alien: Earth has shown us a new side to the Xenomorph chestburster.

Wendy Has A Calm Interaction With The Chestburster In Alien: Earth Episode 4

At the end of Alien: Earth episode 4, Wendy actually had a calm, nonviolent interaction with a Xenomorph chestburster. As we learned earlier in the episode, Wendy had learned to hear and replicate the Xenomorph “language” and she was speaking to the larva Kirsh planted in Hermit’s extracted lung. When the chestburster was born, instead of trying to kill Wendy, it actually calmed down.

That moment in Alien: Earth episode 4 painted chestbursters in a completely new light. Chestbursters are almost always depicted as wild animals that are good for jumpscares and disturbingly gory visuals, and they’re always a negative. Wendy’s interaction with one, however, almost made them out to be cute (in the same way some people find pet snakes cute). She even petted the chestburster like it was a cat.

Why The Chestburster Didn’t Attack Wendy

The burning question we have to ask about Alien: Earth‘s chestburster scene is why didn’t it attack Wendy? Xenomorph chestbursters are literally bloodthirsty horror movie monsters. While they typically flee until they grow large enough to be a drone, they’re still a massive threat that could have eaten right through Wendy. Instead, however, the chestburster just let Wendy pet it.

There are a few reasons Wendy was able to get through to the chestburster. The most basic is that she’s a hybrid synthetic, and Earth has already established that Xenomorphs don’t hunt synthetics. Morrow also mentioned that Xenomorphs “see” things that are afraid, and Wendy clearly didn’t fear the chestburster.

The most important reason that Wendy was able to tame the chestburster, however, is that Wendy was speaking the Xenomorph language. That was likely enough to get the chestburster to trust her. It may even think Wendy is a fellow Xenomorph. We don’t know the details, but Wendy’s use of the Xenomorph language certainly influenced that interaction.

Alien: Earth episode 4 somewhat implies that Wendy will be able to implement a level of control over the Xenomorph. It’s not clear if she actually understands the language yet or how to give it commands, but the chestburster did display a level of trust towards her. Alien: Earth clearly knows how to surprise us, and it may have another surprise for Wendy and the Xenomorph left in store.