The first-ever TV series from the Alien universe has had its ups and downs, but one thing seems consistent: Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), the CEO of Prodigy Corp and the brilliant mind behind hybrids, doesn’t seem that brilliant at all.
One of the things that bugs me most in movies and TV series is when the creators claim that a particular character is the smartest or most fabulous of them all (Carrie Bradshaw, I’m looking at you), but none of the character’s words or actions back that claim up at all.
And that’s the case with Boy Kavalier. Showrunner Noah Hawley hailed him as a wunderkind, and other characters seem to consider him one. However, halfway through the season, I can’t imagine how this guy could graduate from college, not to mention develop the groundbreaking technology to transfer human consciousness into a synthetic body.
But let’s not draw hasty conclusions – let’s take a closer look at the curly-haired young genius from Alien: Earth.
Spoilers for episodes 1-4 below.
What exactly does Boy do at his research facility?
In episode 1, Boy – the creator of hybrid technology – meets the terminally ill Marcy, who later wakes up as Wendy, the first human-synth being. Soon, more children join her. After being transferred to synthetic bodies, they receive new names inspired by Peter Pan.
The whole experiment is complicated and expensive, requiring specialised knowledge and commitment. However, Boy doesn’t display either: all the hard work involved in creating and overseeing the hybrids seems to be carried out by Dame Sylvia (Essie Davis) her husband, Arthur Sylvia (David Rysdahl), or Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant).
However, it’s fair to assume that the team of scientists is needed to implement the hybrid experiment. At this point, the Prodigy CEO just supervises the project and deals with matters related to running the corporation.
So what exactly does he do?
FX
From what we’ve seen in the first four episodes of the series, Boy Kavalier spends his time walking around the Prodigy headquarters. Barefoot, of course. Wearing worn-out tracksuits, of course. Sometimes he looks at test results, sometime he makes rude comments to his employees. And he’s really into reading Peter Pan through the speaker system, apparently forcing the whole facility to listen.
However, whenever Boy does get involved in the lab’s research, his employees would probably prefer more story time.
Hybrids are a prototype of the technology that’s set to provide immortality to the wealthiest people on Earth – it’s Boy’s magnum opus and an invention that could revolutionise human existence. One might think that he would treat them extremely carefully but… no.
The series is wasting Boy Kavalier’s potential… and the hybrids’ too
Boy drops the hybrids on the site of a spaceship crash, telling them to search the wreckage of USCSS Maginot and catch the mysterious alien species. Then he has them take care of the creatures in a poorly secured lab. For a genius, Boy clearly has trouble understanding that, although the hybrids have enhanced bodies, mentally they’re still naive children.
Another annoying thing is that Boy isn’t teaching the hybrids anything interesting. Since they have the bodies and brains of androids, the scientists could implement training programmes for them or enhance their physical and intellectual skills – just as in Westworld. But instead, the pinnacle of training in Alien: Earth was when the hybrid Curly learned French… groundbreaking indeed.
All things considered, it sounds ridiculous when Boy confesses:
You know what I really want? I want to talk to somebody smarter than me. At the very least, my hope is that by giving Wendy a supercomputer for a brain and training by the best geniuses money can buy, I’ll finally be able to have an interesting fucking conversation.
Sadly, none of the characters have anything interesting to say. Except maybe for Nibs – after episode 4, I’m really curious about what’s up with the red-haired hybrid girl who claims to be pregnant.
FX
Brilliant (or mad) scientists have appeared in cinema since its dawn, as an essential element of the science fiction genre. The same can be said about eccentric millionaires. However, in recent years, a lot of characters have emerged who are a combination of these two types. We are, of course, talking about tech billionaires.
Some productions are fuelled by the life stories of existing moguls – such as Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber, inspired by Travis Kalanick, or WeCrashed, based on the unhinged duo of Adam and Rebekah Neumann. Others explore the characters of fictional tech moguls. The fascination is understandable – the future is now, and the mad zillionaires who want to rule the world are also here.
After all, Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance) from Don’t Look Up, Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) from Succession, or Miles Bron (Edward Norton) from Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery are creepy, goofy and narcissistic, yet there’s no doubt that they at least appear to be clever. And certainly, you can’t deny the genius of Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), the creator of the androids from Westworld.
The creators of Alien: Earth have confused an entitled brat with a sassy genius
The problem with Boy Kavalier is that he is simply entitled and annoying. Most of the time, he says and does things that are supposed to be intriguingly eccentric, but they’re just trivial or silly. Of course, I get it: he’s supposed to be whimsical, stubborn, and unreasonable. Still… where’s the brilliance we hear so much about?
Apart from poor writing, I can find only one possible explanation as to why the wunderkind from Alien: Earth doesn’t appear to be a wunderkind. That is: he isn’t really a scientist and inventor. He merely took over someone else’s work and developed it under his brand with the involvement of actual scientists.
Actually, that would be a nice plot twist – and a painfully realistic one too.
Alien: Earth is rolling out now on Hulu every Tuesday night at 8pm ET / 5pm PT. UK viewers can watch the series on Disney+ from 1am BST on Wednesdays.
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