Spoiler Alert: This story contains spoilers for Season 1 of The Fly, Alien: Earth episode 6.
In the opening moment of “Alien: Earth,” it becomes clear that the immortal competition lies between the five companies: Weyland Yutani, Threshold, Lynch, Dynamic and Prodigy Corporation. The series follows Prodigy Corporation as it is on the verge of releasing a scientific breakthrough that creates synthetics with human consciousness, but the company is beginning to test the process for terminal children. As children begin to live in adult bodies, the company continues to pride themselves on claiming that it effectively ends death and gives consumers the opportunity to buy immortality.
Episode 6, entitled “The Fly,” disproves that hybrids can actually beat death, and that Prodigy Corporation can end what it has built its latest invention. After one of the young hybrids, Tootles (Kit Young) finds himself trapped in a glass chamber with an alien specimen, and is attacked by an alien fly nest, killing him instantly. The rest of the Lost Boys don’t know what happened to Tootles, but one thing is for sure. No one is guaranteed to survive death, even in synthetics.
Kit Young from episode 6 of “Alien: Earth”
Young talked with Variety about the clear rivalry the Lost Boys have with each other, playing adults in the hearts of children, and collaborating with the actual sheep while staging the character’s horrifying endings.
Throughout episode 6, Tootles asks Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant) if he can change his name to Isaac in tribute to another well-known scientist, Isaac Newton. The two begin talking in the lab. And since he is a leading synthetic scientist on Neverland Research Island, it can be said that Toutr looks up at Kirsch. Do you think Tootles idolizes him as a father figure or role model, or is it a blurry line between both?
That’s a little bit for both. Every boy lost has a very obvious parent figure. Dame Sylvia is the patriarch, and Arthur is either his father figure or a pleasant uncle for them. With Kirsh it’s a little more similar when you have a favorite teacher. Tootles really wants him to make everything come true, as Kirsh is very direct in advance with them and not lying to them. When adults tell the truth to their children, they seem to be really responding to it. He is about to become Robin in Kirsch’s Batman, and their relationship is like a teacher and a protégé.
During “The Fly,” there is this kid-like wonder when Tootles leaves Kirsh to let him monitor him as he is away from the lab. Tootles choose not to tell Curly (Erana James) that they have been chosen to monitor the lab only. Is there a subconscious competition between Toutle and Kaly as he is employed as a young scientist trying to study these new specimens?
Elana and I were incredibly competitive with such an atmosphere (for our characters) and constantly jabs with each other. Obviously, they’re all kids, but I think age differences are really important to children. When the kids say they’re not 10, they say it’s 10 1/2. With curly hair and Toottles, they are older children and actually do real work as lab scientists.
They are employed children and have adult jobs!
They are employed, busy and booked! Not including someone is a very intentional choice because you want to feel special. If he was curly with him, he would probably still be around. As he becomes Isaac, so many tuturus and his stories are growing, he’s growing a little too fast. Killing a cat is really his curiosity.
What do you think he believes in Prodigy Corporation until his final moments? He gave up his body and his name because of the company that stripped him from his family due to technological advancements. Ultimately, Touls dies in the name of science. The very thing he loved so much.
He really drank Kool-Aid, as you would say in America. He believes what he said and is frustrated with the fact that he is not treated as an adult. Many children have an instinct that they have to grow up faster, and he believes he is a grown man who needs a new name. I don’t think he’s fully aware of what may be happening in the company. As far as he is concerned, he is given this wonderful gift. He was to die as a sick child, and he was given a second chance. If anything, if he had been going on, he could risk becoming one of Prodigy Corporation’s allies.
You worked with Victoria The Sheep in the death scene of Tootles. In the show, the sheep are controlled by T. ochellus, an alien specimen of the eye. This knocks down Tua and ultimately leads him to his death by an alien fly. What was the process of staging and blocking his final moments, working with living animals and various practical effects?
It was the only day he was the only actor on set. We put it all together and performed it like we were doing theatre. When we arrived in the glass room we had a shot of a real sheep and it was this amazing life-like animatronic sheep. You really couldn’t convey the difference, and the only way you can convey the difference is that the sheep will still be too long. The only thing that had to be digitalised was that some of the melted goo and flies jumped off. Most of them were practical. They sprayed this real pump on me while I was taking the goo out of my mouth with the camera. There were a few points on my face, but most of them were captured while filming.
Throughout the series, Boy Cavalier (Samuel Brenkin) takes pride in the fact that these hybrids can end death. The death of Tootles disproves this, indicating that the presence of hybrids can die under extreme circumstances. What do you think this means for the future of Prodigy Corporation and the impending release of these hybrid bodies?
Because everything that geniuses build hybrids is all lies. All of these companies are trying to achieve immortality in very different ways. The stakes are rising for all the other lost boys, especially along with Wendy (Sidney Chandler).
In the case of Prodigy, they told the world that they probably have at least six hybrids, so they really tank their stock. You may need to make more or do a little iOS update. There’s a reason we’re not at the end of the season yet. It won’t work for Prodigy Corporation in the future.
This interview was compiled and condensed.
