As well as being an impressively tense mini-Alien movie, episode 5 of Alien: Earth also sheds some light on one of the show’s most mysterious characters: Morrow (Babou Ceesay), the head of security (and sole survivor) of Weyland-Yutani’s downed Maginot ship.
One interesting scene from this flashback episode shows Morrow in his quarters, reading letters from back home that finally provide some insight into why he is the way he is.
So what do the letters that Morrow reads say, and what do they tell us about him?
What do the letters that Morrow reads on the ship say?
Back in his quarters, Morrow opens a box of letters and looks at a photo of his daughter, Estelle, when she was a baby. The first two letters are clearly from her (the first when she’s younger, the second when she’s a teenager), while the last letter is a fax from Weyland-Yutani.
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We’ve transcribed each of them below, in full.
First letter
DADABEAR
I had a nightmare last night. Mom tried to tell me it was just a dream but it took a real long time to go back to sleep. I dreamed that your space ship flied by the moon.
Second letter
Dadabear
I’m starting to look at schools. I didn’t know this but mom says that Weyland-Yutani will pay for all of my school. That’s if I go to a Wey-Yu sanctioned school. Is that really the case? Cause I want to go to one of the old world colleges. They don’t have restrictions on the content that the corp schools have. I think, if I tried I could get into Harvard. But of course, we’d have to pay for it ourselves. Also, my friend Cody’s dad works for Weyland-Yutani too. But she only gets a partial scholarship. How important ARE you? I wish we could talk. That’s not the first or last time I’ve thought that, I’m sure. But sometimes it would be good to have another voice to bounce this stuff off.
Estelle
Third letter
MISSION YEAR 8 OF 65
Mr. Morrow, this is to inform you that your daughter, Estelle, 19, died in a fire that destroyed her home on the 12th April. Her effects have been placed in storage for you on your return in 53 years.
What do we learn from the letters?
If you’ve been wondering why Morrow is as cold and detached as he is, this personal tragedy is presumably the reason. The first two letters make it clear that he and his daughter had a strong bond, making that final brief fax even more of a gut punch. Reading the letters back is the first time we’ve seen Morrow show pretty much any emotion whatsoever. Clearly, what happened to his daughter has hardened him. He no longer has her waiting for him back on Earth so he’s thrown himself entirely into the mission at hand, zeroing in on his employer’s instruction to preserve the alien samples and carrying out orders with a near robotic detachment.
The other clue in the letters? That “How important ARE you?” question from his daughter foreshadows the end of the episode, where we learn that Morrow has a personal connection to the Weyland-Yutani boss and is as much an adopted part of the family as he is a recruit.
Alien: Earth episodes drop Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Hulu and FX.
