Dhruv Trivedi
‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’ episode 7 finds things getting tense as the CIA gets closer to Faraday’s world-changing experiment. Newton’s unpredictable plans continue to elude agent Spencer Clay, who gets increasingly vicious with his approach. Meanwhile, Faraday is forced to begin learning the subtleties of lying in order to navigate the human world. Unfortunately, this also helps the alien from Antheon realize just how much he has been lied to. There’s a lot that goes down in this chapter of Showtime’s sci-fi drama so let’s dive in and take a closer look at ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’ episode 7. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Man Who Fell to Earth Episode 7 Recap
The episode opens with an ill-fated mission to Cambodia engineered by CIA agent Spencer Clay. The trained soldiers that go looking for Newton in a recently discovered concrete bunker meet a violent end when a high-pitched tone causes their heads to explode. As a result of the disastrous mission, Spencer faces an internal inquiry where he promptly throws his long-time superior and mentor, Drew Finch, under the bus. We then get a glimpse into Spencer’s childhood and later learn he is the orphaned son of a Russian terrorist who was adopted by Drew.
Meanwhile, Edie and Hatch try to finalize a lucrative deal with a “monstrous” and unethical oil company in order to get out of the CIA’s clutches. The representative from Thorne Oil greets their claims of a potentially unlimited energy source with some skepticism but eventually seems convinced. Back at the Origen lab, Faraday gets a visit from Newton who angrily informs him that he needs to learn the art of deception if he is to be successful in the human realm.
Edie also begins to suspect the CIA’s involvement in their experiment and continues to be worried about her father, Josiah’s, rapidly evolving mental state. Since his interaction with Faraday, Josiah has grown increasingly healthy and claims his memories are sharper than ever. However, he begins to lose connection with his feelings and attempts to note them down before he forgets about emotions altogether. Faraday informs Josiah that it is all part of the evolving Antheon DNA inside him.
The Man Who Fell to Earth Episode 7 Ending: What is the Meaning of Newton’s Message?
In his desperation to uncover Newton’s plot, Spencer gets permission from his CIA superiors to “clean up” the situation. He refuses to hand over the rights to Newton’s tenth patent to Origen, making Faraday and Justin’s entire experiment unviable. As a retort, the alien and the physicist go to the press, where Faraday uses some of his newly acquired powers of deception to impress a skeptical journalist.
However, Faraday then gets a recording of the high-pitched sound that killed the soldiers in Cambodia. Understanding that the sound is a message from Newton, Faraday isolates the sound and is shocked by the message’s contents. In the episode’s closing moments, he goes to Justin’s apartment and hugs her in fear, saying Newton never meant for him to go back to Antheon.
On this confusing note, episode 7 comes to a close. It appears that according to Newton’s plan, neither he nor Faraday is supposed to ever leave earth and go back to their home planet, Antheon. Instead, Newton plans to seemingly convince the population of Antheon to come and inhabit Earth. Since Earth is essentially a more primitive version of Antheon and the latter planet’s atmosphere is all but destroyed, the plan to bring the population of Antheon to Earth seems marginally simpler than trying to repair Antheon.
Of course, the underlying and truly monstrous aspect of Newton’s plan is that the arrival of the technologically superior aliens will likely spell humanity’s doom. The message itself, which kills the American soldiers in Cambodia and is later heard by Faraday, is actually part of a repeating signal that Newton has been relaying into space. Thus, it seems like Newton has already started the process of summoning the population of Antheon to Earth. Since the plan is to make Earth into Antheon, his transmission also signifies that neither he nor Faraday will ever go back to their original home planet.
Is Faraday Becoming Human?
Apart from highlighting the differences between humans and the alien species from Antheon, the show also depicts the similarities between the two. Interestingly, the narrative also depicts two characters slowly turning into the other species. Justin’s father, Josiah, because of an infusion of Faraday’s DNA when the latter saves his life, is slowly gaining traits of those from Antheon.
Meanwhile, Faraday seems to be picking up human traits because of all the time he has spent on Earth surrounded by humans. In fact, Newton belligerently informs Faraday that for their plan to succeed, he must think like a human. So far, thinking human aspects to be inefficient, Faraday has held on to his Antheon sensibilities.
However, with the go-ahead from Faraday and with his own understanding of humans increasing, Faraday seems to be showing many more human traits. There is also a chance that while healing Josiah, Faraday could have imbibed some human DNA (much like Josiah absorbed alien DNA), which could also be giving the alien some subtle human characteristics.
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