Ask A Genius 1514: Alien Facehuggers, Peacemaker’s Twisted Heroes, and Late-Night TV Upheaval
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/09/22
How do Rick Rosner’s reflections on Alien: Earth, Peacemaker, and late-night television illustrate the intersection of science fiction, satire, and real-world media upheaval?
Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner shift from discussing Alien: Earth to broader pop culture. Rosner muses on whether anyone could realistically fend off a facehugger, considering improvised defenses like fire or stabbing, though acid blood would make it lethal regardless. The narrative continues with Arthur’s death and Moro’s commandos, revealing competing missions to capture xenomorphs. The two then pivot to Peacemaker, highlighting James Gunn’s twisted yet playful approach to superhero storytelling and crossovers within the DC universe. Finally, they reflect on late-night TV turmoil, with Kimmel and Colbert’s uncertain futures amid industry decline, strikes, and AI-driven job losses.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, anything else we should talk about?
Rick Rosner: Aliens.
Jacobsen: What happened with Alien this time?
Rosner: Two of the kids, Smee and Slightly, have been dragging Arthur to the beach to meet Moro. Then the facehugger falls off, and Arthur wakes up.
I did some research: if a facehugger’s after you, is there any way to stop it from attaching and implanting a xenomorph embryo? In at least one Alien video game, you can fight it off with a flamethrower or an electrified cattle prod, but that’s gameplay, not reality.
I thought about the kitchen. If you raised your hand over your face so the tail wrapped around your arm and neck, you might get some leverage—even though it’s stronger. Then you could lower your face onto a lit gas range, maybe burn it enough to loosen its grip. We keep scissors by the stove, so you could stab yourself. But of course, it has acid for blood, so you’d get sprayed, which would be horrible. That was as far as I got in working out a defence. Realistically, it takes specialized tools.
Anyway, the facehugger falls off, and Arthur wakes up. He’s disoriented—the facehugger releases chemicals that sedate the host. Now he’s walking down the beach while the kids feed him a bullshit story.
As Arthur wakes up, he remembers the facehugger attacked him. He calls out the kids’ lies: “You’re kids, you haven’t learned to lie effectively yet. Whatever’s going on, let’s go back to the lab and I’ll help.” The kids stall, walking with him while figuring out their next move.
Then the chestburster rips out of him, killing him instantly. The baby xenomorph runs off into the foliage.
Not knowing what else to do, they put Arthur’s body on a raft. The beach has disappeared into shallow water, so they wade while dragging him toward Moro. Moro arrives with two teams of commandos and is furious that they didn’t capture a xenomorph. He tears into Slightly for failing, then shifts attention to “team two.” That’s when we first learn there’s another operation underway to capture one. That’s where I stopped watching for the day.
Jacobsen: You were about halfway through the episode?
Rosner: Yeah.
Jacobsen: We should probably talk about Peacemaker as much as Alien: Earth.
Rosner: Right. Peacemaker is a fascinating show. It’s a superhero series, but superheroes are already pretty sci-fi. What makes it interesting is how twisted it is—fucked-up characters doing fucked-up things—while set in the squeaky-clean Superman universe. Superman belongs to the A-team, the Justice League. Characters in Peacemaker are at best C- or D-team.
But there’s overlap. Rick Flag Sr. shows up in both Peacemaker and the new Superman movie that just dropped on HBO. Both were written and directed by James Gunn, who now runs DC’s superhero division. Since he greenlights himself, he can bend canon however he likes. He’s perverse, but in a way that still feels wholesome.
For example, Krypto the Superdog is chaotic, always trying to do “super” things. Gunn based Krypto on his own dog, using motion-capture dots to create the CG version. That’s the kind of playful, self-aware storytelling I like from him. He’s got humour, story sense, and the authority to experiment.
Makes for fun. Rotten Tomatoes is temporary. Gym’s closed on Fridays—it closed early. I’ve already been, but I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll send you the link so you can see what it looks like.
On Sunday, we’ll try to do a Lance show or a few of those, and I might still be able to get home in time for something. For quotes, given the rupture, it might make more sense than pull quotes. There’s a cap now—2,000 words max. It could be a few hundred, or it could be 2,000. Subsections might work best for readability, so every few paragraphs have a clear marker of what the section is about.
And we can do stuff like: if the piece is about physics—say I think about physics for more than half an hour and get frustrated, and that makes me want to jerk off—you’d probably think that’s too inappropriate for a pull quote. But it’s about noticing opportunities to inject humour into dry material. There’s always a way to find something sharp.
Jacobsen: What about Kimmel now?
Rosner: Before Kimmel could say anything that might make it harder to negotiate his return, ABC pulled the show. Everyone’s calling ABC cowards. Even Ted Cruz said the FCC Chair, Brendan Carr, was acting like an asshole.
There’s another factor. Colbert got cancelled and didn’t really fight it. He made fun of it and continues to, because he’s not off the air until May. He’s been on this show for ten years, before that years as a right-wing pundit on The Colbert Report, and before that, The Daily Show. He’s been at it a long time, so maybe he’s ready for a break.Kimmel, when he first got The Late Show, said he would do twenty years and then be out. That was twenty-two and a half years ago. He might—speculating here—be willing to walk away if he’s not treated correctly. One of the reasons he continues is likely because he wants to keep his 120+ employees working. It’s a hard time to get a job in LA television. Production is down forty percent since the strike. AI is cutting jobs—teleprompter operators, cue card staff. Carole knows people who lost jobs to AI. So it’s tough, and Kimmel doesn’t want to abandon his staff.
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