What’s the story behind Timothy Olyphant’s mysterious character Kirsh in Alien: Earth? If you’ve been tuning into the FX series, you might have thought Kirsh is a dedicated synthetic aide to Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin). This makes sense, as the Prodigy CEO entrusts Kirsh with safeguarding his most valuable assets, whether they’re groundbreaking hybrids or pilfered alien artifacts.

**Spoilers for Alien: Earth Episode 6 “The Fly,” now streaming on Hulu**

Yet, at the conclusion of Episode 6, titled “The Fly,” Kirsh uncovers a crucial development that he purposefully conceals from Boy Kavalier. This decision, along with a peculiar conversation earlier in the episode, left us puzzled.

“All I know is it seems like we’re all navigating the same scenario with AI,” Timothy Olyphant mentioned, with a smirk. “Whose allegiance does it hold? Stay tuned to find out.”

There’s good reason for Olyphant to be so coy about Kirsh’s intentions. At the end of this week’s episode of Alien: Earth, he watches in real time as one of the hybrids, Tootles, aka Isaac (Kit Young), meets his demise after two deadly aliens gang up on him. (The Eye Midge, in the body of a sheep, makes a premeditated move to trap Isaac in the Fly’s pen, seemingly aware that the Fly is the one alien who feasts on metal and not biological matter.) When Boy Kavalier asks Kirsh if anything is going on, Kirsh lies and says everything is okay.

Not only that, but Kirsh has been listening in on secret conversations that Weyland-Yutani lieutenant Morrow (Babou Ceesay) has been having with the hybrid Slightly (Adarsh Gourav). Rather than intercede, Kirsh has been sitting back, observing. All the while, Slightly is plotting to steal the aliens for Weyland-Yutani.

Kirsh’s loyalties to Prodigy are further questioned by a weird conversation he has this week with Morrow, wherein the adversaries almost feel like they could be allies. It’s a strange vibe that we asked Olyphant and Ceesay about.

“Did you kind of feel they could? Because I kind of felt they could there for a little bit,” Timothy Olyphant said, of the potential Kirsh/Morrow alliance teased. “Two working class guys, you know what I mean?” 

“A bit of understanding,” Babou Ceesay said, nodding.

“Yeah, understanding the trade,” Olyphant said.

Ceesay smiled and kept nodding. “Yeah.”

“A lot of respect for one another,” Olyphant said.

“Indeed,” Ceesay said.

“Yeah, that scene in particular was one of my fave days on the set, working with this guy with that material. That was fun,” Olyphant said.

There are only two more episodes of Alien: Earth Season 1, meaning we could yet see more underhanded actions from Kirsh or discover that he’s been part of a larger plan concocted by Boy Kavalier. So what will it be? Is Kirsh loyal or a traitor?

As Olyphant himself teased, “…we’ll see.”