Alien: Covenant - What Does The Ending Really Mean?

4. David Is Broken

One of the most interesting revelations in Covenant is that David is not only fundamentally flawed as a creation of humanity (since he's poisoned against his creator), but that he's also broken. He has something amiss that has him mis-identify Ozymandias as written by Byron, rather than Shelley.

In other words, his very philosophy of perfection - which compels him to play God and create in his own image - is wrong-headed and so too could the products of that philosophy be. But then perhaps that's precisely the point: in seeking to replace humanity, David is the victim of the most human problem - fallibility.

How that will be explored in future remains to be seen, but we do now know that David is aware of his problem, which might also be the reason for his transition from an apparently neutral presence compelled by duty in Prometheus into full villain in Covenant. And looking at the precedent of human and android characters in past Alien films, it's that flaw that will undo him.