Daniels should had died.

@colonial- Judging by the casual way Elizabeth Shaw & The Engineers were simply written off, Daniels & Tennessee may be in for trouble!

@CB - But I think that would have been a shock if she would have gotten impregnanted or killed on the ship by an xenomorph.  Similar to Samuel Jackson in Deep Blue Sea.  It would have been good to see Tennessee be the last standing survivor at the end.  Also, Tennessee does not realize that David is Walter and then you find out at the very end.

It was just done in a tacky, lazy and boring way.

@colinialsoldier - AGREED!  We are really needing the other movies to get here, and get here fast, if we are to ever have an understanding of the motivations at work in AC?

It just seems we are presently being put on a need-to-know basis?

Daniel's had potential to be a strong female lead, but I'm irritated enough with the film's short comings that I think I'd like to see something bad happen to her. If Ridley has half a brain,  he'd make Franken-Shaw the precursor to a truly Gigeresque Daniels attached to machines, producing eggs.

After all, David only had two facehuggers. The options for more eggs are:

1. using the resultant xenos to egg morph the colonists (not interested)

2. A queen (still not interested)

3. or doing to Daniels what he did to Shaw (but in a more elaborate way, using parts from the ship to create an egg factory.)

But considering that Ridley Scott has no idea how to truly exploit the potential of this franchise, and since Fox will likely listen to complaints from Alien fans vs Prometheus fans, we'll probably get a soft reboot or something mirroring most the beats of Aliens. 

If they were smart, they'd find a way to invoke the nostalgia of Aliens while showcasing the novelties of Prometheus

Also, in regards to the ideas in the OP, yes it would have been interesting to have Daniels die in the second act and have Crudup handle things in act three, but I'd have preferred he didn't survive. If they really wanted to bring his faith full circle, he would have done something nuts, like sacrifice himself to kill the xeno and save the colonists.

"There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends."

                                  John 15:13

Rosenthal could have been the sole survivor who filled Tennessee's role in the final act and she could go into hypersleep having no idea it's David. She could then be the next egg factory. 

I would think that Katherine Waterson's agent, McBride's too, negotiated for a two-film deal. 

McBride is a cult-favorite actor, mainly from Kenny Powers, but I can see him becoming a household name from the next film, if, he does more than bicker with some annoying crewmember about moving the ship closer to a planet. Waterson is great, but her character romanticized way too much about the lake cabin and this idea of greener grass. It made her seem weak and vulnerable. Ripley had f****ing leather skin. The strong female role may be over for the prequels, but, a female synthetic to combat David would be cool. 

I would have liked for Oram to have survived and Daniels to been massacred in a horrible way. Oram was a very likeable character while Daniels was not.

It is all a big secret, but we are not allowed to ever find out!

I was expecting Daniels to be a lot more of a forceful leader throughout the movie, but she seemed fairly subdued and low-key. She's a good actress but I think this role was not a natural one for her, she's not really an action/physical actress. Maybe she was slightly intimidated working with Ridley and being involved with these movies.

It was interesting to me that they had McBride survive along with Daniels and David. To me, its either a nod to Ripley/Hicks in Aliens, or it's much worse and in the next installment it'll be Holloway/Shaw part 2.

If that's the case, put Ridley and the writers out to pasture and have someone else take a swing. Christ, the people on this forum have come up with better scenarios than what has been presented in these past 2 installments.

"Alien Covenant" is Sir Ridley's "Force Awakens".  That is, it's a rehash of the original Alien much like The Force Awakens is a rehash of the original Star Wars.

1) Crew comes out of hypersleep early.
2) Signal is detected
3) Crew lands to investigate
4) Derelict is found
5) An android turns out to be shady
6) Contagion gets aboard main vessel
7) Various people die
8) Alien is hunted, but don't 'shoot weapons onboard the earth vessel'.
9) Alien is ejected out of the airlock
10) Heroine goes back to hypersleep

Good fun for the price of a burger and fries.  But, where's the originality and answers that we've waited decades for?

The idea of Rosenthal surviving to the end isn't bad.  Pull a twist and kill of Daniels in the Citadel then switch your focus to Rosenthal. I believe she was part of the security detail on the crew, so she would be more capable physically and with a firearm anyways.

Also they should of at least had her grab her pistol and get a few rounds off instead of dying like a typical female in a movie. Sitting there all helpless and screaming, but I guess the gunfire would alert the crew....however they didn't hear anything when Oram dusted the Neomorph.  

I'm glad Daniels didn't die and I think she was good for the movie. I bet she'll be in the next one and will really come forward as the next Ripley. 

@David and Hicks.  Again, why do we want a rehash of what was done before.  Its like the Bond movies; yes, there is a formula but they do have different outcomes most of the time.

I see no problem with having numerous survivors at the end.  I think the Ten Little Indians and And Then They Were None is kind of played out.  

I do not see a problem of having a lone male hero or if we got shocked if she got killed by an Xenomorph.  At the end of Alien, you feel the terror of being alone with Ripley and rooting for her to get off that ship; I did not get any vibe from Daniels.  She is a good cryer though.