Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Alien: Earth Episode 3.
Noah Hawley‘s Alien: Earth debuted on FX and Hulu last week to rave reviews. With a franchise that’s almost half a century old, how do you create a TV series that either doesn’t simply recreate the past or goes so far in the other direction that fans are disappointed? The latter was certainly the case for Ridley Scott‘s Prometheus. Hawley and company answered that question by giving us all the practical effects of xenomorph mayhem we could handle, but by having it occur in a story unlike one we’ve ever seen before.
The first two episodes focus on Wendy (Sydney Chandler), a hybrid with the consciousness of a human child downloaded into a synthetic adult body, and her Lost Boys counterparts, who are sent to explore the wreckage of the USCSS Maginot, a ship that crash-lands on Earth with deadly alien cargo on board, including a xenomorph. As the second episode ends, Wendy is reunited with her still very human brother, Joe (Alex Lawther), only for a xenomorph to take him in an attempt to create more just like it. That sends super-strength Wendy on the run after them. So what will happen next in Episode 3, “Metamorphosis”?
Wendy and Joe Are Attacked by a Xenomorph in ‘Alien: Earth’ Episode 3
When the episode begins, Wendy is running through the wreckage of the Maginot in a desperate search for her brother, Joe. Meanwhile, Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant) and some of the Lost Boys are examining the alien specimens. It’s a little too much for the always scared Nibs (Lily Newmark), who doesn’t like their attachment to Peter Pan characters. Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) radios in, deciding that the rescue mission is over. Now, it’s time to secure the specimens and bring them back to be studied. There are five species on board that could be worth trillions, even though Dame Silvia (Essie Davis) and Arthur (David Rysdahl) want to focus on developing the new synths implanted with human consciousness.
Wendy ends up in a damaged area of the ship with semi-truck containers. Although Joe screams out from one trailer not to come for him because it’s a trap, Wendy, or Marcy, as her brother still calls her, goes for him anyway. Untying him from his gooey alien restraints, the xenomorph slowly creeps in. As Wendy and Joe walk towards the creature, ready to fight for their lives, it slinks away. Just where is it going? The siblings won’t follow, but then they hear something stomping around on top of the trailer. Armed only with the blade from a paper cutter, Wendy shoves it upward, impaling the alien through the roof, which sends down its acid blood.
When the trailer is violently tossed over, Wendy is thrown out, leaving Joe to now become the searching hero. Shockingly, before he can find her, the xenomorph’s tail impales him through the back and throws him to the ground. It gets in close, its second mouth about to smash through his face, when Wendy hooks the mouth with a bar, holding it in place. They try to trap it in another room, but Wendy is taken by it. When Joe gets to his sister, she’s alive, but the xenomorph’s head is ripped clean off. Instead of looking like a hero, Wendy is scared, before collapsing unconscious. Joe isn’t doing much better as he falls by her side.
As this is all going on, poor Slightly (Adarsh Gourav) has been left to guard the alien eggs all alone. He’s terrified but relieved when Smee (Jonathan Ajayi) comes to bring him back to Kirsh. They excitedly talk about their adventures like the two kids they really are, but their fun is interrupted by Morrow (Babou Ceesay), who has a gun pointed at them. Seeing that they have no weapons, he talks to them about the eggs they’re next to and the monsters that come out of them. Slightly and Smee would rather just go now, but cyborg Morrow hooks himself up to a computer for a data transfer. When told that his orders are only to worry about the specimens, he asks if the hybrids could harm others. When they almost give up what they truly are, a blade extends from Morrow’s arm as he demands to know what kind of machine they are. Morrow is interrupted just in time by Kirsh, allowing the two hybrids to hide behind him like little boys. Morrow tells him that Yutani will never let Prodigy have what’s on her ship, and as an egg begins to hatch, he jumps off the Maginot.
One Lost Boy Could Become Boy Kavalier’s Favorite in ‘Alien: Earth’ Episode 3
Wendy, Joe, and the decapitated xenomorph are brought back, unconscious and being treated, but there’s no sign of the cyborg. Everyone returns home to Boy Kavalier, including all the specimens on the ship. He’s really excited about the egg and the monster with acid blood inside. He gets way too close, and even though a look of anger crosses Kirsh’s face, he pushes his boss back and makes him leave the room. After a warning about the alien needing a human host, Kavalier bans everyone who isn’t synthetic from the lab and puts Kirsh in charge.
Boy Kavalier’s right-hand man, Atom Eins (Adrian Edmondson), questions Slightly and Smee about Morrow and what he whispered to them. “When is a machine not a machine?” Slightly recalls. Smee is scared that Morrow will find them and kill them, but Eins isn’t concerned. They’re in a facility in the middle of the ocean, and Morrow will be caught or killed before the day is over. As the man leaves, we see Kirsh watching these two Lost Boys intently. What is he thinking? Meanwhile, Morrow, now on the run in New Siam, calls Yutani (Sandra Yi Sencindiver). She wants to know where the creatures are, but he lets her know they’ve been taken by Prodigy. Yutani wants him to come home, but he won’t. The creatures are his life’s work, and he’s going to get them back himself.
At the same time, one of the smarter Lost Boys, Curly (Erana James), questions Boy Kavalier about Wendy being his favorite. She thinks it’s wrong, because she’s the best. Curly is a thinker with ideas, while Wendy only cares about her brother. Kavalier tells her that all geniuses are children because they have access to a vast imagination, just like kids do, and just like Curly does, which makes her smile. Kavalier, who is searching for someone to challenge him, tells her that she’s now in the race to be his favorite.
Boy Kavalier Is Making His Own Xenomorph in ‘Alien: Earth’ Episode 3
Slightly is alone in his room watching TV when Morrow taps into his mind. He’s figured out who he and the other Lost Boys are. Slightly is scared of this capability and doesn’t want to talk to the cyborg, but Morrow manipulates him, asking the child to be his friend. Slightly can’t say no, so he agrees. He’s a flawed kid with his own distinct personality, just like the others. For example, wide-eyed, frightened Nibs is in her room checking out her new body in the mirror, and it’s obvious that she doesn’t like it. While Curly is loving it, it feels like Nibs would rather just be a little girl again.
Dame Silvia sleeps by Wendy’s bedside as the first of the Lost Boys comes back online. She seems to be okay, but all human Joe is in bad shape as he undergoes surgery and has a lung removed. Joe makes it through his surgery and is sent to a pod to recover, but his internal organ now sits in a large container filled with liquid, and ready for something we don’t yet know.
Afterward, Kirsh, Curly, and Tootles (Kit Young) bring out an alien egg to examine, with Curly taking video. Kirsh starts sawing through the shell, exposing the membrane underneath. With Wendy’s super hearing, she can hear the facehugger inside even though she’s not near. The facehugger is ripped out of its shell by Kirsh, held down, and stunned into unconsciousness. From a window outside, Wendy watches Kirsh cut into it. The sound of the eggs is too much to bear, but she enters the lab anyway, getting nearer before she collapses, as we watch a tadpole-sized xenomorph being pulled out of the facehugger’s insides. Kirsh takes the baby xenomorph over to the container with Joe’s lung and puts it in. The xenomorph quickly slides inside the flesh, and with that, it all becomes clear. Boy Kavalier is trying to create a monster. This won’t end well.
Alien: Earth
The story is so compelling that the xenomorph attacks aren’t the highlight of the episode.
- Release Date
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August 12, 2025
Pros & Cons
- The relationship between Wendy and Joe carries the episode.
- The practical effects continue to be among the best in franchiese history.
- Curly’s development as a character makes her someone to watch.
- Boy Kavalier as a villain is even more of a terrifying threat than the alien monsters.
