As a fan of the Alien franchise, the first few episodes of the Xenomorph series left me more disappointed than expected.
However, the recently aired third episode of Noah Hawley’s series introduced several intriguing mysteries that I couldn’t ignore. If you’re also having similar thoughts, keep on reading.
Alien: Earth is rolling out episodes now on Disney+ in the UK and on Hulu in the US. If you don’t want to miss the next episode, check out our episode release guide. You can also read my full thoughts about the new season in this review of the first five episodes.
Spoilers for Alien: Earth season 1, episode 3 below
Morrow (Babou Ceesay), a cyborg employed by the Weiland-Yutani Corporation and Chief Security Officer of the Maginot spaceship, is so far the most disturbing character in the series.
At the very beginning, we learnt that he is so devoted to bringing the alien specimens to his employers that he is willing to sacrifice the lives of the crew to fulfil his mission. But despite what it may have seemed like at first, he isn’t responsible for the spaceship crash. He actually wants to find out why the Maginot was destroyed and regain the creatures stolen by Boy Kavalier.
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While creeping through the wrecked ship in episode 3, Morrow encounters two hybrid boys, Smee (Jonathan Ajayi) and Slightly (Adarsh Gourav). After terrorising the kids, posing a bizarre riddle (“When is a machine not a machine?”) and downloading some data directly to his brain, Morrow disappeared into the shadows.
He reappears shortly thereafter, contacting Slightly through a chip secretly implanted in the boy’s neck. During a rather creepy conversation, Morrow suggests that he figured out that Slightly is a hybrid, and he wants to use him in his mission. We assume that the cyborg will manipulate the poor boy to be a spy inside the Prodigy facility – the only question is whether Slightly will agree to it.
2. What’s wrong with Nibs?
In episode 2, while searching the spaceship wreck at the order of Boy Kavalier, Nibs (Lily Newmark), a red-haired hybrid girl, was attacked by a terrifying eyeball octopus.
The cunning parasite burrows into its victim’s eye socket and takes control of the nervous system, turning the victim into a zombie – we’ve already witnessed that happening to the poor cat aboard the Maginot.
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Nibs managed to defend herself against the monster, but the event left a mark on her. Unlike the other children, Nibs is not very keen on conducting experiments on alien creatures. She was also roaming around the Prodigy facility and spent a long time looking at her reflection in the mirror. She was even pressing her pupils with her fingers, which is undeniably disturbing, even if she has a synthetic body.
It’s possible that the trauma associated with the alien attack caused Nibs to develop some personal issues, which her guardians will have to deal with in the following episodes.
3. Why does Wendy feel the pain and clicking of the Xenomorphs?
In the first episodes of the show, there were suggestions that Wendy (Sydney Chandler) could hear the clicking of Xenomorphs in the wreckage of the Maginot ship. In episode 3, we got confirmation.
Wounded in a fight with an adult Xenomorph, the girl was taken for diagnostics. After waking up, she was perceiving not only the sounds made by the Xenomorphs but also the pain they suffered at the hands of Kirsh, who started to experiment on facehuggers in the Prodigy lab.
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Until now, only one person in the history of the universe has been able to directly understand cosmic predators – Ellen Ripley’s clone in the campy Alien Resurrection from 1997. However, that creature, brought to life in the distant future, was created by combining human and Xenomorph DNA. Therefore, it’s understandable why Ellen could share the aliens’ hive mind.
As far as we know, hybrids’ bodies are made of synthetic tissues – and before the events of the series, no Xenomorph had ever fallen into the hands of human scientists. It’s hard to imagine how Wendy, aka Marcy, could have a connection with these predatory beings.
While the series featured vague memories of Marcy and Hermit’s father, no one mentioned their mother. Perhaps her identity is being kept secret for a reason and will be important in explaining why, according to Boy Kavalier, Wendy is so “special.”
4. Why is Kirsh experimenting on Hermit’s removed lung?
In episode 3, Hermit (Alex Lawther), a military doctor and Wendy’s brother, underwent surgery to replace his damaged lung.
The removed organ was later used for a strange experiment. A synthetic Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant) put a Xenomorph germ into a container with the lung, allowing the creature to penetrate the tissue.
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In the Alien universe, androids, or rather synths, have an apparent fascination with alien life forms and an ambivalent attitude toward humans. Some of them, like Ash from Alien, are deeply loyal to the corporation that programmed them, while others, like David from Prometheus, are capable of rebellion.
Kirsh from Alien: Earth for now remains a mystery. He shares David’s enthusiasm for experimenting on aliens, but at the same time seems devoted to the Prodigy corporation.
Perhaps by allowing the Xenomorph germ to feed on human flesh, Kirsh is merely displaying scientific curiosity – or, there is another, darker reason behind it.
5. What’s the deal with the guy with the steam device in the corridor?
Earlier in the season, we saw a man in a strange suit and with a mysterious device performing what looked like decontamination in the Prodigy facility. In episode 3, he reappeared, dressed again in the outfit resembling some of the Blade Runner costumes, or the Baron Harkonnen suit from David Lynch’s Dune.
He could just be a janitor, putting a lot of effort into keeping the building nice and clean, but… is he?
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The creators of the series show him a little too often for him to be an insignificant character. One Reddit theory says that he might be cleaning the facility after Boy Kavalier’s hazardous and unethical experiment.
Another fan theory claims that he might be an early hybrid, likely a failed result of transferring an adult mind into a synthetic body. Or, he may even be the mind of Boy Kavalier himself.
We’ll hopefully learn more in future episodes of Alien: Earth, which drop every Tuesday night in the US at 8pm ET/5pm PT, and every Wednesday morning at 1am BST in the UK.
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