Alien: Earth Season 1 Episode 3 “Metamorphosis” is where we as the viewer become truly horrified by the reality of what we’re seeing. And it’s not being horrified because of the xenomorphs. We’ve known these creatures since 1979. And it isn’t even the other aliens that I as a viewer am horrified by. They’re admittedly cool designs with terrifying consequences if they get to you. But the true horror in “Metamorphosis” lies in the emphasis of all of the hybrid synths being children.
Episode 1 of Alien: Earth Season 1 gave us the origin story of these hybrids. And it was given to us in the context of saving them. Episode 2 of Alien: Earth had the hybrids explore the crashed ship. And even though we were a bit sketchy about them exploring the Maginot with xenomorphs around, I feel like as a viewer I let it go a little bit easier because Wendy was going to find her brother and they were basically indestructible. Or so we thought.
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Wendy took down that xenomorph. And it was exhilarating watching the showdown as a viewer. But that exhilaration at the fight completely disappeared when the show revealed her trembling form with the delicate music box notes in the background.
That’s when it hit us. For real this time. Wendy is a child. Not a hybrid. Not a synth. She’s a child.
Even if Wendy was capable of taking the xenomorph down, she just experienced something absolutely shattering and traumatic. As evidenced in the show, they managed to fix her up and get her going. But her mind, no matter how much access to knowledge she has, is still that of a child. And I can’t help but wonder how she is going to process these traumas or if she even can because we’re in uncharted territory.
If anything, thank God that Wendy still has her brother Hermit. He is going to be the tether that will keep her grounded as she tries to discover what the connection is between her and these creatures. And I know that he’ll fight for her just as hard as she fought for him now that he knows she’s alive. Or her mind is.
That’s where the other hybrids come in.
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They are also children. What’s happening to them is also traumatic and scary. And I worry about them processing the trauma and threats they are taking on because their bodies are supposedly indestructible. But unlike Wendy, I’m a little bit more afraid of them than for them. They don’t have an anchor like Wendy does. So what can they hold on to?
Curly is trying to anchor herself by being better than Wendy and being Boy Kavalier’s favorite. Smee is trying to anchor himself with Slightly but Morrow has gotten his hooks in Slightly. Tootles I don’t have a fix on yet. But Nibs? Oh she’s creepy and feels like she’s ready to peel back her skin to see what lies beyond this hybrid face.
At the end of the day, what is going to destroy everything is Boy Kavalier’s hubris. He decided to create these hybrids because he wanted to have a good conversation with someone who maybe was up to his intellect or smarter. He played God. And like God, he underestimated his creations. Because Curly doesn’t want to just be like him one day. She wants to be better or more than him.
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And I hope that Boy Kavalier is taking this as the threat it is. Because she might want his approval but she also has limitless dreams with no anchor and she sees Wendy caring for her brother as being useless. That’s a sign that she has lost the thing that Boy Kavalier was trying to instill in these hybrids to make them different: their humanity. And it’s a recipe for disaster.
Alien: Earth Season 1 Episode 3 “Metamorphosis” feels like the first two episodes locking into place with this third one in a way where I can see that there is a bigger picture. Do I know what the bigger picture is? No. But I’m starting to piece together this show in a way that feels satisfying to me as a viewer but also as someone who likes mystery.
I don’t feel like Alien: Earth is talking down to me. Instead it feels like Alien: Earth is trusting me, especially in “Metamorphosis.” And I’m really interested in what makes Wendy different that she can hear the aliens and know that they’re talking. But I’m also really sad. Because I don’t think she’s going to survive this. If she did it would have changed the entire trajectory of all the movies that followed.
Additional thoughts about Alien: Earth Season 1 Episode 3 “Metamorphosis”:
- “When is the machine not a machine?” When it’s a hybrid.
- If we pull back from the craziness of it all, it was kind of sad that Morrow realized that they were acting like kids; Smee and Slightly. We recognize a father.
- And since Morrow has nothing left besides the mission because he’s been gone so long his child doesn’t know him, he’s going to come after the creatures that Prodigy has taken.
- But because he’s a father, I wonder if he’ll be able to go through with what has to be done to get those creatures back aka hurt the hybrids.
- “My dad always threw the first pancake in the trash.” That is an unhinged response from a synthetic hybrid with a computer brain and aspirations to be better than Daddy’s favorite.
- And Curly is also giving “I might reach a point in my big brain where I realize that the big problem when it comes to this world is humans. I’m not human. So I know better on what needs to be taken off the board to save this planet. You. Humans.”
- Did they just leave Wendy on the floor after she collapsed and didn’t pick her up?
- Rude.
- Kirsh by the way. When he was confronting Morrow. Doesn’t matter what role this man is in, Timothy Olyphant has this swagger about him that is so attractive.
Alien: Earth is available on FX and Hulu with new episodes dropping on Tuesdays at 8pm ET.
