Episode Review: Alien: Earth Episode 3 - "Metamorphosis"

Welcome back to the blog readers. I was personally hoping that Alien: Earth's (2025) first two episodes (that were released together but I watched and reviewed separately) would be good, but I was very surprised at how well I thought those episodes were made. I am sold on this world and sold on these characters after nearly two hours with them. I am also excited to see where this show goes next, and that starts with this episode, titled "Metamorphosis," written by Noah Hawley and Bob DeLaurentis, and directed by Dana Gonzales. Would it be as good as the first two episodes? Let's find out together.

NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the episode.

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One of my favorite genres in film or television ever absolutely has to be science fiction. A science fiction world can give you endless possibilities in terms of characters, worldbuilding, and overall story. The two-episode premiere did an incredible job of showcasing what kind of world we can get when it is given the proper attention and care. This episode expanded on that and truly gave us something special. All of the performances are brilliant, especially from Babou Ceesay and Adarsh Gourav. And I think the story of this episode has a lot of intrigue that left me with my jaw on the floor.

I want to start by talking about the performance of Babou Ceesay. When I spoke about the solid first episode and how well I thought Ceesay's performance as the cyborg Morrow was, I had no idea that that performance could be topped. I am so fucking glad I am wrong because Ceesay completely blew me away with his performance in this episode. This time around, he plays a Morrow that is beginning to question his own nature. And that dialogue he has in this episode is beautifully written to reflect that change in thought. Ceesay brings so much humanity to this cyborg that it really makes you feel like despite the shitty things he is doing, there may or may not be reasons to sympathize with this character. I hope we continue to get this development from Morrow, because Ceesay could get some Emmy love for this role.

Next up, I want to talk about the performance of Adarsh Gourav. Gourav is an Indian actor that has never been in an American production, but he is a BAFTA-nominated actor in his own right. So I (and you if you are of this mindset) can be forgiven if you have never heard of this actor. But what he did as the hybrid Slightly really stunned and fascinated me. All of the actors that are playing hybrids in this show have to really convince you that they are playing children trapped in the body of an adult, but Gourav absolutely has done that, especially in this episode. The fear when he deals with Morrow, the boyish charm he shows when with fellow "Lost Boy," all of it equates to a hell of a layered performance that I really hope he continues on in future episodes.

But now, it's story time. And this episode's story left me laughing, uncomfortable, and shocked as ever, especially the end. We start immediately where we left off last time out, where the Xenomorph (that I called Big Ugly) took Joe right as he reunited with Wendy (a hybrid that contains the consciousness of his sister Marcy). Wendy left to chase Big Ugly down and look for her brother, while Kirsh finishes his analysis of the ship and its specimens. Under Boy Kavalier's orders, he is tasked with containing and retrieving the specimens for Kavalier. Meanwhile, one of the Lost Boys named Nibs questions why they are "Lost Boys" since half of them are girls, and she also cannot understand why Wendy gets to be Wendy. The other members of the crew rib on their own names to make Nibs feel better.

Meanwhile, Wendy has found her brother in a truck, tied up with some adhesive, but Big Ugly decides to play smarter and not harder. It flips the truck and Wendy impales it with a sword. Its acid blood corrodes through the truck and it is able to impale Joe with its tail and throw him across the floor. Wendy saves her brother again and is able to get Big Ugly into a room with a closing garage, but before it can close on Big Ugly, it pulls her in. When the garage opens again, Big Ugly's head is clean off its body and Wendy collapses from injury. Joe also passes out right next to Wendy. While all this is going on, Slightly (who Wendy left with the Xenomorph eggs to find Joe) is reunited with Smee. They catch up before being interrupted by Morrow, who initiates a data transfer of his own. He spares them but almost kills them when they slip up and tell them what they really are. He then asks Slightly when a machine is not a machine and unknowingly puts a device into Slightly. He then meets Kirsh, who breaks up the situation, and jumps off the ship instead of being captured by Prodigy.

Day breaks, and Prodigy has taken the specimens, Wendy, and Joe back to Neverland for respective analysis and recovery. Boy Kavalier is thrilled at the specimens that he believes could get him trillions more and has Kirsh analyze the specimens. But when Kirsh finds out that these specimens require a human host to reproduce, Kavalier does the smartest thing he has done so far in this show and decides to lock the lab down to any humans. Atom Eins, Boy Kavalier's right-hand man, questions Smee and Slightly in regard to Morrow's question, and the two are worried he will return to kill them. Eins points out they are on an island in the middle of the ocean and they are safe, as Morrow, now on the run in New Siam, gets in contact with Yutani and vows to get the specimens back, despite having been told to return home. He claims he does not have a home and those specimens are his life's work. Also, Curly questions Boy Kavalier's preference of Wendy, who she claims only cares about her brother, and he claims she is his favorite because she is the first. He tells Curly to read more books and she can be in the running to be his favorite.

That night, Morrow finds his way into Slightly's mind and he wants no part of the impending discussion with the cyborg. Morrow has figured out what the rest of the "Lost Boys" are and tries to get Slightly to be his friend. Unaware that he is being manipulated, he reluctantly agrees to be friends with the cyborg as Nibs is unsatisfactorily examining her body. Meanwhile, Kirsh takes one of Joe's lungs out of him and puts it in a tank with liquid. Wendy wakes up with Dame Silvia beside her, and hears that same buzzing she heard last episode. This buzzing takes her to the lab as Kirsh cuts open one of the Xenomorph eggs and grabs a facehugger out that he stuns into unconsciousness. He begins to cut it open and pulls out a tadpole Xenomorph and puts it into the tank featuring Joe's lung. The buzzing, revealed to be some sort of frequency with the eggs, is enough to take Wendy out in the lab as the tadpole enters Joe's lung to end the episode.

We need to talk about that last bit because it is going to kill me having to wait a week to deal with this dangling plotline. Why the actual fuck did they take Joe's lung and put a baby Xenomorph in the lung? Are they trying to kill everybody? I was watching the entire time with my head through my hands because I know what happens when people decide to play God in this world. For crying out loud, I saw Prometheus (2012) when I was 14, and that film scarred me for life. Boy Kavalier has doomed this entire island to the same grizzly fate as the soldiers and the partygoers in that apartment from last episode. I would not be surprised if "Big Ugly 2" decides it wants to wipe everybody out in minutes. If this is the case, I kind of hope the "youngest trillionaire in history who only cares about money over the well-being of his own people" goes first.

And finally, I want to talk about what is going on with Morrow. In his phone call with Yutani, he tells her that the specimens Prodigy stole were his life's work and he vowed to get them back no matter what. I feel as if we are not getting the full truth regarding his mission here. What was he tasked to do, and why is he intent on killing anyone he feels is in his way? Is there someone, or something, that he is trying to protect? I hope we get these answers soon. And is he full of shit when he was starting to feel human? Because I am starting to believe his manipulation of Slightly absolutely involves his mission, and his "I-will-do-whatever-it-takes" attitude. Hopefully we get those answers soon like I said, because we are 30% through with this show now.

Alien: Earth is getting damn good with its third episode, setting up some real deadly stakes for all of its characters, and I cannot wait to see where we go from here. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.