The hybrid kids aren’t alright

(NEXSTAR) — Following its bombastic (and terrific) two-episode premiere, FX’s “Alien: Earth” furiously pulses deeper into chaos in the series’ third episode, which finally brings the action — and the monsters — off the Weyland-Yutani ship that crash-landed in episode one.

Spoilers for Tuesday night’s episode ahead.

In “Metamorphosis,” Prodigy CEO Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin)’s plan to get the five alien species found aboard the ship and to his island comes to fruition. These include a dead xenomorph (more on that below), several xenomorph eggs, the eyeball-octopus creature, giant locust-like bugs, and the mystery plant thing.

Seriously, what is that thing going to be? Probably nothing good but we won’t find out just yet.

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Before her own return to the island, hybrid Wendy (Sydney Chandler) gets critically damaged while saving brother Joe from a near-fatal xenomorph attack. She kills the xeno but not before it tail-stabs Joe through the abdomen. It’s looks pretty bad for Joe but soon, Prodigy surgeons save him with an emergency artificial lung transplant.

Back on the island, the rest of the (hybrid) kids aren’t alright.

Curly (Erana James), meanwhile, takes Wendy’s momentary decommission as an opportunity to move in closer to her “father,” Kavalier. Earlier in the episode, she expresses frustration at being treated as if she’s less important than first-born Wendy. Later, in a private conversation with the Prodigy wunderkind, Curly expresses what she views as Wendy’s lack of vision.

When Kavalier ask if it bothers her that Wendy’s “his favorite,” Curly says it doesn’t — even though, in her opinion, he’s “wrong.”

“All she cares about is her stupid brother,” says Curly. “But I think about things… I have ideas. I’m saying I think I could be you one day. More than you, maybe.”

It’s enough to intrigue the CEO, who agrees to work with her on some yet-to-be-revealed project in exchange for being in “in the running” to be his favorite. Even hybrids have one-sided beefs.

It’s a promising new wrinkle, and it’ll be interesting to see how far Curly’s will go to become the new synthetic star. James’ performance, though brief, is among the most memorable and unnerving of the episode.

We also can’t totally disagree with Curly’s claim about Wendy: All she does care about is her brother! We’re not entirely sure we’re as invested in their relationship as the show thinks we are. As a viewer, it’s frustrating how often Wendy and Joe’s scenes fall flat. Through no fault of the actors, we simply haven’t been given enough of a reason to care about the sibling reunion. Come on, “Ice Age” isn’t that good.

It’s the weakest element of an otherwise strong series.

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The weakest moment of “Metamorphosis” overall comes early on, in one overly long (and somewhat obnoxious) scene between hybrids Slightly and Smee that drags on only to expose some of the series’ least-effective writing. It’s undoubtedly challenging writing children in adult bodies but the writing of these characters in this scene — particularly Slightly (Adarsh Gourav) — veers slightly into being so juvenile it becomes annoying. We’re not holding that against “Alien: Earth,” though, because we’re having too much fun.

Despite this unfortunate lull, the scene thankfully produces an interesting new problem for Prodigy. Weyland-Yutani cyborg security officer Morrow (Babou Ceesay) chances upon both Slightly and Smee near the end of the aforementioned scene, and he realizes the pair are Prodigy’s newest synthetics. By episode’s end, Morrow has figured out how to hack into Slightly’s communications system to speak privately.

We don’t learn exactly what Morrow, played with menacing magnetism by Ceesay, wants, but like Slightly, we’re nervous about it.

A truly thrilling (and novel) thing happens by episode’s end, as synthetic researcher Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant) does something we’ve never seen: A facehugger extraction and dissection. In this goopy and impressively practical scene, Kirsh slices the creature open to remove the sperm-like embryo it would have implanted inside a host. Refusing to let any organic tissue go to waste, Kirsh drops the organism into a vat containing Joe’s punctured lung.

You won’t see what becomes of this just yet but we promise it’s worth waiting for.

Finally, Wendy’s up and repaired but something’s different.

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During Kirsh’s facehugger dissection, Wendy starts hearing the creature’s cries in her head. In fact, she’s begun “hearing” the movements of the alien species brought to the Prodigy labs. The episode ends as Wendy tries quieting her mind against a cacophony of monsters.

“Alien: Earth”‘s premiere was pretty stellar and episode three weaves in several exciting new threads we’re excited to experience along with you. Each episode so far has leveled up over the previous one, and we’re happy to say creator Noah Hawley’s series keeps (pleasantly) surprising us.

Grade: A-

“Alien: Earth” airs Tuesdays on FX and Hulu.

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