The third episode of Alien: Earth kicks off with Wendy dashing solo to rescue Joe from the clutches of the xenomorph, while Kirsh and his team spring into action, containing the specimens and piecing together the puzzle of what went awry. They deduce that the crew had "lost control," a phrase that leaves much to be unraveled.
Amidst this chaos, Nibs, a crew member whose presence has been sparse thus far, expresses confusion over their moniker "Lost Boys," pointing out the obvious imbalance with half the team being girls. She's also not thrilled about Wendy's moniker remaining unchanged, prompting a round of name-riffing among the others. Curly joins in the banter, but their laughter is abruptly cut short when Kirsh receives a call from Kavalier. The mission's scope has shifted; it's no longer about rescue but about capturing and containing five alien species, which they must then transport to the quarantine lab nestled in the sublevels.
Meanwhile, Wendy discovers Joe, very much alive but sporting a few cuts. He's glued to the wall in some alien substance, a setup clearly orchestrated by the lurking xenomorph. The creature appears but refrains from attacking, seemingly aware of their pivotal roles. Instead, it leaps onto the roof of a nearby trailer, planning its assault from above.
Wendy lunges at it with a sword, piercing its hide only to have it ooze acid through the floorboards. In a swift move, the xenomorph impales Joe through the heart and hurls him across the room. Despite this, Wendy manages to revive her brother and engage in a fierce battle with the beast, hooking its gaping maw before they team up to trap it in a hangar. However, the xenomorph retaliates by tossing Wendy into the trap with it. Joe, on his feet again, springs into action, opening the control box and chewing through wires, hotwiring the door to swing open and release them both from their perilous predicament.
Despite Wendy's impressive feat of beheading the xenomorph with a knife, rendering it into a pile of acidic goo, his efforts were somewhat unnecessary. As Wendy fainted from a trickle of her own blood, Joe followed suit, albeit his wounds, having been stabbed in the stomach, were far more grievous.
Morrow soon appeared at the bow of the ship, where he discovered the alien eggs. Meanwhile, Smee and Slightly were caught off guard once again as they goofed around. Rather than restraining them, Morrow allowed them to watch as he uploaded the data from the bay into his mind. Acknowledging their synthetic nature, he posed a riddle to Slightly, "When does a machine cease to be a machine?" This question seemed to deeply affect him, though Slightly endeavored not to reveal his own disturbance.
Kirsh soon emerged to seize control of the situation, but the situation took a dramatic turn when one of the eggs hatched. Rather than risk capture by Prodigy, Morrow opted to leap off the ship.
Fast forward in time, Prodigy secured the crash site, collected the specimens, and transported both Joe and Wendy, stretcher-bound, to Neverland. Siberian and Rashidi had also arrived, having reunited with the others after narrowly escaping the xenomorph, despite their close encounter with the creature just a week prior.
Kavalier, thrilled with their bounty, prepared for further experiments while the scientists worked diligently to heal Wendy. When Kavalier wandered into the lab, Kirsh warned him to keep his distance from the xenomorph egg, elucidating the mechanics of the facehuggers and the xenos' method of propagation. The only missing piece of the puzzle was Morrow, who was wandering aimlessly through New Siam.
Morrow called Yutani and updated the CEO on the ongoing developments. He possessed the data for the specimens, but despite being instructed to return home, Morrow defied the order. His sole directive was to retrieve these specimens, and that was precisely what he intended to do.
Elsewhere, Curly arrives to visit Boy Kavalier with a proposition. He confessionally admits that Wendy holds a special place in his heart, yet he contends that she ought to occupy an even more elevated position. Unaware of Wendy's sole devotion to her brother, Curly harbors grand schemes to transform the world for the better. Kavalier ponders this revelation and, recognizing Wendy's potential, decides to gift her a collection of books, confident that she is a contender for his elite favor.
In the meantime, Morrow pulls off a digital coup, hacking into Slightly's mind and subtly maneuvering him into a pseudo-amicable collaboration. Back at Prodigy, Wendy awakens from her slumber and makes her way to the lab, only to find Kirsh engrossed in his alien egg experiment. As he deftly slices open the egg and extracts the facehugger, Wendy clutches her temples in agony, apparently attuned to the creatures' ultrasonic emissions.
Despite her distress, Wendy continues into the lab, her hands still gripping her head, until finally, she collapses unconscious. Ironically, her entrance and subsequent fainting go unnoticed, a comical oversight amidst the bustling environment. Oblivious to Wendy's plight, Kirsh remains deeply absorbed in his work, carelessly allowing a tiny tadpole-like alien offspring from the facehugger to fall into a vast tank containing Joe's excised lung. Swiftly, a trickle of blood污染了池水, serving as an invitation for the alien larva to find a new host in the infected waters.
