Alien: Earth season 1 episode 3 ending explained: What is Boy Cavalier and Kirsh putting in Hermit's lung?

Wendy and Hermit have a scary face-off with a xenomorph in Alien: Earth season 1 episode 3, and it doesn't end well for them. The xenomorph is killed by Wendy's paper-cutter blade, but Wendy and Hermit are left injured and unconscious after crashing the USCSS Maginot. For most of the episode afterward, they are largely out of commission. The good news is that they're alive, although they have a lot of recovery ahead. One of Hermit's lungs, however, might not survive.

Boy Cavalier and Kirsh insert a tadpole-sized xenomorph from the facehugger into Hermit's lung, which has been removed from his body and placed in a container. The baby xenomorph quickly infiltrates the tissue, marking the start of Boy Cavalier and Kirsh's new experiment. What they plan to do with Hermit's alien-infested lung remains a mystery.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for Alien: Earth season 1 episode 3. Reader's discretion is advised.

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What is Boy Cavalier and Kirsh putting in Hermit's lung in Alien: Earth season 1 episode 3?

Boy Cavalier and Kirsh are up to something in Alien: Earth season 1 episode 3, and it involves one of Hermit's surgically removed lungs and a baby Xenomorph. After rescuing Wendy and Hermit from the damaged area of the Maginot, they are both already unconscious. Hermit has been gravely injured after a xenomorph impales him with its tail, while Wendy shuts down after killing the alien.

Hermit's lung (Image via Hulu)

Hermit, being human, is taken to the emergency room to get stitched up. At least, that's how it appears. However, at the end of Alien: Earth season 1 episode 3, Hermit, or at least part of him, becomes part of a much bigger experiment. Back at the Neverland research facility, Kirsh bans all humans from the Prodigy lab. He's now leading the experiment since Boy Cavalier couldn't be in the lab.

The experiment begins with Kirsh extracting a tadpole from one of the facehuggers retrieved from the Maginot spaceship. Meanwhile, they have already surgically removed one of Hermit's lungs and placed it in a container, artificially keeping it alive. He then puts the tadpole-sized xenomorph in the lung, and they watch the extraterrestrial organism slip right into Hermit's lung.

Alien: Earth season 1 episode 3 hasn't revealed Boy Cavalier and Kirsh's plan by putting a xenomorph tadpole in Hermit's lung, but it looks like another experiment. Boy Cavalier and Kirsh might be planning to make their own xenomorph with this experiment, using Hermit's lung as the host of the embryo.

For anyone familiar with the Alien saga, the facehugger hugs a biological organism and places a parasitic embryo in its body. That embryo starts growing and eventually, the chestburster bursts out of its host's chest, leading to the birth of the xenomorph. Since Kirsh knows the birthing process, he could be trying to create the chestburster from Hermit's lung. Whether it will succeed or not remains a mystery.

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Does Wendy wake up in Alien: Earth season 1 episode 3?

Wendy wakes up, but not for long (Image via Hulu)

For most of FX's Alien: Earth season 1 episode 3, Wendy is out of commission after being injured while killing the xenomorph early on. She is in a kind of coma as Prodigy continues studying the extraterrestrial organisms collected from the falling Maginot.

However, at the end of the episode, Wendy wakes up from her coma, but she appears unwell. She looks even worse as she walks toward the Prodigy lab, hearing a screeching alien. The screams cause her pain, making it hard for her to walk or stand. At one point, the noise becomes so loud that it causes her physical pain.

When she enters the lab, Kirsh extracts the tadpole-sized xenomorph, which makes the alien shrieks even louder, intensifying her pain. Wendy ends up fainting and losing consciousness again. She probably needs more time to recover and heal after her injuries at the crash site.

Still, the alien screeching she hears, causing her pain, raises another mystery about a possible connection between her and the alien offspring. A neural connection between them might exist, but the details of that theory remain a mystery as Alien: Earth season 1 episode 3 ends.

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Is Hermit alive at the end of Alien: Earth season 1 episode 3?

Hermit's fate in question (Image via Hulu)

At the end of Alien: Earth season 1 episode 3, Hermit is seen alive and in a pod-like enclosure, healing. Although he no longer has one of his lungs, humans can usually survive with just one lung. However, while he's safe for now, circumstances can change in an instant.

There are still many questions surrounding Boy Cavalier and Kirsh's xeno-experiment. Now that his other lung is infected with the alien, concerns remain about whether the experiment will stay that way, if they only need Hermit's lung to host the xenomorph, or if they plan to return Hermit's lung to him.

If the latter happens, it means a xenomorph will be growing inside him. He might not notice it at first, but it will be too late once the chestburster matures, and he will undoubtedly die if that happens.

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What's going on with Nibs in Alien: Earth season 1 episode 3?

While Nibs survived the alien attack in the Alien: Earth season 1 premiere with her synthetic body, she might not be safe from the consequences of what happened to her. Alien: Earth season 1 episode 3 proves that the alien attack has deeply affected Nibs, at least mentally. She begins to experience some kind of mental crisis, questioning everything about her new existence as a synth.

She even questions the concept of the Lost Boys and why they are called that. Whether her new existential crisis is caused by trauma, an error during her transfer process, or some unknown damage from the alien attack remains a mystery.

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Catch Alien: Earth season 1 episode 3, along with the previous two episodes, streaming on Hulu. Episodes are also available to watch on Disney+ internationally.