“He values certain lives” – Alien: Earth’s Alex Lawther opens up on Joe’s shocking turn in Episode 7

Alex Lawther’s portrayal of Joe in Alien: Earth has sparked intense debate, particularly following the airing of Episode 7 on September 16, 2025.

This time, we have Joe trying to pull off a desperate escape, except it spirals into backstabbing, and his priorities are exposed for all to see. The big cliffhanger is Joe zapping Nibs (Lily Newmark) with an electric gun, right after she claps back at a Prodigy Corp soldier.

In the aftermath of this shocking turn, social media is rampant with discussions over whether Joe lost track or if he had some reason.

The dock scene, where Nibs is destroyed, Wendy (Sydney Chandler) falls apart, and Joe abandons the principles he’s supposedly stood for, has left fans eagerly speculating about what comes next.

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Joe’s shocking turn in Alien: Earth

Joe stuns Nibs, giving a glimpse into his imperfect humanity. He maintained throughout the season that he alone knew how to safeguard his hybrid sister, Wendy. But Episode 7 reveals a secret “hierarchy of care.”

In an interview with Variety, Lawther explained that Joe’s readiness to shoot Nibs, after having set himself up initially as the unmovable protector, actually indicates that he has a reflexive tendency to rank biological humans over hybrids, which indicates a subconscious bias.

“In that scene, Joe reveals that he does have a hierarchy of care at which biological humans for him take precedence over anything else in that moment. It poses a contradiction, because Joe has been saying he’s the only one that knows how to probably look after the hybrid who is his sister, but perhaps that’s not the truth. If he’s so willing to shoot Nibs, he makes it very clear that there’s an order in which he values certain lives over others. He’s lacking in a way that Wendy needs him not to be, and she needs him to not shoot her friends with an electric machine gun.”

This bias is personal but has implications for the group’s trust and security. Wendy’s shattered response, her tormented exclamation, “What have you done?”, is a moment of breakdown.

When Joe injures Nibs, he subconsciously betrays the trust of Wendy in him and forms a rift larger than that caused by family feuds. It is an emotional jab that redefines Joe as a flawed nurturer whose instincts are not as pure or objective as he believed they were.

Critics have concurred that this twist is by no means accidental. The conscious writing and the subtle performance of Lawther turn Joe’s choice into the center of focus of the issues of prejudice, loyalty, and ambivalent morality, based on which the plot of Alien: Earth is constructed.

When Joe defends Siberian, a Prodigy ally, rather than defending Nibs, he tells Wendy and viewers that the relationships that he claims to value are open to reservations that run deep. As Lawther tells Decider:

“It is a weird one, isn’t it? He’s revealed the hierarchy that he’s placed everyone on by choosing the sanctity of Siberian’s life over that of the hybrids. I think that some unlearning or some learning that Hermit has to do to actually find acceptance for these other beings.”

Alien: Earth Episode 7’s fallout clarifies that Joe’s effort to balance humanity with loyalty breaks down with stress, with Wendy and the hybrids facing an unpleasant reality about who is most committed to their lives.

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Inside Alien: Earth - Characters and themes

Alien: Earth is a new sci-fi horror series by Noah Hawley, executive produced by Ridley Scott, that reintroduces the Alien franchise to a new generation: it is not just xenomorphs that cast their shadows on Earth, but it is also about the problems of corporate ethics and biological identity.

The series takes place on a near-future Earth where a young woman, Wendy, has to overcome the perilous world of Prodigy Corporation research laboratories and the arrival of the first xenomorphs to ever land on Earth.

Joe Hermit (Alex Lawther) is portrayed as a medic and a brother whose loyalty is constantly tested by the demands of family and survival. Meanwhile, the engineered hybrids, like Nibs, challenge conventional notions of humanity and compassion, embodying a striking mix of vulnerability and untamed force.

Nibs has been underestimated throughout the majority of the season, but she explodes in the climax of Episode 7, and it reminds viewers that she is much more than a childlike companion. Wendy is the figure who can effectively command the xenomorphs and defend hybrids, but cannot influence Joe and his ingrained values during one of the most crucial moments.

Lawther’s performance is distinctive for its multi-layered portrayal of conflicted emotions. In interviews, he considers Joe's trajectory:

“I am human, and nothing that is human is alien to me”.

The show, acclaimed for complex world-building and moral nuance, employs Joe's dramatic reversal to ask deeper questions about what real care is, and whose lives truly matter in an era of unbound scientific possibility. As the Alien: Earth season races toward its season finale, Joe’s decision has left behind a trail of lingering questions: Will love be enough to conquer hate? Is protection ever impartial? And what does it even mean to say “I value certain lives”?

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Also Read: Alien: Earth Episode 8 - Release date news, time, streaming details, cast, and more