'Alien: Earth' episode 3: Why is Wendy affected by the alien surgery?

There are plenty of mysteries in Alien: Earth – What's the deal with the five corporations controlling the planet? Why are there so many Peter Pan references? How exactly does this show fit in with the Alien franchise timeline? — but episode 3 gave us a brand new one.

In short, why does Wendy/Marcy (Sydney Chandler) hear sounds of distress when the Xenomorph is being operated on, which in turn appear to cause her physical pain? What exactly is going on here?

Well, while we may not be able to fully answer that question, we have already been given a pretty big clue. Let's unpack it.

What happens in episode 3?

Now safely (ish) back at the Prodigy research island, Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant) and the hybrids start examining the five alien specimens from the downed Weyland-Yutani Maginot spaceship.

Wheeling one of the eggs out into the lab, Kirsh slices it open to discover the Xenomorph in its nightmarish "face-hugger" form. Cutting into the creature, he uncovers something akin to a tadpole, which anyone familiar with the Alien franchise will know is the beginning of the Xenomorph's final stage (the one that usually gestates in a human's chest before bursting out and then growing at a rapid rate).

Meanwhile, while this is happening, Wendy wakes up elsewhere in the building and hears a faint chittering sound. She walks through the corridors, presumably trying to place the noise — but as soon as the Xenomorph is removed from the egg in the lab and held down on the operating table, the noise in Wendy's head becomes so loud it causes her physical pain. She reaches the lab at the same moment Kirsh removes the tadpole, which causes her to collapse in agony.

Why does the alien surgery affect Wendy/Marcy?

So what's going on here, exactly? Does Wendy have some kind of psychic connection with the Xenomorph that allows her to feel its pain?

Well, the answer may in fact lie in a small bit of dialogue back in episode 1, which takes place shortly after Wendy/Marcy's consciousness has been downloaded into her new synthetic body.

At one point just before the hybrids go on their mission to find Wendy's brother, she's sitting in the lab taking part in an audio test that involves raising her hand when she hears a beep. The key line, which is muttered by a technician shortly before Wendy spots her brother on a nearby screen? "She's beyond our human frequencies. 75,000 hz."

This moment is almost lost due to Wendy abandoning the test shortly after, but it may actually be key to understanding why she collapses in pain during episode 3. It's not that Wendy has a psychic connection to the Xenomorphs — it's that they're making noises in a frequency that only she can hear. The audio test in episode 1 was cut short, presumably before the technicians had a chance to tweak Wendy's hearing — which means for now, she's the only one that can hear the aliens.

Alien: Earth episodes drop weekly on Hulu and FX at 8pm E.T. on Tuesdays.