This week on Resident Alien, Harry forced his way onto the Hawthornes’ family trip to Yellowstone, to uncover what the greys were doing in the park. Back in Patience, Asta and D’Arcy went into crisis mode on learning Liv had a photo of Harry with the late Peter Bach, while Mike struggled with telling Judy their one-night stand was just that.
1. Women’s Issues
This was a pretty female-centric episode, with Harry’s usual life lessons taking a backseat to jokes and plot developments, while Asta and D’Arcy took it upon themselves to burn the plaid shirts that could identify him to Liv. Dan worried his daughter was becoming overwhelmed with helping Harry, which was a little ironic, seeing as D’Arcy smashed up her phone to protect him, but it paid off with Asta deciding at the end of the episode to ignore work to go to the movies with Jay. Then you had the really intense development of Kate having nightmares about the daughter the greys kidnapped, something the weekend getaway completely failed to resolve – you have to wonder if Harry will be shocked enough to reveal his secret if he hears about this at the Hawthornes’ next therapy session.
2. Even Judy Has the Blues
Judy is, for lack of a better word, the show’s village idiot, which made it all the more profound and surprising when her fling with Thompson took a poignant turn. We get a sense of just how dysfunctional she is when she invites him to her birthday, while introducing him to her mother April (Heather Doerksen), whom we learn had her when she was only 14. Liv gets pissed at Mike for leading her on, so he has to unfortunately break it to her that he didn’t mean anything by sleeping with her. D’Arcy quickly deduces what’s happening, and allows Judy to break the happy-go-lucky facade she’s always put on, to confess how lonely she truly feels. It speaks a lot to D’Arcy’s integrity too: she could’ve ignored Judy, since she can be so weird and offputting, but she looked past all that on recognizing she was in pain.
3. And Liv Makes Three
As if navigating Thompson’s love life for him wasn’t bad enough, Liv has to deal with her abusive grandma (Mary Walsh) being in town, while dealing with a hack job in The Patience Post over her appearance on the UFO documentary. It sadly turns out “Nana” is the quoted source in the paper describing Liv as a fantasist, basically telling Thompson that she’s an attention “whore.” Liv tries to brush it off, distracting Mike with the news Torres has found a match for the fingerprints they uncovered in Peter’s van, but she still breaks, admitting she tries so hard not to let these things get to her, but that it was too much this time. Nana is truly the worst kind of person: mean and cruel, but behaves as if they are funny and kind to pretend they aren’t. Mike isn’t always kind, but being there for Liv after her breakdown proves he wants to be good at heart (which, let’s face it, is partly why he misled Judy.)
4. All You Have to Do, is to Decide What to Do With the Time That is Given
Thanks to Ben, Harry discovers that the greys have been using the Sullivan Gravel Company to store vast amounts of water underground, which they will eventually use to detonate the Yellowstone Caldera. Harry vows to Asta, D’Arcy, and Dan that he’ll stop them, although he also notes that he can’t do anything if the supervolcano erupts again naturally, bumming them all out. In response, Harry asks them if learning this scientific fact is really going to change the way they lead their lives. It’s always a great, if depressing question: all of us could suddenly die tomorrow, but what’s important, regardless, is how we lived, and what matters more than being kind and finding time for each other, just as Asta brushes off work to be with her daughter, Mike is there to console Liv, and D’Arcy goes to celebrate Judy’s birthday?
By the way, I didn’t intentionally mean to quote Lord of the Rings, although oddly enough, the greys’ plot is essentially the same one as the Orcs had in the first season of Rings of Power.
Continued below5. I Beg Your Pardon?
We get a big cliffhanger ending, as a blue avian (Edi Patterson) shows up on behalf of the Galactic Federation to serve Harry notice. These greys are some real sore losers, going to the office to get rid of Harry! You can’t force someone to take a deal they rejected! So what if Harry’s species thought it’d be a good idea? Now knowing Harry, his usual response would be to flip the bird (quite literally in this case), except he did comment in an earlier episode that blue avians are considered quite attractive among his people. So… is Harry gonna dust off the musty jacket and ascot tie to get her to plead his case? I strongly suspect that’s going to be the case.
Bonus Thoughts:
– The scene with Harry and Max scoping out Sullivan Gravel was too damn funny: the screaming, “tits for tats,” the hybrid car pun, freaking telling the boy to help by peeling an orange… man. I think the earlier moment Harry broke character when Max asked how his “parents” died was also surprisingly hilarious, even though flipping off a kid is hardly the height of wit and sophistication. (I guess it really does have everything to do with timing!)
– “The normal person door,” heh heh, well of course Harry doesn’t use that.
– Alan Tudyk deserves an Emmy alone for biting into a whole orange like that.
– I’m surprised we didn’t see Harry’s reaction to all his plaid shirts going missing.
See you all next time for the wonderfully named “Avian Flu.” (You know they say about love: it’s a sickness and a cure.) SHOTGUN!
