This week on Resident Alien, Harry altered Thompson and Baker’s memories to make them believe they’d caught Sam Hodges’s murderer (yeah, that was quick), and then set to work building a transmitter to contact his people about the planned attack on Earth. Kate’s cousin Carlyn (Alex Borstein), a lab engineer, came to visit Patience, and Harry took an interest in her (though not for the usual reasons, obviously.)
1. Yeah, This Isn’t Going to Backfire
OK, first, Harry having mental powers was a pretty big leap, but worth it for him telling Asta he didn’t do that to her because he was happy to have a friend. Secondly, the opening flashback shows Liv Baker and several others from Patience as kids during a school camping trip, where she had a close encounter with a UFO light: it reminds us she has a fascination with Ancient Aliens, and that if Harry thinks the hokey memory he installed in her brain is going to prevent her from remembering he scampered up the walls, he’s sorely mistaken. (Thompson though, yeah, he probably thought “Special Agent Fisher” was perfectly believable.) It’s also shown Asta and Liv were quite close as kids, so I imagine she’s going to feel a little betrayed if and when she remembers.
2. Harry, WTF
Kate introduces Harry to Carlyn after she injures herself jogging, and he’s immediately smitten… when he learns she has access to a diffuser he needs. He crashes their night out while wearing a hideously musty jacket and ascot tie, and somehow manages to seduce her despite failing to pass for human even more than usual. (I might’ve died a little from embarrassment during their dinner table date.) However, Asta points out this is manipulative behavior, so… Harry hypnotizes Carlyn into a dormant state, allowing him to pose as her while sneaking into her lab. Gotta say, Alex Borstein was absolutely brilliant at mimicking Alan Tudyk’s now trademark snake-like line readings (“PEEEEENIS!”), and seeing Alien Harry as a woman was pretty unforgettable too.
3. Harry Learns What It’s Like to be a Woman
On that note, Harry goes to Carlyn’s lab in New Mexico to steal the diffuser, and gets harassed and groped by her boss (who’s still hanging around after dark for some reason), leading Harry to toss him around the room with “the strength of six gorillas.” That must’ve been pretty cathartic, for him and much of the audience, but doesn’t that implicate Carlyn in an assault? OK, so maybe no one will believe Carlyn attacked him (which would be pretty poetic), but his injuries are probably going to catch the attention of someone like General McCallister — I’m surprised Asta didn’t point that out, as it would’ve been relevant to her explanation of what women are made to put up with to Harry; the fear of retribution is a major reason why they don’t usually fight back physically.
4. I Feel So Sorry for Sahar
Speaking of creepy behavior, Max’s premature puberty goes from bad to worse: in the most mortifying scene of the episode, he slides up to Sahar, and tells her with a suddenly broken voice, “Hey pretty lady.” Poor girl, as if waxing her best friend’s back wasn’t bad enough: no wonder she’s so angry at Harry when she finds out what’s causing it, and buries his sphere where he can’t find it — the friendship between prepubescent boys and girls is such a precious thing, it shouldn’t have already been ruined by raging hormones.
5. D’Arcy Has an Uncomfortable Level of Power Over Ben
The ladies of Patience learn Liv has never received a pay rise, and after breaking into the mayor’s offices to find proof of the wage gap in Patience, they confront Ben over this, forcing him to cough up the cash for her to afford a new car. D’Arcy’s not done though, and distributes copies of the local public sector salaries over town from a helicopter after Thompson complains (and to the M*A*S*H theme for some reason.) Seeing the (literal) flyers makes Ben mull confessing to Kate that D’Arcy kissed him, but he reconsiders it, and simply tells her he’s going to make the town’s budget fairer. It’s really interesting how, in an episode about the rotten behavior girls and women put up with from boys to men, that a guy is also being blackmailed by a potential lie that can’t be easily disproven as a result of years of sexist injustice — gosh that’s thought-provoking!
Continued belowBonus Thoughts:
– We let a lot of things Harry does slide because he’s an alien (like being a “murderererer”), but finding E.T. attractive? That’s a whole new level of disturbing.
– If Liv, Asta, Ben, D’Arcy and Judy were on that camping trip 24 years ago, then that would mean they were teenagers in the late 1990s and oh god we’re old…
– We get another brief check-in with David Logan’s storyline, where we find out he’s abandoned his RV in the forest, and that he’s now tracking his former superiors from a cabin.
– I am absolutely quoting Thompson’s absurdly long manner of calling Ben a dumbass the next opportunity I can.
– Someone’s going to leak Ben and Kate’s BDSM tape at some point right?
See you all next week for “Radio Harry.”
