This week on Resident Alien, Bridget sought revenge on his father for sending him to their cold, forsaken home planet by impersonating him, and embarrassing him around town. Meanwhile, Asta’s mother came to Patience, seemingly wanting to reconcile with her; D’Arcy’s parents called; and Ben started tailing Mike and Liv.
1. Returnapalooza
There were so many returning cast members this week, between Bridget taking on the forms of Human Harry’s daughter Liza and second wife Isabelle while lashing out; the return of Asta’s mother Mary-Ellen, and D’Arcy’s parents; and Sahar’s surprise appearance*, having quit the academy because she felt mediocre there. I think all these returns ran the gamut from “Nice to have you back, even if they couldn’t actually write you back into the story,” to “Man, this season really was originally 12 episodes, wasn’t it?” While still emotional, Asta and D’Arcy’s parental issues definitely could’ve been the center of their own episode: I don’t think Harry even knew what happened to Asta!
* Provided you weren’t paying attention to the opening credits.
2. Ben, You Beautiful Dumbass
After misinterpreting Harry’s usual blithe comments during therapy, Ben decides to go on the offensive with his suspicions about Mike and Liv’s investigation, and winds up becoming the world’s worst spy. The scene where he watches them at the diner, vividly imagining starring in his own noir film before getting fooled by Mike’s impression of a Russian teacher, and having to awkwardly drive away, was very awkward, and a great bit of foreshadowing that the car wasn’t actually his! So given we now know Ben secretly wishes he were a great sleuth, it’s all the more great he’s now on the same page as the sheriffs after hitting Joseph with the stolen car – even if Mike is going to be far more dismissive of his alien experiences than Liv.
3. Harry Must Like Humans More Than His Own Kind Now
Harry — shock, horror! — kills Bridget after using Sahar to lull him into a false sense of security, though thankfully the baby reconstitutes himself using the DNA of everyone who’s ever been in Harry’s home, leading to the amusingly surreal sight of Tudyk taking on every other regular cast member. Harry keeps blowing up Bridget until he uses a booger from Max to take on the boy’s form, finally stopping him in his tracks, and causing him to realize his son simply felt lonely and abandoned, just as he felt betrayed by Heather. I gotta say, it’s fascinating how Harry has developed so much love and empathy for humans, but still maintains a sociopathic, dog-eat-dog mentality towards others of his own kind, until he was reminded of how he also screwed Max over – I just hope he remembers to makes amends with him too now.
4. Love Can be Painful
Harry’s reconciliation with Bridget leads to two striking decisions: he decides to tell Asta she’s been selfish about having Jay stay over, and to not erase Kate’s memories after she tells him about her alien experiences. The first decision leads Asta to realize it was better for Jay to stay with her adoptive mother, while the second finally allows Kate to release the pain and grief she’s been repressing over the previously uncertain kidnapping of her baby daughter. It was quite touching seeing Harry decide to genuinely help “Mrs. Mayor Snowflake,” instead of erasing her pain like he has done in the past: in contrast what he says at the start of the episode, he has grown to understand why it is better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.
5. D’Arcy, What are You Doing?
It’s revealed in the final scene that D’Arcy has made off with the bomb Harry planned to smuggle aboard the greys’ ship, much to his outrage. OK, I get it: after reconciling with her father after his heart attack, and alienating (no pun intended) all the other important people in her life, D’Arcy thinks she has nothing else to live for, except to carry out this attack and sacrifice herself to save the world. I already have one objective issue with this rash decision: D’Arcy doesn’t know the greys have Kate’s baby, so she’ll get her killed too! Ugh, Harry may’ve been a C student on his homeworld, but he knew what he was doing. Bridget does share some of the blame though: D’Arcy probably thinks Harry’s still not over Heather and emotionally compromised because of his little “rampage” in Patience. Bad baby!
Continued belowBonus Thoughts:
– So the greys just used Harry’s DNA to create a glove to fool the sphere’s security measures? Well OK then: at least we still got Harry vs. Harry in one sense of the word this week.
– Have to admit it’s amusing an episode named after a Cat Stevens song uses “Cat’s in the Cradle” and “Psycho Killer” so prominently instead.
– It’s funny Sahar could read Harry like a book, but not realize that he’d tried to kill Bridget; that said, I absolutely wasn’t expecting that either!
– Kate accidentally throwing the key to her handcuff sure reminded me of Gerald’s Game, although thankfully it wasn’t as gruesome as that film.
– It was probably the alcohol talking, but I think Bridget has a little crush on D’Arcy: d’aw.
– Remember: if you can put your nana in the hospital, you can accomplish anything.
See you all next week for the season finale, “Homecoming.”
