Resident Alien Heroes of Patience featured Television 

Five Thoughts on Resident Alien‘s “Heroes of Patience”

By | April 1st, 2021
Posted in Television | % Comments

On the first season finale of Resident Alien, Harry finally had everything in place to destroy the human race: and yet, all he could think about was how much he wanted pizza. Meanwhile, Lisa Casper and David Logan held Kate, Max and Sahar hostage for information about the alien; and Asta discovered Harry’s murderous past.

“Heroes of Patience”
Written by Chris Sheridan
Directed by Robert Duncan McNeill

1. The Truth About Harry

The cold open reveals that the original Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle was the one who murdered Sam Hodges, by poisoning his insulin — presumably, he was Abigail Hodges’s lover, although it’s entirely possible the motive Thompson deduced from Liv’s investigation was completely wrong. (If only there was good excuse to rewatch the whole season…) Either way, it means we shouldn’t feel too bad about our lead killing and stealing his identity at the start of the series, but also: Harry’s probably going to get screwed later. What’s fascinating is the contrast between the real, evil Harry, and the undead, sympathetic version Alien Harry imagines: if Harry regrets taking the life of this sleaze, perhaps there’s some hope for all of us yet.

2. Should’ve Been a Two-Parter

Harry runs the whole gamut in this episode, from realizing he’s become too attached to us (and our food) to blow us up, to activating the countdown after Asta denounces him for killing a person, and then being overjoyed and changing his mind when she finds him at the military warehouse. It felt very hurried: we’re to believe within the 90 minutes after Max was rescued, that he remembered what David said about Harry planning to kill us all, and Asta received his message while he took a bicycle to the (what I thought was a pretty distant) warehouse?

Deary me, did the pace keep starting and stopping: when Harry reconciled with Asta, all I could think was, “that clock is ticking.” It’s a good thing the show got renewed, because this was most certainly not written as a potential series finale if Syfy had been their usual axe-happy selves: it certainly ends on an abrupt note, with Harry realizing Max has stowed away on his ship, instead of checking in with all the characters to indicate where their life will go after the credits roll. I think, ultimately, I just wish we were getting the subsequent episode next week.

3. Nowhere to Go but Up

D’Arcy certainly hit an all-time low this week, getting arrested and successfully gaslit over finding the real body of the man she dated; her best friend is still being evasive towards her; and she tried to take advantage of Ben’s marriage problems when he tried to cheer her up on the bench. (I’m glad they didn’t take the predictable route of them embarking on an affair.) It’s appropriate then that Jay, who knows all too well what rock bottom feels like, reaches out to her, revealing she was Asta’s baby: now D’Arcy can be her fun adoptive aunt, something she clearly relishes from the prank they play on Jay’s scumbag father — it’ll be interesting to see how Asta reacts.

4. All Horned and Ready to Fight

After being kissed by D’Arcy, Ben returns home and discovers the hostage situation, and leaps into action with Kate, despite Thompson’s advice to wait. It was mindblowing to see them absolutely wallop McAllister’s agents with their household items, even drawing blood: it reminded me of Steven Moffat’s Jekyll, where love was described as “our oldest, deadliest impulse, the need to protect our own at the expense of any other living thing.” I didn’t find Ben and Kate getting incredibly turned by how brave the other was that funny, but it was a satisfying ending to their marriage problems this season.

I wonder what would happen if he told her about the kiss.

5. Oh No, Not Ethan

Despite their thrashing, Lisa and David realize the alien is working at the clinic, and assume he’s the handsome Dr. Ethan Stone. Lisa chokes him out for transport to McAllister’s base — I’m pleasantly surprised she didn’t snap his neck, so hopefully that’ll mean he’ll be rescued next season instead of, y’know, being vivisected to death. Logan starts to have second thoughts, and is left alone in Patience after everyone else departs; he was always the likable one of the pair, so this is likely the start of his redemption arc.

Continued below

Bonus Thoughts:

– I get Thompson and Baker decided D’Arcy had an alcohol-induced episode, but Harry’s lucky they didn’t check upstairs. On that note, I’m pretty shocked the clinic had been keeping the real Harry’s foot in the freezer this whole time.

– Sahar is certainly worldlier than most kids if she knows Daredevil and Black Widow were an item in the comics (reading Wikipedia counts as worldly for a kid).

– D’Arcy admits she would cover for Asta if she killed someone: sounds like foreshadowing to me! Also, how terrible is it that Asta’s tell is becoming overly warm and affectionate?

– The Men in Black are real: shame we’ll likely never see them because of trademark reasons though.

– How cool are Harry’s telekinetic weapons? I love the vein-like textures of his ship activating as well.

– Harry clearly likes feeding humans the way we feed goats.

Well that’s all for now folks: hopefully the show will return by January 2022, but you never know what might happen with a pandemic still raging. Can you imagine Harry taking Max on a little trip around the galaxy in the meantime? I should probably make a start on finding out what the comics are like as well.

*looks at to-read pile and to-do list*

“This is some bullshit.”


//TAGS | Resident Alien

Christopher Chiu-Tabet

Chris is the news manager of Multiversity Comics. A writer from London on the autistic spectrum, he enjoys tweeting and blogging on Medium about his favourite films, TV shows, books, music, and games, plus history and religion. He is Lebanese/Chinese, although he can't speak Cantonese or Arabic.

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