This week on Resident Alien, Harry and D’Arcy went on a little infiltration mission to Joseph’s apartment, while the grey alien spy was out on another date with Asta. Meanwhile, Max tried to prove to his new friends Harry was an alien, and Thompson roped Ben into a hare-brained scheme, leading them to discover something unusual on the mayor’s foot.
1. Harry and D’Arcy vs. Feelings of Inadequacy
The theme of Harry’s arc this week was him losing his confidence, something that erupted when he accidentally activated a trap in Joseph’s living room while trying to get… peppers for pizza. (Yeah, I’d feel pretty dumb and worthless if that might be how I nearly died too.) Harry’s realization, that his and D’Arcy’s failures in life proved they were still more than qualified for the goals they set out to accomplish, was a nice reminder that even when people like Joseph seem to have the upper hand (mhmm), they’re more often the ones failing upwards in life – I mean seriously, Joseph is a hybrid bred to carry out the greys’ plans for Earth, and he has no idea where Asta is borrowing the words Mork and Orc from? Harry was right, the guy is a glorified circus monkey.
2. New Friends
With Sahar officially gone, Max befriends Mari (Grace Sunar) and Leo (birthname Bishop, but he doesn’t much care for it; Hawaa Hawk), whom he wanted Harry to share his secret with right away. We didn’t get to know the new pair that well, since their screentime was spent more on jokes than backstories, although I appreciate they hired non-white kids to maintain the diversity Sahar brought to the younger cast. Their small roles made it all the more fun when they showed up with Max to bail out Harry and D’Arcy, and I was already having a hoot at Max explaining to our hero that Joseph left the door unlocked. “Son of a bitch” indeed! Mind your language around the kids though Harry.
3. World’s Funniest “Fight” Scene
Harry explaining to Joseph why he didn’t strap him to his armchair was pretty amusing in itself, but by the time he was fantasizing how a fight between them would lead to him having to hire an intensely boring repairman (Brendan Riggs), I was a broken shell of a hysterical man, amazed the worst thing Harry could imagine was having to listen to someone making small talk. It’s just fantastic how Harry is so strong that he gets concerned by the most trivial things instead (see also: getting upset the pizza was outside Joseph’s trap.) I loved that he and Joseph even imagined themselves being forced to listen to the guy after breaking the window; somehow, despite their differences, both aliens can agree that there is nothing more tedious than having to listen to someone make conversation to fill the air.
4. Thompson and the Rushed Romantic Subplot
Sheriff Mike’s relationship with Detective Torres comes to a close this week, as she confesses his discomfort with her paying for items and bookings on dates sets a poor example for her son, and that they should stop seeing each other. It should be noted season three was going to consist of 12 episodes before it was shortened to eight, and this storyline certainly feels like it got truncated with the rest of the season, as it felt like their relationship had barely started. In any case, Judy must be happy, seeing as they hook up at the end of the episode; awkward for Mike admittedly, especially if he reunites with Lena soon, but at least he wasn’t technically cheating on her.
5. What a Pay-Off
Like Liv, I don’t have anything to say about the wild turn of Mike encouraging Ben to start selling pictures of his feet, other than (like last week’s mug) it was a pretty original way to have them discover the tracker the greys implanted in his foot. Likewise, Harry discovering the greys are apparently based in Yellowstone National Park after hypnotizing Ben was a really great pay-off to the gag of him and Kate disagreeing about what would a dream long weekend getaway; this show is really good at playing the long game, even on a shorter season like this one, because I’d frankly forgotten about that gag and the cold open about the girl encountering the grey in Yellowstone 70 years ago!
Continued belowBonus Thoughts:
– It’s funny Harry described himself as Superman last time, seeing as he can crawl on a wall like a different superhero instead. And on that note: did you know Alan Tudyk voiced a bodega cat mascot in Spider-Man 2 last year? All I’m saying is, Sony better cast him as a variant in Beyond the Spider-Verse.
– Damn, no wonder Liv puts up with Thompson if her grandmother was that abusive.
– It’s true, ghosts don’t ghost people! How does Thompson realize this stuff?
– “I wanna die with you” is the most romantic line I’ve heard in a while.
See you all next time for “141 Seconds.” (Not literally, thankfully.)
