Syfy
Everyone’s favorite alien is back on Planet Earth as Resident Alien crash lands into its second season. When last we saw Harry, he had taken his ship and left the planet, taking the device that was supposed to kill the human race off-planet to save them because his friendship with Asta has impacted him so greatly. But there was a little problem of a stowaway on the ship — Max. As the season opens, it appears that Harry was simply going to take Max with him, but Max grabbed the controls and slung them back to Earth, crashing on a local baseball field.
Unaware of the crash, Asta believed she had to find some way to tell Mayor Hawthorne and his wife Kate that their son had been abducted by an alien. But when she arrived at the Hawthorne household, she discovered Max was there … and Ben and Kate were behaving wildly amorous with each other as they related how Ben had thwarted an attack by two home invaders — who they had just sat down to dinner with and then discovered they were not who they claimed to be. It was a little uncomfortable for Asta and Max, so he told her to meet him at the field so he could explain what happened. There, she discovered the ship was invisible so it is hidden, for now, and Max told of how Harry carried him off the ship. But where is Harry? That is the next thing Asta has to figure out.
Poor Harry is in the hospital with a head injury, probably a concussion, and all he can remember at this point is that he’s an alien on Earth to kill everyone. The doctor even gives him a white board to draw a diagram of where he’s from — in typical hilarious Harry fashion — but no one believes him, luckily. But also luckily, Asta gets a call from a friend at the hospital outside of Patience alerting her to a patient that matches Harry’s description. When Asta arrives, Harry’s memory snaps again as he recognizes a familiar face … except the memory he now has (and in voice over Harry has told us his race has evolved to the point that they don’t have memories of the past so they can just move forward) is one of his first after landing on Earth: Detective Lenny Briscoe from Law & Order (whom Asta has to Google because she’s apparently not an L&O fan). Harry/Lenny thinks Asta is his hooker informant, and after he steals an overly large suit to get back to whatever case it is he thinks he’s working on, Asta grabs his attention with a case of … murder.
She takes Harry to the Chinese restaurant in the hopes that it will jog his memory, and they are both surprised when the octopus in the tank starts talking to them. Both of them. The octopus can tell that Harry’s mind is a mess and mentally gets inside and gets everything back into place so that Harry is now Harry … and he needs to get back to his ship before someone finds it. We also learn that Harry calls the octopus Number 42 (a sly reference to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy no doubt). That’s not his name, that’s the number of the octopus dish on the menu and he’s going to be turned into a meal soon.
While Asta had been searching for Harry, Max and his friend Sahar had been attempting to guard the invisible ship. Turning away a couple of skateboarding teens was easy enough, but when Max’s dad showed up after his mom panicked that Max had gone missing, both of the kids were taken along to the police station where Ben and Kate were attempting to give Deputy Liv details on their assailants … which just left Liv uncomfortable as all get out. Max and Sahar got in touch with Asta to let her know the ship was unguarded, and that’s when she and Harry took off … to find a baseball game in progress. With D’Arcy at bat, Harry watched as she knocked out ‘out of the park’ and right in the direction of his ship. He tripped the outfielder and caught the ball, much to D’Arcy’s dismay. Taking up the bat again, she hits another homer but Asat managed to cut the power to the field lights, ending the game and sending everyone home. Harry tried to fix his ship so he could leave, but it was unfixable and he was forced to turn it into four silver balls. Harry is now effectively trapped on the planet. And what’s worse, Number 42 has told him that more of his people are on the way to finish the job he couldn’t so once again his friend Asta’s life is in danger (Harry did, however, rescue 42 from the tank).
Syfy
Back at his cabin, Harry was surprised — and angry — to find Max waiting for him. Harry was in a bit of a rage, blaming Max for crashing the ship and forcing him to reduce it to its current condition. Harry told Max that he hates him, but Max counters that Harry loves him because he saved Max’s life. He cradled the unconscious boy and carried him off the crashed ship, gently setting him in the field. Harry denied that he loves Max and he basically called the boy stupid and annoying. Max countered with ‘I know you are but what am I’ which completely confused Harry, but it was clear that as Harry has become more human, with human memories, that he does in fact love the boy, and Asta, and more of the people in Patience than he cares to admit. And that is going to be a real problem when others arrive to finish his job. When will they arrive is a bigger question.
One other question that arose in the episode was Sheriff Thompson’s odd behavior. He’s treating Liv with a little more respect, but when he came to work one morning with two coffees — for himself — she was perplexed by his selfishness. Later, his father popped by the station to bring him some food, and he asked Mike if he bought two coffees that morning, and if the other one was ‘for him’. Mike said yes, and his pop reminded Mike that ‘he’ had been gone for six years now, so it’s time to move on. We don’t know who the ‘he’ is, but later at the diner, Mike and Liv were having breakfast and the second cup of coffee was for her. He also had some papers for her, and one of them was about Harry, who they believe is the killer of whoever that foot belonged to (Liv also figured out that the mysterious doorknob came from the original French doors on Harry’s cabin). So not only does Harry have to worry about his own people coming, now he has the law breathing down his neck.
Aside from some odd moments of obvious green screen work at the exterior of Harry’s cabin (which seemed to be an actual location during the first season), the season premiere was filled with the same charm and humor as the first season, marking this a very welcome return and a nice change of pace from some of the disappointing season premieres of other shows this year. Here’s hoping they can keep the rest of Season 2 as delightful as Season 1.
What did you think of this episode? Start a conversation in the comments section below.
Resident Alien airs Wednesdays at 9:00 PM on Syfy.
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