Resident Alien :: The Weight

Syfy

Let’s Talk About ‘The Weight’:

General Wright and David Logan have hacked into the alien holding facility, but some things are just not adding up.
No matter how much small talk he makes, Harry can still tell Asta is angry with him for erasing her memory.
Max surprises his parents by joining the school band, and that they have to pay for his new drum kit.
Harry makes it into the mine to find the alien baby but he discovers small shoe prints instead.
Sahar is trying to teach the alien child to be more human, with less than stellar results.
The weight of killing someone and hiding the body is straining Asta’s and D’Arcy’s relationships with other people.
The police question Asta about Sam’s files found in the van, and Liv suggests to Asta that they work together to figure out what is going on.
Harry employs Max to help him locate the alien, unaware that Max already knows where the child is.
Det. Torres has located the wallet barfed up by the alien baby on the outskirts of town.
D’Arcy gets the itch to try skiing again.
Kate and Ben get some surprising news.
Harry comes face-to-face with the alien child, but he may be no match for Sahar’s ‘mothering’ of the boy.
Asta finally tells her father about the killing.

While the previous episode of Resident Alien was all about living life to the fullest, this week’s episode is about the weight we carry, whatever burdens they may be that we feel we just can’t share with anyone else. Almost all of our main characters have some weight on their conscience that is becoming much too great for any of them to hold on to much longer without crumbling under it. The heaviness of that burden varies from person to person, but in the end they all learn a lesson that, as Bette Midler sang, ‘you gotta have friends’. And while everyone is dealing with their burdens, General Wright is slowling coming to terms with the fact that she might have made a mistake with Dr. Ethan Stone.

Asta and D’Arcy

The person dealing with the heaviest weight by far is Asta. To a lesser extent, D’Arcy is right there with her, and the two are bonded over their guilt in killing the man who tried to kill Harry and covering up their participation. And Asta is still a bit pissed at Harry for trying to ‘help’ her by erasing her memory which screwed up her growing relationship with Jay. Harry misses the smiling, happy, mind-erased Asta so he invites her to accompany him to look for the alien baby. It’s a firm no for her. Asta instead heads to the bar to talk to the one person who shares her burden and talks about her guilt over missing Jay’s birthday. D’Arcy tries to make light of the fact that she was distracted by killing a man and burying the body, but D’Arcy herself is upset that things are going too well with Elliott, and now she’s worried about dragging him into her dead body drama. But they have to rationalize the situation that he was a bad guy, so he deserved what he got. Right? That doesn’t really help Asta who takes out her frustrations on her father when he brings up Harry, who still owes him money for a pie. Asta tells him she just needs some space from Harry.

D’Arcy decides to get away from the drama in Patience by paying a visit to the ski slope where her former coach is training some new skiers. Some young women are there who recognize her and D’Arcy really enjoys the fan adoration. Her coach, however, senses something is weighing on her because their relationship had gotten to a point where she only texted him three times a year, so there must be a reason she came to see him instead of texting. Maybe she needs something to focus her attention on — like a ski tournament. Of course D’Arcy still carries the weight of her injury that has prevented her from setting foot on a ski slope but maybe, just being in that environment again, has made her realize that she can do it.

Asta, however, can’t seem to get away from the dead man as Mike, Liv and Torres pay her a visit. They show her a picture of the man and Asta says she doesn’t recognize him, but Torres can read in her face that she does. Asta says she only knows him from the autopsy, but Torres isn’t buying it. They also have Sam’s files that were found in the van, but Asta doesn’t really know any of the patients because they were from Sam’s house calls. None of them came into the clinic. Torres wants to question the families but senses she’s not getting any help from Asta so she and Mike leave, but Liv holds back for a moment and suggests that she and Asta question the family members themselves because they might clam up if they are dragged to the police station. Asta is hesitant but Liv — who carries her own weight of not being taken seriously by Mike — tells her the family members deserve to know if something nefarious happened to their loved one, and Asta agrees to help. They being to question some of the family members, including Judy Cooper and her hairless cat, and it seems that what at first looked like a bunch of unrelated cases all have something in common: all of the patients spent time at Hawthorne Creek, all of them had some kind of a rash on their hands or feet, and they all had cancer. Liv and Asta come to the conclusion that the water was poisoned and someone was covering it up. Liv presents her evidence to Mike and Torres, and Torres is actually impressed that Liv was able to use her ‘small town connections’ and congratulates her on her good police work. That was the recognition Liv needed. As they are about to call it a day, Mike suggests to Torres that they grab a bite to eat and talk more about the case. Liv is actually happy to see Mike flirting.

Asta’s burden is just getting heavier so she goes to the diner and asks her dad if they can talk. Dan sees her face and yells at everyone to get out of the diner. As they sit in a booth, Asta finally unburdens herself and tells Dan about the killing, and he assures her that she was just trying to protect Harry. She tells him that the man was somehow involved with Sam and several other deaths in town. He was obviously a bad guy but she still feels horrible. Dan tells his daughter that during his time in the war he killed people. He had to, that’s what he was trained for. Over and over again, without feeling anything, but it’s supposed to feel bad. It means you still have compassion and empathy. He tells her she still has her soul. Asta is happy she finally got some of that weight off of her, and Dan tells her it’s a gift to share something difficult with someone you love. It shows you care about them enough to let them help you. Asta says she can’t go on feeling like this forever, and Dan tells her she won’t because he’ll carry some of that guilt for her now. He says it will be a little less for each of us if we share the weight. That is deep. But can she finally resolve her feelings with Harry?

Harry

Harry still doesn’t quite know how to deal with sad, angry Asta but right now he has something more important to worry about — an alien baby on the loose. He makes the trek back to the mine and inside he is surprised to find … nothing but a skeleton of a child and tiny boot prints in the dirt. Is worst fear has come true … the baby has taken human form which will make it extremely difficult for Harry to locate him now. And since the baby is a hybrid, it must be very intelligent. He may find that is not the case as Sahar is still at the RV trying to teach the alien child new words and associates them with objects like ‘flowers’. The child just replies that he’s pooping his pants. Again.

Meanwhile Harry is at the diner trying to spot a small pair of shoes when Max enters. Harry tells the boy that there is another alien in town and Max pretends to be surprised. Harry asks Max to help him since he can see the alien’s true form, and Max says he’ll do it in exchange for Harry’s milkshake. Harry relents and gives in to the boy’s demands and Max quickly looks around and says no aliens are there. Max says he’ll keep helping Harry on one condition — if Harry buys him a drum kit. Max has joined the school band but his parents tell him he cannot play the drums in the house. They haven’t told him yet that Kate is pregnant, so Ben makes up a story about a cousin coming to visit. Except he mixes up the cousins and names one who is dead, but Max is thrilled the cousin isn’t dead and has written him a letter. Still, he wants that drum set so Harry makes him an offer to pay him for chores instead of buying him an expensive drum set. He saw a man go to prison for buying a boy a camera and a chicken sandwich on Law & Order so a drum set is out of the question. But chores are fine and Harry enjoys making the boy work around the cabin, from cleaning the floors to being a foot rest while Harry watches TV.

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Harry and Max attempt to look for the alien again and Max slips up by mentioning the alien is a him. He has to admit that he’s been covering for Sahar, and Harry tells Max if he wants to protect his friend he needs to take Harry to her right away because that alien eats meat, and even though Sahar is a bag of gristle she’ll still make a tasty treat. While Max and Harry are walking through the forest to the RV — and when Harry finds out its an RV he wants to know why they didn’t just drive there (it’s a nice walk, says Max) — they see the police and dogs lead by Mike and Torres also heading in the direction of the RV. The police had found the wallet barfed up by the baby outside of town, and Liv suggested the trails in the forest would make for a great hiding place, so they took the dogs to try to find the man. Harry steps into action and produces a high pitched sound that distracts the dogs and sends them in the opposite direction … and it also confuses the birds in the vicinity which causes them to attack Harry and Max.

They make it to the RV and Harry calls for the alien baby who is dresses in a furry onesie. Harry asks why the boy is dressed like a sad bear and Sahar says it’s because his diaper doesn’t fit in his pants. While Harry speaks to the boy in their own language, Sahar’s ‘mothering’ skills are stronger than DNA and the child runs back to her. He then says something to Harry which is a major insult and Harry threatens to take him to the icy place on their planet for two weeks of punishment. Max says that giving the boy to Harry does not sound like a safer option, and Sahar tells the boy to run … and he does, on all fours. They all chase after him but the boy runs into the road just as D’Arcy’s Jeep is approaching. It all happens so quickly that she can’t stop in time, but before she can get out and see what she hit (in his onesie and on all fours he looked like a small animal), the boy takes off. Sahar is disappointed in Max for telling Harry about the boy because Max is supposed to be her best friend. Max blames Harry for making the alien run away and tells him that’s why he has no friends. Harry says Asta is his friend and Max reminds him that she won’t even talk to him. That hits Harry hard. Sahar tells Max he made a mistake and that friends forgive each other. Plus it’s against her religion to hold a grudge. Harry says he’s going to find the alien and teach it how to poop on their doorstep, but deep down he wonders if he’s been a bad friend to Asta. He muses to himself that people say there is strength in numbers but perhaps the strongest thing they have if the person they are closest to. Everybody needs a friend, especially when they are in danger. Harry finds Asta at the bar and she finally agrees to talk to him after her chat with Dan, and he admits the truth to her about the other alien race already on the planet. He does not know who they are or why they are here but they are dangerous. He tells her this was part of Goliath’s alien baby message he received the night of the party, and when Asta asks why he didn’t tell her this before, he breaks down and says he’s a bad friend, but he wants to be a good friend. He feels much better now that he’s lifted some of this weight off of him, but they are in danger. Asta says that’s not good news, but thanks for sharing. Harry says friends tell each other the truth because they trust each other. Asta says they will deal with this threat together.

Ben & Kate

Ben and Kate are happy that Max has decided to take up an instrument but when he tells them it’s drums they tell him no. They are not paying for a drum set (that is on its way to the house) because they can’t have that much noise in the house. Kate stops Ben short from telling Max about the baby because it’s too soon to tell anyone, so Ben makes up a story about a cousin coming to visit, which he totally screws up by naming a dead cousin who Max now thinks is alive. But after doing chores for Harry, Max has earned enough money to pay for the drum set and Kate is not happy at all with that arrangement. She marches into the clinic to tear Harry a new one and Harry makes up a story that Max told him his parents were poor so he was just helping the boy out. Kate is a little stunned that Max would tell anyone his family is poor so Harry was able to successfully deflect her anger onto Max. Kate also asked Asta if she could run a blood test to confirm if she really is pregnant because so far all she is going on is the test she took at the party at Harry’s cabin.

Later at the bar — everyone has gathered at the bar by this point — Kate and Ben meet up so she can tell him about the blood test — she’s not pregnant. Now she knows Ben is sad about this — his face says he’s anything buy sad but he tries to play it off for her benefit thinking she’s sad — and D’Arcy arrives with a pitcher of margaritas for them to ‘celebrate’. They both finally admit they are relieved Kate’s not pregnant, but maybe they will be ready for another child one day. Or not because the one they have is a handful already.

General Wright

With David Logan’s help, Wright has access to the security cameras at the alien holding facility so she can determine who the mole is within her organization. They see an inmate approach a guard to ask for help. The man says he’s not an alien, he was taken by aliens and the guard grabs him — something the guards are not supposed to do. They can’t hear the guard communicate with the man telepathically that he’s not supposed to remember, and to stay alive he needs to remember that he belongs to them now. Wright also notices that the men they have taken are not moving at all, and she needs to know how that is happening. They watch Dr. Ethan Stone in his cell, thinking he’s controlling everything, writing something. Wright says it’s his alien language, but David shows her it’s just a crossword puzzle he’s made as a coping mechanism. Maybe aliens like crosswords, she says. David tells her he’s been tracking some stories of some strange goings-on in Patience which suggest that Ethan is not an alien and the real alien is still in town.

Wright takes Ethan out of the facility and to the edge of a cliff. She shows him the alien orb and asks him to tell her how it works. She hands it to him and he pretends it’s an alien laser and it is then that she realizes he’s just a stupid human. She gave him a pool ball painted silver. She hands him the real alien orb and tells him not to let go of it … and then she tosses him off the side of the cliff. His broken body lies below but … he’s not dead so she concludes the alien tech will work on anybody. Ethan may now be worthless but that tech is not. Wright returns to the safe house with provisions for David and tells him he was right about Ethan. David asks if she killed him and she snaps back that she’s not a monster (leaving out that part about tossing him off a cliff). We cut to Albuquerque, New Mexico where someone is dumping the injured but recovering Ethan in a back alley, leaving a baggie with what may be heroin and a syringe on his leg and reminds him to ‘take his medicine’.

While everyone else is gathered at the bar, another patron enters and orders a drink. She turns and it is General Wright, surveying the crowd to see if she can spot an alien, unaware that there is one sitting right in front of her. Will Harry end up doing something that arouses her suspicions?

New episodes of Resident Alien air Wednesdays at 10:00 PM on Syfy.