Resident Alien :: I Believe in Aliens

Syfy

Let’s Talk About ‘I Believe in Aliens’:  

• The episode features documentary style interviews with real people discussing their UFO experiences, including Mike Richardson, the founder of Dark Horse Media, which publishes the Resident Alien comic.
• Jay reaches out to Asta, and Harry allows Asta to see Goliath’s complete message.
• Goliath, Harry’s future self, failed to stop the Grays, therefore present Harry will to so he’ll just go back to his planet.
• Ben tells Mike he’s no longer supporting the resort, and Mike’s brain seems to short circuit … how’s he going to get that tank now?
• Harry is approached by the guard from the military facility, a Human-Gray hybrid, with an opportunity to get back to his home safely before they take over Earth.
• General McCallister (I think that’s her real name now) knows as soon as Peter Bach’s hard drive is activated, they will be able to find the user.
• Peter Bach was pronounced dead at the scene of a car accident, but Liv believes foul play was involved.
• Since Harry is leaving, he gives Peter’s son his alien orb to protect him from the Grays.
• Harry tells Max he’s leaving and gives the boy a gift. Max says Harry loves him too much to leave, which Harry denies, but we all know Max is right.
• Sahar comes to say goodbye to baby, and seeing her ‘parental’ bond with the child makes Harry’s heart grow three times its normal size, just like the Grinch.
• D’Arcy finds what she believes to be evidence linking Asta to Sam’s murder, and demands to know what Asta has been hiding from her.
• Ben is still sleepwalking … but is that really what he’s doing?
• Harry allows himself to be ‘captured’ by the General.

The second season of Syfy’s excellent Resident Alien series ends with an interestingly constructed episode and a cliffhanger reveal that left my jaw on the floor as many secrets are revealed, leaving us very anxiously awaiting the premiere of Season 3.

The episode began in an interesting fashion, and for a second I thought maybe someone at Syfy had pushed the wrong button. Instead of finding ourselves in the middle of a story, we got a man named Mike Richardson who is sitting down for an interview. Richardson introduces himself as the CEO of Dark Horse Media, which is the company behind Dark Horse Comics, which is the publisher of Resident Alien (and yes, this is the real Mike Richardson on camera). He begins to talk about a personal UFO experience and it seems even more like we’re watching the wrong show, but the main titles come on and we’re in the diner with Asta and D’Arcy. This device of people — real people — discussing their UFO encounters for a documentary (?) is carried out through the episode … and then we get to the reason why. But we’ll get to that.

But back to D’Arcy and Asta, who is acting very weird, making D’Arcy wonder what’s going on. Asta has to keep covering for Harry, who she says is at a medical convention, and then she’s surprised when Jay comes in and asks her to help her pick out a gown for her winter formal, something that better matches her skin tone rather than the hideous white gown her parents picked out for her. Asta is thrilled and promises she will meet her at the vintage store. But Harry texts, and texts and texts, so Asta has to run. Little does she know that Harry is going to allow her to see Goliath’s full message. After taking the baby off her head, she wants to know what Harry needs her to do, but Harry says he’s not going to do anything. His future self tells him he’s already failed to stop The Grays, so there’s nothing his present self can do, even though Goliath told him that the key to saving Earth is General McCallister. Harry has pretty much thrown in the towel because there’s no way he can fight a race of Gray-Human hybrids (they had to adapt because their spindly little bodies could not survive on Earth for very long). Harry plans to take his children — he now considered Robert Bach his child, and Robert keeps telling him he’s an adult — back to his home planet. Oddly, he does not offer to take Asta, the one person he’s been trying to protect the whole time.

Syfy

At the diner, time stops while Harry is enjoying a last meal — getting a take out bag of burgers for his trip home — and the guard from the military base enters, shocking Harry for a moment. We now know the guard is a hybrid and he comes bearing a gift for Harry — coordinates to an escape pod that will take him home. The guard, Joseph, tells Harry he’ll text him the information and Harry wants to know how he got the number which leads to a hilarious back-and-forth about the phone company giving him the number, which Harry does not believe. Joseph finally admits he got Harry’s number from a nurse at the clinic, and Harry knew it was that awful Nurse Ellen. But with the information now in hand, Harry begins a ‘Goodbye Tour’ of Patience, stopping Max on the street to give the boy a gift — a self portrait of himself as a human since Max has never seen him in that form. It’s a stick figure drawing. Max, however, doesn’t believe Harry is leaving because he loves Max too much. Harry tries to deny this, but Max said he wouldn’t have given him a gift if he didn’t. Zing. Harry also realizes he has to say goodbye to his ‘other child’ Robert, so he gives him the orb to protect him from the Grays (again, odd that he didn’t give it to Asta).

While he’s preparing to go to the pod, Sahar arrives to say goodbye to Baby (Max apparently told her they were leaving), and thanking him for making her feel like a mother. She even got him a stuffed octopus toy to which she stitched a hijab to remind him of her. Awwww. Watching the two embrace melted Harry’s heart and he finally understood that human connection to their children. At one time Harry was just going to eat the baby, but now he wants to love and protect it, even trying out names for the child including Chaz. Sahar admonishes Harry for even considering that name, telling him it has to be something grand as the child is the bridge between humans and aliens. Bridge … ette. Harry will call the boy Bridgette. It’s settled. And, again oddly out of character, Harry records a goodbye video to send to Asta. A video! Is it that he just can’t say goodbye to her? But he sends it and makes his way to the pod. Awaiting takeoff he comes to the realization that maybe present-day Harry can make a difference as the pod lifts off. But we see that Harry is actually outside. He sent Bridgette home — conveniently forgetting to leave the snacks Sahar made for them in the pod, oops — and now knows what he has to do.

While all of this is happening, Liv sees a news report that Peter Bach was killed in a car accident, but she believes there was foul play because she has video of him leaving town in a van. He was found dead in an SUV. Mike thinks she is just believing what she wants to believe, but she tries to prove to him something is up by taking him to the abandoned van in town. Mike directs her to get it to the impound lot but instead she takes it home and hides it in her garage. Mike isn’t too happy about her theft of the van and suggests she could be in legal jeopardy herself now. And low and behold when she arrives home she’s greeted by two cops — not from Patience — inquiring about a stolen van neighbors saw going into Liv’s garage. She has no choice but to open the door and inside they find her husband and Mike playing poker, no van in sight. Liv is shocked, and Mike assures the cops the only crime being committed is how much money he’s taking from John. He also tells the cops to tell their captain that he still owes Mike some money and they say they will relay the message. When they leave, Mike tells Liv that they weren’t real cops because he made up the name of the captain … and now he’s ready to listen to her theories, even if they involve aliens, because he watched the video of Peter leaving town in the van, and the van coming back three hours after Peter was reportedly killed. Feeling vindicated at last, the final person we see being interviewed for the UFO documentary is … Liv, who gets emotional when she finally feels free enough to say ‘I believe in aliens’.

Kate wakes up to find Ben missing again, this time in the kitchen, just staring out the window. She taps him and snaps him out of his trance, saying he had that same dream about his family again. But he still has no idea how he got in the kitchen. Earlier Ben had told Mike that he’s not supporting the resort anymore, and all of Mike’s grand dreams for turning Patience in to a military state are dashed. Ben says he can hire one new deputy. Later Mike is interviewing a new recruit — Joseph, the hybrid, who assures Mike he has ways of making people comply. It seems Patience has a new alien in town.

Syfy

D’Arcy has to grab a few things she left behind at Dan’s house, and while she’s there she finds a small cooler in Asta’s closet. Inside is a note and a vial of Botulinum Toxin Type A, leading her to believe that Asta had something to do with Sam’s murder. By this time, Asta has received Harry’s video goodbye and has gone to his cabin, but she finds that he’s there. He tells her he knows how he can save the planet now and he fires up Peter’s hard drive. And then D’Arcy arrives, furious at Asta for all of the secrets she’s been keeping, noting that she tells Asta everything. This is the end of her friendship if Asta doesn’t tell her what’s going on but Asta says she can’t. She tries to reason with D’Arcy and before she can get out the door, she hears a sound behind her. D’Arcy turns and sees Harry in his true alien form. Oh, that’s Asta’s big secret? Okay, it’s cool then. She was totally unfazed by the site of Harry, which upset Harry. He wasn’t even wearing pants and she could not care less?

But they then hear a rumble outside, and Harry tells them to get to the bunker. He’s been waiting for this but they need to go. Now D’Arcy has questions but Asta drags her away as Harry waits. It’s not an alien invasion, however, it’s McCallister’s troops, breaking through the doors and windows to apprehend the alien. Harry tells them the door was unlocked and they will get a bill. They put him in shackles and take him to the General, and she asks him if he wants her to remove them or does he want to do it. Harry says he will do it and easily breaks the cuffs. McCallister calls her men idiots. Harry asks what this large empty warehouse is, and she says it’s nothing. But she walks to a wall which opens to reveal an elevator. Half a mile down there is quite a lot to show him. He enters with her to begin the phase of his quest to save the planet.

Meanwhile, Robert is sitting on a bench outside of town, apparently waiting for a bus. He pulls the orb out of his pocket to examine it and then a bright light envelopes him from overhead. Robert is slowly lifted off the bench into the sky, and inside the ship he is confined to a table, greeted by the same alien that had spoken to Harry. The Gray takes the orb and then we see someone on another table next to Robert. It’s Ben. As I suspected, he hasn’t been sleepwalking, he’s been experiencing abductions. The Gray tells Ben to note be afraid … his baby is here too. As Ben looks over to see the fetus, we flash back to three months prior and see that Kate was also abducted when she thought she was pregnant. Turns out she really was. Ben is horrified.

And that ends Season 2 of Resident Alien. Many questions answered and many more left for us to ponder. Will Ben be returned and will he be able to convince Kate they were abducted and she does have a baby? Will Liv sniff out the new deputy, and can she convince Mike that Joseph is an alien? Will Harry be able to work with General McAllister to fight off the Grays? And what impact will Harry’s secret have on D’Arcy? Will the news of aliens in Patience finally become common knowledge? We’ll have to wait until Season 3 to hopefully get some of those answers. Until then!

The first two seasons of Resident Alien are available to stream on Peacock or to purchase from iTunes. Use the link below and help support Hotchka.