Both D’arcy and Harry experience significant growth in this episode, as she faces the consequences of drinking and he is summoned to the Galactic Housing Council.
The Galactic Housing Council came up before: Heather works for them and Harry quivered when he heard them mentioned. Despite the innocuous name, they are powerful. They jolt Harry when he says anything they deem out of line, and they had sufficient power over the Greys to confiscate Harry’s alien essence. Despite their biases, they seem to bring some order to the galaxy, and although they are busying themselves with conflicts between Harry and the Greys – apparently the Galactic Housing Council is OK with the Greys taking human babies – the Galactic Housing Council are most concerned about the Mantid that escaped from the Moon when Harry was there.
It’s nice to see Liv and Mike join Ben and Kate to share their knowledge about aliens. Of course, their knowledge is not complete and so we watch them coming to incorrect conclusions. Ben and Kate finally (!!!) remember how Max was telling them that Harry was an alien years ago, and they turn to him. But Max does not trust his parents in this matter, as they nearly banished him to Georgia before. Besides, Harry is currently not an alien. Judah Prehn plays the part of resentful teenager very well, which is probably not hard as Prehn must have been 14 or 15 when this episode was shot.
D’arcy, after getting blotto drunk with Judy, messed up the bank deposit of Asta’s diner money. She and Judy try to track down the money but they cannot remember what they did (Judy’s approach is to get drunk again). D’arcy wants to be on Asta’s level but always finds herself sinking to Judy’s (which seems hard on the character of Judy). D’arcy goes through some important self-examination – even reaching out to Harry – and finally decides to go back to AA meetings in order to get sober.
Under pressure from the Galactic Housing Council, Harry has revealed the whereabouts of Ben and Kate’s baby. When Asta learns this, she prioritizes finding the baby over tracking down and killing the Mantid and they go to the Rez to move the baby to safety. This occasion on the Rez – which seemed to include some very suburban looking blocks as well as a high school – is wonderful. I loved the dancing and how Harry grows a soul (apparently all at once?) and bonds with the baby. The next time he’s up before the Council he offers himself in the baby’s place, should he fail to kill the Mantid.
This agreement to have the Greys back off is what is needed to finally sneak the baby into Ben and Kate’s place.
Title musings. “Soul Providers” is the name of the episode. It's a play on sole providers, which is a phrase that’s used when some enterprise has a monopoly on the market. That seems to apply here, because the Greys are the sole providers of processed human souls, while humans are the only beings with souls.
However, the interpretations with actual meaning of soul is more interesting. Apparently humans are the only beings in the universe with souls (note I think this as hubristic as maintaining that humans are the only creature on Earth with intelligence or consciousness). However, the unique quality makes them more interesting to other species and I guess I can accept it as a plot device.
I also think that Harry’s soul – and it’s always been there in a nascent form – emerged at the Native American ceremony. So maybe the First Peoples are the real soul providers. Anyway, I like the title.
Bits and pieces
If the Greys harvest human souls, then why would they want to kill all the humans by blowing up Yellowstone?
Wouldn’t a praying mantis need another praying mantis in order to breed? But maybe Mantids’ reproduction is different.
I think praying mantises do shed their exoskeletons to grow, but I don’t know anything about burying them in moisture rich soil and if that would help. I did only cursory searching on this, so if anyone out there knows, please post a comment. Anyway, it’s clear from the conversation between Max and Sahar that the Mantid is still around.
Harry is not the one who released the Mantid on Earth; he was stuck in the Greys’ Moon prison during that. So it seems unfair for the Galactic Housing Council to blame him. However, the Galactic Housing Council is not fair.
Loved the episode’s resolution to the missing diner money: D’arcy put it in a mailbox instead of the bank deposit box.
We still haven’t seen Max react to the fact that he has a sister. Well, I guess his parents would not tell him until they were sure they could retrieve her.
I liked how Kate got her baby back shortly after putting a peppermint in the tree. Maybe Liv is right and there are fairies.
Quotes
D’arcy: Asta. Probably looking for the money. Judy, come on, you're supposed to be helping me find it.
Judy: You lost it when we were really drunk, so I thought I'd get really drunk again to find it.
Harry: I need my alien energy.
Judge: You mean this?
Harry internal: There it is, my alien energy. I thought it would be purple.
Judge: The Greys failed to apply for the proper permits before taking it, so we confiscated it on your behalf.
Max: I'm just glad that the Mantid is dead and buried forever.
Sahar: Wait, did you say buried? I don't think you can Bury a Mantid. Praying mantises shed their exoskeleton to grow. If Mantids are anything like them, burying them in moisture-rich soil would trigger an advanced form of molting and help them regenerate.
Asta: Harry, do the Greys know where the baby is?
Harry: Someone may have accidentally told them where it is hidden.
Asta: Someone? You?
Harry: All they need is a protein bar, a blanket, and some leaves to wipe up their droppings.
Kayla: It's funny, now that I know you're an alien, everything you say just sounds so much more obvious.
Ben: You think maybe we're being a little premature turning the guest room into a nursery already?
Kate: I mean, it's been so long since I felt any sense of hope. Knowing there's someone out there who can see aliens, it gives me at least a little. Just let me have it, okay?
Harry: You did not come here to talk about bicycles or plants.
D’arcy: Asta gave me some money to deposit, and I got drunk, and I lost it, and then I lied to my best friend, and she actually believed me.
Harry: Oh, so the lie did its job.
D’arcy: Yeah, but... She's supposed to know me better than anyone. And if she just believes the lie, it's like she can't... it's like she can't see me, like, the real me.
Harry: If I could see the real you, what color hair would you have?
D’arcy: Brown.
Harry: I see the value of human life, even yours.
D’arcy: What's the value? Every dream I ever had is dead. Sometimes at night, I just – I just walk around for hours. And I look up at the sky, and I just feel so small – and so worthless.
Harry: If you were worthless, Mr. and Mrs. Mayor would not have their baby. You are not small. You are part of that sky that you were looking up at.
Official 1 at the Galactic Housing Council Hearing: But how do we know you actually grew this soul you're referring to?
Official 2 at the Galactic Housing Council Hearing: He would not have made such a selfless offer otherwise.
Overall rating
I did not like the narcissistic idea that humans are the only beings with souls, and some of the plot was inconsistent with prior events in the series. However, the jingle dance and Harry’s growing a soul and the baby finally getting home were wonderful. Three and a half out of four missing bank deposit bags.
Victoria Grossack loves math, birds, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.
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