Sahar: A truce.
Max: You tell my parents I'm not crazy so I can stay home, and I'll stop telling everyone you're an alien.
Dead human Harry’s estranged wife shows up, which means alien Harry needs to take a crash course in human love. But the most convincing love language is not between alien Harry and Isabelle, but rather in other exchanges that are not at all romantic.
Alan Tudyk gets to show, in a flashback scene to the human Harry, that he can act as a human, and a charming human at that. We see how he met Isabelle, the artist who was undercover as a waitress at her own showing and how he was the divorced doctor (which means somewhere out there is a potential first wife).
At the end of the last episode, alien Harry had just discovered the unconscious kids in his home. He returns them to their own homes. Sahar does not remember what happened, but Max does. Ben and Kate are genuinely worried about Max and his insistence that Harry is an alien. Manipulated by alien Harry, they make plans to send him to a school in Georgia. Although Ben's attitude seems more reasonable, Kate has a point. Parents who love their kids can be at their wits' ends in trying to make a decision of this magnitude.
I liked the apology scene between Max and Harry. Harry is so eager to get an apology from Max that he keeps skipping ahead in the script. He also does not accept Max's apology about breaking into his house, because Max doesn’t mean it. Harry understands this because he himself was insincere in apologetic words to D’Arcy in the morning.
The D’Arcy scenes in this episode are a lot of fun. When she’s “breaking up” with Harry, in part because he kisses like a horse licking an ice cream cone, all he really cares about is stealing her coffee. I love how he distracts her with apologies and manages to walk off with it at the end. Then she’s sharing drinks with Isabelle as they are talking about their difficult guys (the writers surely had fun writing that dialogue). But the most satisfying bit was when D’Arcy saw Harry dancing with Isabelle and finally seems to understand he has zero interest her. In a great scene, she leaves a bottle of wine in the snow, then takes it back. Of course, he never knew it was there, but it reminds us of the coffee he stole in the morning. I like D'Arcy, but I don't care for her throwing herself at Harry, and I hope this ends this arc.
Isabelle’s behavior to alien Harry is confused because he is not behaving at all like the man she married. Human Harry had a lot of status in New York City, but something went wrong – people were out to get him – and they were getting divorced. Then alien Harry never signed the papers, which is why Isabelle came out to settle things. He signs the papers, but then she doesn’t go away. He discovers certain advantages, such as sex and home-cooked meals, but there’s no real bond.
Max has felt betrayed by the people he should count most on – his parents and his friend, Sahar. His parents are planning to send him away and Sahar did not support him in saying that there was alien technology in Harry's basement. Sahar does not remember going to Harry’s because her brain was hurt when she touched the floating apple, but she still believes Max. She steps in and negotiates a truce between Max and Harry. And they can finally ask questions they want real answers to, on both sides. Although this, again, is not romantic love, there’s some real affection.
As Asta’s secret about Jay is known at the reservation, she has to expect it to spread like wildfire though Patience. In a way it was disappointing that Jay learns the truth, not from Asta telling her she is her birth mother, which she should have done, but from picking up Sam’s old papers that Isabelle conveniently threw at Harry. It’s a bit too much coincidence to have it come out two different ways at about the same time. On the other hand, I can see that the scene between Asta and Jay would have been repetitive, and this approach to Jay’s finding out was more satisfying with respect to the characters.
Jay stomps away, especially upset when she learns that Jimmy is her biological dad. Asta then contacts Jimmy to let him know. They keep making Jimmy out to the bad guy, and as he has hit Asta, he is a bad guy. In an act of non-romantic love, alien Harry hangs out at the diner while Asta is telling Jimmy about Jay in order to protect Asta. Jimmy may be a bad guy, but he makes some reasonable points about Asta and her treatment of Jay.
The best bit was when Dan tells Jay that family doesn’t pay to eat at his diner. She changes her order from just coffee to two burgers and a piece of pie. He’s happy to do it, making up for 17 years of missed time as a grandfather.
Title musings. “Love Language” is the title of this episode, and love is shown a lot of different ways: Harry’s ninja protection of Asta, Dan’s offering Jay whatever she wants at the diner, and Harry being unable to be mean to the kids. Love language isn’t wine and roses, it’s burgers and pie.
Bits and pieces
I liked how both the Sheriff and the Deputy were terrible at yo-yoing.
Interesting, how the one move that gets Harry to respond to human Harry’s wife, Isabelle, is her singing. I wonder if this says something about his species.
We learn that Sam was killed by botulism, which thrills Sheriff Mike, because that has to be murder.
Quotes
Human Harry: You're the artist?
Isabelle: I'm the artist.
Human Harry: But I thought you were the waitress.
Isabelle: I'm undercover. I'll be the waitress – who will you be?
Human Harry: I am the divorced doctor, who is also undercover. I'm an art afficionado.
Ben: Max! Oh, thank God, you were in here.
Kate: You didn't check the closet?
Ben: For our sleeping son? No, I didn't check the closet or the sock drawers.
Harry: Is that coffee for me?
D'Arcy: Oh, this coffee that I have not offered to you in any way?
Asta: Jay should not be here.
Harry (to himself): This is interesting. She's willing to send Jay away because she loves her, not because she hates her.
Harry (aloud): Fire her.
Asta: No! I can't do that.
Harry: Can I?
Isabelle: You're a monster. I‐I‐I'm going back to New York. I‐I can't.
Harry (to Asta): "Monster" is a cheese, right?
Harry (to self about Isabelle): Why is she still here? How am I supposed to get into my underwear and watch Jerry Orbach with that hot ham in my house?
Harry (aloud): You said you were going away forever.
Ben: You want to send him to Georgia?
Kate: Of course I don't want to send him away. But we have a broken child. The only thing scarier than being away from him is him getting worse if we don't do something about it.
Ben: But maybe he'll outgrow it on his own. You know, like the lisp or the – or the thumb sucking.
Isabelle: What's different about you?
Harry: I shaved my mustache.
Isabelle: You didn't have a mustache.
Harry: I grew it, and then I shaved it – before I drank the milk.
Dan: Hungry?
Jay: I've only got enough for coffee.
Dan: Well, that's okay. Family don't pay.
Jay: In that case, I'll get two burgers – one for here and one to go – and a slice of pie.
Overall rating
I really, really enjoyed this – the resolution of the issues between Harry and the kids, Jay now knows about her birth parents, and D’Arcy will hopefully stop throwing herself at Harry. A couple bits feel contrived, but this episode had so much warmth. Three and a half out of four burgers.
Victoria Grossack loves math, birds, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.
I liked this one, too. LIke you said, Victoria, it's warm. I'm glad that we've moved on from Harry trying to kill Max to them sort of becoming allies, and I liked the resolution with Jay. Loved the yo-yo scene. But I don't like Isabelle at all. I felt uncomfortable with everything she did.
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