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Resident Alien: End of the World as We Know It

Mike: What can I do for you, Dan?
Dan: Asta didn’t show up for our weekly dinner date, and she’s not responding to my calls.
Mike: Yeah, well, maybe she stood you up for a younger fella.
Dan: We were both in the military, Mike. When we have a feeling, we know to trust it. Something’s wrong.
Mike: Okay. All right, I hear you. Let’s see what’s going on.

Episode description: ”Harry must rely on Asta and D'Arcy for survival.”

This episode begins where the last one finished, down a crevasse. Asta and D’Arcy are just stunned, but Harry is severely injured. D’Arcy starts climbing out, but just as she reaches the top and hooks herself to a rope, the crevasse crumbles again, with a snowmobile falling in as well. Harry and Asta fall even further, while D’Arcy is knocked unconscious but ends up dangling on a rope. D’Arcy is knocked unconscious, which is important for the plot.

The heart of the episode is how Asta finally discovers that Harry is an alien. He’s too weak to hide his true form anymore, and besides, he’s bleeding out and he needs her help. Asta first freaks out, and says a few hurtful things, but she also says it explains a lot. She gets over her revulsion pretty quickly, and helps Harry. It is really convenient to the plot that she is a nurse. It also helps that she believes in all living things, sort of, and that helps her help him. The connection between the two is emotionally satisfying. Harry is relieved because he doesn’t need to lie anymore, or rather, he doesn’t need to lie as much. He doesn’t tell her that he killed the original Harry. He says he just used the DNA from some of the original Harry’s dead skin cells.

D’Arcy shines in this episode, managing to save everyone in the crevasse even though she is injured. She truly is a superior athlete, at home on ice and snow. She spends some time unconscious or dreaming or hallucinating during this. These departures from reality not only serve to develop her and her back story, but they prevent her from being aware of what Asta and Harry are doing and how Harry is slipping back into his alien form.

It’s interesting how D’Arcy is most motivated to complete the rescue when she thinks of Asta. D’Arcy may be heterosexual in terms of which gender she wants to have sex with, but the person she loves most is Asta. The only guy she can think of who might miss her when she’s dead is Dr Ethan Stone (she can’t include Harry because, if she dies, he dies).

Another character who shines brightly in this episode is Asta's dad, Dan Twelvetrees. He knows something is wrong. Dan appeals to Mike and their shared military training, and gets the sheriff to go from flippant to helpful. They set about first trying to find D’Arcy – again that connection is one of Patience’s strongest – and later, when Dan discovers Asta hiding an alien in his restaurant’s freezer, he does what needs to be done.

The segment that drags down the episode is the Hawthornes' anniversary meal in the expensive restaurant. Ben was right when he said Mike doesn’t know much about women, so why does he take Sheriff Mike’s advice and order for Kate? And why, especially, does he order food he doesn’t like for himself? Mike was right when Ben doesn’t know how to put himself first. But ordering food they don’t like is just too beta, gamma or even omega. We need to append a new last letter to the Greek alphabet to come up with the right label for that behavior.

We don’t see much of non-Deputy Liv, except when she comes to retrieve her things from Mike and at the fancy restaurant. She's there with her husband, John Baker, who works with D’Arcy on avalanche control. Liv and John seem to have a really good relationship, which is a relief even if it adds little to the plot.

On General Wright’s orders, Ben and Lisa have made their way to Patience and they have discovered Max’s have you seen this alien posters. Lisa manages to strike up a conversation with Kate (Max's mother) in the ladies' room (we believe that Lisa stoked the exchange by stealing all the toilet paper out of Kate’s stall). Contact is established!

Title musings. “End of the World as We Know It” is the title of the episode. It's also a song that came out in 1987 by REM. The lyrics too long to include here and a good portion not relevant, but the song was featured in other shows, such as the movie, Independence Day, when the Earth was invaded by aliens. Asta now knows aliens are real. So does Dan. The world will never be the same to them. Also, although they don't know it (but Dan is suspicious), Harry the alien does not have happy plans for humanity. The title is good enough.

Bits and pieces

Harry’s citation of shedding 40,000 skin cells every hour is about right, although I suppose it depends on the size of the person.

It’s important that D’Arcy and Asta took out two snowmobiles. One falls into the crevasse (and has the fuse that Asta uses to save Harry’s life) while D’Arcy uses the other to pull up Harry and Asta.

Quotes

Asta: Oh, thank God. We’re all okay.
D’Arcy: Okay? We fell into a crevasse. This is a death trap.

Asta: What is happening to you?
Harry: Bee sting.
Asta: We’re inside a glacier.
Harry: Snow bees. I’m allergic to the sting of snow bees and ice hornets.

Asta: This is not exactly how I thought I’d spend my day. You know, you being an alien sort of explains a lot.

Asta: So if you’re a copy, what happened to the real Harry Vanderspeigle?
Harry to self: Body is in my freezer, foot is in your clinic freezer, wife is in New York.
Harry to Asta: I don’t know. I took shelter in his cabin and used his DNA to take his identity.

Harry: Max was afraid of me. He has a very rare genetic trait that allows him to see me in my true form.
Asta: That must’ve been scary.
Harry: Yes. I was afraid people would start believing him.
Asta: I meant that must’ve been scary for him.

D'Arcy: If you’re watching this, I’m dead, or I’m really drunk, and we’re all laughing at how pathetic I was for making a video where I thought I was gonna die.

D’Arcy: Maybe the new town motto should be “One died to not save three.”

John: Two snowmobiles have been out since past 3:00. Still not back.
Ben: Okay, well, let’s get a search going. Whatever you need from the town, you got it.
John: I can prepare the chopper for a search, but this stormfront’s not supposed to pass until daybreak.
Dan: They’ll freeze by then.

Dan: What are you doing hanging with that thing?
Asta: Do you know what that thing is?
Dan: Well, it’s violating a whole bunch of health codes, I know that for sure.
Asta: Can you just say it, so there’s no confusion?
Dan: Why’s there an alien in my freezer?

Asta: Okay, look at me. I’m right here. I won’t let you die.
Harry to self: I believe her. No one’s dying today, but now I have my device, so how about tomorrow? All eight billion of them.

Overall rating

Three out of four escargots. I don’t like them much either, but unlike Ben, I would not order them unless I hated the rest of the menu more. And, except for that cringe-inducing behavior, I enjoyed this episode.

Victoria Grossack loves math, birds, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.

2 comments:

  1. Ben is an idiot, but I do love escargot.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, the Hawthornes are the weak part of the series. Although I like their son, I have no interest in them. But I really enjoyed D'arcy to the rescue and Asta and Dan learning the truth (almost) about Harry. It feels like the series finally turned a corner.

    ReplyDelete

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