Octopus: Wow, what is going on in your brain? All I see in there is hookers and red meat. Let me clean that up for you.
Episode description: "Harry, the alien, is back on earth but doesn't remember who he is and only Asta can keep him safe."
When the last episode ended we saw Harry – in his alien form – taking off in his spaceship and discovering that the boy, Max Hawthorne, had hidden on board. That’s a good reason to come back to Earth. And, of course, we’re interested in Harry’s interactions with the people in Patience.
Harry wakes up in a hospital without his memories, or at least not a complete set of memories. He tries telling the hospital personnel he is an alien and even where his planet is located. They humor him. Later, when Asta finds him, he assumes he is Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) from Law and Order, and that Asta is both a hooker and a confidential informant. Harry is lucky in that his human friends are both looking for him and are looking out for him.
But before Asta goes in search of Harry – she witnessed the ship take off at the end of season one, and assumes he is on the way home to his planet – she worries about Max. After the ship took off, she could not find the boy. She has a great conversation with her own father – an elegant way to catch up the audience on what happened and to entertain us with her sinking feeling about the confession she is going to have to make and Dan’s limited support. Still, Asta is a responsible human being and she makes herself go to the Hawthorne house in order to explain to Max’s parents, who she expects are frantic, what happened. However, when she gets there, Ben is making pancakes and Max is safe and sound. Ben and Kate never even noticed that Max was gone! To be fair, they are still recovering from fighting off intruders the night before. Recovering includes ramped up horniness, to the point of making everyone else uncomfortable. Also, although the Hawthornes are impressed by what they did – and so is part of the town – it’s fun to see how quickly that wears off the rest of the residents of Patience.
Max tells Asta to meet him at the baseball field, which is the crash site. Harry’s ship is there. It’s invisible, which saves the special effects budget a lot. Asta tells Max to prevent anyone from getting to it, a tall order for a kid, but he gets help from Sahar. Sahar is clever, and for a while they manage, but the thing is, the baseball field is going to be used for baseball and the kids have limited tricks up their sleeves. Watching them trying to get people away from the invisible ship is fun, but Asta is right when she tells Harry that there’s no way they can keep hiding the ship. Harry pushes a button and it transforms into four small spheres and a convenient little carrying case.
Interesting interaction between Max and Harry. Harry is naturally angry with Max because if it weren’t for him, he would be back home. Now Harry is stuck on Earth. But Max tells Harry that Harry loves Max, because Harry protected Max during the crash. Harry resists, but in his musings to himself, there’s a lot about how he’s acquiring human emotions and human memories. This theme is something one finds in many sci fi shows – what does it mean to be human? – but weirdly, it doesn’t really appeal to me. His insights are not landing with me.
Sheriff Mike brings in two coffees. Deputy Liv assumes one is for her, but finds out that it is not (given that he just arranged a Nespresso machine for her, she shouldn’t be complaining). Nevertheless, the two of them are getting along pretty well. They’re working on the severed foot case, and for once Mike’s theory, although far-fetched, is actually spot on.
We learn that the deliberate crash of Jimmy’s truck only caused property damage, breaking apart the Patience sign, the pieces of which have been dumped in the Mayor’s office. Jimmy doesn’t rat out D’Arcy. Possibly he does not do this because Jay, his biological daughter, is involved. But Ellen knows some of the details, so that means the police really should know, too. I am still really pissed about that crash. D’Arcy needs to be locked up for this.
At the clinic they notice that Ethan Stone is not showing up, either.
Harry’s memory gets restored by the octopus. I’m glad we see that Harry finally breaks him out of the restaurant.
Title musings. “Old Friends” is the title of the episode. We see that some people are comfortable with each other, and other old friends are referenced. We see many sets of friends: Mike and Liv, Asta and D’Arcy, Max and Harry, Harry and Asta, Harry and the octopus, Max and Sahar. The only person referenced who doesn’t seem to have an old friend is poor Dr. Ethan Stone. The title’s a little weird, but I like it.
Bits and pieces
Sheriff Mike, when working with Deputy Liv, imagines how it would work if the assailant had extra arms. Sounds ridiculous, but for once it is more accurate than what Liv is coming up with.
I have sympathy for Mayor Ben with respect to the aftermath of fighting off the intruders. Adrenalin-filled memories can be all-encompassing, but it's hard to get friends and family to listen to more than one recounting.
Nathan Fillion, who starred with Alan Tudyk in Firefly, does the voice of the octopus.
Octopuses are cool. Female octopuses will hurl debris at male octopuses when they are too annoying.
The Octopus is “Number 42” on the menu. I suspect 42 was chosen because it is THE answer to THE question in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Quotes
Harry: After living on Earth, I am not just an alien with human emotions. I am an alien with human memories.
Sheriff Mike: Grab you like that, and I throw you in the lake.
Deputy Liv: You can't. I'm holding your arms.
Sheriff Mike: What if I got an extra set of arms I use to choke you out?
Asta: What the hell am I gonna tell his parents?
Dan: Try this. "Your kid is gone. There was an alien involved."
Asta: I can't do it.
Dan: Well, you can't run from this. I'll be with you every step of the way.
Asta: Okay. Thanks for coming with me.
Dan: Hell, no. I'm not going. I gotta cook eggs.
Asta: I can do without the gossip, okay?
Ellen: Then I guess you don't wanna know about D'Arcy crushing Jimmy's truck.
Asta: What?
Ellen: I heard D'Arcy and Jay cut Jimmy's brakes. Jay threatened to kill him if he ever went near you.
Deputy Liv: Yes, sir. Thanks for the coffee.
Sheriff Mike: Actually, they're both for me.
Deputy Liv: Sir. And you weren't joking. Both for you. Everything okay?
Sheriff Mike: Everything's fine, Deputy. We got a lot of work to do.
Sahar: Go ahead. Walk across the field and breathe the sewage particulates into your lungs. By day two of the infection, your colon blocks off and poop comes out of your eyes. It's called eye-arrhea.
Octopus: Whoa, whoa! Tell him to break me out! I'm Monday chef's special!
Max: You can say whatever you want, but you can't take back what happened. You saved me because you love me.
Max: I know you are, but what am I?
Harry: You are not hearing me correctly. The pronoun is you, not I.
Max: I know you are, but what am I?
Mayor Ben: Please, please, please. Stop clapping. I'm – I'm no hero.
(They stop.)
Mayor Ben: Okay, that was quick.
Asta: Harry, you are running out of time, okay? You cannot fix it. You have to do something. You can't fix it because if someone sees this, then things will get worse for you, okay?
Harry: Humans do not look forward. They have memories that force them to look backwards. The alien in me only failed my mission once, but the human in me has relived that failure a thousand times. Why would I think about it if it's painful? Maybe humans like pain as much as they like pie.
Asta: You know, on Earth, you don't really have to be related to be family. In fact, you don't have to be like them at all.
Harry: Then how are they family?
Deputy Liv: Is that coffee for me?
Sheriff Mike: That coffee is for you.
Overall rating
An enjoyable start to the second season, bringing back Lennie Briscoe and the octopus and with lots of excellent dialogue. I’m still mad about D’Arcy releasing the truck into traffic, though. That’s still not funny. Three and a half out of four coffees, all for me.
Victoria Grossack loves math, birds, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.
I liked this one a lot. It feels like the show is hitting its stride.
ReplyDelete"Old Friends" certainly applied to a lot more than just the one thing, but I really felt that it worked best as a salute to Firefly. :) I recently binge-watched all of The Rookie, and Alan Tudyk guest starred in a very enjoyable episode that was mostly just Tudyk and Nathan Fillion.