You have to. It's your destiny.
Episode description: “Ben struggles to get the townspeople to accept the resort, while Harry and Asta find out the origins of Goliath.”
As the Men in Black can't use David, because he's been in Patience before, General Wright goes to Max's school as a lunch lady. She gives him a lot of food, and in some of it there's a tracker. Sahar figures it out, and in a bit of scatological but non-gratuitous humor, gives him an enema.
Ben presents the idea of a resort to the people of Patience. Most of them are not impressed, because this means that corporations with their chains will come in and ruin everything. In a way this is hypocritical, as some of them have been complaining about the limitations of Patience. Despite all the objections raised at the meeting, Ben still thinks this is a good idea and Kate supports him.
That is, Kate supports Ben's resort idea until D'arcy comes to the Hawthorne house and takes Kate out to join her and some of the other women. I have mixed feelings about this. It's true that Kate and D'arcy have been getting on together, but they are mostly inviting her out in order to persuade her to persuade Ben not to ruin the town. She recognizes this, but it is really sweet when she carves her name into the bridge.
Harry ends up being nice to D'arcy, who needs treatment for some athletic pain. Being nice to D'arcy, a frenemy, both surprises and annoys Harry, as he discovers he is starting to care about other humans and not just Asta. He is so angry with himself that he goes up the glacier, removes his human clothes, and resumes his alien form. When he realizes he brought no food with him, he goes back to the cabin of Harry Vanderspeigle. Unfortunately for alien-form Harry, but fortunately for us, the cabin is not constructed for Harry's alien race. The scene in which he is bumping into everything is hilarious.
Harry also teams up with Sahar, another frenemy, in order to search for the baby alien. They track it down but fail, as the Men in Black helicopter takes away the RV with the baby inside it. Sahar, who has come to love "Baby," in her despair turns to Harry and hugs him. Harry, again surprised at having feelings for any humans other than Asta, sort of hugs her back and tells her "There, there."
This episode is uneven with respect to its treatment of Sheriff Mike. His making himself the hero of potential scenarios is classic Mike, and I can understand Resident Alien would want to drag out any romance between him and Lena Torres. It also makes sense that he would miss the challenge of the crimes of a big city. But he has been an officer of the law for a long time, and he is unbelievably insensitive with respect to what happened to Abigail Hodges (even though he was the one who finally admitted he was wrong). With his experience, he should have known and behaved better.
Asta comforts Harry and goes through his mail, which he has been ignoring (except for special delivery pizza coupons). Among the deliveries he has not bothered to open is a book, sent by Violinda, containing pictures of the paintings of Goliath. Harry and Asta leaf through it to discover a picture of them during one of their first encounters. Somehow this means that Harry is Goliath and time travel is involved.
Title musings. "The Alien Within" is the title of the episode, and it suits the story in many, many ways. Harry talks about being alien on the inside. He tries being an alien on the outside but that leads to problems, as Earth houses are designed for humans and not aliens. So he decides to stay an alien on the inside. Then there's General Wright, pretending to be Agnes the lunch lady. She's an alien force at the school, and she arranges to get Max to swallow the tracker (he now has something alien inside him). There's also Baby, the alien both inside Patience and in the RV lifted away by the helicopter. And, at the end, there's Harry discovering he is/was/will be Goliath – time portals make grammar hard! – and so he is an extra alien. Those are just the obvious, pretty literal applications of the title to the episode. Also, more metaphorically, I think many of us sometimes feel as if we have an alien within. The title works!
Bits and pieces
I am confused by the time loop. If Goliath did that painting of Harry and Asta, he must be from the future. There's also the old Harry in clips. Time travel is confusing!
I liked how they used Hallowe'en to set the season. Also, Kate, with her long black hair, makes a pretty good Cher.
Ellen, when she comes trick-or-treating, does a great job imitating Ben.
D'arcy says where Ben lost his virginity, implying it was with her.
Quotes
Harry: Your knee is compensating for your tibiofibular joint that you injured in your ski accident. Also, you are very old, and your body is falling apart as it prepares for your death.
D'arcy: Yeah, can you just – you know, tell me you can fix it? I have to ski in this tournament. Skiing is the only thing that I've ever been really any good at. So If I can't – if I can't ski in this tournament, I don't know – I just – please.
Harry: You can ski. Yes, you can do it. I believe in you.
D'arcy: Really?
Harry: Yes. It's just a pulled muscle. I'm going to give you some medicine. Okay. This will be for your pain and also for your swelling. You will have a child's knee again, and you will not die for many years.
Sahar: Did you notice anything different about that new lunch lady, Agnes?
Max: She had less hair on her face than the other lunch ladies?
Sahar: Yes, and her watch, that was no lunch lady watch. It was military. She might be MIB. That's probably how she knew your name.
Sheriff Mike: Okay, look, I like Detective Torres, okay? She's a pain in the ass, but I like it, all right? She's smart. She's strong. She's very attractive. Just not aiming to plant my roots any deeper here in Patience.
Deputy Liv: Why not?
Sheriff Mike: Well, I've been thinking a lot lately, and it might be time to move back to DC.
Deputy Liv: What?
Sheriff Mike: Oh, come on, Deputy, you know me. I need the excitement of a big case, you know. And the biggest case I ever had here, it just ended. Hell, DC's got murders as far as the eye can see. It's like a whole forest of them in constant bloom.
Harry: (to self) I came here to kill all the humans, but I could feel myself wanting to help Asta's ski friend. It is bad enough that I never fried their bodies to ash. Today I was trying to make her human life better. What have I become? I have been hiding behind this human mask for too long. Being in human form must be allowing emotions to take over. The only way to fight it is to return to my alien body and live the way I was born to live in my familiar frozen environment as an alien. I did not consider there is no food up here, and I am already hungry. Aliens can also live in cabins with meat freezers.
Harry: I'm kidnapping you.
Sahar: Actually, kidnapping by definition is abducting someone and holding them against their will. I'm not resisting. I want to go with you.
Harry: Then I do not want you to go with me.
Sahar: You're resisting me?
Harry: Yeah.
Sahar: Okay, so I am adult-napping you. Glad we agree.
Abigail Hodges: A baseball cap? I was arrested, and I lost my home.
Sheriff Mike: Okay, well, some people consider a baseball cap to be a home for your head.
Asta: You probably should have just said sorry.
Asta: Thank you for opening up late, Dad.
Dan: I may not have an "Open 24 hours" sign, but I have an unwritten sign that says, "I won't let anyone in this town go hungry."
Asta: This is us. Harry, this is the day you fought Jimmy.
Harry: How could Goliath paint this? We were the only ones there.
Overall rating
Mostly very entertaining, but a few bits were flat. Three out of four special delivery pizza coupons.
Victoria Grossack loves math, birds, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.
I thought the twist that Harry was Goliath made a lot of sense and was very cool. It choked me up a bit, too. :)
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