Ben: I'm gonna say no. Uh – possible HR violation.
Mike: Yeah, that is a pretty foot. You got yourself a dancer's arch.
Episode description: "D'arcy inserts herself into Harry's mission, while Kate grows more uncomfortable in her own home."
Max has two new friends, Mari and Leo/Bishop, in his alien club, and he schleps them over to Harry's in order to see a real alien. Why Max thinks they will believe him when they can't see Harry's alien form is beyond me. And why he thinks Harry would tell them the truth and reveal himself is also beyond me. We can see that Sahar – "grumpy head scarf" – really was the brains in their little group.
Asta is planning a second date with Joseph the Grey; both D'arcy and Harry are reluctant for her to go. D'arcy makes a good point in that many of Harry's plans have not worked out as he intended (he has a great internal monologue on how humans are not as smart as they think they are – I agree with him – but maybe Harry is not, either). Anyway, while Asta and Joseph are eating in her father's diner, Harry and D'arcy team up to go to Joseph's place. Harry and D'arcy are hilarious together. Also, breaking and entering seems to be a Patience sort of thing. I also love how they enter the hardest way possible and how Max and his friends just use the door, which was not locked (hmm, maybe Max is not so unintelligent).
Sheriff Mike is acting weird about Lena – ending up in bed with Judy! – but sometimes he does think out of the box and he does try to support Mayor Ben. The suggestion that Ben should do foot modeling – although highly entertaining and actually leading to a significant plot point, the tracker left in Ben's foot by the Greys – is weird on so many levels. Why on earth does Sheriff Mike know anything about foot modeling? Does he have a foot fetish? And how could he know, in advance, that Ben would have photogenic feet? However interesting these questions are, I do not expect Resident Alien will be answering them.
In his conversation with Mike, Ben talks about the fear that his gripped him his entire life. This also explains why he is attracted to Kate, and why he used to be attracted to D'arcy. Both women are usually very brave, and that is a quality he needs.
Harry was able to control his urges with respect to the alien tracker cattle prod but not with respect to pizza (something Joseph the Grey knows). This is not the first time Harry has been derailed by pizza. The conversation between him and D'arcy in the shrinking box – Oh, he got the new kind! – is both funny and insightful, especially the bit about failure.
Thanks to the assistance from the "new Alien Tracker" and his posse, Harry and D'arcy escape the shrinking box. Harry captures Joseph but doesn't tie him up because he expects that will just lead to him needing to hire a repairman (the imaginary repairman who bores everyone with his nature photography is also hilarious). Although Harry and Joseph both accuse each other of being failures, Harry pretty much wins by getting Joseph the Grey to leave town. Then, when Ben comes in about the weird thing in his foot, Harry realizes that by hypnotozing the mayor, he can get the answers to many of his questions.
Title musings. "The Upper Hand" is the title of the episode. In this, we have so many pairs trying to get the upper hand: Harry v. D'arcy; Harry v. Max and his retinue; Harry v. Joseph the Grey; Joseph v. Asta; Mike v. Lena (Mike loses big time). I may have missed some. "The Upper Hand" is fun in that the solution to Harry's problem is found in Mayor Ben's foot instead of a hand. I like the title.
Bits and pieces
Judy has many, many employments. We've seen her at the counter of the bowling alley, the motel on the edge of town, leading groups on the Patience murder walking tour, making audio books, and now, trying to be a realtor.
Apparently the Hawthorne house had some murders in it, and Ben wrote about it while in grade school. No wonder Ben has been trying to make sure Patience is not known as a murder town.
I appreciated how Deputy Liv uses baked goods to expedite forensic processing. I myself have used boxes of chocolates to keep the IT department happy.
Fun how Asta bases her answers to Joseph on Mork and Mindy. Easiest way to lie is to base your story on something, as opposed to attempting to invent something out of whole cloth.
It is not surprising that Joseph the Grey left his door unlocked, as he was hoping Harry would enter in order to trap him.
Mari and Leo/Bishop accept that Joseph the Grey is an alien, even though they never see him in an alien form. I guess the technology in his apartment was enough to convince them.
At the Montana site, there's tantalizing mention of the Darling project. Wonder if that was named for the characters in Peter Pan?
Quotes
Harry: Wait, where is grumpy headscarf?
Max: She moved away.
Harry: And left you here? Oh, that's like cutting off the head of a chicken and watching its dumb little body run into walls.
Harry: (to self) Humans spend their entire lives believing they are special. Even after they die, they do everything in their power to remain special forever: tombstones, plaques, old libraries with their names on them. Not long ago, the smartest minds on Earth believed the sun revolved around them.
D'arcy: You can't go on another date with him.
Asta: It's not a date. I just have to sit across from the guy at dinner and keep him interested in staying.
D'arcy: That sounds like every date I've ever been on.
Asta: Just long enough for Harry to search his apartment.
D'arcy: But do you really trust Harry's plan? What was his last plan again, to destroy the Earth? How'd that work out? Uh, everything's still here!
Judy: How do you guys feel about animal print? Zebra? I mean, obviously, these couches are hideous. No on that. All this trim is just ugh. Obviously, you're gonna want to get rid of the dead meat smell and – are these real? No? That's a good thing. It's a teardown, really. But we'll sell it, and then they'll realize it later.
Deputy Liv: Also, Detective Torres called here twice already looking for you.
Sheriff Mike: Let – let's just get to work, okay?
Deputy Liv: Oh, no. You're not talking. Are you ghosting her?
Sheriff Mike: Ghosts talk, Deputy. That's one of the main things ghosts do.
D'arcy: Pull me up or I'll put a sign in the bar that says Harry Vanderspeigle kicks dogs.
Harry: I do not. Who tells these lies?
D'arcy: Me, you idiot.
Ben: When I was eight, my teacher had us write down what we were doing for summer vacation. I wrote, "Fear." That's me. That's my thing. Now, suddenly, Kate's afraid of birds, and that scares me. I mean, how am I supposed to be the one hiding under the bed when she's already there?
Sheriff Mike: I actually like her independence. I think it's kind of sexy. Is it too much to ask for, to find an independent woman who only does what I want?
Harry: Look at this. Jack's pot!
D'arcy: That's just a pizza box. I don't think it's filled with alien secrets.
Harry: Well, maybe it's filled with pizza. I'm hungry.
Jay: Asta is in trouble. Who is that guy?
Dan: The new deputy.
Jay: He's bad.
Dan: Just go. I got it.
Lena: I've been thinking a lot about us. I know that you're not thrilled about me picking up a check now and then. And you're clearly not okay with me taking you on a trip. I like you a lot, and I want you to be happy, not uncomfortable.
Sheriff Mike: Well, thank you. I appreciate that.
Lena: So I think that we should just end this right now.
D'arcy: We're not stuck in here because we're failures. We're in here because no one else would even try.
Harry: Yes. I'm not a failure. I am special.
Joseph: If I don't know anything, your mission has failed.
Harry: And so has yours. You have to leave Patience now.
Joseph: Oh, why is that?
Harry: Because I do not like your square face. And if you do not leave, I will tell the Greys how many humans know you're an alien. Three of them are children. I do not think they will let you live.
Joseph: I will leave when I want to leave. Lucky for you, I want to leave right now.
Ben: Can't you just remove it?
Harry: Yes, but we're out of anesthetic.
Ben: Hypnosis is fine.
Harry: Listen only to the sound of my voice. When you wake up, you will remember nothing of this. But you will still pay me for the hour. Now, tell me everything that you remember from your last abduction.
Overall rating
This episode was extremely entertaining. It reminded me of an earlier episode, in which Harry says that all creatures in the universe experience the same thing: nothing goes as planned. That was certainly true here, but that's what makes it amusing. It was so very, very funny – and some bits really touched me. Four out of four dancers' arches.
Victoria Grossack loves math, birds, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.
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