Resident Alien: Mine Town

Mike: Let's just hope the new town motto doesn't become, small town, overcrowded cemetery.
Ben: Well, it wouldn't, because the town slogan is up to me.

With a Mantid on the prowl at the Mining Day festival, our heroes finally start working together.

Ben and Kate Hawthorne are learning and processing the truth. They reproach Max for not telling them and he points out he did tell them and they threatened to send him to a school in Georgia! This is a scene we have yearned to see ever since the first season. Mike and Liv also figure it out when they remember Max told them the new doctor was an alien. Max insisted on it until Mike threatened to put Max in jail.

Even though Ben and Kate want what’s best for Max (and for Bella/Daisy), they don't really understand him and how much he has grown. Max has been in a spaceship (so have Ben and Kate, but they don’t remember). Since his parents let him down, Max was forced to become more self-sufficient and to develop his own support network earlier than kids usually do (Max’s includes Sarah, Harry, Asta, and others). Max is now a young teen and would be going out more on his own anyway. I was glad to see how he got out of the car at the gas station. Unlike his parents, he understands the situation and how important his skills are to resolving it. Unfortunately, I think he left his alien taser device with Kate.

Ben and Kate are also annoyed and mistrustful of Harry and others who were hiding Harry’s alien nature. The Hawthornes are horrified that Max has been spending time with an alien and they want to curtail it. Kate also has issues with D’arcy. D’arcy doesn’t do enough to tell Ben and Kate what happened (I think Kate should go get hypnotized again and get those memories back, but I can understand why she would be reluctant to go to alien Harry for that service). However, Kate, although she’s jealous of D’arcy because D’arcy bonded with her baby when she couldn’t, turns to D’arcy to take care of the baby when she’s going after Max.

Asta, Harry and D’arcy warn the Hawthornes not to tell the police. Ben, as he says, can’t hide anything from Mike. In a way the scene is overdone but it is also very funny. Of course, they are actually on the same side. Mike – either as a police officer with more experience, or because he has actually seen the Mantid – is more appropriately terrified. He wants to cancel the Mining Day festivities, because he doesn’t think he can protect the people of Patience.

Mike and Harry are spying on each other, which is comic for a little while, but fortunately Resident Alien does not overdo it. Instead Asta takes on a similar role to the one Sahar (who Harry now calls “Little Asta”) did in in season one. When Harry and Max were at odds, Sahar negotiated a truce between them. This time she makes Harry and Mike work together.

A side note: Asta is thinking of leaving Patience, a possibility that upsets her friends, especially D’arcy and Harry. She wants to go alone, without either of them.

Lena also learns the truth about aliens, and in the most horrific way: finding Jules’s dead body wrapped in hard silk, like a cocoon, but it must be an ootheca (word not used, as far as I can tell, in the episode).

At the end Max and Sahar join forces. Max needs to have a human without his mutation along, because although he can see the Mantid, he can’t see which human form the Mantid has assumed. The Mantid is now in the shape of Deputy Liv! How long has the Mantid been Liv? Was that human Liv or Mantid Liv who we saw at the fair? Is Liv still alive? Mantids don’t need to kill their prey to change into them (we know that from both Harry and even Jules, who was still alive in the ootheca, that they don’t always do that). Anyway, the end of the episode leaves us with a cliffhanger.

Title musings. “Mine Town” is the name of the episode. It reminds us that Patience is – or was – a mining town and they are celebrating Mining Day. It also sounds like “My town” – and I think, in the past, people would not have been fussy about using "Mine Town" instead of "My Town" – after all, English is a Germanic language and the Germans still use “Mein”. Both Sheriff Mike and Mayor Ben claim the town as theirs. Strangely enough, the one person feeling more alienated from the town is Asta, who is considering leaving and not taking any of her friends with her.

Moreover, the title "Mine Town" reminds me of the title of Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town. I think at least one of Resident Alien’s creators must be a Wilder fan, because this is not the first time I’ve had that thought. The reference to the overcrowded cemetery reminded me of the episode where Harry is having a nightmare about talking to a dead D’arcy and where all the different humans of Patience are buried.

"Mine Town" strikes me as a fine title.

Bits and pieces

Checked with AI to see how praying mantises mate and what they do with their eggs. Here’s the Copilot summary: “After mating, the female becomes gravid and lays fertilized eggs in a protective case called an ootheca, which hardens to shield the eggs from predators and environmental conditions. Each ootheca can contain from a few dozen to several hundred eggs, depending on species and mating success. The eggs overwinter and hatch in spring, producing nymphs that resemble miniature adults and undergo several molts before reaching maturity."

I like how Patience has chosen some of its own holidays, such as Family Day and now Mining Day. More people and places should do that. Come to think of it, Resident Alien has had very little emphasis on more traditional holidays, although Harry got excited about Hallowe’en and he was forced to celebrate his human birthday.

I also like the idea of touring different cities to try their pizzas. My mouth is watering as I write this.

Hmm, now that Sheriff Mike knows about Harry’s being an alien, will he start wondering what happened to the human Harry Vanderspeigle?

Resident Alien’s Patience may be located in Colorado for the sake of the story, but Patience scenes are filmed in Ladysmith, Canada. Kind of fitting to include that in this review as Asta tells the story of Biddy Henshaw, Patience’s first female miner.

Quotes

Kate: How could you keep this all a secret?
Ben: Yeah. Buddy, you didn't think to tell us that the town doctor is an alien? You know, he prescribes Adderall, but sometimes won't.
Max: I did tell you. You told me I was broken and wanted to send me to a school in Georgia for special kids.

Mike: Deputy, take a big whiff. That is the smell of success.
Liv: Or it's just the sharpie ink.
Mike: That, too. We should probably open a window.

Asta: I'm not leaving Patience, OK? I've got Jay, you know, and D'Arcy and my dad. My life is here.
Harry: I heard a lot of names, not mine.

D’arcy: I thought we were good.
Kate: This isn't about you.
D’arcy: Well, everything was fine, and now you're upset. So obviously, it's about me. Is this because you can tell I think Bella's a dumb name?
Kate: Look. I'm just sad about everything I missed, OK? And I don't -- I don't have it in me to make you feel better about yourself right now, so please just go.

Overall rating

The episode is emotionally satisfying in that people are finally coming clean with respect to a lot of their secrets – not surprising as there are only two episodes to go! Still, some holes remain. Three out of four cities on Harry’s pizza-city tour.

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