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'Resident Alien': Where did we leave our favorite characters midway through Season 2?
Our return to Patience, Colorado can't come soon enough!
With SYFY’s Resident Alien scheduled to return to our planet in August for the latter half of its second season, we thought it prudent to revisit where we last left our favorite characters.
As you may recall, a plan to destroy the Earth and its people is currently afoot, though Harry’s species isn't behind it, as we previously suspected. Oh, and there’s also the teensy-tiny matter of a hungry alien newborn gallivanting around Patience, Colorado. Those are just two of several dangling story threads that have yet to be resolved.
Head below for a quick recap of where everyone stands thus far!
**SPOILER WARNING! The following contains major plot spoilers for the first half of Season 2!**
Harry (Alan Tudyk)
Fresh off his Manhattan adventure with Asta, Harry returns to Patience with an egg containing an alien baby that, when hatched, will pretty much eat everything in its path — humans included. Unfortunately, the extraterrestrial child decides to enter the world during a surprise party at Harry’s cabin by the lake, leading Harry and Asta to perform damage control, lest any of the guests become a snack for the ravenous toddler.
No one (save for a wild raccoon) ends up eaten, but the hatchling does escape the premises and heads for the town proper. Before it does so, however, the child lands on Harry’s head, imparting a telepathic message from its father, Goliath (David Bianchi), who informs Harry that their people are not coming to destroy Earth. They’re not coming because another race already has its sights set on the planet and what’s more…they’re already here. DUN! DUN! DUN! And as if this wasn't a big enough cliffhanger, Harry is then shot in the chest by a member of the Galvin/Powell Group, the shady organization that convinced the real Harry Vanderspeigle to murder Sam Hodges.
Asta (Sara Tomko)
Having found a comfortable status quo with the daughter she gave up for adoption years ago, Asta is now preoccupied with preventing the destruction of Earth. When the alien egg hatches, she starts packing heat and recruits her father, Dan (Gary Farmer) — one of the few people aware of Harry’s true identity — to keep everyone safely inside the cabin. Despite the looming danger of a hungry alien child, Asta still finds the time to help D’Arcy fix her love life.
D'Arcy (Alice Wetterlund)
Realizing that her life is a bit of a mess, D’Arcy is convinced by Asta to give things another go with Elliot, the cute guy from the baseball match. The problem with D'Arcy is not some inherent flaw (as her parents seem to think there is) — most of her problems can be chalked up to a string of self-fulfilling prophecies. Rather than allow for meaningful relationships to grow, D'Arcy preemptively destroys them on the off chance that things might wrong.
"When [creator Chris Sheridan] started writing the character, she was very bubbly and very soft, and when I came in, he really wanted this character to be closer to what I brought, which is like a really hard edge, kind of punk rock, take no prisoners person," Wetterlund explained to SYFY WIRE ahead of the Season 1 premiere. "We knew that she needed to have fallen from grace and we decided to just go with the backdrop the ski town provided and say she literally fell from grace off of that damn mountain."
Sheriff Mike (Corey Reynolds)
The sheriff of Patience may be stubborn and gruff, but we now know it’s all just a front for the unprocessed grief over losing his partner during Mike's tenure as a cop in Washington, D.C. years before. By the time Episode 8 rolls around, the sheriff has finally come to terms with that emotional loss and plans to rid himself of his partner’s ashes in the lake by Harry’s cabin. Mike also gets a major break in the murder case of Sam Hodges with a little help from the old detective books gifted to him by Sam’s wife, who was wrongfully accused of homicide. Looking behind one of the paintings in Sam’s office, the sheriff and Liv discover a list of names related to the Galvin/Powell Group.
Deputy Liv (Elizabeth Bowen)
Proving herself resistant to Harry’s mind-wiping abilities we saw at the start of the second season, Deputy Liv remains determined to prove the existence of alien activity in Patience. To that end, she hopes to summon the Alien Tracker (portrayed by Lost alum Terry O’Quinn) in the hopes of weeding out the otherworldly visitor.
"We wanted her to represent all those people out there that had UFO situations, alien situations, or frankly, anything else that is against the norm who are afraid to tell their truth because they don't want to be ridiculed," Sheridan said of Liv. "There's a history of people who believe in aliens and UFOs being ridiculed. People don't really talk about it because they don't want people to think they're crazy. Which is exactly what the government wants, which is why they started this thing about people being crazy if they believe in UFOs, so people won't talk about it...I think."
Ben (Levi Fiehler) & Kate (Meredith Garretson)
Ben’s penchant for keeping secrets comes to a head in Episode 8 when Kate learns about all the quality time he’s been spending with D’Arcy. This lover’s quarrel ends with the revelation of Kate’s secret pregnancy. Ben and Kate ultimately reconcile and have very passionate (and very audible) relations in the bathroom. While their marital problems are solved for the time being, there's still the issue of the resort Ben hopes to build in Patience. The idea sparks outrage from the other party guests who do not want to see the area's natural beauty ravaged for the sake of financial gain.
"In his marriage with Kate, he doesn't like talking about the difficult things and that's their problem," Sheridan explained. "I think a lot of couples have this thing where they're not being fully honest with each other. When you're not fully honest, you do go to this place where you lack intimacy and closeness. I think that's what's missing in their relationship. They have a lot of fire in there and a lot of passion in there, but they're not [as] close emotionally as they could be."
Lastly, Ben is in desperate need of a new town doctor and hopes Harry may be willing to once again take the job.
Max (Judah Prehn) & Sahar (Gracelyn Awad Rinke)
Completely unaware of the fate of the alien ball at the start of Episode 8, Max and Sahar peruse a map of government installations in the hopes of recovering Harry’s technology. This mission falls to the wayside when Sahar realizes that Doctor Ethan (Michael Cassidy) was forcibly taken away by the government. Knowing that the Men in Black will return to Patience in search of the real alien once they learn Ethan is only a human, they rush off to Harry’s cabin to warn Asta.
General McCallister (Linda Hamilton)
Admittedly, we didn’t see much of the General in the first half of Season 2. Hopefully, that changes in the forthcoming episodes. Despite an unparalleled drive to prove that life exists beyond our planet, McCallister continues to bark up the wrong tree by keeping Doctor Ethan in custody. Moreover, her most effective agent, Lisa Casper (Mandell Maughan), no longer has much of a head. The General receives a genuine lead with the “alien ball” discovered by David Logan (Alex Barima), who wants to strike a deal in exchange for getting his old life back. The rendezvous goes south when Logan is shot by an alien sniper waiting in the trees, forcing the General to make a hasty retreat.
Resident Alien Season 2 returns to SYFY Wednesday, Aug. 10. New episodes will be available to stream on the SYFY app and Peacock the day after they air. The complete first season, as well as episodes 1-8 of Season 2, are now streaming on both platforms.
