DISCLAIMER: This Season 1 recap of Syfy’s Resident Alien has spoilers. Proceed at your peril, microwave that day-old pizza and cue up those Law & Order reruns. Dun dun!
Residents of Patience, Season 2 of Resident Alien is nigh, meaning it’s high time we revisit Season 1 in all its hilarious, extraterrestrial glory.
Harry Vanderspeigle (Alan Tudyk) had one mission when he crash-landed on Earth — eradicate humanity. However, he lost his world-decimating device, and he made the mistake of befriending the local humans. When he retrieved the device and prepared to say bye-bye to Earth, his BFF Asta Twelvetrees (Sara Tomko) persuaded him to leave the planet alone.
So, Harry flew home, but, unfortunately, he discovered he had a little stowaway on his ship: Max Hawthorne (Judah Prehn), his nemesis (who also happens to be a child).
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Harry Vanderspeigle (Tudyk) spends months alone in a cabin by a lake in smalltown Colorado — Patience. After crash-landing on Earth, he kills a physician dwelling in the house and assumes his identity. We learn about his objective to destroy Earth, but when his spaceship crashed amid a storm, Harry lost the device necessary for wiping out the planet.
Next, Harry ventures into town at the behest of Mayor Ben Hawthorne (Levi Fiehler) to take the place of local doctor Sam Hodges after the latter’s murder. Harry meets Sheriff Mike Thompson (Corey Reynolds), Deputy Liv Baker (Elizabeth Bowen) and Asta (Tomko), the nurse who worked under Hodges.
At the urging of Asta, Harry performs an autopsy on Hodges despite knowing nothing about human bodies. The pair bond that evening at the local pub, wherein Asta’s friend D’Arcy Bloom (Alice Wetterlund) works.
Harry encounters Ben’s son, Max (Prehn), who can see Harry in his proper alien form. He attempts to silence Max forever, but Ben and Kate Hawthorne’s (Meredith Garretson) presence prevents him from doing so.
Harry accompanies Asta to her abusive ex-husband Jimmy’s (Ben Cotton) house to retrieve her belongings. After Asta stands up to Jimmy, Harry lays the smackdown on the nasty prick. Asta explains the astronomical event that shifted her mindset — while she was leaving Jimmy one night, she spotted a glowing speck soar across the sky. We learn this is Harry’s ship.
Asta and Harry bond over their “otherness,” and feeling more “alien” than human.
While attending Sam Hodges’ funeral, Harry surmises that the good doctor gave himself a tracheotomy because someone poisoned him.
Harry tries to kill Max again after spotting the little squirt in his new office. It’s Harry’s first official day at the health clinic, and let’s say he’s “phoning it in” a bit.
Then, Harry spends time with D’Arcy at the local bowling alley — it’s abundantly clear D’Arcy has the hots for ole Harry. Asta has dinner with her father, Dan (Gary Farmer), and the two partake in rituals to honor the late Sam Hodges.
While searching for his missing device, Harry finds tellurium, a substance utilized by his species that possesses anti-gravity properties. Elsewhere, Lisa Casper (Mandell Maughan) and David Logan (Alex Barima) discover a levitating corpse.
Later, Kate Hawthorne visits Harry, disclosing Max’s belief that he’s an alien. Harry awkwardly laughs it off and urges Kate to spend more time with her son.
Dr. Hodges’ prescription pads go missing at the clinic, and Sheriff Mike reveals someone found a foot in the lake. Harry murdered the actual Dr. Vanderspeigle and tossed his corpse in the lake, so there’s that.
Sheriff Mike, Deputy Liv, Mayor Ben and others decide to dredge the lake to search for a potential body to match the lone foot. Asta and D’Arcy best friend it up while watching the proceedings from afar. D’Arcy suggests they attend a party thrown by her ex-boyfriend later that evening.
We learn that Harry crash-landed in New Mexico courtesy of a flashback.
Then, Asta and D’Arcy hit the party scene only to discover it’s a high school shindig. However, they find Jay (Kaylayla Raine), Asta’s daughter, passed out in the corner. Asta gave Jay up for adoption when she was a teenager.
Asta finds a kid with drugs prescribed by Sam Hodges, but the prescription dates after his passing.
Sheriff Mike’s dog, Cletus, leads the team to Harry’s freezer at the lake. Earlier, we saw him retrieve the actual Harry’s corpse and stuff it in his freezer. Despite Harry’s half-baked excuses, Mike searches said freezer but finds a bevy of packages labeled “pork chops” and “bison.”
Max introduces his friend Sahar (Gracelyn Awad Rinke) to Harry, who also sees Harry for who he is.
In New Mexico, Lisa Casper and David Logan interrogate the man who encountered Harry in his extraterrestrial form. We learn they’re alien hunters, working for a mysterious superior officer.
Later, Lisa kills the man and seizes the manuscript he’s writing that details his alien encounter. This unexpected murder bewilders David, especially since they’re not supposed to hurt anyone. But Lisa has different orders.
Ben invites Harry over for dinner to mend fences with Max and reveals he’s making progress regarding his hunt for the new town doctor. Harry’s only serving a temporary stay at the health clinic.
After trying and failing to get Asta to attend dinner with him at the Hawthorne residence, he resorts to D’Arcy. Meanwhile, Sahar and Max utilize the culinary distraction as an opportunity to break into Harry’s cabin.
Well, Sahar at least seizes the moment to make copies of Harry’s house key so that they can sneak into it at a future date.
Dinner with the Hawthornes is simultaneously awkward, tense and hilarious, fueled by libations and decades-old history.
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D’Arcy and Harry share a smooch, which Harry knocks out of the park as a first-time human.
Harry accompanies Asta to the Ute Reservation — her grandmother needs a steroid shot for her ailing back. At the police station, Mike and Liv examine the intriguing contents acquired from the lake-dredging session. Liv finds herself drawn to a doorknob; the one Alien Harry tore off Human Harry’s cabin door.
Lisa and David make their way into Colorado, even stopping at the same gas station as Harry and Asta.
Harry bonds with Asta’s family on the reservation, and Dan learns that Jay is the girl Asta gave up for adoption. We also get a glimpse behind Harry’s familial curtain as he divulges he once had a wife who passed away.
Meanwhile, Max and Sahar break into Harry’s cabin, wherein they find his locked freezer and remnants of his spaceship. They also spot an apple floating above the tellurium; they try to touch it, but an invisible force launches them backward, knocking them unconscious.
After visiting Asta’s family, Harry returns home to find Sahar and Max passed out on the basement floor. Suddenly, a woman enters his house. It’s Isabelle (Elvy), the actual Harry Vanderspeigle’s wife.
Max and Sahar eventually wake up and ride their bikes home to their parents. Harry’s unsure of what to do with his human wife. She procures divorce papers, and he quickly signs them; however, she inexplicably sticks around.
Asta tries to fire Jay at the clinic, but Jay confronts her mother with documentation confirming they’re related. Of course, Jay’s not thrilled to learn that Jimmy’s her biological father.
Isabelle and Harry proceed to engage in a night of hilariously awkward passion. Harry’s adept at producing various noises.
Harry forges a truce with Max and Sahar the following day, and Liv receives Sam Hodges’ toxicology report. Someone poisoned him with botulinum toxin.
Months ago, David Logan briefs a group of officers regarding reports of an unidentified flying object. Among the said group is General McCallister, a.k.a. Eleanor Wright (Linda Hamilton), our antagonist. We see how Lisa Casper joins the fray in this flashback, too.
The new town physician Dr. Ethan Stone (Michael Cassidy), makes his entrance, ousting Harry as Patience’s number one health expert. Meanwhile, Mike and Liv head to the school to question the kid selling drugs with Sam Hodges’ prescription pad. After a particularly rough bout of questioning, Liv surmises the murderer delivered the botulinum toxin via Dr. Hodges’ insulin shot.
Harry, Isabelle and D’Arcy spend more time with Ethan at the local pub. Newsflash: Harry’s not a fan.
Then, Harry gives Isabelle sleeping pills to knock her unconscious to continue searching for his ship. In another flashback, we see Lisa and David show McCallister the cloaked spaceship, a.k.a. Harry’s vessel. Harry drives to the spot wherein he crashed, and we see Lisa and David waiting in the wings to capture him.
Isabelle follows Harry to the crash site, wherein concealed soldiers brandish military weaponry. Ultimately, David orders the soldiers to stand down, as the married couple appears to be squabbling — nothing related to the extraterrestrial.
Isabelle declares she’s leaving Harry.
Later, Harry seeks to drown his sorrows, so Asta and D’Arcy introduce him to pot. At an expensive restaurant, a high Harry chats it up with an octopus who’s also an alien from another world.
Desperate to retrieve his spaceship (which is now in governmental custody) and his device, Harry relies on Max’s expertise. Max claims he can see the “green glow,” the same aura emitted from alien artifacts.
Max assists Harry with building a radio-like mechanism to locate his device.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Mike interrogates Jimmy as a potential suspect in the prescription pad case. There could also be a link between Jimmy and Sam Hodges’ murder.
However, Deputy Liv arrests the local school janitor, who acts quite suspicious around her and tries to bolt.
At the military base with Harry’s spaceship, David tells McCallister and Lisa that he believes this alien is on Earth to decimate humanity.
After bearing the brunt of Mike’s disrespect for too long, Liv quits her job as the town deputy.
With the help of Max, Harry spots a green glow emanating from the nearby mountainside. Even though it’s a dangerous glacial pass, he makes a break for it. Max informs D’Arcy and Asta about Harry, and the besties chase after him. Unfortunately, the ice shatters in the said pass, swallowing the trio in a deep chasm.
Thankfully, they survive the fall, but Harry suffers a potentially fatal injury. D’Arcy’s the closest to her snowmobile, but, unfortunately, she takes a tumble further into the crevasse.
Harry finally divulges to Asta that he’s an alien, which Asta takes in stride. She believes his extraterrestrial status explains a lot about him. Unfortunately, the weaker Harry gets, the more “alien” he becomes.
We see Lisa and David are at Joe’s Diner, interacting with Dan back in town. Meanwhile, Ben and Kate are on a date at an upscale restaurant when Dan and Sheriff Mike tell Liv that Asta and D’Arcy are missing.
D’Arcy makes it to the snowmobile and sends a rope down into the crevasse for Asta and Harry. Kate meets Lisa Casper, and the pair exchange phone numbers and plan for a dinner date.
D’Arcy drives Asta and Harry to the health clinic, but Asta leaves D’Arcy behind, making a break for Joe’s Diner. She reunites with Dan and explains Harry’s situation. After Dan placates Sheriff Mike, he chops off Harry’s infected leg. Asta holds Harry’s hand.
Later, Harry recovers in his cabin while Asta tends to him. She’s shocked to discover he can regenerate limbs; his leg regrows at an alarming rate.
Asta takes Harry to an extraterrestrial convention, “UFO Con,” to cheer him up. Harry proceeds to “debunk” everything presented about aliens.
RELATED: Catch up on all the extraterrestrial antics with our Resident Alien episodic recaps!
In Patience, Sheriff Mike arrests Abigail Hodges, Sam Hodges’ widow, for the latter’s murder. Meanwhile, Asta shares her alien encounter on one panel, and she details how it was a positive experience.
Ben and Kate have dinner with Lisa Casper and David Logan. Lisa surreptitiously pops into Max’s room and pockets a fragment of Harry’s spaceship.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Mike belts out “Wind Beneath My Wings” with Liv to persuade her to rejoin the force. Thankfully, she accepts his apology and song, along with her deputy badge.
Harry finds one man with an alien tracker embedded in his flesh. According to this man, some aliens abducted his baby decades ago. He wants to keep the implant so that they can find him. However, Harry thinks they’re well past that, and he removes the said tracker.
Max watches footage of Lisa stealing that piece of Harry’s vessel while D’Arcy sneaks through Harry’s cabin window. She stumbles upon the corpse of the actual Harry Vanderspeigle in his freezer.
Later, we learn that Human Harry poisoned Sam Hodges’ insulin with the botulinum toxin.
D’Arcy calls Sheriff Mike and Deputy Liv to the scene, but they don’t believe her claims that he’s dead since he’s now home. Unfortunately, Mike and Liv arrest D’Arcy when she starts fighting the sheriff. Asta bails D’Arcy out.
Harry’s device is now fully restored, so all he has to do is press a button. Easy as that! However, Harry hesitates. After tailing Sahar and Max, Lisa and David corner them in the Hawthorne residence.
Meanwhile, Harry utilizes his device to vaporize Human Harry’s corpse, but, during this process, he discovers that he too will die if he kills all humans.
Ben finds Lisa Casper and David Logan have his family and Sahar at gunpoint in his home. Ben summons every bit of courage he has and charges toward the assailants. Kate joins him in laying the smackdown on David and Lisa until they escape. The incident and accompanying adrenaline rush are enough to reignite their marriage.
Next, Lisa and David kidnap Dr. Ethan Stone, believing him the alien. They present him to McCallister, but David’s on his last leg. He bows out. As Lisa points her gun in his direction and prepares to pull the trigger, a group of kids walks past them. So, Lisa and McCallister leave David alone, for now.
Asta confronts Harry at his cabin, wanting to hear the truth from him. Did he kill Human Harry? Asta’s disappointed in him, but after Max calls her about where Harry’s going, she embarks on a trip to the military base. Harry sets the detonation on his device for 90 minutes.
Later, Asta and Max arrive at the base, where Harry’s spaceship sits. Harry shows Asta his device, and she persuades him not to destroy Earth. If he eradicates humanity, he runs the risk of killing her, too. After the pair acknowledge their friendship, Harry vows to dispose of the device off-world to protect the planet. Harry and Asta say their goodbyes.
Harry chucks the device out of his vessel while he’s in space. As he flies to his homeworld, he notices a stowaway in his midst — it’s Max.
Now, he must return to Earth.
RELATED: Resident Alien Season 2 Trailer Ups the Ante on the Big Threat
Resident Alien returns for Season 2 on Wednesday, January 26 at 9 pm, on your Syfy affiliate.
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