[Warning: The below contains spoilers for Season 3, Episode 8 of Resident Alien, “Homecoming.” If you don’t want to be spoiled, go check on the Hawthornes.]
Wait, what? The moon is a… what? And there are two Harrys? And the Alien Tracker is now… a cyborg? Resident Alien has always been a wild ride but the third-season finale was a full journey. Literally from Earth into orbit. And along the way, fans of TV’s best sci-fi comedy going got so many twists and flips and frickin’ moments to talk about, we don’t know where to begin.
Throughout most of the season, the action revolved around curmudgeonly E.T. Harry (Alan Tudyk) and human pal Asta (Sara Tomko) racing to find a way to stop the alien hybrids known as the Greys from taking over the planet. With some surprising help from Asta’s bestie D’arcy (Alice Wetterlund), as well as ex-pat Grey Joseph (Enver Gjokaj) and Harry’s alien-baby son Bridget (don’t ask), our unlikely heroes were able to delay the attack but wound up aboard the spaceship that had been abducting Mayor Ben and his wife Kate (Levi Fiehler and Meredith Garretson, who both delivered stunning performances this year).
From there, the race was on to save an imprisoned D’Arcy and Asta, retrieve the baby daughter the Greys had taken from Kate, and get back to Earth safely. Meanwhile, down on the ground, Sheriff Mike (Corey Reynolds) finally shed some of his toxic masculinity madness and found love, Deputy Liv (Elizabeth Bowen) was reunited with a very different version of Peter Bach (Terry O’Quinn), and alien-hunting (and alien racist?) General McAllister (Linda Hamilton) appeared to have given up hope of ever exterminating every unwelcome space guest she could and walked through a portal to God knows where. Oh, and Max Hawthorne (Judah Prehn) went to make peace with Harry, only to notice that his adult nemesis was now a very different alien. And he may have lice.
It was a lot to take in for a Wednesday! So instead of trying to make sense of where this all leaves our favorite Patience, Colorado, denizens, we hit up showrunner Chris Sheridan for some answers to our burning-est questions. So strap in and get those #RenewResidentAlien tweets ready!
THE MOON IS A SPACESHIP? All this time? How long has that been up your sleeve?
Chris Sheridan: If viewers were paying attention, they may remember we teased this in Season 2 when Mike said the moon was man-made and that it rang like a gong when you hit it—a fact that NASA discovered in 1969. The “rang like a gong” part, not the “man-made” part…yet! Though there are other clues… I have gone down many rabbit holes on this, I highly recommend it!
Can you tease what RoboBach wants from Liv?
That’s funny, we called him RoboTracker in the writer’s room, but RoboBach is probably more accurate now that he has his consciousness back! He’s a human robot and is smart enough to know he could use some help to navigate what’s next. And who better to trust than the super-loyal Deputy Liv.
What can you tell me about the Mantids’ plan for Earth?
As of now, the Mantids as a race, don’t seem to care about the Earth. As for the Mantid who swapped bodies with Harry and now lives in his cabin—voiced brilliantly by Clancy Brown—we’ll have to wait and see. If I had to guess, he’s probably pretty hungry…
If there is anyone who will notice a difference in Harry it will be Asta, right?
Asta knows Harry better than anyone else on Earth, so you certainly would expect that. That being said, Mantids are experts at shapeshifting and taking over the personality of other beings, so Asta’s going to have to be pretty clever to pick it up.
It felt like D’arcy wasn’t ready to return the baby to the Hawthornes. And we never saw the door open. Is it possible she’s taking the baby somewhere else?
There’s certainly a lot going on in D’arcy’s mind here. Emotionally, she’s feeling pretty good for the first time in a long time because she did something truly heroic for a friend and feels appropriately proud of herself. Now, if she just has enough time to think before Ben and Kate get to the door, she may start wondering if giving them this baby is the best move here. We’ll have to see what she does!
Love that Mike is in on the secret now!
Yes! But only half the secret! He knows aliens are real, but still doesn’t know that Harry is one of them…yet. But with more people being dragged into the alien storyline, it does feel like the walls are closing in on Harry. And now that Mike believes in aliens, it also seems like his next thought could be “If aliens are here, they could be disguised as any one of us! Timmy the sandwich guy puts mustard in his chicken salad. He might be one!”
Has McAllister given up on humans? Did I read that scene right?
I think McCallister is on a personal journey of her own. She feels like she’s in the process of failing her mission, one she’s spent her whole life on. And the portal could take her in one of two different directions, toward the problem or away from it. I know which way she’s headed and I can’t wait to explore that next season.
Resident Alien, Syfy and now streaming on Netflix and Peacock.