Before I start this latest recap of Resident Alien season 2, I have to apologize to Liv. She’s been trying and trying to get in touch with the Alien Tracker all season, and I only didn’t mention it because I forgot who that was. It’s been a while since season 1, but I fondly remember Terry O’Quinn being one of the rare humans that can see aliens in their true forms. So once I made the connection that he’s the one she’s been trying to get ahold of this entire time, especially given the last time Harry and him met, I was much more excited for Cat and Mouse.
That said, Cat and Mouse doesn’t start with Peter Bach the Alien Tracker. Instead, it starts with our frenemy the General. She’s been having her people run tests on Bobby, and can’t prove he’s anything other than baseline human. She angrily interrogates him anyhow, despite believing he’s just another regular kid. Then he reaches out and reads her memories, only to transform back into his original baby form.
Harry waxes nostalgic about being descended from ocean creatures, happy that his people evolved legs. He compares fish being caught to humans getting probed by aliens, right as we watch Asta’s adoptive father out fishing. Him and Asta talk about how he met her mother, who was pregnant when she joined his band. Though he lost her as a band member, he gained a daughter in the process. It’s a touching scene, and a good example on the hidden depths of many of the characters in Resident Alien.
Kate is working with her friend Kayla to stop the resort with litigation, and her husband isn’t taking it well. He walks in on them talking about it, and starts loudly grinding coffee beans to shut them up. Kate is the mature one, and suggests they keep talk of the resort outside the house. Which is a great compromise, except for the fact Ben is giant child, and quickly finds a really stupid way around it.
As for poor D’Arcy, it’s a hard episode for her. Her pain med addiction is getting worse, and she’s starting to develop really bad mood swings for good measure. Early on she rants about a lost blender lid that Elliot immediately finds. Later she tries to borrow pills from Judy. And by the end, she’s sleeping on a pool table when Elliot walks in on her, reminding her she missed their date. Suffice to say, their relationship isn’t in a good place, and it’s understandable when Elliot breaks up with her, much as it’s heartbreaking.
Harry isn’t taking the Gray revelation well, though I have to give him points for telling Asta early. Of course he does so with drawings of the Earth exploding, so there’s room for improvement. He then has a horrible plan to rip the implants out of people Grays probed in the past and putting them in show dogs to confuse the alien race. Which Asta immediately shoots down. Then things get really complicated because as this meeting of minds is happening, Peter Bach is having lunch with Liv. Turns out, he finally decided to read her many emails and thinks he can find an alien in Patience. And wouldn’t you know it, he rapidly zeroes in on Harry as he hides in the diner.
This leads to one of my all time favorite chase scenes in Resident Alien. Harry is walking around like a ruptured duck while Peter follows in breathless pursuit. The only thing keeping him at bay are all the innocent humans milling about, and Harry thinks he’s lost him. Only for Peter to corner him and pull out his taser. Harry and Peter exchange threats and right before they can get into it, Judy interrupts with a well timed door opening. Harry pretends to be sexually attracted to Judy and slips inside, locking Peter out. Then after rapidly disentangling himself from a very interested Judy, Harry heads out to plot new plans of action.
As for Mike and Liv, they have related but separate threads. Liv is still trying hard to get Mike to date Lena Torres, but then she gets distracted by the arrival of the Alien Tracker. She thinks he’s a noble human, totally blind to his single minded obsession with revenge. Meanwhile, Mike gives Mayor Ben a truly uncomfortable massage before agreeing to be the middle man for him and his wife. That goes about as well as expected, and it starts to really flatline when Mike equates successful towns with rat population. Kate wins the argument by using a theoretical about a billionaire buying the resort town and then buying her for the weekend. Suffice to say, Ben is rendered mute by that example, and Mike is just confused by how rapidly the argument got out of hand.
One of my favorite moments in Cat and Mouse is when, after Peter interrogates Max about his alien drawing, Harry breaks into Max’s room again. This is a great throwback to season 1, and I love how awkward Harry and Max’s “friendship” is. He’s gorging himself on stale Halloween candy and trying to figure out if Max told Bach anything important. He then suggest Max helps him kill the Alien Tracker, which doesn’t go well. It seems Max might be thinking about using the business card Peter gave him to call the Tracker about Harry…
The episode ends with a few important moments. Liv finally tricks Mike into going on a date with Torres, and they immediately bond over sharp objects. Despite Kate’s success against the resort, Ben is still being a huge dick, and I am worried about their marriage. D’Arcy finally confides her pill addiction to Asta. And Harry is seemingly about to get tasered by Peter when it’s revealed he was in fact the hunter. Thanks to Max, Harry tricks Peter, and gets the drop on him. Now the question is what will he do with the rage-filled human?
Not my favorite episode of the season, but hopefully it sets the stage well for what’s to come next week. Be sure to tune in to the Workprint then for our continuing coverage of season 2 of Resident Alien!
