I had pretty high expectations for the latest Resident Alien after last week’s episode. Overall I think it’s fair to say Best Enemies delivers, even though a couple of elements frustrated me.
Best Enemies is mostly focused on the odd relationship between Harry and Peter, the Alien Tracker. It starts with a flashback to a much younger Peter and his wife mourning their kidnapped baby. Suddenly the wife disappears and reappears screaming, saying they took her again and that she saw her baby boy. It’s clear just from this exchange why Peter hates aliens so much, and why it probably exceedingly grates that Harry got the best of him.
Peter has been Harry’s captive for a few days, and Asta comes by to check why Harry hasn’t been to work. He’s been having a fun time, pondering how humans are bound to common cause while he’s bound to saving their planet. He’s also been enjoying using Peter’s purloined taser to make tea. Unfortunately, Asta arriving spells the end of his fun and games. He foolishly sets up a baby monitor to keep tabs on Peter, and it starts talking, which leads to Asta discovering the captive human. To Harry’s chagrin, she sympathizes with him and his tale of woe. Harry says he’s been torturing the man, but his idea of torture is more slapstick than actually effective.
Long story short, within moments Asta has freed Peter, and Harry’s cranky about it. Especially since he’s expected to prepare food for the man! He had been feeding him bland oatmeal, but now he’s cutting onions. And as expected, he starts crying and getting emotional about YoutTube videos. Not only does Peter help take over onion duties, he reveals that there’s a secret government base in Wyoming, and that may be where little Bobby the alien baby is being kept. So the two former enemies team up to break in.
Before we get to that big scene, let’s see how other residents of Patience are faring. Though we left D’Arcy in a bad place, she’s been recovering with Asta and her dad Joe. She’s even returned the favor by cooking for them, but Asta is worried she’s neglecting her life. She tries to get her dad to kindly kick her out, but then D’Arcy doubles down and brings her PlayStation to the house, and eventually Judy as well. Asta asks her dad again, and it backfires, with him saying Asta should live on her own as well. Luckily, D’Arcy has her back, and suggests they move in together.
Ben is also having a weird time. He starts sleepwalking outside his house and knocking on the door. When pressed by Kate, he reveals it wasn’t the first time he’s done this. In the past, every time it happened he had the same dream. It involved Ben being on the bed with a broken leg, his family all around him, yet unable to communicate with them.
While it’s easy to dismiss the goofball mayor, I am starting to think there might be something more to the whole situation. Possibly something alien related, but I can’t confirm that in this episode. Later on, his lack of sleep causes him to be paranoid and crash his car, but that leads to him and Kate reuniting and the townsfolk of Patience checking that he’s okay. It also leads to Ben deciding to give up on his resort, thankfully.
Mike and Liv don’t have much screen time in the episode. Mike does do a creepy background check on Torres to assess the pros and cons of dating her. Liv says that’s a bad idea, but she’s much more distracted worrying that something happened to Peter. Which is 1000% correct, but otherwise she doesn’t accomplish much in Best Enemies.
Now for the main event—Harry and Peter breaking into a government facility! And yes, it’s the same facility we’ve seen plenty of in previous parts of this season. How will they manage it, you ask? Simple. Peter has Harry in alien form in a cage, and demands to talk with the General.
It takes all of a few moments for Harry to break free. In the commotion, Peter handcuffs the General and starts opening all the cell doors. As for Harry, he’s having a grand time. First he discovers the room with the humans on hospital beds. Turns out, they’re the guards that tried to stop him from leaving the planet in season 1. Somehow, they’re all mentally networked, and Harry uses that to compel them to do his bidding. Which mostly consists of them attacking fellow guards, much to Harry’s delight.
Harry eventually finds baby Bobby in his adorable alien form. He gets the rest of the message from him, which leads to my main complaint with Best Enemies—Harry gets the message, but we don’t get to see it. Which likely means that will happen next week, but it’s still annoying after waiting all season for some resolution. Harry’s ready to leave the baby and go, but it calls him daddy. Suddenly the alien goofball is overwrought with emotions, and he bonds with his son. Then he puts him on his shoulder and continues his rampage.
The last arc of the scene involves Peter finding proof one of the detained humans is actually his son grown up. Worse, it’s the same human the alien guard was harassing earlier this season. He tries to go to Peter, but the guard psychically warns him to stay, and that he belongs to them. Not listening, he goes to Peter, and the guard draws his gun on them both. Peter jumps in front of the bullet, and Harry sics his human drones on the assailant. But unfortunately, Peter is fatally wounded, and implores Harry to save his son before he perishes.
It all ends with the General trying in vain to stop Harry’s rampage, and Harry getting the best of her. He’s moments from choking the life out of the woman, but maybe because of Bobby he relents. Then they all escape and go on a road trip, and the baby was even thoughtful enough to swallow the alien sphere when nobody was looking!
Though I loved the majority of Best Enemies, especially silly moments like the Greek guy from History channel being in a cell, I was really underwhelmed by the ending. Yes, I liked how Ben has grown as a person and the town rallies around him. And yes, I loved the stuff that happened with Harry, Peter and company. But we still don’t know about the message from Goliath. Which feels like a gaping plot hole, at least if they don’t resolve it before the end of the season.
