Review: Resident Alien season 1, episode 3 – “Secrets”

The third episode of Resident Alien might be the weirdest, but funniest one yet. Entitled “Secrets”, the episode lives up to its namesake. It embraces two dueling secrets; one that the alien Harry has (technically two, counting him being an alien) and one that Asta has.

Harry’s secret is the floating corpse in his lake, the one that belongs to the deceased human-Harry, which he killed upon his arrival on Earth. Something alien-Harry didn’t think could happen so easily to humans. While the floating corpse has caused alien-Harry to not sleep well, he lucks out and finds the body on the coastline of the lake. Asta’s secret is a bit more shocking, revealing that she gave up a daughter for adoption when she was a teenager. A daughter that the audience is led to believe is Jay, the young girl that Asta has been looking over for the first few episodes.

Asta, who herself is adopted, and her apparent daughter Jay (who is also adopted), aren’t the only ones with a strange parentage as Deputy Liv Baker reveals that her paternal role models in her life are far more complicated, and maybe more incestual than anyone is willing to talk about.

An even deeper mystery is how the deceased doctor, Sam, plays into the relationship with Asta and her child as a flashback showing the recently murdered-Sam giving a baby-Jay to a family. All while a suspected-teenage Asta cried in the backseat.

The quote of the episode.
“Not knowing fear allowed me to make bold fashion choices.” – Alien-Harry

There’s a new development in Max’s attempt to expose Harry’s alien-heritage, as he meets a new friend named Sahar. She’s a young girl who is introduced as a schoolmate of Max, one who like Max is also being bullied. They eventually have lunch with one another, bonding over her belief that Max is telling the truth about Harry being an alien.

There also appears to be two other aliens from Harry’s planet on Earth. They’re seen in episode two discovering what appears to be part of Harry’s ship, and then popping up in the third episode killing a man who witnessed Harry in his true form.

The series isn’t just loaded with melodrama but is becoming known for its bizarre, boundary-pushing humor. That was the case this week as Harry attempted to circumcise a baby in order to deceive the Sheriff’s attempt to analyze dead human-Harry’s foot. Then later on, when the Sheriff was dragging the lake for the rest of the dead Harry, another great gag was the Sheriff yelling at the Mayor who was dealing with seasickness on calm, lake waters. There’s also a great exchange between Max and alien-Harry that divulges into a childish argument which is just a highlight of the episode.

The best gag of the episode, however, belonged to the alien-Harry stealing the hat from a cowboy and riding around the mountains of Utah while wearing it.

Resident Alien is a much-watch. It airs on SyFy every Wednesday night at 10 PM ET.