Note: This analysis contains spoilers for Resident Alien.
Resident Alien is a comedic exploration of how an alien, tasked with killing all human life, crash lands on earth and has to disguise himself as a human to fulfil his mission. The alien becomes the local small-town doctor, Harry Vanderspeigle.
Over time he is “infected” with human emotion, values, and morals. These are aspects of life that his own species has little or no experience of. In a constrained and emotionally inept way he befriends a local boy, Max, the only one who can see his true form, and a native American woman, Asta.
Despite his mission to destroy the human race, Harry eventually realises that he doesn’t want Asta to die. He doesn’t detonate the bomb that would have achieved that end. As the four seasons of the show proceed, Harry goes from wanting to protect just one person, to wanting to protect her family, then her friends, and eventually the whole human race. He slowly begins to grasp the importance and the preciousness of humanity.
Harry gets into all sorts of scrapes, both human and alien in origin. Over the course of the show, he is being transformed into a more empathetic, caring, and loving being, as he begins to understand the beauty and value of human life. The residents of Patience, Colorado, all have something to teach him. The imposter-syndrome riddled Mayor Ben; the sexist Sheriff Mike; the down trodden, self-effacing but smart Deputy Liv; the highly capable Darcy; the ever-patient moral teacher Asta; the childlike wonder of Max; the super fierce feminism of Muslim girl Sahar; and the protective, fatherly love of Dan.
Episode by episode, Harry reflects on what he has learned. Some of these include:
- That humans need connection and being alone is not healthy. While the latter is often praised and celebrated, especially for men, it is actually the former that gives humans their true strength.
- That love is actually the strongest foundation to build not just a family on, but also a society, and ultimately a species.
- That the weak and vulnerable need protection. This may require questioning why they are in this situation in the first place.
- That humans can often know what is right to say and do, but still choose to do what is hurtful, cruel, mean, even evil. It can be hard to understand why, when a different option would result in a far better response (Christians would call this phenomenon sin).
- Love hurts when it is rejected or betrayed. Yet, sometimes, what feels like betrayal is actually motivated by someone else’s love for you and wanting to protect you. Love can be messy.
As with all good science fiction, Resident Alien holds a mirror up to our own society, reflecting and questioning values, beliefs, and behaviours.
Given the current situation in the United States, with its unprecedented and widespread attacks, arrests, imprisonment and deportation of immigrants and refugees, Resident Alien feels rather prescient. We are watching as an increasing hostile narrative against the “other” spews forth, not just from tiny and possibly ignorant or uneducated pockets, but from the very mouth of the President of the United States.
It is not just happening in the United States. This seems to be gaining ground in many parts of the world.
Here is Australia, a group of 50 men, including neo-Nazis, stormed an indigenous stand-in protest site, Camp Sovereignty, in Naarm, Melbourne. This followed anti-immigration rallies that seem to have been promoted by neo-Nazi groups and anti-lockdown figures. No one has claimed responsibility for organising them. Younger women of colour were especially targeted in the attack.
In Europe there is a tightening of migration laws. The United Kingdom, Germany, France, Denmark and Italy have either already changed policies or are having conversations about doing so. While many of these movements predate Trump’s rhetoric and policies, they do seem to have been fuelled further and gained traction because of it.
How can we take a leaf from Harry’s book and learn that the “other” is much the same as “us”? Perhaps we need to spend time with the “other”.
Over the last six years, I have had two refugee families live in the same housing complex as I. One family fled Iran many years ago after family members were arrested and incarcerated for being of the Baháʼí faith. They were not able to find legal work and their sons were not allowed to study at university. They recognised they had no future there and were in danger if they stayed.
The other family are from Ukraine fleeing from the war and arrived more recently. The volatile political situation means that they are no longer safe there and their children have little hope for continuing, uninterrupted education.
By spending some time with them and listening to their stories you quickly realise that they want the exact same things that I and members of my family want for themselves and their children:
- A place where their family is safe and free from persecution.
- A place where both their sons and daughters have access to a good education.
- A place where they and their children have a future and can live out their potential.
- A safe and stable roof over their heads.
- A place where they can afford to live.
Their humanness shines out in their sameness. We have all experienced leaking taps, we’ve all had struggles learning new things, and we all love our families.
Harry’s final reflection in the last episode of the series wraps up all that he has learnt:
“It is true that helping others is the most important thing humans can do. Maybe saying thank you is the second most important… It’s an interesting thing about life. What really connects humans to each other is nothing more than simple acts of kindness… Humans think they need love from others to be happy. They do not realise they already have all the love they will ever need inside of them. Maybe the real magic happens when you give that love away… Being kind to others is like planting a seed that grows and spreads among them. I do not think I was the first alien being to come to earth and be affected by this humanity. And I clearly will not be the last. But it will not matter as long as humans continue to be good. Their love will spread to whoever comes – like turning on a light in the darkness. The love you leave behind will last much longer than you will. Which is good, because nobody wants to be forgotten.”
The Bible has a number of passages that explicitly detail how foreigners and migrants, often called aliens, are to be treated by God’s people. Leviticus 19:33-34 states “‘When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The stranger who lives as a foreigner with you shall be to you as the native-born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.” Jesus’ parables of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46) and the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) are pointed explanations of how the alien, the poor, and the oppressed are to be treated. They are to be regarded with kindness, their needs provided for, and offered sanctuary and protection.
One would hope that if a fictional space alien could learn to love and protect the humans he was tasked to kill, then real life humans, made in the image of God, created with love as part of their very nature, would be able to do the same.
Resident Alien is avialable on iTunes to rent. Seasons 3 and $ are currently available to watch on 9Now for free.
