#the alien within

[fullmetal-angelgrace]

oh god something terrible has occurred...

i picked up a $1 used book for funsies but it's actually amazing, but it's a sci fi book from the 80s that no one has heard of so there's absolutely no content 😭😭😭

(The Alien Within by Johanna M Bolton)

[old-type-40]

Now, we know how the Earth ended up the way it did in the glimpse of the future we had last season. Though while Harry was sitting in his hotel room trying to figure it out, I immediately knew why the kettle was there and said to myself, "Come on, Harry! You should be smart enough to have figured it out by now."

And here's a reminder of why Harry kept his human form in this timeline until he started wandering the Earth.

“When I first came to Earth I was forced to use Harry Vanderspeigle’s body to blend in. But over time that body changed from just being a way of hiding to who I became. I am attached to it the way I was attached to Asta. And the way I still am to her memory. She died a long time ago. And after so many decades, it’s hard for me to shed this skin because it reminds me of the way things used to be before everything changed.”

[rhetthammersmithhorror]

Evil Spawn | 1987

[cinematicwasteland]

The Alien Within aka The Evil Spawn (1987)

Microbes are brought back to earth via a space probe from Venus. A scientist is using them in experiments on aging, but dies before the work is finished. His assistant approaches an aging actress who is being passed by for the lead roles, and she injects the serum hoping to become young again. When the actress is still passed up for the plum roles, the alien bacterium transforms her into a hideous bug-like alien resulting in a predictable attrition problem amongst her detractors.

[old-type-40]

Resident Alien - The Alien Within (S2E12) and I Believe in Aliens (S2E16)

I loved that Harry's assertion to himself that he is not Goliath in these two different episodes had such different meanings. In the first instance, he was trying to deny his human feelings of empathy for Sahar. In the second instance, he realized that the alien baby had changed Sahar and he had come to the important realization that the baby had changed him too. And that was Goliath's intent. Therefor, he was not doomed to failure in attempting to save the Earth.

[old-type-40]

"When I first came to Earth I was forced to use Harry Vanderspeigle's body to blend in. But over time that body changed from just being a way of hiding to who I became. I am attached to it the way I was attached to Asta. And the way I still am to her memory. She died a long time ago. And after so many decades, it's hard for me to shed this skin because it reminds me of the way things used to be before everything changed."

Seeing this scene again to make these gifs made me realize that this Harry soliloquy at the beginning tied in with his soliloquy in the middle of the episode when he observes that humans form attachments to other people and to places and things. Also, Alan Tudyk adjusted his voice to sound like an elderly man and he took away some of the exaggerated pronunciation he normally uses as alien Harry.

There's also the very strong implication that he never got over his love for Asta. People have been frustrated nothing has come of their relationship. But Harry is currently still lacking in emotional maturity. Though we saw signs that he's finally developed empathy. And we got strong evidence that he achieves considerable emotional maturity in the future. And now Asta knows for a fact that he is capable of developing that emotional maturity.

And we had Harry wandering the Earth for hundreds of years because the Earth is his home now. He's very attached to it and he wants to save it and save Asta.

[old-type-40]

"I've always been an outsider. Maybe that's why I understand you." - Asta

The recent episode shows just how important this moment is to Harry. But I would say this moment from the pilot also explains what is at the emotional heart of the show. Our personality quirks and emotional baggage usually means that we don't have the right emotional responses or take the best action in certain situations. Ideally, if we recognize it, we can try to grow and improve. And I wouldn't trust anyone who claims to always handle every situation in the optimal fashion. This is also why I think it can be somewhat hypocritical to sit in judgement of the behavior and choices of other people.

[old-type-40]

"I have been hiding behind this human mask for too long. Being in human form must be allowing emotions to take over. The only way to fight it is to return to my alien body. And live the way I was born to live - in my familiar frozen environment as an alien. I did not consider there is no food up here and I am already hungry. Aliens can also live in cabins with meat freezers."

All through the episode when Harry was telling himself that he could avoid becoming as human as Goliath and Goliath was weak, I kept saying to myself that Harry was in a state of denial. And then we got the huge plot twist and I kinda felt like those gulls who burst into flames.

So many attempts at plot twists in series these days feel very contrived and sometimes down right stupid. (Looking at you, Chris Chibnall.) But this one was a really good one.