WARNING! Contains SPOILERS for Resident Alien season 2 episode 4.
Harry (Alan Tudyk) erasing memories and implanting fake ones in Resident Alien season 2 creates a big plot hole. The SyFy series started out by showing the alien kill Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle and assume his identity, thus covering his true self to the people of Patience, bar Max (Judah Prehn). Harry develops a special relationship with Asta (Sara Tomko), who eventually convinces him to abandon his mission to destroy Earth and return to his home planet. Season 2 sees Harry accidentally crash his ship (via Max) back to Earth, then use a few new skills to protect his alibi – one of these is altering people’s memories.
In Resident Alien season 2 episode 3, Harry shocks Mike (Corey Reynolds) and Liv (Elizabeth Bowen) when he briefly assumes Asta’s identity, misleading them into the cellar (where they find the real Asta). When they charge Harry with the murder of Sam Hodges, Harry taunts them to catch him first, then proceeds to climb the walls and dodge Mike’s bullets. Asta steps in and tells the cops Harry is an alien. But the next day, Mike and Liv are enjoying breakfast at Joe’s Diner, happy about solving the “severed foot case” and just as happy about seeing Harry and Asta. It’s then revealed Harry altered their memories, creating a fake one where a special FBI agent took over the case and told them Harry is not the killer. While a very helpful skill, Harry altering people’s memories is inconsistent with the Resident Alien season 1 story.
Harry implanting fake memories leaves a lot of questions for Resident Alien season 2 to address. If Harry could alter people’s memories as soon as he got to Earth, why did he go through the trouble of taking Harry Vanderspeigle’s identity? One could assume it’s the silver alien balls (that Harry got from his ship in season 2) that are helping Harry now, but when Asta asks him why he didn’t erase her memory when she found out he was an alien (in season 1), he says, “Because I am not alone anymore.” Harry thus confirms he was able to alter memories as soon as he got to Earth in season 1, even bragging about his species being good at it. This creates a huge plot hole, as Harry had to devise increasingly complex strategies to avoid people finding out his true self in season 1. While Max was trying to convince everyone that Harry is an alien, Harry could have just changed their minds.
The only reasonable explanation for Harry not altering people’s memories in Resident Alien season 1 is that perhaps, even though aliens are good at changing people’s memories, Harry couldn’t have done it easily to such a large number of people. Mike and Liv were on their own in his cabin, so they were isolated from everyone else and Harry had them cornered before he altered their memories. This would arguably be a lot more difficult if his true identity would become known to the whole town – Harry would have to keep chasing people and change their memories before the news spreads any further. However, Harry has proven himself as a very smart creature throughout the series – so it would be very surprising if he lost control of his skill.
Resident Alien season 2 added a few new skills to Harry, shapeshifting and erasing memories included. While these powers add depth to the alien character, they are inconsistent with season 1 Harry, who struggles to maintain his human alibi (the biggest part of his relationship to Max and Asta being defined by this). Season 2 must address Harry’s ability to erase memories and clarify his decision of assuming the town doctor’s identity when he could shapeshift and change memories in the first place.
Resident Alien airs new episodes Wednesdays on SyFy.
