All the Resident Alien Easter Eggs & Callbacks in the Series Finale: Dr. Ethan, Nicki Minaj & More
The final episode of Resident Alien brought the story full circle in more ways than one.
After four glorious seasons, Resident Alien came to a conclusion with Season 4, Episode 10, "The End is Here."
Once sent to our planet to kill us all, Harry Vanderspeigle (Alan Tudyk) left Earth a changed extra-terrestrial. The joy, empathy, and friendship he discovered whilst living among humans were nowhere to be found in the pilot episode when he crash-landed, killed the real Harry, and assumed his identity.
To drive home just how much the character has grown since then, the final episode contains a slew of Easter eggs and callbacks to the beginning of the story.
"It just comes about, partially, because it's a bit of an ending," creator, showrunner, and executive producer Chris Sheridan told USA Insider of the callbacks over Zoom. "It felt helpful to call back to some things we've done before. It helps give the feeling of wrapping things up.
All of the Resident Alien Easter eggs and callbacks in the series finale
Dr. Ethan strikes back
The series finale opens with the return of Dr. Ethan Stone (Michael Cassidy), the full-time health clinic physician introduced back in Season 1, Episode 6, "Sexy Beast." While a jealous Harry mistrusted him from the start, Stone became quite popular with the residents of Patience. The character's charmed life took a definite downturn once he was kidnapped by General McCallister (Linda Hamilton), who mistook him for the town's alien in disguise and pretty much tortured him to reveal a secret he didn't have.
Filled with rage over what happened, Stone heads back to Patience to shoot Harry, but doesn't make it when an alien spaceship from Harry's home planet crashes right on top of his car, presumably killing him. The pilot, who was sent to Earth to fulfill Harry's mission of destroying humanity, assumes Dr. Ethan's form, and finale chaos ensues.
Pie in the sky
Wanting "road snacks" for his interstellar trip to be with Heather (Edi Patterson) and their bird babies, Harry tries to order 100 pies from Dan Twelvetrees (Gary Farmer).
As he became more and more human throughout the show's run, Harry developed an insatiable appetite for earthly delights — namely, pie and pizza. The ultimate irony, however, is the fact that Alan Tudyk cannot eat pizza without suffering an allergic reaction.
Harry's catchphrases
The Resident Alien series finale wouldn't be a true Resident Alien series finale without Harry exclaiming his two famous catchphrases — "This is some bullsh--!" (or a variation thereof) and "Son of b----!" — for the last time. He says both in conversations regarding what will happen when he leaves the planet, leaving room for someone else to take his job and cabin. Harry can't quite come to grips with the fact that life will move on without him. It's quite the reversal for a character who wanted to leave Earth as soon as possible just three seasons ago.
Daydreaming of Drew
In the finale, Asta (Sara Tomko) initially plans to leave Patience and live in Amsterdam with Drew and Manuel. You may recall that we met Drew (played by Tommy Pico) back in Season 2, Episode 4, "Radio Harry," which saw Harry head to the Ute reservation near Patience to set up his interstellar radio along the "Tellurium fissure."
Drew returned in Season 3, Episode 4 ("Avian Flu") to celebrate his marriage to Manuel (Guilherme Babilônia), and it seems the two moved to Europe in the time since. With all of that said, Asta decides not to go to Amsterdam, but instead to work as a disaster relief nurse in Louisiana by episode's end.
Dear, Jay...
This one was brought to our attention by none other than series creator/showrunner Chris Sheridan. So thanks, Chris!
When Jay (Kaylayla Raine) begins to read the box of letters Asta (Sara Tomko) wrote for every one of her birthdays, we hear the song "My Heart Falls" by Eric Boroian and Olivier Andrès. It's the very same track used in Season 2, Episode 10, "The Ghost of Bobby Smallwood," when Asta writes a new message to the daughter she gave up for adoption all those years ago.
Here come the Men in Black
After another spaceship crashes on Earth, the secret, quasi-government agency once headed up by General McCallister since Season 1 takes control of the situation. It seems that since the general went back in time to 1970, her underling David Logan (Alex Barima) became one of the organization's top leaders.
Their NEP (Non-Earthly Phenomenon) monitoring duties in the western half of the United States leads them to recruit Sheriff Mike (Corey Reynolds) and Deputy Liv (Elizabeth Bowen) to their ranks.
Max clocks an alien
Just like in the pilot episode, Max Hawthorne (Judah Prehn) is the first person in Patience to see right through the faux Dr. Ethan, who just so happens to be casually strolling down the sidewalk. But now that everyone's in the loop about the existence of extra-terrestrial life, no one thinks the boy is crazy. In fact, they can alert Harry of the danger right away.
Once bitter enemies, Harry and Max share an emotional farewell as the former prepares for takeover. It's a very E.T.-esque moment made all the more appropriate by the fact that Steven Spielberg's iconic Amblin banner is one of the producing companies behind the show.
Talk of Tellurium
Back in Season 1, Harry needed a special mineral called Tellurium that made his ship fly and found a rich deposit of the substance in the mine where the 60 miners died in 1884.
The fake Dr. Ethan name-drops Tellurium in the finale, stating he needs some to complete his mission of wiping out humanity. Harry gets a good laugh by convincing his fellow alien that humans refer to the mineral as "ballsack."
In memoriam of Sam Hodges
Before leaving town, decides to visit the grave of Sam Hodges, the clinic physician whose mysterious death in the pilot kicked off Harry's involvement with the town. As we learned later, Sam was murdered by the real Harry Vanderspeigle, who was complicit in covering up the illegal dumping of toxic waste in Patience. The cosmos literally pays the human Harry back in kind with the sudden arrival of an alien who kills him and steals his identity.
Starships are meant to fly...
To prevent the fake Dr. Ethan from killing everyone on Earth, Harry & Co. introduce the newcomer to the wonders of humanity — from alcohol to the stylings of Nicki Minaj. This leads to a beat-for-beat recreation of the scene in the pilot where Harry gets drunk and starts dancing to "Starships." By night's end, not-Ethan has come around to the idea of sparing our species.
"I wanted to be able to match enough of Harry's journey with Ethan so the audience understood what was going on," Sheridan said. "You didn't have to say, ‘Oh, this is the same journey Harry went on, because Harry ultimately became human and didn't want to kill everybody, so Ethan will not want to kill everybody either.' You just try to match some of that. One of the biggest memories from the pilot was Harry dancing to that song. So that, to me, was a big callback from a story standpoint. Being able to call back that song was like, 'This is what Harry did in the pilot. Ohhh... this beginning of the same path for this new alien.' That's why we did that."
Every episode of Resident Alien will be available to stream on Peacock starting on Friday, August 15.
