Resident Alien: Go Behind the Scenes of Edi Patterson's Return as Heather in Season 4 (WATCH)
Parenting can be hard, especially when your children are the sum of two different alien species.
This story contains spoilers for Resident Alien Season 4, Episode 4, "Truth Hurts."
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a — wait, it actually is a bird. A really gross bird from outer space. That's right, we're talking about Edi Patterson, who returned as Heather in tonight's episode of Resident Alien: "Truth Hurts." Harry (Alan Tudyk) is a father — again! — but without his supernatural abilities, he finds both Heather and his children quite nauseating, as any normal human would.
"It is super exciting because she and Harry rekindle [their romance]," Patterson says in the latest look behind-the-scenes (see above). "There's no stopping their love."
Well, nothing except the human gag reflex, that is. There's also some friction between Bridget and his half-siblings, though it's not the usual petty quarrel between brothers and sisters you might imagine. You see, Bridget is trying to eat them!
"Interspecies parenting has its challenges," Tudyk says, later adding that Harry's disgust only grows once Heather regurgitates food into a Ziploc bag for safe hatchling consumption.
Go behind the scenes of Resident Alien Season 4, Episode 4, "Truth Hurts"
According to Chris Sheridan (creator, showrunner, and executive producer) and Robert Duncan McNeill (director/executive producer), the hybrid babies were born — no pun intended — out of the audience's overwhelmingly positive reaction to Bridget.
The overall goal, Sheridan explains, was "to make the little bird babies look lovable. We did the same concepts that we did with Bridget, where, when we developed that character, we tried to make Bridget look like a baby with bigger eyes and the bigger head because those are the things that make these creatures more lovable."
Unlike Bruce, who was a mixture of digital and practical effects, Harry and Heather's adorable hell spawn were completely CGI creations. However, the actors were given a picture of what would eventually appear in the episode just so they could react appropriately.
"They're kind of cute, though," admits Sara Tomko (Asta).
"They're kind of cute," echoes Alice Wetterlund (D'arcy), "but they're also gross."
How to watch Resident Alien
New episodes of Resident Alien premiere on USA Network and SYFY every Friday at 11 p.m. ET, with each episode available to stream on Peacock a week after air. The first three seasons are now available to watch right here!
Peacock offers two subscription plans: Premium ($7.99 a month with ads) and Premium Plus ($13.99 a month with no ads and download access for certain titles). Students can enjoy Premium for just $1.99 for a year!
