Max & Sahar's Resident Alien Power Struggle Isn't Over Yet: Their Friendship "Started Off Amazing"
Plus, General Eleanor McCallister (Linda Hamilton) finds her purpose in the past. But that almost wasn't the case.
This story contains spoilers for Resident Alien Season 4, Episode 3, “Ties That Bind."
This week’s Resident Alien, “Ties That Bind,” had a little something for everyone: Casual time travel, terrible perms, Mantid Club, and some much-deserved closure for General Eleanor McCallister (Linda Hamilton).
With Harry (Alan Tudyk) now powerless on Earth, he realizes that he needs to retrieve some lost alien tech in hopes that it might restore his powers, but he’s going to have to go back to the 1970s to get it. And D’arcy (Alice Wetterlund) is more than happy to assist in order to get out of Patience to avoid her baby blues.
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Meanwhile, Max (Judah Prehn) and Sahar (Gracelyn Awad Rinke) are increasingly at odds about which of them is the real alien hunter. Deputy Liv (Elizabeth Bowen) takes Sheriff Mike (Corey Reynolds) on a Mantid chase in the woods, and he finally sees the thing he’s been denying all his adult life...
In our exclusive USA Insider post-mortem for “Ties That Bind,” we collected showrunner Chris Sheridan and actors Alice Wetterlund and Judah Prehn to discuss the big themes of this episode.
Harry and D'arcy go on a mission to the past together — and it's groovy
Once they committed to time travel, series creator Chris Sheridan said they had to figure out the best characters to go back in time.
“We created a dynamic where D'arcy would obviously want to go. Asta would not love to go, and Harry doesn’t care either way, really,” he said, laughing. "I think he says in the episode, 'D'arcy's not afraid to die so she can take a bullet for me.'"
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As Harry and D’arcy have semi-thawed toward one another over the span of three seasons, this Season 4 adventure felt earned by all, especially Wetterlund.
"It was really gratifying, relationship-wise, for my character and Alan's character, to get to a place where they know who they are to each other now, and that they really needed to work together. And that just happens sometimes when you have someone in common that you love,” Wetterlund said of their character’s deep love for Asta Twelvetrees (Sara Tomko).
“And it's the kind of relationship that's so fun to play because there's hostility, there's mistrust, but then we both know that we love someone together, so a little bit, it's like there's some affinity and there's some affection developing,” she said of D’arcy and Harry’s grudging acceptance of one another. "It’s kind of the thing where we just put up with each other, but I think she would go to the mat for Harry in the end."
Max and Sahar: A Mantid club too far?
Meanwhile, in Patience, Max and Sahar, the former alien-hunting besties, are also facing a relationship impasse. Both are adamant that they are the truly gifted alien tracker, and neither is backing down about it this season.
"I think Max's growth has really skyrocketed in Season 4,” Prehn said of his character. “He's gone from this kid that nobody believed can see aliens to someone who now has his own club. He's doing these meaningful things. He's saving Harry from alien prisons. He is going off investigating with him... I think he's taking the lead at this point, and he's trying to become his own, independent person, and it's working."
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Of course, Sahar disagrees, so this is the first time the two are not working for a common purpose.
"Max and Sahar's relationship, it started off amazing,” Prehn explained. "They were this duo that could do anything together. But now, I think they're both wrestling for that power. Each of them serves their own purpose. Max sees aliens, and he's becoming independent. He's going investigating. And Sahar, she's the brains of the operation. And although we fight for this power, and we're in a little bit of a disagreement sometimes, I think eventually, we'll need each other, and together, there's nothing we can't do."
Eleanor McCallister gets her unconventional happy ending: "It was the right time"
For a show that’s woven just about every UFO, sci-fi, and mythology idea into the fabric of the narrative, Sheridan was happy to use time travel in a way that would emotionally pay off for one of his favorite characters.
"It's important for the show to sort of lean into sci-fi tropes, whether it's aliens or it's time travel. But to also try to ground it so it comes out of character and feels like a real journey,” he said.
Since Season 1, General McCallister has been a constant in the show, first as the ruthless tracker of Harry’s whereabouts and then as a far more tragic character who saw aliens as a child but denied it and accidentally sealed the fate of her family forever.
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In “Ties That Bind,” Sheridan said it was the right time to close out her story in a meaningful way.
"What we don't ever want to do is tread water and have her around for the sake of having her around,” he said of Linda Hamilton’s character. “It did feel like her time was probably gone as a character so at the end of last year, we built to where she was pushed to the edge and just wasn't happy anymore. One of the themes this season — starting last season with her — is, 'What's my happiness?' Where can she go to find her happiness? And maybe it's the simplicity of just being with her father?"
Going back to her youth when she saw the alien alongside her father, Eleanor is able to mentor her younger self, and she’s able to help make things right in her broken family. Sheridan revealed that he almost told a story where Eleanor would walk through a portal and the audience would see her on the other side with her father. But he went for a more thorough story using time travel.
"We wanted to be able to give her a real episode because she's not only Linda Hamilton, an incredible actor and one of the kindest, most beautiful people I've ever met,” he said. “But she's so wonderful that we wanted to do something special and do a real good character piece for her too."
Season 4 of Resident Alien drops new episodes on Fridays on USA Network and SYFY. All episodes will be available to stream exclusively on Peacock one week after they air.
