Recap: The dead walk amongst the living as Asta regains her memory in 'Resident Alien' Season 2, Episode 10

Anyone else have "Dead Boy Comes Back to Life" on their Resident Alien bingo card? ... No? Just us? Oh, well! This week's episode (eerily titled "The Ghost of Bobby Smallwood") of the hit SYFY series was jam-packed with major story developments that are certain to reverberate throughout the remainder of Season 2.

A number of narrative accounts (like Asta's loss of memory and Harry's crippling fear of death) were settled, while others (like Sheriff Mike and Deputy Liv's homicide investigation into the Galvan/Powell Group) have only just begun to pay off. Let's plunge into the depths of the abandoned mine and discuss everything that went down in Episode 10...

**SPOILER WARNING: THIS RECAP CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR RESIDENT ALIEN SEASON 2, EPISODE 9, "THE GHOST OF BOBBY SMALLWOOD"**

We open in Patience, 81 years in the past (it's the late 1930s or early '40s, if we had to guess an exact decade): young Bobby Smallwood is out hunting with his sister in the forests surrounding the isolated Colorado town. The latter sibling wants to turn back, but Bobby — acting on the orders of his mother — refuses, determined to bring home a wild hare for supper. Said rabbit escapes into an abandoned mine (the infamous location that gives The 59 bar its name) and the boy follows...never to be seen again.

Flash forward to present day: Harry (Alan Tudyk) wakes up to find a chipper Asta (Sara Tomko) making some truly unpalatable coffee in his cabin. Having erased her traumatic memories of the recent dinner party — particularly the shooting of the Galvan/Powell operative — in the midseason premiere, Harry plays into Asta's optimistic naïveté, reassuring her that the alien baby has not yet hatched and that his people are not coming to destroy the planet. Of course, he leaves out the information that another malevolent alien race is currently on Earth and plans to take over.

Harry then turns in his autopsy findings to Sheriff Mike (Corey Reynolds), Deputy Liv (Elizabeth Bowen), and Detective Torres (Nicola Correia-Damude) — all of whom seem quite satisfied with the doctor's take on the specifics of the murder — a fabricated take on events that keeps Asta in the clear.

Nevertheless, the law enforcement officers of Patience and Jessup are forced to team up on the case until a killer is found. With the autopsy settled, Harry demands that the Galvan/Powell corpse be removed from his presence, lest he be painfully reminded of the fact that he will die one day. His existential crisis is further underscored by a flat-out refusal to deliver pain medication to Gerard (John Innes), the dying old man we first met at the health clinic back in Season 1. Besides, there are more important matters to address like who the hell keeps stealing Harry's yogurts out of the break room refrigerator?! Looking at you, Ellen...

A concerned D'Arcy (Alice Wetterlund) turns up in Harry's office, looking for Asta. Fearing that the amnesiac effects of his mind-wipe may be undone, Harry requests that they not mention the shooting incident around Asta. D'Arcy agrees, though she does begin to wonder why someone would want to kill Harry in the first place. There isn't much time to dwell on this when a local dairy farmer comes into the clinic with a nasty bite he claims was given to him from a "chupacabra." Harry correctly deduces that the alleged cryptid is actually the baby alien and is certain it will come back for more fresh milk.

He goes to the farm and partakes in some fresh udder juice (his thirst for milk rivals that of Homelander), wondering why humans eat cows for sustenance. The baby alien shows up, but Harry cannot make a move as the farmer is already back and shooing it away. Nevertheless, Harry pursues the newborn into the woods and up to the abandoned mine into which Bobby Smallwood disappeared at the start of the episode. Harry come all the way up to the entrance, but does not go inside. Sensing the profound tragedy of the place, he vacates the area, still unable to place his life in danger after his close brush with the Grim Reaper in the midseason finale.

Meanwhile, Mayor Ben (Levi Fiehler) pays a visit to Mike, informing the sheriff the tourism company has made an offer for some primo undeveloped property in Patience. The only problem? They may take their business elsewhere if they learn that the town has become embroiled in yet another murder. He begs Mike to let Jessup take the reigns on the investigation, but the sheriff refuses, gleaning that Ben's desire for something to go his way stems from problems at home. Drawing on his own unhealthy experience of trying to outrun the grief of losing his partner in D.C. all those years ago, Mike gets surprisingly vulnerable, dropping his gruff shtick and telling the mayor that he must face his issues head-on, lest they eat him alive.

Ben takes the advice, inviting his wife to a public area — Dan's diner — for dinner, so she can't make a scene. This backfires horribly when he admits that he's afraid to tell her anything, which causes Kate to leave in a huff. Ever the dutiful husband, Ben brings home a chef's salad and the couple is able to patch up the cracks in their marriage with a very sweet, three-hour phone conversation from different rooms.

Still bubbly and free of guilt, Asta shows up at The 59, where the sound of pool balls clacking against each other faintly stirs the memory of a gunshot in her mind. She quickly brushes off this sense of unease and heads outside where a furious Jay (Kaylayla Raine) confronts Asta for missing her 18th birthday. Hurt and confused by this interaction, Asta works out what has transpired and gets Harry to restore her recollections of that fateful night.

She tells Harry that he can't go around, messing with other people's brains without their consent, and that emotions — both good and bad — are an integral part of the human experience. This once again loops around to Harry bottling up his feelings (when he gets sad, for instance, he just watches Season 5 of Law & Order). Asta realizes Harry is in denial and leaves, determined to clean up the mess he made in her life.

Elsewhere, the boat and van used by the dead members of the Galvan/Powell Group are found by Mike, Liv, and Torres. Calling on her connections to the New York Police Department, Torres discovers that the two men on the lake (the guys who were attacked and eaten by the newly-hatched baby alien) were two ex-con hitmen with ties to the mob.

Despite butting heads during their first meeting, she and Mike begin to bond over their time spent as cops in larger metropolitan areas like. This repartee — and perhaps a budding romance? — between the two characters, begins to alienate (pun intended) Liv. Fortunately, she may be about to get a close confidant in the form of Terry O'Quinn's Alien Tracker. For the time being, though, she's quite literally left in the dust when a major break in the case presents itself via Sam Hodge's medical records, which Harry, Asta, and D'Arcy stashed in the dead man's vehicle. So far, their plan to fabricate evidence is going off without a hitch.

The episode ultimately lives up to its name when Bobby Smallwood seemingly comes back from the dead, looking no older than he did on the day he vanished nearly a century before (this scene gives off "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" vibes for all you classic Twilight Zone fans out there).

Bobby's sister, now an elderly woman still living in Patience, instantly recognizes her brother and tries to reunite with him. Bobby hisses at her and runs away. Sahar (Gracelyn Awad Rinke) witnesses this and puts two and two together: the alien baby came across Bobby's genetic material in the mine and assumed his form. Wrongfully assuming that Harry is trying to breed an army of evil alien spawn, she plans to teach the child some civilized manners with help from the clueless Max (Judah Prehn).

Episode 10 takes a quick break from all the alien and murder storylines with a tender look at the budding relationship between D'Arcy and Elliott (Justin Rain), who are getting pretty serious. Elliott takes his new girlfriend to his place of work, a real estate development site that unearthed Indigenous artifacts. Elliott's agency was brought to the land in an effort to preserve these important items that would otherwise be lost to time and contribute to the ongoing erasure of Native American history in the United States. D'Arcy ends up staying at Elliott's place for the night and nearly leaves at first light before realizing that her days of one-night stands are a thing of the past.

Back at the diner, Harry orders a bunch of fried comfort food and eats his feelings. He and Asta have a heart-to-heart on how negative emotions make for a more well-rounded person. Harry apologizes for altering her memories and resolves to face his fear of death with a house call to Gerard.

Harry admits his phobia to the dying man, who states that he actually began to appreciate life more than ever once he received a terminal diagnosis. Harry likens it to eating the last piece of pie when you know there isn't any left. He helps Gerard peacefully depart this life with a lethal injection of drugs. As the man slips away, Harry demands to know, "What is it like?" Tudyk's delivery of the eternal question we've all asked at one point or another is enough to send shivers down your spine.

The episode closes out with Asta writing a letter to Jay for her 18th birthday. In fact, we learn that Asta's been doing this for each year of her daughter's life. The letters are stowed away in a box that will (we hope) be given to Jay once she's a little older.

New episodes of Resident Alien air on SYFY every Wednesday at 10 p.m. Eastern before hitting the SYFY app and Peacock the following day. The hit show has already been renewed for a third season.