Alan Tudyk’s awkward alien is humanity’s only hope in Resident Alien S2 trailer

An alien (Alan Tudyk) disguised as a small-town doctor must figure out how to rescue his new human friends from an invading army of his fellow aliens in the trailer for the second season of Resident Alien, SYFY’s critically acclaimed dramedy based on the Dark Horse comics created by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse. This gem of series easily made our list of the best TV shows of 2021.

(Some spoilers for S1 below.)

As I’ve written previously, Tudyk’s alien (with an unpronounceable name) takes on the identity (and form) of small-town doctor Harry Vanderspiegle, and promptly gets roped into investigating a local murder. Harry’s mission is to wipe out the human race for the good of the planet, but he finds himself wavering in his resolve the more time he spends in the small town of Patience, Colorado.

Harry is assisted by Asta Twelvetrees (Sara Tomko), who tutors him in basic social cues. He is tormented by a young boy name Max (Judah Prehn), the only person in town who can see Harry’s true form. (Harry’s attempts to kill Max to protect his alien identity are hilariously inept, and their mutual taunting eventually gives way to a grudging détente.)

There’s also the highly insecure town sheriff, Mike (Corey Reynolds), who insists on being called Big Black, and his long-suffering deputy, Liv (Elizabeth Bowen), who is far more competent than Mike thinks. Local bar owner D’Arcy (Alice Wetterlund) is a former Olympic skier who returned home after a career-ending injury. She and the promiscuous Julia (Jenna Lamia), who owns the bowling alley, vie (in vain) for Harry’s romantic attentions. And of courses there are government agents who know an alien spacecraft has landed somewhere and are searching for Harry as well.

In the last few episodes of S1, Asta discovered Harry’s secret when he was too wounded to maintain his human disguise. (He was injured trying to retrieve his human-killing doomsday device.) She saved his life, and in the season finale, he returned the favor, rescuing Asta and Max from government agents. Asta convinced him not to kill humanity, and he flew off in his repaired spaceship to get rid of the device in space—only to find that Max had stowed aboard.

The S2 trailer opens with Harry waking up in the hospital, having suffered serious head trauma—no doubt the result of whatever happened with the device on board his space ship. When the doctor asks him who he is, he responds, “I’m an alien. I am here to kill everyone.” That’s technically a true statement, but not one likely to go over well with the doctor.  Soon he returns to Patience and is welcomed with a surprise party by the townspeople, to which he responds with his usual lack of social finesse.

Harry’s grappling with the fact that he’s becoming more human—possibly a bit too human. Case in point: he saved Max’s life and now Max insists they’re BFFs.  Harry tries telepathically conferring with his friend the octopus in a restaurant fish tank (voiced by Nathan Fillion); they seem to be related species. Since Harry has failed to kill the humans, the octopus says, his fellow aliens will send others to do the job for him. That would include killing Asta, whom Harry now considers a friend. (“You’re the only one keeping that alien from taking us out,” Asta’s father tells her.) When she finds out the reinforcements are coming, Asta urges Harry to do something to avert the massacre. “You’re an alien. Phone home!”

Mike and Liv are still on duty, and he’s just as dismissive as before about her theory that their memories have been wiped somehow—and that they just might have seen a UFO. Also, it looks like Harry and pals will be leaving Patience and going to New York City at some point, and we’ll get yet another delightful cameo from Linda Hamilton as General McCallister, who once saw a UFO as a child and has been hunting for proof that aliens exist ever since.

Resident Alien S2 debuts on SYFY on January 26, 2022.

Listing image by YouTube/SYFY