Resident Alien Season 4’s D’arcy Flashback Finally Fulfills A Story Setup I’ve Been Waiting 4 Years To See

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Resident Alien season 4, episode 4, “Truth Hurts.”Resident Alien season 4, episode 4, “Truth Hurts,” opens with a glimpse into D’arcy Bloom’s teenage years, which also directly addresses her connection to another member of the Resident Alien cast. The connection in question has been referenced a few times, but the show has always been quite coy when discussing it. Finally, after four years, Resident Alien has allowed for a very candid peek behind a specific curtain. It doesn’t exactly push the larger story forward, but it does help contextualize certain conversations.

Shows like Resident Alien are often very character-driven, and that’s certainly the case for the Alan Tudyk-led sci-fi dramedy. Although some plots revolve around various forms of extraterrestrial life, the more grounded storylines can be just as rewarding, if not more so. In fact, some of Resident Alien‘s best episodes work so well because of how relatively pedestrian they are, focusing on the everyday issues of Patience’s townsfolk rather than their battles with the Greys and other antagonists. Although the show has been moving even more into sci-fi territory lately, “Truth Hurts” proves the human element hasn’t gone anywhere.

It Was Cool That “Truth Hurts” Showed The Start Of Ben & D’arcy’s Love Story

Resident Alien season 4, episode 4’s cold open provides some much-needed context

D’arcy Bloom (Alice Wetterlund) and Ben Hawthorne (Levi Fiehler) have long been established to have some sort of romantic history that dates back to their high school years. Those feelings resurfaced at the end of Resident Alien season 1 when D’arcy misinterpreted Ben’s words of support as a rekindling of their young love and tried to kiss him. This was the biggest example of the previously unseen dynamic in the show until the cold open in “Truth Hurts.”

Both D’arcy and Ben are played by younger actors during the 2000s flashback in Resident Alien season 4, episode 4. So, rather than just hearing about their past from the adult version of the characters, the audience is finally granted a firsthand glimpse of what went on between them. Even if Resident Alien never shows anything beyond their first kiss, it’s cool that the show went through the effort to reveal more of this storyline, rather than just the fact that both characters clearly decided they weren’t a match for each other long before the pilot episode.

Why Now Is The Perfect Time For Resident Alien Season 4 To Revisit Ben & D’arcy’s Romance

D’arcy hiding Ben’s daughter from him is made even worse by their shared history

“Truth Hurts” doesn’t just show Ben and D’arcy’s first kiss for no reason. The scene bookends the story for both characters in the episode. The installment brings Ben and D’arcy back together more than once, but only allows them to be alone near the end. Ben has a strong suspicion that D’arcy knows something about the Greys and alien life in general, and he’s correct. The fact that he can tell something is off with her behavior isn’t that surprising, but his ability to do so is highlighted by how close they once were.

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If “Truth Hurts” hadn’t shown their first kiss at the beginning, the scene that shows Ben interrogating D’arcy wouldn’t have been nearly as effective. It served as a reminder that they were once more than friends, and it makes the position that D’arcy has found herself in even more poignant. Although it’s for the safety of the baby, D’arcy is currently hiding Ben’s daughter from him, which is no small thing.

BEN: “The you that I know is pretty blatantly honest. Remember, in high school? You told me how you felt about me, and I felt the same way, but I was just too scared to say anything. But you weren’t. That is that, okay? So if there is anything that I need to know about that you’re not telling me – anything – even if it’s about aliens, I need you to please tell me.”

D’ARCY: “Nope. Nothing.”

Resident Alien season 4, episode 4, “Truth Hurts.”

D’arcy lies to Ben’s face when he asks if she knows anything that could help him, and once again, the cold open helps make that lie even worse. When he asks her to swear that she’s telling the truth, she swears on “Mrs. Fontaine’s Ford Fiesta,” which they both jokingly referred to as the “Vomit Comet” as teenagers. Even though Ben clearly knows he’s being deceived, he has no choice but to take his old flame at his word. When the truth comes out, I hope Ben understands that Wetterlund’s Resident Alien character was acting in his best interests.

Resident Alien

Release Date

January 27, 2021

Network

USA Network

Showrunner

Chris Sheridan