As Asta confronts a figure from her past, Harry has to reappraise his potential relationship with the Alien Baby. A reinvigorated D’Arcy may be developing a serious problem, while Ben resists Kate’s change of heart.

This week is all about parenting, and examines just what constitutes a parent. Does it have to literally be one who brought you up, or can that role be filled in adulthood by another? Harry’s people have no sentimental attachment to their offspring, initially dismissing any connection to the baby (revealed last week to be his own child) beyond needing more information about which aliens are working against us. After accompanying Asta to a potentially life-changing meeting, he realizes that perhaps he’s wrong in that regard.

The theme continues elsewhere – D’Arcy accuses new beau Elliot of parenting her which might throw a spanner in that relationship, unfortunate as she’s headed for a fall and may shortly need someone to fill that role. There’s a lovely sequence where Asta confronts her dad, which despite having sentimental music slathered all over it is beautifully written, in that it’s functional and realistically inelegant – I appreciate when writers remember that that their characters aren’t necessarily wordsmiths but people who just need to say stuff to each other. Similarly there’s some nice scenes for Mike and Liv, and again our Sheriff is essentially a proxy father to Liv, in the sense that he is her authority figure who can be by turns equally hurtful and supportive. This week he actually seems to listen to her and she gets the chance to talk about her UFO experience as a child.

Speaking of UFOs, we make some “alien threat” progress this week; there’s a credit at the top which might make SF fans declare “Oh, my!”. As usual with these things you spend most of the episode wondering when they’ll turn up but it’s worth it when he does; hopefully he’ll be back.

The theme this week could have given us something overly sentimental and soppy but happily not. The chucklesome script from Jenna Lamia (who also plays Judy) kept me entertained while still delivering the occasional emotional punch to the gut. The sequence involving Asta, Harry and A.N.Other, while being upsetting, is beautifully topped off with a piece of vindictive terrible medical advice from Harry.

Verdict: An episode full of lovely moments as well as laughs, from a writer who really gets the tone of the show and demonstrates how it can do drama without tipping over into mawkishness. More from Jenna, please. 8/10

Andy Smith