“I discovered there are some humans who are taught how precious the Earth is. It is not enough to save them, but if they can’t, who will?”

As the title suggests, this week it’s time for Harry to put his plan to keep his people away from Earth into operation. Needless to say his intentions are not quite as pure as Asta had been led to believe and the threat is far from being averted. He thinks he’s doing her a huge favour, and it’s only later events which may well change his mind. Spending time with Asta’s fellow Indigenous Americans he meets prodigal son Drew (played by this episode’s writer, poet and podcaster Tommy Pico) and gets to put some of the medical procedures he learned from YouTube into practice.

Meanwhile the rest of the episode mainly revolves around a series of dinner dates. Under pressure from his date Sheriff Thompson reveals a little more of what happened back in DC and why he moved to Patience. At his wife’s behest Ben attempts to, very reluctantly, build bridges with the rival town of Jessop, while D’Arcy has to grin and bear dinner with her parents before going on a date with a potential new beau. Unsurprisingly, none of these events go well. Poor old D’Arcy especially seems lost, although having done a very cool thing to the Theme from M*A*S*H last week she now gets to do an even cooler thing to a Belle and Sebastian track; whoever is picking the licensed music this season is doing a bang up job, or is secretly rummaging through my CDs.

Finally this season we have the return of Linda Hamilton and the too-good-to-be-true Dr Stone, who you’ll remember was mistakenly kidnapped at the end of last season, under the false assumption he was the alien. It seems he’s not the only person of interest being held against their will. With another regular now under the impression they may have been abducted by aliens, is it a matter of time before they too are targeted?

It’s good to see the main plot advance a little more this week, although I’m in no rush to reach a denouement – I actually enjoy the little vignettes of the townspeople’s lives. Is it a little soapish at times? Probably, and this episode does get a little mawkish at one point, but a soap with an alien in it is far more interesting to me than any of the humans-only ones.

Verdict: Not heavy on laughs this week but we come away feeling a little closer to some of these characters. Harry once again blindsides us, and there’s an intriguing new thread involving one of my favourites. 7/10

Andy Smith