Warning: Spoilers ahead forResident Alienseason 4, episode 1, “Prisoners.“Sheriff Mike Thompson (Corey Reynolds) has had an especially prominent character trait sinceResident Alienbegan back in 2021, but it took until the season 4 premiere for him to openly admit to it. While it’s great thatMike has finally voiced one of his biggest restrictions, he’s only managed to do so at an incredibly awkward point in the story. Mike’s role in theResident Aliencasthas long been the same, but there’s no avoiding the fact that it’s about to change quite a bit.
As one of the biggest authority figures in the town ofPatience, Colorado inResident Alien, Mike has a responsibility to keep the townsfolk safe. He has always taken this role very seriously. However, he has also often ignored or misinterpreted key pieces of evidence because of certain beliefs that he can’t or won’t set aside. At theend ofResident Alienseason 3, Mike encountered something that was set to change his life forever, but the season 4 premiere,“Prisoners,” reveals he’s still as stubborn as alwayswhen it comes to his values.
Mike’s “Black & White” Speech In Resident Alien Season 4’s Premiere Has Been A Long Time Coming
The Mantid’s therapy session with Mike is surprisingly effective
Mike came across a member ofResident Alien’s Grey Aliensin season 3, episode 8, “Homecoming.” While he tried to bag up the evidence and take the lifeform to Deputy Liv Baker (Elizabeth Bowen), it vanished before Mike reached his destination. If Grey hadn’t disappeared, it could have been enough to finally convince Mike that aliens exist, but with the way things went, he begins “Prisoners” convinced he was hallucinating. While in a therapy session with Alan Tudyk’s character, who is the Mantid disguised as Harry,Mike reaffirms what everyone already knows.
MIKE: “A man just can’t go around believing in just anything. There’s got to be boundaries! The world is black and white, right? So, it’s like, it’s like, night and day, salt and pepper, you and me.”
THE MANTID: “And I am the white one?”
MIKE: “Very much so. Black and white, Doc. There is no gray.”
-Resident Alienseason 4, episode 1, “Prisoners.”
Mike has always been very headstrong and only ever willing to make binary judgments. Things are either good or bad, hot or cold, and a whole lot of other absolutes. So,it’s no surprise that Patience’s sheriff refuses to believe that aliens exist, especially when the only piece of evidence he had to the contrary ended up vanishing. He’s the kind of man who accepts only what he sees with his own two eyes, and when something he thought he had seen suddenly wasn’t there anymore, he doubled down on a belief he had already strongly aligned himself with.
That said,Mike had been showing immense signs of growth before his encounter with the Greyin “Homecoming.” His brashness had remained intact, but he had also started to soften and to become more understanding when it came to the plight of his deputy, Liv. Thankfully, it’s Liv herself who manages to pull Mike back from the brink in “Prisoners,” convincing him to end his self-imposed medical leave and accept what it is he saw in “Homecoming.” He does the former, but hasn’t quite achieved the latter.
Mike’s Admission Confirms A Transformative Arc For Him In Resident Alien Season 4
Patience’s sheriff can’t hold onto his “black and white” belief system for much longer
Now that Mike has openly admitted to his black and white way of thinking,Resident Aliencan start to slowly dismantle his belief system. Although he ends “Prisoners” back in his role as Patience’s sheriff, I don’t expect him to immediately get on board with Liv’s claims of alien life. Other than the Grey he encountered, which he is still in doubt about, Mike has never had a genuine run-in with extraterrestrials. Of course, he has interacted with Harry countless times, but he doesn’t know Tudyk’s character is an alien.
With the rest of the town all going through their own alien-based storyline in season 4, it only makes sense that Mike will also be swept up in the action.
Plus, Mike making his “black and white” speech to the Mantid is pretty ironic in itself. So, with the rest of the town all going through their own alien-based storyline in season 4, it only makes sense that Mike will also be swept up in the action. When this inevitably happens, it will be interesting to see how Corey Reynolds’Resident Aliencharacter handles being proven so quantifiably wrong, or whether he’ll still find some way to deny the truth.
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