Aliens in America: Best Episode Yet!
Aliens in America has been on a roll! This may have been the best episode yet: funny, sharp, willing to poke fun at everyone, and then completely surprising us by revealing the Secret hearts of characters we thought we know. And yes, we’ll admit it: We teared up at the end. Well done.
Where do we even start? Well, let’s take the dialogue, which was particularly sharp this week. Take this exchange, after Raja and the Tolchucks have been ejected from a regional airport because Raja had to pray, and everyone freaked out:
Gary: You’re in America now. Here, we go to church on Christmas and Easter, say grace at Thanksgiving, that’s it.
Raja: Are you saying your God is better?
Gary: No… maybe less of a diva.
Hee!
Speaking of Gary… Look, he’s always been a bit of a one-dimensional character, and we’ve been ok with that because he’s funny. But it hardly seemed fair, because Raja, Justin, Franny, even Claire have all gotten to show off what’s beneath the surface. Finally, we got an idea of what makes Gary tick. He decides to take the opportunity to teach Justin to drive (during a snowstorm…) and it ends badly. He’s about to blow up at Justin, and he restrains himself, but Justin snaps – go ahead, say it, I suck at everything! That’s only because you don’t pay attention to the stuff I AM good at, like choir!
This leads Gary to talk about his dad, who had a very specific idea about what a man should be, and never thought Gary measured up. He took to breaking suspect records over his son’s head, and punching Gary out if he objected. It was so perfectly, heartbreakingly, side-splittingly Gary to follow up that story with this bit of matter-of-fact advice: “If you’re ever in a fight, go for the windpipe, because it cuts off oxygen to the brain.” He also tells Justin that he swore he wouldn’t do the same thing to his son, and apologizes for doing a crappy job. But Justin finally can see how far Gary has come, and accept him for what he is. They end up bonding over David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” which just made us smile.
Then there’s Raja, who finally lets his genial good humor slip after months of holding it in. After the Tolchucks tell him to just blend in, he snaps: “I can only do so much! I cannot uneducate myself, become lazy or not become startled by women who dress like strumpets!” When the Tolchucks can’t support him, he runs away. Raja ends up at the high school, where Mr. Matthews make him realize that the Tolchucks being negative mean they’re really treating him like family. “In America,” says Mr. Matthews, “we are only truly horrible to the people we love.” We don’t know whether to laugh or cry…
The Tolchucks go on a frantic search for Raja, which leads them to the nearest mosque (at least 50 miles away). Franny and Claire end up hanging out with Dolwa and Sadika, a Muslim mother and daughter are hosting an exchange student of their own. They got the guy Franny originally signed up for – tall, blonde, athletic, German – and Franny and Claire swoon. When Dolwa and Sadika see a picture of Raja, they swoon. Hee! Franny and Dolwa bond over how hard it can be to host someone so different while Claire hits on Silvio, the German exchange student. At least her vacation wasn’t totally wasted!
In the end, Franny realizes that maybe she hasn’t been doing enough to make Raja feel welcome, so she asks Dolwa, Sadika and several other members of the mosque to come to their house and fix Raja a Pakistani feast. And here’s where we started getting teary-eyed – Raja comes home, sees the effort the Tolchucks are making, and just stands there, amazed. “Welcome home,” says Franny, hugging him. You can tell she really means it. Sniffle….
What did you think? Tell us about it in the comments!
Comments
Still no word on an Aliens renewal! As soon as we hear something, we'll let you know (fingers crossed!).
Posted by: Jackie | March 27, 2008 1:40 PM
I really love this show. It's by far the best -written show on the CW these days and the only thing I watch besides Supernatural.
Is there any news on whether it will be back next season?
Thanks CW Source for covering this show as well as you do the ones that get more attention.
Posted by: JustMe! | March 25, 2008 9:39 PM
I completely agree with your review! It was great episode!
And seeing a bit more of Gary is always great. Scott Patterson is quite an asset to the show abnd is being quite underused being stuck in that slapstick humor character of the show (though the run through of the times Gary teached Justin was hilarious!).
He can deliver the subbtle little things beautifully (as proven this week and rarely in a few older episode).
They don't usually give him this stuff, and it's a shame, but when they do, boy does he make the best of it!
Also I have to say generally I'm very pleased that the show has managed to stay away from making "A Muslim is living among us" the main gimick of the show, but it was nice seeing it addressed a little more for once, and gone right about it.
Posted by: Alex | March 24, 2008 9:52 PM