Harry and Asta's plan to go to New York takes an unexpected detour when a girl, Liza, is caught trying to stealing a bicycle in Patience and greets him with two words: "Hi, Dad." Asta and D'Arcy deal with the fallout of Asta's overnight stay at Jimmy's. Ben hosts a questionable play about The 59 that leaves one parent walking out in tears, but is a hit with his son, Max. Sheriff Mike and Deputy Liv continue to struggle with their lost memories and Mike is haunted by the loss of his partner and best friend Jesse, the details of his past finally brought into focus. And Harry kidnaps the dog, Murphy, that Sahar has been dogwalking, hoping to force her to give back his alien spaceship ball, but the ball has been stolen from Sahar by David Logan, who is still trying to track General McCallister.
Tropes:
- Banana Peel: The IKEA instructional manual-style opening credits for this episode depict this, the twist being that simply taking the banana peel and throwing it in the trash gets the red X because the gag is that you're supposed to slip on the banana peel.
- Break-Up Bonfire: Asta and D'Arcy burn a football sweatshirt that Asta had been wearing in a photo with Jimmy.
- Broken Win/Loss Streak: D'Arcy withdraws from the chili-eating competition, of which she's the yearly victor, to help a struggling Asta recuperate. Ellen wins as a result.
- Cut-and-Paste Note: After dognapping Murphy, the dog that Sahar has been watching, Harry leaves her one of these reading, "If you ever want to see your dog again, return my alien ball. - Alien"
- Denied Food as Punishment: Harry sends Liza to bed when she insults his cooking and says that she can't have the glutenous pasta he was making.
- Drives Like Crazy: Harry quickly regrets letting Liza drive his truck, as she almost hits other cars and forgets to switch gears (which he has to do for her).
- Eating Contest: The Trial by Fire at the Patience Family Day, featuring progressively hotter chili peppers. D'Arcy has been the champion for over a decade, save one year she got beaten by an out-of-towner. Asta enters the contest to prove a point and eats up very nearly choking around the fourth or fifth pepper. D'Arcy drops out and they make up when it comes to their fight they've been having throughout the episode, leaving Ellen as the winner.
- False Memories: Harry had already implanted a false memory in Sheriff Mike and Deputy Liv's heads to keep them from remembering that he's an alien, but it wasn't enough because there were still large gaps in their memory. In this episode, he fills the gap in Sheriff Mike's memory by giving him a memory of a day of fishing at one of Patience's lakes with his father.
- Gender-Blender Name: Murphy, the dog Sahar walks (that Harry kidnaps), is said to be a female dog.
- Hugh Mann: Liza recognizes that there is something very off about Harry, but describes him as being "head-injury different." Like everyone else who doesn't know his secret, she never so much as suspects him as being an alien, not realizing that everything he knows about parenting human children comes from watching human television shows.
- I Lied: Max tells Liv that he made everything up about the alien (in order to protect The Masquerade).
- Mediation Backfire: Ben asks Liza and Harry to stop their water balloon fight, only for them to pelt him with the balloons instead.
- A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: Asta is unhappy about Octopus's telepathic presence in her mind. So is he.Octopus: You think I like it in there? It's darker than the woods in a Tim Burton movie.
- Narm: In-universe - Mayor Ben hosts a play with the town's schoolchildren about The 59. It's supposed to be a serious affair, rather too serious in fact, as the kids act out scenes of death and destruction. Then, they sing a song called "Where Have All the Daddies Gone?" and Harry and Liza cannot help but bust out laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.
- Oh, Crap!: Sahar realizes someone has been in the RV since the last time they were there, and more importantly has stolen the alien ball.
- Playing a Tree: In Ben's gruesome play, some of the children play the role of boulders that kill all the miners.
- School Play: It's a town play, but all the parts are played by schoolchildren and it has the same production value as a low-budget school play. (Said low-budget effects used 8% of Patience's town budget, however.)
- Shout-Out: Asta gets Ziggy Stardust face paint.
- Talking to the Dead: Liv visits her Aunt Cathy's grave, as she was the only one Liv ever told about her UFO sighting.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The promo for their episode spoils the big twist - Liza's "Hi, Dad" to Harry.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: The episode begins with a flashback to Sheriff Mike's partner being killed in the line of duty and his resulting grief.
- Troubled Teen: Liza has a criminal record of shoplifting in New Mexico and escaped a camp for troubled teens to make her way to her father's cabin.
- Water Guns and Balloons: Liza and Harry have a water balloon (and verbal) fight at Patience Family Day that becomes a bonding experience once they team up against Ben.
- You're Not My Mother: Liza tells Asta that she's not her mother after Asta scares off an adult biker Liza was flirting with for a ride out of town by telling him Liza's only sixteen. Asta agrees, but says that she wants to help Liza because she knows what it's like for her because of her own childhood.
