There’s something wrong with that man. Who even are you, Vander SPO?
Just a normal human.
No—well, I thought he was going to say yes.
No, it did not actually, because the time off this case was due to the strike, so I wasn’t able to do anything during that strike time.
But it did give me some distance from it, so when I came back to it, I could look at it a little fresh. I was doing post, so that was [Music] helpful.
Yeah, especially with the Ben and Kate characters.

For me, they were really the big grounding aspect of the show—family, a kid, they’re going through regular issues.
It’s really building up those characters, and they’re a good example of what we do with everybody.
Building up those characters for a couple seasons until we really start realizing that these things we know about them—Ben’s fear, he grew up fearful his whole life—we finally figure out at the end of season 2 what that’s all about.

So season 3, in large part, is taking that further.
What happens when you start sort of remembering these things that happened to you?
This is a real thing people go through.
Like, they had these horrible things happen to them—honestly, whether it’s alien abductions or bad stuff from childhood that’s not alien-related.
It’s a metaphor for that.
And it still lives in there, even if you don’t remember it.
So the only way to get past it is to face it, and that’s what they’re sort of forced to [Music] do.

We’ve never done one where Harry hasn’t been commenting on what he’s seeing from an alien’s perspective, but I think we could do that.
I mean, the reason the show is so relatable is that he’s an alien arriving in this town, but he could easily be someone who steps off a bus from a different country and sees these people for the first time—and that would work too.
He’s learning about what it’s like to be human here.
And I think that’s why people are attached to the character so much.

We’ve never done that, but I think that would be interesting to explore.
Especially as we go further in the storytelling.
The longer Harry’s here, the shift from fully alien to a little bit human is starting to level out a little bit.
And as he gains more humanity, I think we could explore that—having an episode where the humanity of Harry sort of takes a leap over the alien stuff and just play the human.

I don’t think that’s going to work.
I mean, I just—if we’re, you know, we’re just spitballing—that just does not sound like a good [Music] idea.

No—what?
No.
Yeah, I love you but I don’t love you.
Oh, what?

I think for people who are fans of the comic book, they wish we would get together.
They ship us.
It’s the Moonlighting thing, though—you always want that when you have two characters that you like and they’re both attractive.
You want them to hook up and they have a bond.
So it’s sort of the thing of like, maybe you have a crush on your best friend and you’re like, “Oh, I want these people to get together,” or whatever—and that’s okay.

I’m not saying it’s off the table.
And as you know, I’m the one really pulling the strings behind the scenes.
So in the comic they hook up, right?
So in your comic, they can hook up, right?
But I like them not.
I like them being friends and not having that complication—’cause they already have the complication of him being from another planet.

I’ll be—
Then originally, when I pitched the show—and this is an exclusive today, look at this, ’cause you’re our favorite—thank you—
When I pitched it, I had to come up with the whole first season, and then a little bit of the second season, a little of the third season.
I had them getting together in the second season.

Did you know that?
No.
It was just for the—
And I knew it was possible it wouldn’t go there, but that’s—here’s a way to go.
They get together, there’s a baby, all this stuff.
And this is stuff that I had pitched, right?
That was several years before anyone was cast in the show.

So once you cast people and you see the dynamic and how it plays out, the thing that cuts against that in a huge way is the organic chemistry between them is incredible, but it falls into a mother-son thing.
And as soon as you sort of feel that energy, you’re less interested to see them—most people.
And some people are more [Music] interested.

So good, it’s so magic—he’s just, he’s vibrating, you know?
I don’t know.
I have a very clear memory of love and infatuation, and just that overwhelming feeling, and how incredible it was—and how just all-consuming it was.
It’s like that for him.

And it was fun to go back to that.
So with first love also comes the first heartbreak.
Yeah.
Maybe—maybe.
Let’s just say that Harry’s relationship with Heather follows the trajectory of every teenage romance in the history of…

She sleeps with somebody on the football team.
Harry has to realize—
You know, when you’re a teenager and you fall in love, not only is it the greatest thing in the world, but you think: This feeling I have right now? This will last forever.
It’ll never go away.
And then what do you do as a teenager when you don’t have that love anymore?
Now you feel like, “I’ll never get it back. Love in my life is over now.”

Yeah, you’ve got to find—you have to sort of learn that love actually is everywhere, and you can still find it.
Picture—not too big of a spoiler—but picture Harry with the emo hair.
Like, that pict—get that in your [Music] mind.

So far, it’s going well.
I don’t know if it’s—we’ll see if it continues on that way.
We are certainly the odd couple, but we’re both odds.
So we’re really into it.
And having Poppin every once in a while too is odd, but also very, very entertaining.

I still think having Judy as the foil is so healthy for our friendship, because we can get annoyed with each other—be like, “She doesn’t wash the dishes!” or like, “She never makes coffee!”
But then Judy comes in and is just, like, fully marinating in our bathtub with her hairless cat.
And we’re like, “I love you. I love you so much. You’re good. Don’t ever leave me.”
Yeah, exactly.

I mean, it’s much more comfortable for her.
One—because she now understands the bond.
She understands a little bit of the bond, maybe, and she understands why Asta couldn’t tell her.
She’s always a little suspicious and doesn’t trust people.

But I think also she’s excited to be involved in an adventure.
She sees herself as like, “Well, I’ll take—you know, I’m one of those people that I’m going to take over in any situation.”
So we’ll see what she does with that energy.
’Cause I imagine she would want to get in on, like, the alien stuff—
’Cause I mean, she’s literally helped hide a body.

She probably feels like she could, if needed to, fly the Enterprise-D.
You know, like, figure it out.
She will not.
I think we talked about it.

But is Darcy also a Star Treky?
Like—no.
Okay. Like, whatever nerds.

I think, you know, the Joseph character—he emanated everything that Mike likes to emulate.
He’s military trained.
He’s good-looking.
He—you smell like a winner.
You know, there’s just this energy permeating from him that Mike’s really kind of drawn to.

I think it’s a huge disappointment in some ways for him as things progress and he kind of discovers that there’s something off about this guy.
He doesn’t know the extent of it yet, but I think he discovers pretty early on that maybe he’s not as trustworthy as he initially thought.

I don’t know how much I can say because I can’t give away so much—
No, but you know.
There’s an awareness after a while that Joseph isn’t who—
Because in that first four and three, we see them reviewing the footage and seeing Joseph kind of messing around with the evidence.

Ultimately, I think that definitely is a huge red flag for Mike.

What’s Liv’s take on him?
’Cause she seems to be the early adopter for everything in this town—like, she might be the smartest person in Patience.
Yeah, she’s pretty spot-on about everything.

I think there might be a similar situation in season 1 with Cletus.
There might be a sense for her—with Mike giving his attention to him—
That, “Wait a minute, here we were…”

Like when Lena came into the picture, and all of a sudden she found herself feeling like the third wheel.

I think at this point though, she knows how integral she is to the sheriff’s department and is pretty confident in where she is.
I would say she’s confident, but underneath it all, she still wants your approval.
She wants to be your partner.
Anyone gets in between the two—
He smells like a winner.
He wants to smell like—yeah.

There’s some visual effects work and a lot of sci-fi stuff later in the season that is pretty great.
They’re all really great, and there are a lot of great moments.
I know episode 3 has some great moments that I’m partial to—some just gut-wrenching stuff.

And I know when you get to like—
They all really move.
They’re all great.
But get into six, seven, and eight—it really drives to the finish.
And then the finale—we can’t say anything about it.
But I will say, being on set that day, I just felt like I was having a very surreal, iconic experience.
And I was just so excited to be a part of the show.

Masterful cliffhanger.
Yeah.
It was the greatest—truly.
Pat on the back for this.
The way this season rounds out is—
Well, the whole writers’ room.
We have great writers.
Scre—those writing about you.

Amazing.
He doesn’t even make them feel better—as their therapist.
I mean, there’s—
So, in new people finding out that I do, I try to delay that as much as possible.
But there are also ways for Harry to get involved in their stories without them knowing exactly who he is.
And it still leaves a long ramp in future episodes to play with.