Dr. Smallwood is a character in the science fiction comedy television series Resident Alien. She is portrayed by Eleanor Walker.
Character overview[]
Dr. Smallwood is a doctor working for the Patience Health Clinic in Patience, Colorado. She was part of the first stream of women to graduate from Harvard Medical School in the 1940s. She is hired by Mayor Ben Hawthorne after the previous town doctor, Dr. Ethan Stone, is abducted by government agents who believe him to be an alien.
History[]
When Dr. Smallwood was still a child, she and her brother Bobby were outside hunting for food. It was getting late and she wanted to go home, but Bobby reminded her that their parents had told them not to come home until they brought back dinner. He chased a rabbit into an abandoned mineshaft, where 59 died trying to save him. His remains were never found.
Numerous years later, nobody is really satisfied by the choice of Dr. Smallwood as a replacement town doctor. Despite her credentials, she is clearly getting on in years and not all there. She mistakes the nurse Ellen as the little girl with a broken arm she's supposed to be treating. She also tells Mayor Hawthorne to send his best to his "twin brother, the mayor." D'arcy Bloom had believed her to be dead for 30 years and, upon seeing her, shouts "Oh God, ghost!"
Mayor Ben breaks bad news to Dr. Smallwood
Ultimately, Dr. Smallwood's job performance is deemed unsatisfactory. The final straw comes when Mayor Ben comes to her to get the results from his annual checkup, only for her to tell him that he has aggressive cancer in his colon. Nurse Ellen comes over and reveals that Smallwood has accidentally mixed up Ben's chart with Mrs. Patel's. "So I don't have cancer?" asks Ben and Smallwood tells him no, saying that he instead has low vitamin D levels and to try to get some sun. At this point, Ben tells her that it's time for her take an "extended vacation." Nurse Ellen clarifies that he's firing her and he tells her that she's not the doctor she used to be and might kill someone if she was to keep working there. She asks if that's true and he tells her that it's not not true. She calls him a sweet boy for not wanting to tell her that and leaves, but not before commenting that Ellen is not sweet and it seems like enjoyed it, to which Ellen replies that she didn't not enjoy it.
Later, when Ben comes to Harry Vanderspeigle and asks him to again be the town doctor, he lies to Harry by telling him that Smallwood has "decided to retire."
Sometime following this, Dr. Smallwood is out walking with her granddaughter, Suzy, when she spots a boy who is seemingly Bobby. She calls after him, but Suzy tells her that there's no way that the boy could be Bobby, that he disappeared 80 years ago. The boy hisses and runs away, as he is actually an alien baby who has taken on the boy's form using his DNA.
Several months after this, Mayor Hawthorne discovers that he has been regularly abducted by Grey aliens for over 30 years and that recently his wife Kate has started being abducted as well and their child having been stolen from her womb. He learns that the Greys are able to find them via tracking chips placed in their bodies. He asks Harry Vanderspeigle to remove his, but Harry refuses, claiming that it is too close to a nerve. Secretly, however, Harry has been using Ben to try to gain information on the Greys and their plans to destroy the Earth. Deciding that he doesn't care and wants the chips out, Ben instead calls in Dr. Smallwood. She succeeds in removing Ben's chip, but Kate refuses to have hers removed, unwilling to sever this only tie to the child that she has lost and hopeful that she can still save her.
Quotes[]
"Are you serious? She cannot be the new doctor."
- Asta Twelvetrees to Ben Hawthorne, "The Wire"
"Send my best to your twin brother, the mayor. Tell him I think he's doing a dynamite job.
- Dr. Smallwood to Ben Hawthorne, "The Wire"
"I was gonna to take her into town but Dr. Smallwood is... Well, Susan Brown went in with a broken wrist and came out with a cast on her ankle."
- Kate Hawthorne to Harry Vanderspeigle regarding Carlyn, "Girls' Night"
"Am I jabbing myself? Am I jabbing myself? I can't feel anything. You know why? 'Cause I cut myself on the fence this morning and needed stitches and Dr. Smallwood put my whole damn arm to sleep." - Sheriff Mike Thompson to Mayor Ben Hawthorne, "Escape from New York"
"Dr. Smallwood, you basically just told me I was dying."
"I had the wrong chart. It happens."
- Dr. Smallwood and Mayor Ben Hawthorne, "Escape from New York"
"And now we officially have no doctor."
- Mayor Ben Hawthorne after firing Dr. Smallwood, "Escape from New York"
Trivia[]
- Although Ben Hawthorne calls in Dr. Smallwood to remove his Grey tracking chip in "Homecoming," the character does not actually appear.
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