Bow to me! Bow!
Ellen to an adoring crowd, following her victory in the Trial by Fire, "Family Day"
Ellen Cho is a character in the science fiction comedy television series Resident Alien. She is portrayed by Diana Bang.
Character overview[]
Ellen is a nurse working at the Patience Health Clinic. She is one of at least two nurses active at the clinic, along with Asta Twelvetrees. Sarcastic and sulky, Ellen is prone to making comments inappropriate for the workplace. She purposely mispronounces Asta's name as "Ass-ta" and makes comparative remarks on the hotness of Dr. Ethan Stone vs. Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle. She is a skilled poker player.
Appearance[]
Plot summary[]
When Dr. Ethan Stone comes to the Patience clinic to replace Harry Vanderspeigle as the town doctor, Ellen tells Asta Twelvetrees that she saw him and that he's gorgeous. Twelvetrees replies that she's being inappropriate and that it doesn't matter so long as he's a good physician, but Cho says that it won't hurt to have something nice to look at for once. Annoyed, Vanderspeigle thinks to himself that he's both handsome and ravishing.
Sheriff Mike Thompson and Deputy Liv Baker visit the clinic, asking her what she thought of the behavior of Jay, an intern who used to work at the clinic, if she had noticed anything unusual. She replies that she was always a bit shifty and quiet, like she was planning something, and that she once microwaved fish in the kitchen, which was rude. However, when Asta Twelvetrees comes out, asking there is a problem, she backpedals and tells her that Thompson and Baker think that Jay stole the prescription pads, but that she said Jay was nice and would never do that.
When Harry Vanderspeigle, Asta Twelvetrees and D'arcy Bloom are trapped in a crevasse on the mountain overlooking Patience, Bloom manages to rescue them all and then drives Twelvetrees and a badly injured Vanderspeigle to the clinic. Twelvetrees then shouts for Bloom to get help, so Bloom exits the vehicle and enters the clinic, then comes back out with Ellen, ready with a wheelchair. The two find, however, that Twelvetrees has taken off on them, not knowing that Twelvetrees left in order to protect Vanderspeigle's secret that he is actually an alien.
Ellen at the poker table
Ellen is regular attendant of the town's weekly poker game. During one such poker game, the alien Harry Vanderspeigle is also in attendance. During the game, when Vanderspeigle raises, she tells him that he had better be careful, commenting "Don't want you to go broke again." Sheriff Mike Thompson asks what she is talking about and she reveals that it's rumored that six years ago Harry Vanderspeigle lost all his money. He then tried to sell his cabin to her uncle, but then mysteriously backed out of the deal. She says that she'll enjoy taking all of his money tonight, that nobody can figure out how he managed to hang on to the cabin. She then proceeds to win the game, greatly frustrating the alien Vanderspeigle, who breaks Ben Hawthorne's poker table using his alien strength.
D'arcy Bloom sometimes comes to Ellen for "hangover IVs" following nights of drinking. Although Cho tries to hide this from Bloom's best friend, Asta Twelvetrees, she ends up apologizing later when Twelvetrees finds out the truth. Cho participates in the Trial by Fire, a hot-pepper eating contest, at Patience's Family Day festival. She is the winner when Bloom, the reigning champion, drops out to help Twelvetrees, who is choking on a pepper.
Ellen with Mayor Ben Hawthorne, breaking bad news to Dr. Smallwood
When Dr. Smallwood, the new town doctor, tells Ben Hawthorne that he is dying of colon cancer, Ellen comes over explaining that she mixed up his file with that of Mrs. Patel's. Ben then tells Dr. Smallwood that she should consider taking an extended vacation, at which Ellen explains that he's trying to fire her, saying that she might kill someone if she kept working at the clinic. Smallwood asks Ben if this is true and he tells her that "it's not not true." She tells him that he's a sweet boy for not wanting to tell him that, saying to Ellen that she isn't sweet at all, that she seemed to enjoy it. "I didn't not enjoy it," agrees Ellen. After Dr. Smallwood leaves, she shows Ben the hiring files, saying that Dr. Vanderspeigle is their only real candidate, a good doctor but not much to look at - "a Patience six, which is a Denver four, which is a California one." Ben tells her he's not sure it's legal to say that, but that he sees from the file that Dr. Vanderspeigle has a birthday coming up. Ellen says that this is sneaky, that he could buy him a birthday present to soften him up, and that he just moved up to a Patience three.
Ellen serves as the babysitter for the boy Max Hawthorne and his friend Sahar during the party, to which she was presumably not invited. She spends a good portion of her time babysitting ignoring Max and Sahar and chatting away on her smartphone, making comments that suggest that she sometimes uses her status as a nurse to get away with petty shoplifting. During the call, she makes a comment about the party and how Mayor Hawthorne is using it as a way to try to lure Harry Vanderspeigle into being the town doctor again. Sahar overhears this and asks Max what happened to Ethan, learning that he disappeared the same night that the "men in black," David Logan and Lisa Casper, came to Patience. She explains that they took Dr. Ethan because Max told them that the alien was the "town doctor."
Realizing that they need to warn Asta, Sahar devises a plan to sneak out of the house. Explaining to Max that it's something she's used before on her Aunt Azadeh, she puts Ellen to sleep by having her watch nature convoy videos on a tablet. However, when she and Max try to sneak out of the house, Ellen startles awake and asks them where they're going. They both tell a different lie, but Ellen simply tells them to get home before their parents come back and to not do drugs. Sahar comments quietly to Max that "she's a terrible babysitter." Later, when Asta asks them how they snuck out, given that they have a babysitter, Sahar replies simply "It's Ellen," to which Asta tells them "Say no more."
Quotes[]
"I saw the new doctor, and he is gorgeous."
"Ellen, that’s inappropriate. Just as long as he’s a good physician."
"Doesn’t hurt to have something nice to look at for once."
- Ellen and Asta Twelvetrees
"They think Jay stole the prescription pads. I said she was nice and would never do that."
- Ellen, lying to Asta Twelvetrees
"He's trying to fire you. You're not the doctor you used to be, and if you keep working here, you might kill someone." - Ellen to Dr. Smallwood
"I'm serious. If you're wearing nurse scrubs and you're running, stores will pretty much let you take anything for free. Uh-huh." - Ellen to a friend on the phone
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