Robert. Stop. Don't go to him. You belong to us.
Joseph, speaking telepathically to Robert Hutchins, "Best of Enemies"
Joseph Rainier is a character on Syfy's Resident Alien. He is portrayed by Enver Gjokaj.
Character overview[]
Joseph is a Grey alien/human hybrid. He infiltrates the secret government operation to search for evidence of alien activity on Earth created by General Eleanor McCallister. He has long been involved in the case of Robert Hutchins, who was abducted from his mother's womb by the Greys. However, despite working as an agent for the Greys, he apparently remains ignorant of the true extent of their plans for the Earth.
Plot summary[]
The mole[]
As General Eleanor McCallister conducts a secretive meeting with David Logan on a ledge in a mountainous park, Joseph watches from above. As David Logan prepares to surrender the alien ball that is in his possession in exchange for freedom from pursuit by her, Joseph shoots him, sending him plummeting to the ground a great distance below. Thanks to the alien ball's powers, he survives the fall with only minimal injuries. McCallister then realizes that there must be a mole in her organization, as she did not tell anyone else about the meeting.
Joseph returns to McCallister's black site, where he resumes a role of posing as a prison guard. Remotely monitoring, David Logan observes a confrontation between him and one of the prisoners, Robert Hutchins. McCallister, however, dismisses the confrontation as being nothing, telling Logan to keep looking. At the black site, however, Robert protests to Joseph that he's not alien, that the aliens were the ones who took him. Joseph communicates with Robert telepathically, saying that he remembers and that he's not supposed to remember. He tells him that if he wants to stay alive to not forget that he belongs to them. He then slams Robert against the cell wall and exits.
Together, Harry Vanderspeigle and Peter Bach, known as the "Alien Tracker," infiltrate McCallister's secret black site. They instigate a prison break and Robert Hutchins is among those released from their cells. When Peter sees Robert on a monitor, he is stunned, as Robert is his son. He tells McCallister that she's been keeping his son imprisoned and, against her advice, goes to find him. He eventually does and Robert, seeing him, starts to head towards him. Joseph then sees this telepathically tells him to stop, saying that he belongs to them. Robert, however, ignores him and races towards Peter. Robert tells him telepathically that he made the wrong choice. He pulls out a pistol and fires at Robert, but Peter jumps in front of him, taking the shot in the heart. Harry then appears in his alien form and attacks Joseph, nearly choking him out before leaving him on the ground to the mercy of the other prisoners. He then goes to Peter, who tells him that it's too late for him and pleads with him to save his son.
The deputy[]
Joseph survives the attack thanks to his Grey physiology and manages to escape the black site seemingly unharmed. He goes to Harry at Joe's Diner in Patience, Colorado and uses his Grey ability to freeze time, stopping the passage of time for everyone and everything there except himself and Harry. He then tells Harry that Harry's people have ceded the Earth to The Greys and that their conflict is not with him. He tells him that they have left an escape pod up on the mountain and that they'll leave him alone so long as he leaves peacefully. At first, Harry is happy to do so, but he eventually realizes his time on Earth has changed him. He sends his alien baby, Bridget, away on the capsule, but remains on Earth and aligns with General McCallister to try to stop the Greys. Meanwhile, Joseph goes to the Patience Sheriff's Office and interviews for an open position as a sheriff's deputy in order to continue monitoring events in Patience.
Joseph quickly settles into his new role as a deputy. He receives a bag from a woman named Val, who tells him that someone found it near a bus stop. He begins going through the contents, which include a set of clothes and a handwritten notebook written by Robert Hutchins. Before he can examine it further, Sheriff Mike Thompson and Deputy Liv Baker arrive. Mike asks him what he's doing and Joseph tells him he's going to go through the notebook and see who it belongs to, but Mike calls it "clerical work," taking the notebook and giving it to Liv. He say that he has a gut feeling that something's going, asking Joseph to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Joseph agrees that he's on it.
Later, Joseph reveals his continued presence in Patience to Harry. He complains about Harry still being there in Patience, telling him that he was supposed to leave on the ship that they provided. He asks why Harry is still there, but Harry refuses to give a real answer, only joking that he dislikes public transportation. He threatens to reveal Joseph's nature as a Grey/human hybrid, but Joseph reminds him that it is a violation of the Galactic Federation charter, which states that no alien can reveal themselves or another alien being to a non-alien. Joseph promises that he will figure out why Harry is still there and also threatens Asta Twelvetrees by implication.
Getting information[]
Harry reports on the presence of Joseph to General McCallister, whom he has allied with. He tells her that he has a plan, while admitting to himself in his head that he actually doesn't. Meanwhile, Asta decides to ask Joseph out on a date, having no intention of his true nature. Upon hearing this, Harry at first tries to stop her, but then treats it as an opportunity, thinking that he can use it as an opportunity to spy on Joseph. He gifts Asta a makeup case secretly containing a listening device. The plan backfires, however, when Asta doesn't take it along with her on her date, instead leaving it in her bathroom at home. He discovers this when he hears over the device Judy Cooper, who has sneaked into her apartment, whom she also shares with D'arcy Bloom, to take a bath. Harry then crashes the restaurant where Asta is having her date and slips the bug into her bag while Joseph is in the restroom.
Harry returns to his cabin, only to find out that he has been discovered by D'arcy, whose presence in her and Asta's apartment was ratted out by Judy. She tells him that has three seconds to listen on Asta's date or she will smash his equipment. He tells her that if she breaks it, she buys it, but she calls his bluff and smashes it anyway. He then tells her about Joseph being a Grey-human hybrid. Shocked, D'arcy goes to the restaurant where Joseph and D'arcy are having dinner, pretending to be sick. After Joseph is gone, she admits that she was faking, revealing Harry, who tells her that Joseph is a Grey alien there to destroy the planet. Asta is astonished that he would let her go on a date with him. D'arcy starts to smack him, calling him a bad alien, but Asta stops her, telling her that Harry isn't emotionally evolved enough to know the difference between right and wrong.
That evening, Harry pays a visit to Asta. Although he had planned to kill her, he tells her that he cannot do it. He says that he could have gotten information from Joseph that would have helped him to stop the Greys from destroying the planet, but he could not do it because of her. He says that he had to stop because of her, that he always will. Asta, however, tells him that she will go on another date with Joseph and get the information, that she will do so and take the risk because she chooses to help him.
Things, however, go terribly wrong. While Asta is having dinner with Joseph at Joe's Diner, Harry and Asta sneak into Joseph's apartment. While they are able to get in without any trouble, once inside, they end up being imprisoned by a Reticulon Photon Net, an advanced piece of Grey technology. Joseph receives an alert about it on his phone and then reveals to Asta that he knows that she knows what he is. He demands that she tell him everything that she knows about Harry, stating that he will kill Harry if she doesn't. She calls his bluff, telling him that she knows this is against the Galactic Charter, but he reveals that D'arcy is in his trap as well, pointing out that there is no rule against him killing her.
To buy time, Asta makes up facts about Harry and his species, regurgitating plot points from the classic sci-fi seris Mork & Mindy. Meanwhile, Harry and D'arcy are rescued by the boy Max Hawthorne. Joseph gets an alert on his phone about the Reticulon Photon Net being disengaged and Asta laughs at him for being a screwup. He tells her that he has no idea who she's dealing with, but she and Dan knock him out and take him to Harry's place. Harry then confronts him, hoping to force information out of him about the Greys' plans, but realizes that despite being their agent, the Greys have told him almost nothing about their ultimate plans for the Earth. He then sends him on his way.
Blackmail[]
Joseph leaves his job as a sheriff's deputy, but sets up monitoring at the sheriff's office to spy on activities there. His absence is noted, particularly by Liv Baker, who correctly suspects that he may be involved with the alien activity that has been happening in and around Patience. Meanwhile, Joseph continues to follow Harry's activities as well and discovers that he has struck up a romance with Heather, a Blue Avian woman who had been sent to Earth to serve him with papers from the Greys demanding that he leave for breaking his agreement with them. The Greys then demand that he obtain Harry's DNA, which they need in order to properly make use of the alien ball that Harry had given to Robert Hutchins and which they stole.
Joseph accosts Heather while she is out walking in Patience. He covers her mouth, telling her that the Greys know where her family lives and that the will kill them all unless she does what he says. He asks if she understands. She nods and he uncovers her mouth. He tells her that she now works for the Greys and that he needs her to get Harry's alien DNA. She asks why he's doing this, but he ignores the question, telling her only that she will do as they say. Once they get what they need, she is to leave the planet without Harry and never see him again, or they will kill him to. She agrees to his terms.
Heather completes her assignment, leaving Harry heartbroken, unable to reveal the truth of what she has done. She is spotted talking with Joseph by Judy Cooper, but as she is unable to tell him the truth, he believes simply that she has betrayed him. He works on a bomb to use against the Greys and thwart their plan to destroy the Earth, intending to leave it to General McCallister and then leave the planet. However, when he is reunited with his child Bridget, he finds a newfound love and decides to fight the Greys himself, only to discover that the bomb has gone missing.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Mike Thompson and Deputy Liv Baker devise a lure for Joseph, having realized that he is in some way a traitor and likely killed a chemist they were hoping to get information from about a particular formula they discovered in Robert Hutchins' notebook. Late at night, they trick him into finding him in front of a chemist's lab, only for him to get the drop on them and take the paper containing the formula. Suddenly, he is slammed into by Mayor Ben Hawthorne, who has been tracking Mike and Liv's investigation, determined to discover what they have been hiding from them. However, when they return to the scene, Joseph's body is gone, which Liv takes as final proof that he is actually an alien, as there is no evidence of him being taken away and there is no way he could have simply walked off.
An unlikely ally[]
Harry believes that Joseph has stolen the bomb, but Asta tells him that it was actually D'arcy Bloom, having heard from D'arcy's ex-boyfriend Elliot that she had told him she was going to do something big. Harry is dubious until Joseph himself suddenly shows up and denies even knowing about there having been a bomb. Joseph then shows Harry the formula, demanding to know the truth of what it does. Harry recognizes it as being for a compound which the Greys are planning to mix with the bomb they are making at Yellowstone, which when detonated will alter the Earth's atmosphere and gravity such that it will only be suitable for them. "Not half-humans?" asks Joseph and Harry agrees that they will not survive. Upon hearing this, Joseph realizes the truth depth of the Greys' betrayal.
Joseph rages at the Greys, saying that he can't believe they were going to let him die when he hasn't had a day off in seven years. He tells Harry that they don't even have a good health plan. He reveals that the Greys gave the alien ball to a hybrid named Frank and that he could use it to fill the chamber at Yellowstone with water any minute now. Asta tries to appeal to the human part him to help, meanwhile, Harry tells him that Asta will date him again if he helps. He agrees "I'm not gonna die for these bastards."
Joseph opens a portal and succeeds in thwarting Frank from filling the cavern with water. He escapes, but the others left behind, trapped in the Grey facility. He returns to Harry's cabin, only to be confronted by General McCallister and a military convoy. She releases Peter Bach, who is now enclosed in a robotic suit, to fight Joseph, demanding that he be taken in alive. Peter complies, but at the same time, seems to come out of his comatose state, recognizing Joseph as the man who took his son and nearly killed him. He demands to know where his son and stalks off into the woods, escaping McCallister.
Meanwhile, McCallister confronts Joseph. She tells him that she ought to kill him for infiltrating her base and killing her team. He tells her that he ought to just kill him, that he just thwarted the Greys' Yellowstone plan and so they're going to kill him anyway. She, however, tells him that he has something that he needs: "A portal." He provides her with the key for a portal and she steps through, uncertain of what will happen next.
A hookup[]
Having fully renounced working for the Greys, Joseph hooks back up with Asta and begins having sex with her. D'arcy is troubled by the relationship.
To Asta's great shock and alarm, Joseph shows up at her office at the Patience Health Clinic with a musician, gets down one knee with a ring, and proposes marriage. She tells him that they were never a couple, just two people who sometimes had sex. He tells her that where comes from, this means something. He departs, firing off the parting shot that perhaps she is the one who is only half-human.
Asta's actions backfire when it turns out that Harry needs Joseph's help in order to try to reclaim his alien powers and form, which apparently have been suppressed by a Grey tracking device. Asta reluctantly calls for Joseph, who is so happy to get back together with Asta that he immediately shows up. Later, however, Asta admits that she was just using him and that she is sorry for this. She tells him that what he's feeling isn't love but rather fear, that he's never been on his own before. He asks if she'll be together with him in fear, but she tells him that this isn't a thing.
Joseph tells her that she made him feel like he could be good, asking her what will happen if he never feels that way again. She tells him she only brought out the good that's already inside of him. She says that she felt good with him too, that they all have good and they just have to find it.
Trivia[]
Sheriff Mike & Deputy Liv Have A Standoff With Joesph - Resident Alien (S3 E7) - SYFY
- The resume that Joseph Rainier provides for Sheriff Mike describes him as being a military-trained security officer with strong leadership qualities and professional work experience, including knowledge of security procedures and techniques. It describes him as being motivated and team-oriented with technical skills and attention to detail, with areas of expertise in security, planning and management. It also states that he has eight years in army recon. It gives his address as P.O. Box 1031 in Patience, Colorado and his phone number as 970-013-3492. While the 970 area code covers western and northern portions of Colorado, it is not possible for a phone number to start with a 0.
- Joseph Rainier's actor, Enver Gjokaj previously appeared alongside Harry Vanderspeigle's actor, Alan Tudyk, in the sci-fi series Dollhouse on FOX.
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