Patience

Patience
Town welcome sign
Appears in	Resident Alien (2021 TV series)
Type	Town
Location	Colorado

This town looks like a slice of Americana, but trust me, it has an underbelly.

Asta Twelvetrees to Harry Vanderspeigle, "Pilot"

Patience is a small town in Colorado in the television series Resident Alien. It is the main location of the series and where most of the characters live.

Overview

The town has only one doctor. The nearest hospital is three hours away. It is described as seemingly being a simple, small town on the outside, but having an underbelly. It is still very cold there even in early spring and often heavily covered in snow, the roads impassable. In the summer, however, the town is full of scenic sights, including plenty of open water for boating and fishing. Parking is a nightmare. It had no pizza place until recently, when a Mama Sap's Pizza restaurant opened up.

Showrunner Chris Sheridan describes it as a small town, off the beaten path, and kind of the perfect place for alien to hide out.

The town is replete with a strong history as a mining town. To this day, the residents still recall the date of January 17, 1884, in which the town's mine suffered a catastrophic collapse. 59 of the miners escaped, only to realize that one of them still remained inside the collapsed mine. They returned to rescue him, but died in the process, memorialized with a plaque which reads "59 died to save one."

The town is on the edge of a large mountain or mountain range, which is replete with secrets, including the crashed remains of Harry Vanderspeigle's spaceship. The town's local newspaper is The Patience Post.

Normally a popular tourist destination in the summer, the town has recently suffered a blow to its image due to two recent murders. It also has a rivalry with the town of Jessup, a nearby similar town whose mayor, Mayor Mitch Green, promotes it as a safe haven in comparison with Patience.

Seeking to bring more business and fame to the village, Mayor Ben Hawthorne seeks to have a resort built on the Grady property on the edge of town. This plan brings him into conflict with many of the town's residents, who feel that a resort would attract unwanted traffic and big business, driving away small businesses and the town's charm. His wife, Kate, even goes so far as to collaborate with Asta's cousin, Kayla, to get an injunction to stop the building of the resort. The project finally comes to an end when he realizes that he's been trying so hard to make the town perfect, but it already is perfect and he doesn't actually want it to change.

Population

According to Mayor Ben Hawthorne, only 16% of the town's residents voted in the election in which he was elected mayor. 41 of these, including himself, were Hawthornes, leaving only eight outside of the family who voted for him. Assuming by 16% he is referring only to those of voting age, this would place the town's adult population at approximately 300.

Residents

• Harry Vanderspeigle, former town doctor
• Harry Vanderspeigle (human), regular visitor †
• Dr. Ethan Stone, former town doctor
• Dr. Sam Hodges, former town doctor †
• Abigail Hodges
• Dr. Smallwood, former town doctor
• Asta Twelvetrees, nurse
• Ellen Cho, nurse
• Dan Twelvetrees
• Mike Thompson, town Sheriff
• D'arcy Bloom
• Ben Hawthorne, town Mayor
• Kate Hawthorne
• Max Hawthorne
• Liv Baker, deputy Sheriff
• John Baker
• Jay
• Jimmy
• Judy Cooper
• Kayla
• Sahar

Contains

• Town hall / Sheriff station
• Patience Health Clinic
• The 59 - tavern
• Joe's Diner
• Mama Sap's Pizza
• Harry Vanderspeigle's cabin
• Grady estate (planned site of a resort, later canceled)

Gallery

Patience is a Great Place to Crash - Resident Alien - SYFY

Trivia

• Initial descriptions of the television series placed the town of Patience in Washington rather than Colorado. In the original comics on which the Resident Alien series is based, Patience is in Washington.
• Although Patience is within the United States, most, if not all scenes set within Patience are actually filmed within Canada, the small town of Ladysmith being transformed into Patience. Upon the announcement of Season 4, Joan Miller of the Vancouver North Island Film Commission stated that Resident Alien has been a great series to work with, with the impact being significant for the surrounding regions and the town of Ladysmith benefiting from from film-induced tourism.