Dr. Sam Hodges, M.D. is a character in the science fiction comedy television series Resident Alien. He is portrayed by Jan Bos.
Character overview[]
Dr. Sam Hodges was the town doctor for the town of Patience, Colorado and the one and only physician of the Patience Health Clinic. He was married to Abigail Hodges, and his ex-wife was Rosy. His nurse was Asta Twelvetrees, and the two were close friends with each other, often sharing confidences. He also served as a counselor to the town's mayor, Ben Hawthorne, in weekly sessions. When he was found dead in his office, the town sheriff Mike Thompson sought out the services of Harry Vanderspeigle, a doctor who vacationed in a cabin near the town, not realizing that Vanderspeigle's identity had been assumed by an alien. Rather than risk discovery, the Vanderspeigle alien came into town and while he initially concluded that Hodges's death was a suicide, he later concluded that Hodges had been poisoned in a manner that caused his throat to close up, leading him to try to give himself a tracheotomy. He then continued to fill Hodges's role as the replacement town doctor, until a more permanent replacement, Dr. Ethan Stone, was found.
Appearance[]
Sam Hodges was a Caucasian male, of middle-age, though starting show signs of entering his elderly years. He had pronounced forehead wrinkles and dark hair that was starting show signs of graying and thinning.
Plot summary[]
Mike Thompson and Liv Baker, the sheriff and deputy of Patience, Colorado, pay a visit to a cabin by a lake. There, they speak with the alien who has assumed the identity of Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle, explaining to him that the town doctor Sam Hodges turned up dead and they need him to perform an autopsy. Vanderspeigle is wary of interacting with humans, but even more wary of the possibility of spoiling his secret identity, so he agrees to come along. In town, he attempts to quickly write off the death as a suicide, but is rebuffed by the nurse Asta Twelvetrees, who tells him that Hodges had no reason to commit suicide. She points out that if he wanted to commit suicide, he wouldn't have stabbed himself over and over in the front of the neck, that as a doctor he would have known to go for the carotid artery. Vanderspeigle is forced to admit that she has a point and the two of them perform a full autopsy. Afterwards, Vanderspeigle squeezes Hodges's brain for entertainment, when suddenly he is walked in on by the widow, Abigail Hodges. Abigail asks him if her husband is there, not yet having been informed about the death due to the squeamishness of the town's mayor Ben Hawthorne and deputy Baker. Later, Vanderspeigle attends Sam Hodges's funeral and a comment by Twelvetrees about "fresh air" leads Vanderspeigle to a realization. As the funeral is in progress, he unexpectedly opens the coffin and confirms his theory: that Hodges's windpipe had constricted and he was trying to give himself a tracheotomy in order to get air.
Asta Twelvetree's flashback of Sam Hodges
As the investigation into Hodge's death gets underway, Vanderspeigle takes on the role of the temporary new town doctor. Asta Twelvetrees, however, keeps him from using Sam Hodges's office, claiming that it's because it is a crime scene, but really unable to let go of her past memories of Hodges, who had been like a second father to her. Later, Vanderspeigle conducts a therapy session with Mayor Hawthorne, which is interrupted when the widow, Abigail, comes into the clinic, trying to claim some of Hodges's belongings as her own. Twelvetrees gets into a fight with her over taking items that could potentially be evidence. However, when she confronts Sheriff Thompson and Deputy Baker about it, they tell her that she had a rock solid alibi and couldn't have been the murderer. Thompson also tells her that he already got everything he needed from Hodges's office, saying that she needs to stay in her own lane. At home, Twelvetrees's adoptive father Dan tells her that she needs to release Hodges's spirit, and that there are certain native traditions she can do, including burning her scrubs and cutting her hair. That evening, she has a flashback of the evening Hodges was murdered. She recalls teasing him about a hypochondriac patient supposedly having a crush on him, and refusing an invitation to play cards due to tomorrow being a day. She then allows Vanderspeigle to claim Hodges's office.
A minor mystery crops up at the Patience Health Clinic when one of Sam Hodges's prescription pads turns up missing. Although Asta Twelvetrees initially suspects that the pad might have been stolen by the intern Jay, who is secretly her daughter that she had given up for adoption, she and D'Arcy Bloom later discover pills being passed around at a high school party that had been illegally prescribed using the stolen prescription pad. Sheriff Thompson and Deputy Baker come to suspect that the stolen prescription pad may be connected to Hodges's murder, but this turns out to be a dead-end. A flash of insight leads Twelvetrees to realize that the prescription pad was stolen by Jimmy, her estranged and abusive husband. She reports this to Thompson and Baker, and Baker quickly pieces together that Jimmy is not smart enough to be a criminal mastermind and therefore the theft of the prescription pad is likely unconnected to the murder. Meanwhile, the revelation that Sam Hodges was diabetic and the toxicology report showing that he was poisoned by Botulinum toxin leads Baker to a new theory: that the poison was administered via his insulin injection. Thompson discovers this theory when he finds that Deputy Baker has created her own secret "murder board" regarding the cased. The new information opens up new possibilities when it comes to suspects, as it forces the re-examination of the idea that the killer that had to be present in the room the evening that Hodges died. Before the theory can be seriously pursued, however, Sheriff Thompson's continued ill treatment of Baker leads her to quit her job as deputy.
Sheriff Thompson arresting Abigail Hodges for her husband's murder
When Sheriff Thompson discovers Baker having lunch with his father, Lewis Thompson, he is annoyed, thinking that she is bad-mouthing him. Lewis, however, tells his son that Baker actually didn't say anything about him, that she mostly listened, and that it was something that he should try. Sheriff Thompson, taking his father's words to heart, returns to his office, where he examines the murder board created by Baker. It leads him to a revelation regarding Hodge's widow, Abigail. He begins to suspect that she was having an affair and, checking her phone records, discovers numerous calls to another man well before Sam Hodges's murder. He pays a visit to her salon, where he finds a magazine showing how she uses Botulinum toxin in her treatments. He arrests for her husband's murder, then makes things up with Baker.
A flashback reveals that many months before, the human Harry Vanderspeigle paid a visit to the Patience Health Clinic. He poisoned Hodges's insulin for unknown reasons and then returned to his cabin, where he was killed by the alien.
Trivia[]
- Sam Hodges appears only as a corpse in the series and in flashbacks. His initial appearance is as a corpse in the "Pilot" episode, before appearing in flashbacks in "Homesick." Though he does not have any further appearances after the third episode, "Secrets," he continues to be mentioned throughout the first season of the series, due to the continued investigation into his death. Resident Alien showrunner Chris Sheridan stated in an interview following the series finale, "Heroes of Patience," that the show's second season would explain the reasoning as to why the human Harry Vanderspeigle murdered Sam Hodges. He explained that "I always knew that at the end of Season 1, we would find out who did it. In Season 2, we’ll explore why. We'll get a sense of what was going on in the town, who the players were, what drove this guy to this place where he had to kill the town doctor."[1]
References[]
- ↑ Syfy Wire: Resident Alien Boss Breaks Down Season 1 Finale, Teases More Hijinks, Drama & Linda Hamilton in Season 2 by Josh Weiss. April 1, 2021.
