Going Native
"Claire" (Kim Greist) is an agent from an alien planet masquerading as a photographer. Every photograph she takes on her mission is sent to her superiors back on her homeworld, who wish to learn about humanity. For the final portion of her assignment, Claire decides to join a therapy group in an effort to understand and comprehend emotion, watching as group members Lee, Janine, Mark, and Amy (John Aprea, Pamela Kelly, Richard Kuhlman, and Cynthia David) manage the feelings they have about their lots in life. The problem is that Claire's people not only have very little concept of emotion, they're greatly unnerved by it, so Claire must take great care not to get caught up in humanity's emotions herself, as the penalty for doing so is permanent banishment from her home planet. Things only get harder for Claire when she begins feeling desperate for their companionship.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parent: Janine is seen weeping over how her father "used" her in the past, yet she still misses him despite everything he did and wants to hear him say that he loves her.
- All Psychology Is Freudian: Amy's patients regularly pummel a pillow with a foam bat to take out their anger on people who've crossed them, such as Lee's ex-wife and Janine's father. Claire is goaded into viewing the pillow as a mother who never loved her enough, and she actively gets into the role despite being unable to remember her mother at all.
- Angelic Aliens: Whenever she's in front of the large window in the therapy group's meeting room, the extraterrestrial Claire appears to be bathed in pure white light.
- Awful Wedded Life: Lee is said to have married a horrible wife in the past, but he's moved on from her.
- Big Good: Amy, the leader of the therapy group, who tries to help her followers express themselves in a healthy way, as well as help Claire come out of her shell.
- Big "NO!": Claire screams one at the end of the episode, when she realizes that she's become assimilated into humanity and can never go back home.
- The Bus Came Back: Two members of the therapy group are Karen and Libby, the sisters from Season 3's I Can't Help Saying Goodbye, even being reprised by the same actresses. This thankfully indicates that Libby didn't go through with her plans to drown her little sister, and suggested therapy as an alternative solution.
- Chiaroscuro: The episode's settings alternate between being pure white and totally black.
- Contrived Coincidence: Lee notes to Claire that his ex-wife was a fan of photography, much like the humanoid alien herself.
- Credits Gag: The opening credits appear and disappear in time with the slides on Claire's projector.
- Deadpan Snarker: Janine, one of the members of the therapy group and Lee's co-star, is a bitter and icy woman who has as little emotion as Claire when she speaks, if not moreso. This turns out to be a front to hide the mental scars she got from her abusive father, who she still misses in spite of his treatment of her.
- Death Equals Emotion: A symbolic version occurs with Claire, as she overwhelms herself with emotion and fails her mission, resulting in her never being allowed to return to her planet.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: A version that's played for tragedy makes up Claire's fate. She's from an alien race that are constantly stoic because they have no concept of emotion, to the point where they're actively terrified by the concept. When she herself is overwhelmed by what humanity feels on a daily basis, Claire becomes a pariah who's forbidden from returning to her planet.
- Downer Ending: The episode ends with Claire (an alien disguised as a human photographer) being overwhelmed by human emotions and eventually breaking down, having failed her mission and now can never return to her homeworld.Claire: My mission is over. I know what these creatures feel: solitude. That is what it is to be human.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Since she doesn't tell them her true nature, no one ever learns that Claire is an alien. As such, Amy, Lee, and the other members of the group think that she's being metaphorical when she cries about how she can never go back where she came from.
- Emotionless Girl: Claire, as her people have no concept of emotion. She ends up losing the trope as the episode goes on.
- Emotion Suppression: Claire's people have no concept of emotion, so when Claire herself gets caught up in the therapy group, she tries with all her might to suppress just how easily emotions come to people, which she tragically fails to do.
- Emotions vs. Stoicism: Claire experiences the battle throughout the episode. By the end, the emotions win, resulting in permanent banishment from her planet.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: A dog in Claire's photographs is seen furiously barking at the camera, indicating that it knew Claire wasn't human.
- Foreshadowing: Claire's freakout at the end of the episode is glimpsed after she lies to Amy about attending the next group meeting.
- Fourth Wall Psych: Claire's closing monologue is delivered as she stares at the ceiling, where the camera's positioned.
- Freak Out: Claire has an immense one as she finally loses herself in emotion, failing her mission and being barred from her planet forever.
- Going Native: It's the exact title of the episode, as Claire, a disguised alien doing research on Earth culture for her masters, finds herself experiencing emotions uncommon to her people.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: In-Universe, Claire's group never learns that she's an alien who came to Earth to take photographs of everything she sees for her masters to study, and she doesn't emote because her people have no concept of/actively forbid emotion.
- Hates Being Touched: Janine tells Lee not to touch her when he tries to put a supportive hand on her shoulder after her tearful meltdown regarding her father.
- Human Alien: Claire, sent by her masters to collect data of human society for study.
- Humans Are Bastards: Claire comes to this conclusion as she studies human nature in her photography, noting the wish-fulfilling escapism that TV brings and the material comforts that are ingrained in the human mind by advertisements. Her opinion skyrockets at the end of the episode, after she joins humankind's ranks in being overwhelmed by their emotions, punished by being forbidden to return home.
- Inner Monologue: Clarie's is heard nonstop as she describes how she was tasked with photographing Earth cities and comprehending emotion, after she joined the therapy group and failed her mission.
- Interspecies Romance: Lee has feelings for the alien Claire in spite of how unemotional she acts, though she pushes him away. She later has sex with fellow group member Mark, through which the newfound emotions increase her journey into banishment from her homeworld. Lee later returns to her near the end, where the two share their own romp in the sack.
- Irony: Lee angrily attacks a pillow to take out his aggression regarding Claire's stoicism, wanting her to express a little humanity now and again. What he doesn't know is that she's not human in the slightest.
- It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Claire thinks this to herself in regards to the dilemma that joining the therapy group has brought her.
- Love at First Sight: Claire grows attracted to Lee after he comes to her apartment to apologize for the outburst he directed at her yesterday, to which she grows deathly nervous.
- Ms. Imagination: As she begins to crave contact, Claire fantasizes Lee and Janine getting it on in her bed to symbolize her isolation.
- My Greatest Failure: Claire considers joining the therapy group her greatest shame, since they introduced her to emotion and caused her to forever lose contact with her homeworld.
- Nice Girl: Amy, head of the therapy group, who tries to help Claire come out of her shell after Lee and Janine get under her skin. It results in great tragedy for Claire, but she was sincerely trying to help her.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Amy actively gets Claire to lose herself in her emotions. She was only trying to help who she thought was a human get in touch with her unconscious feelings, but this ultimately results in Claire's banishment from her planet.
- Percussive Therapy: Amy encourages her patients to hit a pillow with a foam bat to let them unload their aggression against other people.
- Lee is first seen doing this to simulate assaulting Claire, as he's greatly annoyed by how she just stands to the side and watches him and the group all the time.
- At the start of the second act, Janine hits the pillow to pretend that it's her father, who she still craves admiration from in spite of his abuse.
- Claire takes her turn with the pillow at the end of the episode, stoically at first, but in great turmoil with Amy's coaching, doing so by visualizing a neglectful mother she can't even remember.
- Sanctuary of Solitude: Strongly averted for poor Claire, as she's banished from her planet for enriching herself in humankind's emotions. Her closing narration even notes that she feels solitude is not only the worst of all emotions, but what it truly means to be human.
- Sexophone: Sultry sax music plays when Claire desires romantic company,
- Show Within a Show: The medical drama Lee and Janine star in.
- Stalker with a Crush: Claire gradually views Lee as one when she's already highly paranoid about failing her mission, and he's offering her a date.
- The Stoic: Claire, as she's from an alien race that is confused by emotion, to the point where they forbid it among their people and punish those who are overwhelmed with it with permanent banishment.
- What Is This Feeling?: Claire has this question running through her head constantly with every new emotion she experiences.
- White Void Room: The room where Amy and the group hold their sessions, as Claire watches from the sidelines while she's bathed in an ethereal glow.
- World of Ham: Claire's therapy group, and Claire herself becomes the biggest of them all, given that the episode delves into the sensation of emotion.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Claire ends up getting too deep into her newfound emotions, resulting in her failing her mission and being doomed to stay on Earth forever.
