The following contains spoilers for Resident Alien Season 2, Episode 14, "Cat and Mouse," which debuted Wednesday, Sept. 14 on SyFy.
General McCallister has long been Resident Alien's darkest character. The SyFy series' first season had her pushing her soldiers and undercover agents to the limit to find out if there was an alien around Patience, Colorado. She didn't care who was hurt or killed along the way. She was even willing to murder her own people to get the truth.
Season 2 picked up with McCallister infiltrating the town, having found clues suggesting her theory was right and that extraterrestrial beings were hiding there. However, Season 2, Episode 14, "Cat and Mouse" indicated that McCallister might abandon her questionable behavior. A change of heart may be possible due to her tragic, sympathetic childhood -- and an important death.
When Harry bonded with Sahar and got distracted by his humanity, McCallister's troops were able to kidnap the baby alien at the heart of Season 2. They deduced that the baby was disguised as Bobby Smallwood and trapped him. This was a crushing blow to Harry. While he was fixing his personal issues with Asta and accepting how much he loved the town, he felt he'd failed the baby as a guardian and a father. To make it worse, the baby was needed to stop the Greys from destroying Earth. However, McCallister didn't know that; it seemed like she'd either experiment on the alien or order its dissection.
But in the interrogation room, the baby alien sensed something wrong with the general and used its telepathy to probe McCallister's mind, revealing the heartbreaking scope of her childhood as Eleanor Wright. After Eleanor and her father saw a UFO years back, government officials visited and convinced him that he was mentally ill. That led to her dad jumping off the same tower where they'd seen the ship and its bright lights. Eleanor saw her father's death, which scarred her emotionally.
But rather than seek revenge, as McCallister watched 'Bobby' turn into the baby alien, she appeared to be relieved. She was near tears because she knew her dad was right and that she didn't imagine things as a child. This feeling of vindication might convince her to try and leave with the baby to prove the truth to others -- ruining the military's plans for the extraterrestrials.
While many Resident Alien fans assumed that McCallister was the show's main villain, with the military using her, it now seems like it was the other way around. Granted, should McCallister attempt to redeem herself, it won't make up for her past actions, but at least now the audience knows why she was so angry and desperate for answers. Her journey was rooted in love for her father and trying to prove he was right, which suggests that she might have some humanity in her after all.
New episodes of Resident Alien air Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. on SyFy.