The stoic Eleanor McCallister has crossed paths with Harry Vanderspeigle a few times over, but never has their reunion been so revealing and emotional.

In Friday’s Resident Alien, McCallister and Harry came face to face in the year 1970, as Harry sought an alien device he planned to trade to the Greys in exchange for his stolen alien essence. McCallister had separately gone back in time for her own solo mission: To find said device and use it to prove to her dad, Howard, that he was not “crazy” after all.

“She wants another few days with her father because he took his own life and obviously, she’s got daddy issues,” Linda Hamilton tells TVLine. “While there, she realizes that she can maybe impact his future and help him. Convince their world that they saw an alien spacecraft, because that’s why he had lost all credibility. So it’s a last-ditch effort to save her father.”

Running into Harry and D’arcy (who McCallister amusingly mistakes for Asta) threw a wrench in her plans, as both she and Harry desperately needed the device for their own selfish needs. After easily duping Harry, McCallister (posing as a diner worker named Jen) brought the contraption to Howard, only he still refused to believe what he saw with his own two eyes. Thinking she failed, she handed the device over the Harry after admitting how much she hated her younger self for not doing enough to save her beloved dad. But after deciding to stick around 1970 for that extra quality time, McCallister was finally able to convince her younger self to step up and admit to her dad that she remembered what they saw. That their extraterrestrial sighting was very much real.

“It’s an opportunity for her to prove to her younger self that she did everything she could to save her father,” says Hamilton. “She remembers how she felt back then and in a kind way, [she] instructs her younger self to have the courage to go to her father. It’s poignant, poignant stuff.”

Though McCallister’s decision to stick around the past means she likely won’t be seen again this season, the actress is pleased to be able to showcase this softer side of the character she’s inhabited since the show’s early days.

“It’s nice to learn a little bit more about her and certainly lovely to play the deeper, feeling side of a character that you have not seen behave that way,” says Hamilton. “She gets more time with her dad and gets to be there for her younger self. It’s kind of lovely, right? Would we do that if we got to go back in time and actually be beside our younger selves? What an interesting choice.”

While the episode does have a sense of finality for her character, Hamilton confirms that it won’t be the last we see of McCallister. But it all depends on the show’s ultimate fate.

“We have pushed this show up a mountain year after year with COVID and the actors’ strike and just these long gaps,” she says. “I really feel that we’ve just hit our stride. In terms of viewership and word of mouth, we’ve just entered a really great place. I hope we get another season or two or three. And if we do, [creator] Chris [Sheridan] said that he will come back to the ’70s and get me. So I’d be honored [to return].”