The alien, who takes on the earthly name Jesse (Martin Kove), arrives on Earth. He steals some clothes from an empty gas station and watches some television to learn about Earth's culture. The police notice him there and, confused by his actions, open fire on him. Jesse escapes by stealing a truck and driving away. But in the process he loses a crystal which grants him above-average powers. The police eventually corner him on the Vincent Thomas Bridge, so he jumps. In violation of his programming, Control rescues him. Later, in Los Angeles, Jesse witnesses the robbery of a jewelry store and intervenes. He has realized that the only way to leave Earth is to obey his charge: to help the people of this planet.
Jesse finds himself in need of money. Control discovers that ATMs dispense money, so he empties several and Jesse takes the money. However, a woman witnesses him doing so and reports him to the police. He acquires a hotel room and soon after a grifter approaches him with a sob story. Jesse willingly gives him $50,000. Later Jesse sees a news report about the ATM robberies and realizes that he has done wrong. He takes the money back to the bank where he is arrested. The police grill him about the missing $50,000. Eventually he becomes frustrated and breaks out of jail. With the help of the jail psychologist, Jesse recovers the money and returns it. But despite her pleas, he refuses to remand himself back into police custody.
Jesse and Control go to Disneyland. While there, Control tries to play several arcade games at once and short circuits. A child finds the unconscious Control and takes him home. When the police prove unwilling to help, Jesse enlists the help of a female reporter. The child's father investigates Control's strange properties using a computer. Eventually the U.S. government gets involved over fears that Control is part of some sort of nuclear warfare. The child receives a message from Control about Jesse and runs away to try to find him, but is caught by his father and the police. Jesse sneaks into the government lab where they are experimenting on Control and rescues him. He takes Control back to Disneyland where he uses the electricity from the arcade games to revive him.
Jesse defends an old man from some local toughs and is rewarded with a job mowing lawns. He meets a young girl who has been kicked out of her parents' house in an attempt to show her "tough love". Jesse soon learns that she is involved in a criminal teen subculture where two crooked police officers help the kids rob from rich people. Jesse sees that she's in over her head. He tries to mediate between her and her parents so that she can come home, but she's still unwilling to abide by their rules. Angered by her parents' refusal to loosen their rules, the girl informs the corrupt policemen that her father is carrying industrial grade diamonds. Jesse, bearing a peace offering from her parents, finds the young girl and she realizes what she's done. Jesse intervenes, saving the family and the diamonds, and helping to catch the corrupt officers.
Unable to find a job anywhere else, Jesse joins the United States Army. Control has misgivings, but agrees so that he'll have something positive to report. The recruiter, Sergeant Striker (Marshall Bell), eager to take some time off, fabricates a false history for Jesse and assigns him to take his place at Fort Drake. To help Jesse acclimate more quickly, Control shows him videos of John Wayne, whom he identifies as an ideal warrior within Earth culture. At Fort Drake, Jesse is put in charge of the under-performing Bravo Team. He inspires the Bravos to perform better as soldiers and as a unit. When Corporal Curtis Tillman runs into trouble with his old street gang, the Striders, Jesse intervenes. In the midst of a military exercise, the Striders break into Fort Drake with Tillman's help in order to steal weapons. Jesse diverts Bravo Team and saves the day. At the end of the episode, he is given an honorable discharge.
Jesse is working at a restaurant owned by Frank Russo, which Frank's daughter Connie wants to help run. But Frank refuses to take any of her advice because he feels women aren't as good at business as men. Frank's son Mike isn't interested in the business, as he's a musician. Connie discovers that the sons of an old friend of Frank's named Caretti, who he's done business with for many years, have been cheating them. When Connie threatens to tell their father about this, they threaten her, but Jesse defends her. Frank refuses to believe his friend's sons did what Connie says, and he fires Jesse. Meanwhile, Mike invited Jesse to a club to hear him play and also to meet women. Jesse met a woman named Danielle who later turned out to be from his homeworld, sent to find out where his followers were hiding in exile, and then to terminate him. They fought, Jesse won, and said that on Ondarius he would have killed her, but on Earth he'd learned the value of life. Eventually Frank and Caretti l
While delivering sandwiches to a TV studio, Jesse is asked to fill in as bachelor #3 on The Dating Game, and is chosen by Jane to be her date. It turns out that after she had agreed to be on the show, she had met someone named Michael through a matchmaking magazine ad. But Jane still wanted to be Jesse's friend and help him meet the right woman for him. It turned out that Michael and a partner were behind a string of thefts from single women who'd answered their ads in the magazine, and Jane was their latest target. Jesse thwarted their initial burglary attempt, but when Michael found out a large trust fund of Jane's had just matured, he decided to marry and kill her. He also framed Jesse as the thief, to get rid of him, and was going to blame him for murdering Jane. But of course he failed.
Jesse gets a job as a hot dog man at a local wrestling ring. When he witnesses what he thinks is an unfair fight, he enters the ring and defeats the other four wrestlers. The owners of the ring, Annie (Conchata Ferrell) and Sandra (Pamela Cummings), hire him and promote him as the Hotdog Man, and Jesse begins to learn the concept of sports. Meanwhile, a local businessman is trying to buy the property where the ring is located. Annie and Sandra are unwilling to sell because the ring generates money to support a halfway house on the same property. Some thugs try to intimidate Jesse by mugging him in a back alley with a baseball bat and then by causing a light bank to fall on the ring during a televised match. Jesse confronts the businessman about it, only to learn that he's not involved. When a man, Jake (Richard Epcar) comes to get Annie's signature to sell the lease, the wrestlers attack him and he confesses that Sandra is behind everything. Sandra takes one of the children from the halfway house hostage, but Jesse and the other wrestlers use their unique skills to rescue him.
Jesse uses a fire hydrant to rescue a woman, Donna (Rebecca Staab), who is a model, being carjacked. She takes him to a party where they photograph him as a joke, but he ends up getting a job as a model. Thus he is introduced to the concepts of fashion and advertising. Jesse's ascension angers another model, Zack (Brad Lockerman), who is trying to make a comeback. Some goons try, unsuccessfully, to take Jesse's life. Jesse investigates by breaking into Zack's apartment and discovers photographic evidence that Zack is blackmailing Fred (Sandy Simpson), the man who murdered Donna's brother and stole his designs. Fred sends four men to kill Jesse and Donna, but Jesse thwarts them and goes on to catch Fred and Zack.
After helping to stop a runaway stagecoach at a cowboy-themed car dealership, Jesse gets a job cleaning stables at a local rodeo. He rides a bronco and gets in a barfight. One of the cowboys, Travis (Grainger Hines), is getting old and doesn't feel like he can perform, anymore, so he quits and takes a job at the car dealership. Travis and Jesse discover that the owner, Buck (Michael Alldredge), has been stealing cars with a towtruck and selling them. Travis confronts Buck and accusing him of being no different than a horse thief. Buck tries to escape, but Jesse and Travis chase him down and Jesse lassos him.
The episode starts with Jesse running through swamps and forests while being chased and shot at by a SWAT team. Jesse is picked up by a spaceship where it is revealed that it was Jesse's vice commander who ordered the assassination of the Grand Elder, not Jesse. Then Jesse wakes up on a bus to learn that it was only a dream. Control ridicules Jesse for believing his dream and is unable to contact the Council, so Jesse investigates on his own. He seeks out a university professor who is working on communicating with extraterrestrials. Jesse designs a microchip that will make possible faster-than-light communication so that he can use their radio telescope to try to contact the Council. The professor and a security team try to take the chip. When Jesse resists, he is shot and eventually captured. Jesse wakes up in a hospital and flees. He manages to recover the chip before the professor can use it—Earth is not ready for contact with extraterrestrials. Rather than risk it being used, Jesse destroys the chip, giving up his chance for absolution.
When a woman falls in front of a bus, Jesse rushes to help, but a high school student, Bill (Doug Johnson), gets there first and pushes the bus out of the way. Jesse follows him to the high school where he takes a job as a substitute teacher. When one of Bill's friends nearly falls off the high school building, Jesse rescues him, revealing his powers to Bill in the process. Bill admits that he was part of a coup from within the Council and that he was placed on Earth eighteen years ago in the body of an infant. Billy's Control and Jesse's Control try to prevent them from having contact with each other. Bill plans to go to Harvard, become a lawyer, and eventually become the President of the United States. When Bill resorts to violence to further these ends, Jesse breaks ties with him, so Bill frames him. Jesse escapes from the police and fights with Bill. He convinces Bill to give up his ambition and when he does, Bill passes his final test and is taken home.
After twenty-five years of running his own children's program, Wally (Gordon Jump) is given his two-weeks' notice. Devastated, he tries to commit suicide by jumping from the building, but Jesse intervenes. Consequently, Jesse gets a job on the show. One of the features on the show is a wishing well, which Jesse takes literally. When one of the kids, Timmy (Brandon Bluhm), writes in a wish that his father will be protected from being murdered, Jesse and Wally decide to investigate. Jesse finds Timmy's dad in witness protection but, misunderstanding, attacks the marshals and Timmy's dad runs away. Jesse and Wally find Timmy's dad, again, but this time they've been followed by the Mob. Jesse prevents them from kidnapping Timmy's father and hands them over to the police. At the end it is implied that Jesse has fulfilled his directive and may now return home.