Roswell Re-Watch: Season One (12-22)

Friday 5 October 2012 20:28 by Avery Olive

So, I’m back, coming to you with more Roswell greatness! Today is the second post for Season 1. Next post we will move on to Season 2.

We left off with Toy House, if you recall, where Max and Isabel seriously considered sharing their secret with their mom, only to not. They realized they couldn’t allow anyone else into their group. They worried about safety, but not only that, that if they told their mom should wouldn’t be as accepting as Liz and the other humans who know.

The next episode is Into the Woods. We see the town of Roswell light up with another UFO sighting. This spurs a lot of questions within the group and the outsiders. Is it real. What does it mean. And what to do about it. Since the sighting is in Frazier Woods, and the only way to get close enough to the site is to join a father/kid camping trip, that’s what the entire group does. Only they each join the camping trip for different reasons. Maria and Liz go to get away from Max and the aliens. Michael shows up with Riverdog. Max and Isabel are the only ones going strictly to find out more about the sighting. Alex goes because in reality his date with Isabel was cancelled. And Valenti goes with Kyle, not for the chance to spend time with his son, but rather because he assumes the aliens will be there. There are several awkward scenes, and I feel bad for Alex and even Liz. But when it all comes down to it, Liz risks herself for the greater good of the group, so Max can find out what’s out there. Of course, it’s a symbol in the grass, a message, only no one knows what it means. Random goof. In this episode we see Michael heal Riverdog, however, that plot point is dropped and in future episodes, only Max holds the power to heal.

Favourite Line: Valenti “Maybe you were right. Maybe you were right all along.”

Three days of nothing but UFO awesomeness hits Roswell in The Convention. The town is swarming with new faces and old ones bringing more stress. In this episode we see Max struggle with being apart from Liz. There’s a few funny scenes between them. Michael is dealing with a similar situation with Maria, only he does do something sweet and helps her and her mom out, despite the fact he wants to be apart from her (that won’t last much longer) but we also see Huble. He’s a, to quote Valenti “bona-fide alien hunter.” And he’s come to down with one mission, kill the alien that he thinks is responsible for a slew of murders. Unknowingly Max walks right into Huble’s trap. But also learns more about the killer alien, Nasedo, in the process. I was worried, for sure. However, we also see an interesting turn of events when it comes to Valenti and his father. The two talk and realize Huble isn’t as good of a person and is able to come to the aliens aid. More than once we see Valenti help the aliens and this is a turning point. He suspects Max as the alien, but also doesn’t think he is bad. This change in Valenti becomes important in later episodes.

Favourite Line: Michael, “Maxwell, you've gotta be strong. You can't let yourself be led around by your...energy source.”

Everyone has a dream date in mind, for Liz that probably doesn’t include a Blind Date with a complete stranger. However, this episode is about Liz moving on, or trying to. This is a fun quirky episode with some sadness. Max gets drunk. Liz has the world’s most awkward date and Kyle is rolled into it. There’s a great scene where Max and Liz are out where you swoon. They also share an exceptionally passionate kiss, where you think, that’s it! They’re together. Only when the night wears off, Liz is left with a continuing to crumble heart. Max doesn’t remember what he said or how he acted. Isabel and Michael enjoy their evening a different way. They send a message to Nesado. We see in the final moments of the show a dark stranger come to the site of the message, glowing up the symbol and then leaving.

Favourite Line: “What’s so great about normal?” I love to hate this line. The problem is when he says it, he’s drunk, in the end will “forget it” and the reason he’s not normal is what’s constantly holding Max and Liz’s relationship back. But, it’s a great scene nonetheless.

Independence Day was a great movie, however, the episode by the same name in Roswell was a little gut wrenching. In the books we see some of the complications Michael goes through. He wasn’t as lucky as Max and Isabel and instead of getting adopted, bounced around foster homes until he lands on his own. In the series, similar things happen, but instead of foster homes he gets one bad foster dad. In this episode we see the fallout of an abusive dad. It’s hard. It’s sad. And I feel for him because he’s too proud to ask for help. In his darkest hour he finds comfort in Maria. Another great scene. He doesn’t talk, he doesn’t tell her what’s wrong, he cries, and he’s able to show just how vulnerable he is. We see a softer side in him not only with Maria but when he decides to leave Roswell for good. The only thing that brings him back is family. He realizes that no matter what Max and Isabel are his family. We also see the other alien, Nasedo. He murders Michael’s foster dad, and does a few other things. In the end Michael asks for help and his granted permission to live on his own.

Favourite Line: Isabel, “They're the only thing we have from the place we came from. It was the first time I realized we had a home somewhere...a real place. They don't mean anything...not without Michael.”

Max and Liz have quite a good time in Sexual Healing. Instead of pulling away more, they seem to have hit a mark where they can’t keep their hands off each other. I remember thinking, they are on a bit of a rollercoaster, they’re together, they’re not, they are, they aren’t. In the episode when they are together both of them see images. Max continues to see Liz’s past and some of her fantasy. Liz on the other hand sees what she thinks is the ’47 crash that brought Max, Isabel and Michael to earth. Michael and Maria also continue to heat up their relationship. Maria’s attempts at getting closer to Michael is sweet, she desperately wants all of him and fakes seeing visions. Only we’ll see later why she never got them.  Michael on the other hand doesn’t admit right away that he saw things from her. He’s always keeping himself very guarded.  Isabel allows Alex to kiss her in the interest of science, which will be the start to something between them. This is an interesting episode as they find another link to their home. A small orb with a symbol they recognize on it. It’s a link that will become important later on. I’m just happy that in the end of this episode Max and Liz actually stay together!

Favourite Line: Max, “I'm glowing everywhere...my toes, my heart. You can't see it. It's on the inside.”

Crazy is one word to describe the next episode. A new person comes to town and quickly befriends Isabel. I must say, like in the books, Isabel is a bit of a loner. She desperately wants to connect with someone, have friends, and when the chance comes, she jumps on board. She had it tough when the only other two people like her are Max and Michael I can related. She needs more, especially since Liz and Maria are so connected to the others. I never liked how she treated Alex in this episode though. She uses him a bit, and I we see that happen now, and in the last episode. This happened a little in the books too, I always, always felt sorry for him. I don’t like Tess, either. She rubs me the wrong way. The other crazy part of this episode is the return of an old character, Ms. Topolsky. You’ll remember she up and disappeared a few episodes back. She believes the aliens are in trouble, calls them out and says she’s going to help. But no one is eager to welcome her back. She even goes to Valenti for help. For a few episodes we almost thought the threat was gone, but it’s back more than ever when Topolsky is taken away in the ending scenes. We also catch another glimpse of whom we assume to be as Nesado.

Favourite Line: Valenti, “Sometimes I might be the only person that they should trust in this town.”

Tess, Lies, and Videotape is a hard episode to watch for any true Max and Liz fan. This is where we see Max sway a little when it comes to his “unwavering love” for Liz. He’s been having fantasies that include the new girl, Tess. And they are, hot, a lot hotter than any make-out session we’ve seen Max and Liz share and Max doesn’t know what to do. He tries to go to Michael for help. I wish he would have went to Liz, right away. But of course, to progress the story line, that’s not the case, and Max slips up by kissing Tess. In this episode we also see that someone’s been videotaping Michael. In turn they decide to video-tape Tess.  No one trusts her. No one wants her around, but they also need to find out who or what she is. This is always a very big episode for Valenti and Max and the group. He comes to Max and explains that suddenly he’s not sure about anything anymore. Mrs. Topolsky is dead, killed in a suspicious fire and Valenti can’t get passed meeting a doctor in last episode that swears he’s never been to Roswell. We see his hard exterior falter as he begins to consider the aliens for more than just killers. Of course, he doesn’t know for sure, yet. What the end of this episode shows us is huge. Tess isn’t who she says she is, in fact, she’s an Alien.

Favourite Line: Max, “I look at you, and I know you're the person I'm supposed to be with. I've always known it. What happened here that day, when you got shot, and how that brought us together...it's fate. Look at me. You're the one, Liz...the only one. I could never be with anyone else.”

Four aliens, so naturally Four Square right? In this episode Max continues to have fantasy about Tess, but the creepiness of the spreads to Michael and Isabel. They are having intense dreams where they are together. The team continues to follow Tess around, but she continues to put on an innocent face. We see early on how crazy she is, however, when Michael and Isabel think they’re having a baby and Max and Liz see Tess take something from the Library—that isn’t your typical library book.  This was not my favourite episode, at all. In order to occupy their minds and prevent any more feelings for each other Isabel throws herself into a relationship with Alex and Michael moves things forward with Maria. I understand there thinking but I feel bad for how they’ve both treated Alex and Maria.

Favourite Line: Micheal, “Why are you so scared to be alien?”

Max, “Why are you so scared to be human?”

Normally one would think another Max would be awesome, but that’s not the case in Max to the Max.  Max, Michael and Isabel have no choice but to figure out what Tess knows and no one likes what she says. I liked that we finally got to see the Pod Chamber, where they were born. In the books we see this too, and how they eventually use it as a meeting place or a place to just be alone. I’m a little biased when it comes to the next episodes because I am a Tess hater. I knew there would be fourth alien but Tess and how the story line progresses wasn’t what I had in mind. We also get conformation about who Nasedo is, that the four of them are meant to be together and that there goal is to go home. However Nesado has a few plans of his own. He tricks Liz into thinking he’s Max, kidnappers her and uses her as bait to get Agent Pierce from the FBI to come after them. Up until this point Agent Pierce was mostly speculation. We assumed he was real, but, now we know and by the episodes end, he has the real Max in custody. If Tess and Nesado were trying to get points from viewers lol this episode didn’t not help! It reminds me more, watching it again how much I dislike the two.

Favourite Line: Max, “We control our own lives. I won’t let any book tell me what to do.”

The White Room and Destiny are part one and two of the season finale of Season one of Roswell, so I’ll do them both together. This is a hard episode to watch. The realism of Max being tortured is tough. He did such a good job. He’s trapped in the White Room and Agent Pierce and his team are trying to do experiment and get Max to admit not only that he’s an alien, but to tell them about the orb and learn how it works. Max is trapped, so it’s up to Isabel, *cringe*Tess and Michael to break Max free. After doing some dreamwalking Isabel is about to get enough information as to where Max is being held. The three aliens have to work together, while the three humans have no choice but to sit around and wait. Nasedo shows up and is able to devise a plan that will get Max out. We learn a more about the aliens abilities but as time ticks town, Liz decides that she needs to enlist the help of Valenti. By telling him as little as possible everyone is able to get Max out. These two episodes are full of heart pounding adrenaline, and just when they think they are safe, they aren’t, not quite yet. Max and Liz have to race through the dessert trying to evade Pierces men. They have a very intense moment where feelings are shared, and Max says some pretty heartfelt things. I honestly thought nothing would come between them. I love that Valenti and Kyle are now in on the secret. I think they make a nice addition. However, I did think Max and Liz would be together but at the end of Destiny, when Max, Isabel, Michael and Tess get the orbs to work. Though the scene is beautiful, seeing the alien’s mother for the first time and learning more about them, turns out Max has this whole other destiny. I remember dying because as Liz runs off into the desert, and the episode ends, you just have no idea what’s going to happen and the whole reason most of us started watching was because of Max and Liz and now, they might not even be together.

Favourite Lines:  Agent Pierce, “You know, I’ve been going about this the wrong way the whole time. It’s not that you’re part alien: it’s that you’re part human.”

Favourite Line: Max, “Whether I die tomorrow or fifty years from now, my destiny is the same: it's you. I want to be with you, Liz. I love you.”
Most of the quotes came from the extensive archive over at crashdown.com. So, a big thanks to them!  
 

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