The best part of this first hour is just seeing the residents of Roswell back on-screen.
It feels like forever since the events of Roswell, New Mexico Season 3 Episode 13, yet it also feels like no time has passed as we jump right back into the shenanigans and the drama right away.
Roswell, New Mexico Season 4 Episode 1 is a set-up hour. It’s full of check-ins and relationship talks and a little mystery, leaving us with a gasp-worthy ending you may not have seen coming.
It’s been a minute since the series has talked about the Alighting, otherwise known as the ‘bring the savior home’ event that Noah talked of way back in Roswell, New Mexico Season 1.
The phrase is uttered here by Tezca, one-third of a new triad that blows into Roswell and literally incites chaos within their first day.
The introduction of new aliens isn’t a bad thing for a show about aliens, even if we only get a small taste here regarding what these aliens are up to. Tezca is presented as the brains of the operation, making her way to an oil pump and triggering that visually pleasing alien thunderstorm that rains down upon Roswell at the episode’s end.
The other two aliens don’t get much speaking time, and we don’t know much about them beyond their penchant for bank robberies, high-speed chases, and lifting heavy trucks like it’s nothing.
It’s apparent this triad is fully functioning, and at least Tezca has a plan in mind. So, how long until these aliens clash with our aliens?
Max and Jenna (welcome back, Cam!) are onto the robbing duo, but there’s very little they can do here when Max’s strength is nowhere near that of his planet mates. And besides, Max has spent the past six months working on his relationship with Liz and not doing anything alien-like, it would seem!
Unlike Roswell, New Mexico Season 3 and their one-year time jump, only six months have passed this time around, and it seems like everyone has spent those months doing good things. There was much less running and self-destruction and much more loving on one another.
For Max and Liz, they are probably the most stable we’ve ever seen them. Living together and just being in love looks good on both of them, and things are going so well that Max is ready to propose. And isn’t that just the sweetest thing!
Except, oh no, perhaps things aren’t as happy as they appear. I guess?
After everything they’d been through, it probably wasn’t the right time for an engagement, if only because they hadn’t had as much time to just exist with each other and not have it all breakdown somehow. They love each other, and that’s not something to question, but they’ve never had any kind of long-term stability.
And they’d been relishing in the stability of the past few months to the point that it stunted them individually.
Their rooftop confessions to one another reaffirm their love while also questioning the timing of such a huge commitment. Because the truth is they aren’t just a regular couple from Roswell, they’re a human and an alien, with a lot of baggage and lives that can spin out in an instance.
So, while maybe it was nice to pretend like everything was perfect and “normal” while they shopped around Raymour and Flanigan for a new living room set, it wasn’t true to who they are or what their relationship is.
I couldn’t help but love that their conversation was punctuated with the next big thing, i.e., the rainbow thunderstorm and an object literally crashing into their sanctuary. We love to see the subtlety, Roswell!
Promise you’ll ask me again, Max Evans. Because I promise I will say yes.
Liz [to Max]
But no matter what’s to come, Liz is right when she talks about their love finding a way. It always has, and it always will, because that’s what it means to be soulmates.
Speaking of soulmates, our other epic ship was embracing a milestone of their own when they decided to move in together!
The time jump was clearly good for the boys, who make a serious commitment to one another by deciding to co-habitat and merge their lives even further. And while we don’t get to see any conversations surrounding the decision (boo!), we do see Michael’s struggles with the gravity of the move.
We don’t need to go on a trip down memory lane and recount all of the things Michael has gone through, but it’s important to remember that he’s never had a home in the traditional sense. Not until the trailer, at least. So, it can’t be easy for him to just move in with anyone, let alone the love of his life.
But his hesitancy is less in gaining a roommate and more in worrying that he’s going to mess everything up somehow. And it’s sad to see Michael struggle like that because it’s so evident from the outside looking in that all Alex wants is to have him there.
Of course, Michael almost immediately breaking something important to Alex means he spirals further and further, but the Malex relationship has progressed to the point where they understand one another and ground each other enough to talk things through and move forward together.
Was Alex upset that Michael broke his model gazebo? I’m sure he was frustrated, but a little frustration doesn’t mean that he would suddenly take back his key and put all his clothes back into the closet.
Hey, I can live without that gazebo. What I can’t live without is you. So, why don’t you put your hand in mine, and we’ll start with that, okay?
Alex [to Michael]
No, they’re in this relationship for the long haul, and if it takes a little reminding every once in a while to quell some insecurities, then that’s what it takes.
It’s very refreshing to see this version of Malex, who’ve had so much thrown their way over the years. They’re growing as a unit, and sometimes all you really need is a few minutes to take a deep breath, put your hands together and figure out what’s next.
There was one more Roswell couple to check in on.
Isobel and Anatsa are still going strong, and let’s just take a minute to discuss Isobel and how far she’s come from the early days of this series.
She has truly taken ownership of her life, and selling her home and her business and embarking on a new journey feels like a full-circle moment. And I love that through all these changes, both personal and professional, she’s found someone to share he heart with in Anatsa.
Now, granted, we haven’t spent a tremendous amount of time with them as a couple, but they both glow when they’re around each other. They seem happy and excited, and it’s nice to see that for Isobel.
Anatsa’s love confession catches Isobel off-guard, but it’s not because she doesn’t feel that way about the other women. It’s more about the fact that Anatsa doesn’t have the whole picture, as in she’s still in the dark about aliens.
I sometimes forget that not everyone in Roswell ACTUALLY knows aliens are real because everyone does so little to conceal it. But Anatsa is in the dark, and of course, just as Isobel readies herself to come clean, everything goes to hell.
Isobel and Anatsa probably aren’t long for this world for several reasons, but I’m praying to the Roswell Gods that we don’t have an outright love triangle with Kyle because everyone deserves better than that.
Kyle is still very much into Isobel, as their two-minute interaction confirmed, and while ultimately they will probably get together by the series end, let them get there organically when they’re both single, and Isobel gets clued into both Kyle’s feelings and her own.
Poor Kyle, unlike everyone else, hasn’t been boo’d up but instead working himself to death and living at Deep Sky. And I can’t blame him because being the only single one in your circle of friends is a special kind of lonely.
But as always, Kyle is a tremendous friend, and he gives the woman of his dreams advice about her relationship and helps cure his other friends’ crippling brain degeneration. So, a very typical day in the life of the Roswell MVP.
Soon enough, the MVP and everyone will have to come together and deal with the very real threat Tezca and her triad present because the Alighting is most certainly going to mean the team is on yet another mission to save Max. And would it really be a season of Roswell without that possibility?
Ah, it’s good to have these people back for one last hurrah.
Loose Ends
- Maria’s lack of visions will likely be a season-long journey now that she’s been “cured.” And I’m interested to see where this leads Maria, as her visions and intuition are a huge part of her identity. But I’m equally as interested in the flirty vibes with Dallas! Here I thought Mareg would last!
- Dallas being a fully integrated member of the Roswell crew warms my heart. Please give us more Dallas taking shots, doling out advice, and suspiciously carrying around umbrellas to hand out when convenient.
- Max as interim sheriff and Liz as a GED teacher. Yeah, I can see why they got caught up in living the Roswell life. It doesn’t get much more small-town USA than that.
- Rosa is presumably still off in New York, living her best life, which is great and all, but I missed her!
- Obviously, whatever Eduardo is having Alex and Kyle work on will connect to the new aliens, but how and what it all means? Let’s wait until we get some more information to discuss all THAT.
- In an episode full of romance, there was a tie for the most romantic of them all; Echo’s almost proposal and Alex’s second admission that he can’t live with Michael Guerin. I will just never get sick of hearing that.
We’re back, baby! And while this episode wasn’t exactly a barnburner, it’s setting us up for our final journey.
We’ve got new aliens, new mysteries, potentially new loves, and our favorite couples to swoon over. Let’s go, people!
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Whitney Evans is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.