Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 11: Champagne Supernova Recap

In episode 11, Champagne Supernova, Roswell throws a party and captures a mind controlling alien. The women of Roswell work together to solve the episode’s mysteries, while Max and Michael fight their way through their lifelong issues. We also meet Grant Green’s identical twin Graham Green, who’s inherited the UFO Emporium and intends to make it bigger and better than ever.

Alex and Kyle are MIA, which means they’ve probably snuck off on an alien artefact hunt that we’ll see next week. Or the actors were left out to save money. You never know with Roswell’s writers’ room.

Congratulations to everyone who picked Noah in the 4th alien lottery! Isobel’s husband, who seemed too good to be true in the beginning of the season, actually was.  We’ll have to wait for episode 12 to understand his motivations, but protecting the trio doesn’t seem to have been part of it, given what Michael went through as a child. It’s more likely that he kept them close so he could make sure they didn’t blow his cover. It is possible that he’s Isobel’s guardian, given his weird promise to always protect her and never leave her.

Recap

The episode begins with a little voiceover speech about trust, which boils down to the message that when it comes to your own survival, you can’t trust anyone, ever. The visuals are from the end of the episode, and show the main cast either in peril or acting suspiciously. The gang has attended a gala; they are all dressed up, and they are now in danger from the 4th alien. The cold open ends with Isobel pointing a gun at Max.

After the title card, we return to a scene that fans of the original show have wanted all season. The gang is gathered at the Crashdown for an early morning strategy meeting.

Isobel describes the memories she’s retrieved using Liz’s antidote, explaining that she doesn’t feel like she’s in control of her mind or body during these times. It’s like someone else is controlling her.

The next Ranchero Night is coming up and the 4th alien destroyed all but one dose of Liz’s serum, so she’s going to make more, while Max and Cam work on a profile and do other detective stuff to try to identify the alien. Isobel wonders how the killer knew about Liz’s serum. Michael says that the alien can possess anyone at anytime, so they can overhear or take part in any conversation.

They all agree to act normal, so as not to tip the alien off that they’re up to anything unusual. Everyone grabs their coats and goes their separate ways for the day. Noah hands Michael his coat.

Max asks Liz if she’ll go to the gala with him that night, but she already has a date with her father. She tries to promise him a dance, but his dance skills are iffy.

At the station, Max and Cam review the list of victims, looking for what they have in common besides Ranchero Night. They are all people whose murders probably won’t be investigated too deeply by the police. Wyatt Long, who’s been on house arrest, is brought into the station to talk to Max and Cam. He says he has information that could help them.

Isobel looks over her evening gowns as she decides what to wear to the gala. The striped pattern on one dress triggers the memory of her glowing fingers on Rosa’s face when the 4th alien killed her. Noah startles her out of the memory, but Isobel is tense afterward.

Isobel: “Whoever did this used powers that I didn’t know I have to kill a girl that I didn’t even know I knew.”

Isobel acknowledges that they were friends, maybe more, and that Rosa had issues. But then she wonders about her own issues. She’s spent so long in hiding, pretending to be something she’s not, that she’s never developed her powers. Maybe if she practiced until she was stronger and had more control of her powers, she wouldn’t feel so much like a victim.

Noah doesn’t think “more crazy alien stuff is the answer.” Besides, she has him to protect her, why would she need anything more?

Noah: “We’re stronger together. Let’s make a pact. No more powers. When you use them, you get sick and blackout. You become an easy mark. Promise me.”

He gives her the big puppy dog eyes. She kisses him, but doesn’t verbally promise.

Michael runs into Maria as he’s leaving the Crashdown with a take out order. She tries to ignore him, but he won’t let her. She makes a nonsensical comment about the amount of food he’s carrying, then tries to suggest that Alex and Michael are spending the night together, since neither is going to the gala.

Michael: “Look, it’s over. It’s been over. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Maria: “No offense, Guerin, but you are not exactly the arbiter of friendship.”

She pats his jacket pocket and walks away.

She doesn’t have listen to Michael, but she also doesn’t need to insult his friendship skills. He’s had the same two best friends for his entire life, through some very tough times. He always seems to be able to find a place to park his trailer and someone who’ll give him a job.  The bar fights are for show, and she knows it. He’s actually got pretty good people skills, he just doesn’t fake it for people he doesn’t care about.

Wyatt tells them that he heard Carla, the murdered prostitute, and Maria having a big argument outside the Wild Pony on the night Carla died. Max doesn’t want to believe that Maria could be the killer, because he thinks Liz would have noticed something. Cam points out that she spent hours in a car with him every day for years and never suspected he was an alien.

Arturo, who’s dressed in his tux and ready for the gala, finds Liz in her room, lost in thought. She tells him that her supervisor is relocating the study to Palo Alto. There’s still a job for Liz, but she doesn’t want to leave Arturo. She also wants Arturo to explore becoming a US citizen. They decide to discuss it further at the gala.

Max comes out of the police station all dressed up and holding a bouquet of flowers. There’s not another soul to be seen on the street, but supercop doesn’t notice the person who’s suddenly next to him, smashing a bottle over his head. Superalien passes out cold on the sidewalk.

Liz and Arturo arrive safely at the gala, which is being held at the UFO Emporium. Maria, who wins the best dressed contest, runs over to say hi. But she’s disturbed, because Liz is wearing bright red lipstick and according to Rosa’s Rules, red is armor. “Plus, nobody wears that shade if they’re hoping to hook up with a hot cop by the end of the night. It’s messy.”

Liz assures Maria that the lipstick isn’t armor against Max. At least, she doesn’t think it is. But she might have to move to Palo Alto. Maria tells her not to run from Max. She likes the two of them together. Liz fits under his chin like a… Maria stumbles over “puzzle piece”. Like she’s had a bit too much to drink already, which is highly unlikely for a bartender at the beginning of a party.

Michael is working down in his fallout shelter alone, pulling the all nighter he told Maria about. When he picks up his jacket to move it, a smoke bomb goes off. Whatever’s in it makes him unconscious. When he wakes up, Max is there, still unconscious, and the hatch is locked from the outside. Max wakes up before long. The yellow powder left behind by the smoke has neutralized their powers. They’re trapped underground together with no cell service and no way out.

At the gala, Isobel introduces the new owner of the emporium, Grant’s identical twin brother Graham, who promises to continue his brother’s work to expose the truth about aliens while also creating a bigger and better UFO Emporium. After the speech, Isobel wonders where Max is. The caterers messed up and she doesn’t need for Max to add to her stress. Noah tells her to deal with the appetizers while he calls Max.

Liz dodges creepy Graham Green by ducking into one of exhibits, where she finds Cam waiting for a call from her sister. Cam is wearing a gorgeous forest green velvet dress with a thigh high slit that helps her rival Maria for best dressed. This is both Maria and Cam’s first chance to get dressed up on the show, since both characters were left out of the prom flashback, and they both look exquisite.

Cam was waiting for Charlie to call from prison, but the call never came. Given Cam’s history with Jesse, that’s a bad sign. Liz tells Cam that Kyle told her about the whole Jesse-Charlie-Cam situation, and the way Cam has come through for Max. She thanks Cam for her loyalty and offers to help any way she can.

I guess Kyle didn’t actually tell Liz that much, because Cam tells Liz that Jesse wants her to be his inside man at the police station, and the longer it takes her to give Jesse useful information, the longer he has to mess with the conditions of her sister’s incarceration in military prison. Cam doesn’t even know if Charlie is still in the same facility. She’s trying to do what’s right, but it’s hard for her to risk her sister this way.

Cam asks why Liz isn’t with Max, since he left the station before her. Liz tells her that Max hasn’t arrived yet. Isobel walks in just in time to agree. Cam shares what Wyatt told them about the argument between Carla and Maria, so Maria is now a person of interest.

Both Max and Michael have tried to force the hatch door open, but neither has been able to. Michael is annoyed that Max had to try it for himself after Michael’s attempt. But what he’s really mad about is Max’s decree when they were kids that they had to pretend not to be aliens. He decided they shouldn’t use their powers and shouldn’t do anything that made them appear special or called attention to them.

This wasn’t difficult for Max to live with, since his talents are causing blackouts and giving orders. But Michael, a genius engineer, wanted to openly work with other engineers. Max’s rule is probably the reason he didn’t do college in any form after he decided to stay in Roswell rather than going to UNM in Albuquerque. Isobel is also regretting following Max’s rule, as we heard in her conversation with Noah earlier in the episode.

Max tells Michael that he’s not Michael’s dad, so Michael didn’t have to follow his rules, and points out the lack of rule following that’s clearly been happening in the fallout shelter. Michael’s also in control of his telekinesis, so he’s not the biggest liability among the three. He could probably practice more to become stronger and become more precise, but he moves his trailer without a second thought already.

Max and Isobel are the problems. Isobel has psychic abilities and can’t even keep another psychic out of her head or remember what they’ve done to her. Max has so little control that he’s dangerous and doesn’t even know what his abilities could be used for. They live in a relatively remote area where it would be easy to create a practice space. It’s crazy that they didn’t.

In reality, Michael would have talked Isobel into more practice sessions long ago. Max is so poorly and inconsistently written that anything could be true of him, but I find it hard to believe he’d completely ignore lightning coming from his hands. He’d find some way to secretly test it.

Max tells Michael that they need to stop arguing and find a way out of the fallout shelter, because they have a new person of interest in the murders and it’s Michael’s own new person of interest, Maria DeLuca. The show is edited such that Michael and Liz are given the news at the same time. Liz defends Maria, while Cam explains that the evidence they have is purely circumstantial.

Isobel jumps on the idea, listing even more circumstantial evidence, like Maria’s knowledge of her best friend’s music and hiding places. She mentions that she passed out at the bar after using her powers on Maria, then woke up in the desert and didn’t know how she got there.

All that proves is that a mind controlling alien was nearby.

Cam says that the odds are that the killer is someone they know. Isobel continues to come up with new reasons why the killer is Maria, letting herself off the hook and placing the blame squarely on the people who loved Rosa. Liz says again that it’s not Maria. Isobel isn’t going to win any awards for sensitivity, but we already knew that.

Michael doesn’t take the news well either. He shoves Max against a wall and tells him to find another suspect. After arguing for a minute, the supergenius supercop figures out that Michael’s interested in Maria and is shocked, because he thought Michael was gay.

OMG, what did he think Michael and Maria were doing in the desert that night in Texas? I know Max is slow on the uptake, but this is a new low. If this is the intelligence level of the police force in the small town of Roswell, it’s no wonder it’s taken them 10 years to notice they have a serial killer who has such an obvious pattern. Even now, the crimes are only being solved because of Cam and Liz.

Michael: “We are literally aliens. Are you going to hold me to some outdated binary of sexuality? I’m bisexual, Max. It’s not that complicated.”

Apparently it is. But Max blames his limited thinking on Michael. They get into an argument about the cover up of Rosa’s murder, blaming each other for how wrong it went. Then the argument really goes wrong.

Max decides that Michael has been angry with him for 20 years, because Max got the family and the sister. We know that’s not true, because we heard Michael’s side of the story in the last episode when he told it to Alex. Michael is a resilient person who’s survived and made the best of his circumstances. Max has been given everything and does nothing but whine.

Max: “You want to talk about burdens? [Michael nods.] I carry the guilt of that day everywhere. I pushed my own parents away because I’m pissed they didn’t take care of you. You are my family, Michael. Everything that happens to you, happens to me. Every beating, every burn, every heartbreak. You are never alone. We are trapped together in all sorts of ways.”

Michael doesn’t say anything. I think he was moved that Max said they’re family, but the rest is a lie. Max means it in the moment, the way all narcissists do, but he hasn’t even paid enough attention to Michael to know his sexual orientation. He certainly hasn’t lived through every trauma as if it were his own, and it’s insulting to suggest he has. His survivor’s guilt is nothing like Michael’s years of abuse at the hands of his foster parents and the trauma of not having anyone of his own to fall back on.

Of course Michael tried to follow Max’s rules. Max and Isobel were his only family and he was terrified of losing them. The other two are psychically connected to each other, but not to him. He’s always been the odd man out, the expendable part of the group. That’s why he volunteers to be the fall guy. He knows they can live without him, but they can’t live without each other. None of Max’s crocodile tears and fake empathy will change that truth.

Liz finds Maria in the ladies room and suggests they leave because she’s sick of Cam and Isobel (“the blonde leading the blonde”). Then she asks Maria to watch her purse while she’s in the stall. Maria takes a syringe of alien serum out of it and puts it in her own purse, then leaves the bathroom. She also leaves her drink behind.

Liz brings the drink out to Cam and Isobel so that Cam can test to see if it’s been drugged, using her drug-detecting nail polish (which is a real thing). It comes out positive. The 4th alien is able to use his mind control powers on Maria because he drugged her.

The syringe that Maria took was a fake that Liz put in her purse as bait. Before they get the test result, Isobel is all set to use the serum on Maria, and even says she’ll enjoy bringing Maria down. Cam reminds her of due process.

Michael collects some of the yellow powder to examine later. His hand twinges and Max notices. He asks what the real explanation is for Michael’s injury. Michael tells him the truth and says he hasn’t let Max heal it because he wouldn’t be able to explain a perfectly healed hand to Alex. He had to keep their alien secret.

But he also wanted the reminder that hope is dangerous, humans aren’t good and there’s no place for him on earth. Alex made him believe that things in his life could be good. His scars remind him to avoid that kind of thinking in the future.

That’s some serious depression talking.

Isobel and Liz find Maria laid out on an exhibit table, unconscious, ready for her alien autopsy. The syringe is gone and the internet says she can just sleep off the drug.

Glad we’re taking every precaution with Maria’s health.

They both wish Max was there. Liz wonders if he stood her up. Isobel says that’s something Liz would do, not Max. Liz reminds her that she’s the one who told Liz to leave town 10 years ago. Isobel reminds her back that she can’t actually make people do something that they don’t already want to do. Deep down, Liz wanted to run away from Max.

Is it me, or are Isobel’s powers getting weaker by the moment? In the pilot she forced Liz to leave, then in later episodes she was influencing people, and now it sounds like she’s politely asking them to do something, but it’s actually not a power at all.

Isobel can’t find Michael either, even though he said he’d be home all night. It’s not normal for both of her brothers to be unavailable to her. Liz realizes where Michael is, and leaves to check the fallout shelter.

When Liz gets to the junkyard, the trailer is in its regular spot on top of the hatch, so she takes a chain and tows the trailer off the door. There were garden tools stuck through the hatch door to keep it closed, so Liz easily removes them. Michael and Max are standing under the hatch, waiting to greet her.

All it took was one resourceful human woman to save the two alien men.

Liz brings Michael and Max to the gala. Michael offers to stand watch over Maria so the others can go back to the party and act normal in front of the killer alien. Michael sits and holds Maria’s head in his lap as she slowly wakes up.

Maria: “You’ve gotta stop showing up for me like this, Guerin.”

Michael: “I can go get Liz if you want me to leave.”

Maria: “That’s the problem. I never do.”

Michael looks troubled again. With all the drugs and alcohol in everyone’s systems, there’s a lot of truth flying around tonight.

Now it’s Liz’s turn. She explains to Max that for a while she thought he’d stood her up tonight, and she was a tiny bit relieved. That way, he would be the one who screwed things up before she’d had a chance to. Because she was abandoned by her mom, she’s always waiting to be left, and has one foot out the door herself. Max understands, and offers to slow down their relationship, if that’s what she needs.

That isn’t what Liz wants. Liz finds being with Max exciting and addicting. If she panics and leaves again, she wants him to follow her and bring her back, rather than letting her go so easily. Max says that he wouldn’t have let her go the first time if he didn’t think it was what she wanted. Liz says, “I want you.”

That’s right boys, No really means yes, and when we leave you, we’re really asking to be dragged back by the hair. All women actually wish they were living in a fantasy version of the 19th century. Thanks for clearing that up, Carina!

Maybe Liz could just go to therapy, or read a self-help book, and learn to talk to Max like an adult when she’s having doubts.

Liz leaves Max and dances with Arturo. Max goes to check in with Michael and Maria. Arturo tells Liz that he’s decided to begin the citizenship process. A friend has agreed to help him. He nods toward Noah, who’s watching them from a table across the room. Noah’s firm helps out at Ranchero Night by giving free legal advice.

Max asks Maria about her argument with Carla on the night she was murdered. Maria tells them that she went outside just in time to find Carla about to leave with a married man. They ask who. Maria looks at Max. It was his brother-in-law.

Max and Liz compare notes and remember clues like Noah warning Max off of prosecuting Wyatt for the shooting and telling Liz to go out to Grant’s barn. Liz remembers that she still has Noah’s blood stained clothing at home from when he got shot and leaves to examine it under a microscope.

Max talks to Isobel, who was quick to give Maria the death sentence but won’t even consider Noah as a suspect. Max wants her to look into Noah’s mind to find out the truth. She refuses, saying it isn’t necessary, because she knows her husband. Besides, just this morning she promised him that she wouldn’t use her powers. Oh wait. She leaves to find Noah, still sure she won’t find anything in his head but her sweet puppy of a husband.

Isobel brings Noah to the dance floor and goes straight into alien mind reader mode. She asks if Noah still loves her now that he knows she’s an alien. He doesn’t say anything, so she asks if he meant what he said. He says, “Yes. I will never let anyone hurt you. I will protect you, always.” Isobel realizes that he didn’t answer her first question and asks him again if he loves her.

Noah: “We’re so connected, you and I. We have been since the first time I heard your voice.”

Still not the answer she was looking for. She tries again, then stops herself. Instead, she asks if he loves Rosa Ortecho.

Noah: “Of course I did. I still do. I always will.”

Then Noah takes control of the psychic space. He tells her that she wasn’t supposed to keep digging into the murders. He reminds her that while she might think she’s in control of the psychic space, he can control her in the real world. He plans to make sure she tells Max that he’s innocent.

Which she does, then she tells Max that she and Noah are going to have a quickie in the crop circle exhibit. Probably TMI for her brother, but, as Michael pointed out, they’re aliens and the rules are different.

Liz calls to tell Max that the blood sample showed Noah is an alien. Max was in the middle of telling her that Noah is innocent. Oops. Max runs after Isobel and finds her outside on the sidewalk rather than in the crop circle exhibit.

I feel cheated, after being promised a crop circle quickie, twice. Especially with Isobel and Noah dressed like Persephone and Hades, if you squint.

Max tries to talk to his sister, but quickly figures out that he’s talking to Noah. Through Isobel, Noah says, “You’re never gonna let go of her, are you?” Then he punches Max in the face, and keeps punching. Max doesn’t fight back because he doesn’t want to hurt Isobel. Noah knocks him to the ground and takes his gun. Max says he’s going to destroy Noah, but Noah says it’s already over. He’s taken Max’s gun and is pointing it at Max’s head.

Cam appears with a gun of her own, saying Max may not be willing to damage Isobel’s body, but she doesn’t have any problem with it. Isobel drops the gun and runs. She finds Noah waiting in the car on the next block and gets in. Then she placidly sits and waits. Noah says it’s time to go home for some alone time.

But Liz has snuck into the back of Noah’s car. Now she jumps up behind him and injects the serum into his neck. Then she gets out of the car and tries to run. He stops her with his powers after she’s gone a little ways. He turns her around, then puts his hand on her shoulder to kill her. After a few moments of his hand glowing, the serum takes effect and the glow goes out. Liz hits him.

She’s already saved herself, but Max rushes in like he’s the hero and knocks Noah down. He punches Noah a few times to make sure the alien is unconscious.

Liz and Max hug. Isobel gets out of the car to join them.

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Commentary

Isobel dismissed bringing Maria to the hospital very quickly. Was Noah (or the 5th alien) controlling what she said in order to keep Maria away from doctors and blood tests because she’s an alien, too? Isobel and Maria could turn out to be sisters, with similar powers.

Noah might have noticed Rosa while protecting Maria. The Ranchero night murder victims might have been people who Noah thought were threats to Maria. Noah could be Maria’s alien brother, but they were also separated when young. He, or another alien, could also be her father. I have a feeling he’s a shapeshifter.

Noah and Isobel

Noah says, “You’re never gonna let go of her, are you?”

Noah’s attitude and actions toward Isobel in this episode are confusing, culminating in this statement, which suggests that he wants Isobel all to himself, even though he’s not in love with her. It also suggests that he doesn’t know that Max basically can’t let go of Isobel, because of the psychic link.

Just who is Noah, and who is he to Isobel? He tells her that he’ll guard her no matter what, even though Rosa is his soulmate. Does he need Isobel for something else, such as to be his alien alter ego and puppet? Are they an alien arranged mated pair, while he chose Rosa for himself? Are the aliens polyamorous as a species and possibly pansexual? It’s hard to imagine them making Max pan, but maybe once he had time to open his mind…

Like Noah, Michael has also chosen two love interests. There are hints that Maria is an alien or partial alien, but Alex could be an alien, too. Maybe there’s still hope for Cam and/or Kyle to join Liz and Max instead of being left out in the cold.

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The 4th and 5th Aliens

I’ve thought for a long time that Noah had to be an alien, because there’s no other way that he would have been okay with Isobel leaving him alone in the house and tied to the bed all night in the pilot. The only way to explain his easy-going acceptance of her walking out on him that night was that he could get himself out of his bindings, then strap himself back in, before she came back. They aren’t so far into a BDSM lifestyle that he’d enjoy being left like that with no warning. Isobel proves she’s an alien (and self-absorbed) by not realizing that no one, especially a man, would actually be okay with the way she left.

But that doesn’t mean that Noah is the serial killer. It doesn’t even mean he killed Rosa. Isobel could have had multiple aliens controlling her that night in the mine. Noah admitted to loving Rosa and said he always would. That doesn’t correspond to him turning on her the way he supposedly did. He knew that Isobel had discovered his secret, but was still promising to protect her forever. I don’t think it was him that killed, or tried to kill, Rosa.

There was a moment when Noah and Isobel first entered the psychic space where we saw them through that fuzzy rainbow psychic filter, but from across the room, as if a third alien with psychic abilities was watching them.

Taking bets now. Is it Maria or Grant/Graham? Or another character, possibly someone we’ve never met or have only seen briefly?

Noah isn’t the alien in charge. He has the air of a flunky about him. But he might be a designated guardian alien, meant to either guard Isobel or the trio. He was very sincere in his promise to protect her no matter what, even though he doesn’t seem to actually like her that much.

In this episode, Noah also briefly used his glowing hand on Liz, which had no visible effect on her. That’s another non-fatal, non healing use of a glowing hand. Max used his hand on Wyatt in the alley behind the Crashdown without killing him. I believe there was one other non-fatal use of the glowing hand, but it’s escaping me right now.

My point is, Noah spoke about Rosa in the present tense. Noah is capable of mind control. He only used his hand on Rosa for a few seconds, the same way the non-fatal uses have been. Maybe he made the trio think Rosa was dead and think they’d set the jeep on fire. That would explain why her body wasn’t burned. All three of the deaths could have been faked, or Katie and Jasmine could have actually been healed, but kept in hiding.

The fifth alien could be someone with enough connections to officially fake Rosa’s death and autopsy. It could be Wyatt Long and/or his father. Noah might not have been lying when he told Max that the Longs would come after Arturo if Max prosecuted Wyatt. But Noah might have been privy to the information because he’s their alien flunky.

Grant/Graham also remains a possibility. The aliens may have split off into factions after the crash. He could be hiding in plain sight, from alien hunters and the other aliens.

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Michael’s Love Life

I know it looks like Malex are endgame, but I still just can’t root for them. They have great chemistry, but things were bad enough between them that Michael needs a permanently disfigured hand to remind him not to make the same mistake again. I just can’t see Michael and Alex being healing for each other. Chemistry isn’t enough.

Michael spent this entire episode, and this entire season, telling us that for his whole life, he’s desperately missed having a home and family and love, but he doesn’t think those things are possible for him. Maria says similar things, while still being a kindhearted, gentle person. She’s a soft place for Michael to land and she needs him in the same way he needs her.

Images courtesy of The CW.