Written by Danny Tolli & Onalee Hunter-Hughes
Directed by Laura Petzke
New episodes air Monday on CW

by Emily Maesar, Staff Writer

So, this season of Roswell, New Mexico has been super hit and miss for me - I think it’s pretty clear if you just look at my earlier recaps. However, there have been a few pretty outstanding episodes that I think really capture what I love about the series, and what I think the series misses out on so often that made it successful originally. This is one of those episodes, and I’m so very grateful for it as we start winding down the season, but the plot starts to really thicken.

This week’s episode is a lot more pared down, like all the great ones before it. Still reeling from discovering Dallas, Isobel is gungho to tell him all about his heritage. Although, rightfully so, Kyle reminds her that he’s a man of God and that it’s possible simply telling him (or outrightly showing him) might not be the best course of action if they want Dallas to be on their side.

So, Michael, Isobel, and Liz all go to see Dallas - with Kyle coming to help later - and when Isobel tries to get into Dallas’s mind to persuade him to chat with them… she gets fully knocked on her ass. It’s iconic, really. When Dallas calls an ambulance to help her, she breaks his car so he has to go with Michael to the junkyard. Liz also asks him about Heath and, once he realizes who she is, he gives her the address for Heath’s family cabin.

Michael does his best to keep Dallas at the junkyard, but his uncomfortable nature with religion makes the whole ordeal pretty awkward. Isobel finally gets released and, panicking that Kyle hasn’t shown up yet, she ends up blurting out their secret to Dallas. When he tries to leave, she freezes him in place with her powers before Michael and Alex bring the Lockhart Machine into the picture.

When they turn the machine on for Dallas, he finally believes them about being an alien, as his father tells him the history of the machine and that he locked the needed equation into him. Like their family before them, the realization that Michael, Isobel, and Dallas are the true triad dawns on all of them. There’s a new member of the alien squad and I happen to love him, your honor!

Meanwhile, Jones has taken Heath and is running him around town trying to gather up the remainder of Liz’s science so they can get working on breaking the tether between Jones and Max. Liz and Max are still trying to find Heath, before realizing at the cabin that he’s been working with Jones. Kyle is late because Jones and Heath come into his office and steal the research Liz hid in there, before he gets questioned by the sheriff and detained for destroying what might be evidence (the health files for Max and Isobels, which show off their alien physiology, which was going to be his evidence for Dallas to believe them).

Liz eventually runs into Heath at the university, and convinces him to join her side. Max meets back up with them and it’s only a matter of time before Liz realizes (with an ill-fated kiss) that it’s actually Jones. The sheriff has her suspicions about Max (but actually Jones) murdering people, so she shows up at the university after everything with Kyle is sorted. She realizes that Jones isn’t Max, but doesn’t know who he is, and he ends up blackmailing Liz to come with him if he doesn’t kill the sheriff. Which is a mighty fun way to end the episode, I thin

Now, there’s certainly some hand waving plot stuff happening, but the character work is pretty good and makes me excited about where everybody will end up in the next few episodes. I do wish that Dallas had been introduced earlier and had some good character building before the last few episodes, because I think it would have been really good to set him up way before. Like, I just think all the time we devoted to “who’s dead?” and “when will they die?” from the first bit of the season would have been better used by setting him up. Regardless, though, I really do love him and while I don’t think he’ll actually have to kill Max to save the world… the tension about it is very good!