Created and Written by Carina Adly Mackenzie
Directed by Lance Anderson

by Emily Maesar, Staff Writer

With Clarice season one ending, I decided that I wanted to write about more TV over here at MovieJawn. Besides, what better show to continue my recapping career with than Roswell, New Mexico! (Series creator Carina Adly Mackenzie started writing TV because she used to recap Vampire Diaries and I always have that pipeline as a dream in the back of my head, so it seems fitting.) And since we’re heading into the third season of the series, a little background on both the show as a whole and the plot up to this point might be a good idea. 

Created in 2019 (technically before then, obviously, but it didn’t start airing until that year) Roswell, New Mexico was created by Carina Adly Mackenzie for The CW. It was the second adaptation of the Roswell High novels, written by Melinda Metz. The first adaptation was simply called Roswell and aired on The WB and UPN before they merged into The CW in 2006. 

At its core Roswell, New Mexico is about Liz Ortecho, the daughter of undocumented immigrants who grew up in the town. After high school, and a terrible accident that left her older sister and two other girls in town dead, she leaves to become a biomedical researcher. When she returns home, she discovers her teenage crush is an alien after he saves her life when she’s shot during an attack on her family’s diner. As you can imagine, things escalate from there. 

So, where are we now, after two fairly stuffed and complicated seasons? Max’s double who was revealed at the end of the last season announces himself as “Jones.” He’s got a beard, which is how you know he’s the evil one. The gang end up storing him in one of the alien pods in the cave, and they bury his weapon in the desert.

We cut to a year later (both for the drama, but also so our team can lightly reference the pandemic and how it’s over now… a thing I’ve been hating a lot in shows as of late). Liz bailed out of Roswell and is now working in Los Angeles at the Genoryx corporation, trying to synthesize something close to the alien DNA research that Max destroyed at the end of last season. Except the company wants to use it for skincare, which causes Liz to be as wonderfully impulsive as usual and leaks the patent for her work. 

Back in Roswell, though, Maria keeps having the visions that are slowly killing her. She has one that I imagine will be the whole crux of season three’s mystery. Someone’s dead and we’re all going to a funeral. Except, she only saw a few people there. So… who’s dead? 

As for our three, full-blooded alien babes? Isobel is still being wonderfully bisexual (we love having two alien bis in the family!), Michael is being wishy-washy about working on a way to contain Jones outside the pod so they can talk to him, and Max is having a fun sex romp that’s the result of both a broken heart and the inconvenient fact that he’s actually dying. Rosa’s suped up human/alien hybrid powers didn’t save him fully, it seems. 

Additionally, Alex comes back to town, much to the pain of Michael’s heart. He’s still with Forrest, though they haven’t gone exclusive or anything. And it doesn’t seem like they ever will. While they wrote out Kyle’s love interest from last season with a single line, I have a strong feeling Forrest and Deep Sky will end up being a vital aspect of this season. He leaves on a bus, but believe me… he’ll be back.

Speaking of people I would love to never see again, it seems like we’ll never be rid of Wyatt. His role as the bereaved, but abhorrent racist, brother is compelling from a narrative perspective (which is more than I can say for Forrest). Especially when he comes face-to-face with Rosa, who he still believes 1) killed his sister in a drunk driving accident and 2) is dead. Luckily, Liz and Rosa’s mom sent over some of the memory wiping serum she was using last season, which Rosa is able to use on Wyatt when he attacks her. That whole situation is going to be a dangerous cocktail, let me tell you.

And then, of course, we end the episode basically where we began: in the cave… with Jones awake. Except that this time, Michael has built the cage for the alleged alien savior. We’ll see if it holds him, or if the fact that part of the cage seems to just be the cave wall will be their downfall and put Jones out into the world.

My money’s on Jones getting out and us being able to ultimately trace the funeral from Maria’s vision back to this choice and the failings of it.