ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO - “Walk on the Ocean” Recap
Written by Onalee Hunter-Hughes & Christopher Hollier
Directed by Aprill Winney
New episodes air on Monday on CW

by Emily Maesar, Staff Writer

You know, I didn’t actually think we’d solve the mystery of whose funeral Maria was seeing this early. But um… wow? That hurts and I hate it (in a good way). But that’s at the end of the episode, because Roswell, New Mexico knows when to drop in an absolute gut punch like this. 

So, we open on Liz in Los Angeles (girl, just stay home!), having a dream about her and Max. We’re reestablishing their connection through the alien handprint he left on her in the pilot. Not that it’s ever been forgotten by the series - it just happens to be important by the end of the episode. 

Jones leaves the cave and goes to Max’s place. He shaves (thank god), and goes through all of Max’s personal possessions. He finds the pieces of the pod, Max’s journal, and his revolver. But as Jones is snooping around and trying to connect to the person he views as a son, he fully remembers everything he did to get Max away from Isobel and Michael’s mothers. He ends up shooting the gun out into the desert and accidently hits a dog. However, in a very Save the Cat kind of writing move, Jones heals the dog and he hangs out for the rest of the episode. I love this dog and I would die for him. Thanks! Jones eventually shows Max the events leading up to him getting shoved into a pod, and begs him to let Jones heal him. Still unsure, Jones goes back into the cave as a test of good faith. 

Meanwhile, Isobel, in a desperate attempt to help Maria tap into her mind so they can see the rest of the funeral vision, takes them both into the desert. They do some drugs and go on a mindmeld together. High school Liz appears as their guide and it’s all very cute and wonderful. They do eventually get to the vision, but there’s a lot of personal baggage between them that they haven’t talked about yet. Including Jones (we’re one step closer to truly everybody knowing… yay!) and how Maria feels very in and out of “alien club.” That she’s got these powers, but no one ever tells her anything. Which, even as a viewer, is super frustrating.

On the other side of alien club, though, is Michael and Kyle. Kyle brings the radio over to Michael’s hideaway to see if he can explain why he’s hearing his dead dad’s voice coming out of it. They discover that it’s a message left in some alien tech, shoved into the back of the radio, that activates around the turquoise. However, the message needs to be fixed, which Michael does with some ease. Mr. Valenti’s final message to his son is, “walk away, Kyle.” But Kyle isn’t going to leave the aliens to fight on their own, because that’s not the kind of guy he is. 

We also have some additional stuff happening with Wyatt and Rosa. She lies about knowing what happened to his sister, and when Jordan sees them together, he spills that her “cousin” was the one who killed Wyatt’s sister. And, once again, the fact that nobody in town seems to recognize Rosa when they literally went to school with her, and she hasn’t actually changed her appearance? It continues to baffle me. To top it all off, it seems like Wyatt might leave town for a bit, so I wonder if he’s going to get blamed for the death at the end of the episode.

Which brings us nicely (painfully) to the death, the funeral, and everything in between. As Isobel and Maria are able to step into the funeral vision, they slowly start seeing all the usual suspects, alive and well. Except for one. So, before all of that, Kyle goes to help an undocumented farmer, who’d been attacked in a hate crime by Jordan and his friends (sans Wyatt). When Kyle goes to the police station to report it, Jordan is hanging around (for whatever reason) and they get into an argument. Eventually, in the altercation, Kyle gets shoved and is impaled on a piece of metal.

Which… yeah, I saw that coming from the moment Michael fixed the message from Mr. Valenti. And I am in pain about the whole thing. I also think it makes sense and while I would have cried, possibly forever, if it had actually been Michael… Kyle’s a pretty solid choice for emotionally wrecking the audience of the show.

However! Max found him, Jones still has a live-saving healing juice in him, and Liz is very clearly coming home. So, I'm curious if Kyle Valenti will actually stay dead. My guess is no, since Rosa’s still alive and kicking… and she’d been dead for ten years!