#i always wanted to gif liz's last time and first time seeing rosa again!!!

[bisexualalienss]

Rosa Ortecho Weekend 2022 | Day 2: Time Keeps Slipping

[lovecolibri]

Things that did NOT Spark Joy-4x03

Oh besties, I hope you are ready for the high sodium content this post has because this episode was A Lot, and not particularly in a good way. The little sparks of joy can be found here, but this is gonna be some pure, uncut salt straight from the mine.

WHERE IS ROSA ORTECHO?! IS SHE OKAY?! IS SHE THRIVING AND DOING HER ART?! IS SHE HAVING A GOOD TIME?! IS SHE ALLOWED TO WEAR THE CLOTHES SHE WANTS?! SOMEONE TELL US WHERE SHE IS!! 

Also, NO ALEX. 0/10 do not recommend. 

But for real, please stop trying to make us believe Michael would not be anxious about not hearing from Alex when Alex is doing nothing but driving around looking for stuff, the most boring thing imaginable, and could easily spend the driving time chatting on the phone with Michael because they are absolutely Like That. Alex going missing again would be so much more interesting if we got to see Michael worrying, and thinking that maybe he’s being too clingy and talking about it with everyone else at different times and then finally going to Kyle and Kyle validating that this is Not Like Alex and yes Michael should be worried. I think that would be a great bonding moment for them and I’m holding out hope we get Michael and Kyle working together to find Alex since they’re the only ones we’ve gotten to see actually care about Alex as a person. But still, totally ignoring Alex and not allowing that worry to build up over a couple of episodes is just like, such a dumb choice. This show continues to set up emotional beats the size of a fucking barn and then proceed to somehow entirely miss hitting them.

This leads to my next point that having Michael being worried about Alex missing and hoping to get some answers from the new aliens which we already know he wants to do is a MUCH better set up for Michael going to talk to Bonnie at the bar than...whatever that mess was. Like, women can’t just take themselves out to a bar and taste test drinks without it being a symptom that something is deeply wrong? Let women be! Let women drink alone! It’s not a crime! 🤬 ANYWAY, that was the dumbest set up when they establish that Michael already wants to talk to these newcomers first instead of just assuming the worst. Whyyyyy go with some weird savior complex thing that Michael apparently needs to guide lost souls or something and that being tied to a woman just living her life? If they want to go the “Michael and a mentor” route it should be with Alex and them working with foster kids and struggling teens because THAT’s actually important to both of them. Deciding for yourself that someone having a couple drinks alone must be in crisis is a weird stance for this show to take given that they brought up Rosa’s drinking and substance abuse issues, tied them to mental health issues Liz specifically worries about having as well, and then spends the rest of the show with Liz almost always having a drink in her hand, smoking with m*ria, and having Rosa spend 90% of last season hanging out in a bar. Just saying...

While we’re talking about Michael and Alex, can we talk about the show constantly taking important things to them and giving scenes about them to other people? We already had Echo using the “cosmic” line last season, but mostly I’m currently focused on the show establishing in season 1 that music and the guitar is tied to Malex with the picture in the pilot episode, Michael stealing Alex’s guitar then Alex giving him one in 1x06, and then Jesse breaking Michael’s hand so he can’t play anymore, only for ever other moment of Michael and the guitar to be with someone other than Alex. Like WHYYYYY?? HOW does this show constantly undercut it’s own narrative?! We have been begging to see Michael playing guitar again since season 1 when they for some reason decided he needed to play for fucking m*ria while Alex was waiting for him, and now he’s played TWICE in this episode and both times were NOT with Alex, and NOT with Alex there to at least SEE it and give Michael heart eyes about it. It’s RIDICULOUS. (This shade is not directed at Bonnie, it’s not her fault the writers room is a mess and otherwise the scene made sense and was sweet. But STILL. 😤)

Apparently at least both Dallas and Liz agreed with Michael’s plan, but god forbid anyone stand up for Michael to Max’s face in front of the group 🙄 and to make it worse, Michael’s plan was good and Max’s worry was because he’s having issues with his powers. That is NOT a reason to lash out at MICHAEL about a GOOD PLAN just because he doesn’t think he’ll be able to help if things go wrong. Maybe telling everyone about that issue would have allowed Michael to rework the plan a bit to make Max feel more comfortable about it. But we are once again having Max hiding what is going on with him and his powers from Michael, Isobel, and Liz because we see him tell her for the first time when it’s made clear he’s been struggling for the last 6 months since Jones died.

Given that this is the last season I was already tired of wasting time for Kybel but I am REALLY, REALLY over this “intrepid reporter” narrative and I am side-eyeing Chris HARD for saying “what happens when you have two good choices” and immediately showing us Anatsa getting someone drunk and probing them for information that clearly could get them in trouble with their work. Like, everyone knows you can’t comment on an open investigation? I’m not saying Anatsa is totally at fault because clearly this lady does not take her job seriously  but that whole scene was SO uncomfortable and SUCH a waste of time. We had to spend time with Kyle meeting this woman, and then MULTIPLE scenes of them together at this winery, just for Anatsa to see the video of the bank robbery? They couldn’t have had it leaked or something? Or had her and Isobel waiting for Max at the Sheriff’s office for something and Isobel stepping away and Anatsa seeing the view queued up on his computer? Still shady of her but more palatable to watch and not a giant waste of multiple scenes just to get to that point. GOD Kyle deserves SO MUCH BETTER than being stuck in all these scenes with these rando women just to get to some tiny plot point in the most convoluted way possible. We already did this in season 2 like STOOOOOP. Kyle deserves better and him and Isobel deserve more than a half-assed love story thrown together in a few episodes at the end of the season.

I get that Anatsa is going to keep digging and Isobel wants to be around to try and keep her from finding out anything because she isn’t sure if she can trust Anatsa with their secret but is guilty about dating her and keeping secrets and dating her after doing the mind whammy to keep Anatsa off the trail for a night, with the implication that it’s going to keep happening since Anatsa won’t let this go. There’s also the implication that the guilt is related to using her mind powers on someone Isobel is in an ongoing relationship with because it’s similar to Noah controlling her in their relationship. SO I’m still not sure why Isobel wouldn’t break up with Anatsa and then do what she did with Liz and send her away. She might not feel great about it, but it WOULD keep Anatsa safe as well as all of the aliens and the people who help them safe, and wouldn’t be Isobel keeping everyone safe by constantly messing around in her gf’s mind to keep her out of things. This could have happened last season or in 4x01 and allowed the rest of the season to explore Kybel without both of them being paired off with other people. I’m just tired of another pointless love triangle when Isobel working through what a “destined soulmates” relationship would mean after Noah, if she feels trapped by that idea and give us some great moments of him just causally respecting her autonomy and without even trying, proving that he’s not Noah. We might get some of this but it’s not going to be the epic build up both of those characters deserve and undercuts the “alien soulmates” mythology the show introduced in the first episode. 

I’m not a scientist but that whole scene with the ENORMOUS bit of skin that’s somehow THAT BIG and solidly flat, but not like, an actual chuck of bloody skin you would get if you actually ripped off a bit of yourself on a cactus was a bit too much suspension of disbelief for the show to ask of me right now. 

Also, I want to care about Shivani’s plight with her daughter, but this is like, the umpteenth time we’re doing the “person has been working to save someone sick and dying by researching alien stuff” and I’m tired. 

Which, speaking of, how have we not heard about Heath in 3 episodes when his whole thing last season was “become a brilliant scientist to save my best friend since childhood, Dallas”? And having Dallas say these new people he just met 6 months ago are all he has was....such a slap in the face. And since Dallas was apparently also dying last season, is he not also getting the same treatment m*ria is that took away her powers? Or was he magically healed in some way that they couldn’t do for m*ria? What about Mimi? Did they try the treatment on her too? Who knows! Not us, they just had to invent yet another reason for m*ria to be in the middle of things because her character has actually served no purpose beyond the planned relationship with Michael as an obstacle for Malex to overcome.

Annnnd here’s were we get to the REAL salt about this episode. 

I am literally BEGGING the show to not give Dallas the Gregory Manes treatment and make him pant after m*ria for the rest of the season instead of bonding with his triad, letting Michael be there for him as a support system (since Heath apparently fucked off to who knows where) like he’s been for Michael, and maybe getting to have scenes with Alex. But already this episode we saw that instead of Dallas working with his bestie Michael to help with the new aliens since he's understanding and supportive of Michael's plan, or helping Max and Jenna because he's great with people and getting them to talk to him like we saw with the homeless man last episode and with Graham Green, he's shifting to being the one getting stuck trying to make m*ria likable and relevant to the plot this season 🙄

They had to go back and retcon her having alien heritage to give her something to do, and now Mimi has been almost entirely forgotten by the narrative (was she even IN last season?) while they invented a grandparent with ties to Caulfield and now supposedly having all these alien artifacts but it would make far MORE sense for that to have been Alex or Kyle’s storyline! Both their dad’s worked at Caulfield far more recently, Jim was already confirmed to have been taking shit and giving it to Eduardo over at Deep Sky (but don’t forget, that organization does NOT  know about aliens 🙄), or it could have been something Tripp took to help Norah before he was killed. So once again, Kyle and Alex and a sensible narrative are being pushed out of the way to wedge her into the story because they have too many characters and have never known what to do with her.

And look, I know I hate on m*ria but it’s so telling that they never knew what to do with her so she’s always stuck with the guest star characters to work with instead of ever being able to work with Liz her supposed BFF after season 1, or share scenes with Rosa after season 1 made it seem like she was closer to Rosa than Liz. Or they try to pair her up with Alex or Michael while refusing to address what she did to them, and hoping the audience just forgets about that, or the way she talks down to Michael and forces both of them to also praise her for being sooo wonderful. It’s sickening.

The show is also continuing to push the narrative that she’s a “saint” while actively showing us a person doing bad things and being a bad friend! I made a post about it already but the absolute tone deaf writing to have her steal medical supplies from the go-bag of a working doctor and then not be able to think of a single bad thing she might have ever done, ever is BEYOND ridiculous. You would think after ruining Greg from the sweet teacher he was and refusing to let him have scenes with his brother Alex which was 90% of why people fell in love with him (the rest was his heart eyes with Isobel which would ALSO have been a great story to explore) in order to prop up m*ria, that the writers would have learned their lesson. Here’s hoping they don’t sacrifice the Dallas we know and love and his beautiful relationship with Michael to the alter for Saint m*ria. But given what we saw in the 4x05 synopsis, I’m not holding my breath.

Just like last season, we NEED more information and more time for important things and conversations to happen on screen so why are we again wasting time propping up m*ria as a character when she’s STILL doing none of the things they keep praising her for (like being selfless, being “too hard on herself” or being any kind of good friend in any capacity), and is AGAIN, actively being the opposite of those things? Every time I start to get sad this show is ending, we get scenes like this that remind me this show will NEVER live up to the potential is has because they will always sacrifice the better and more logical story and emotional beats to cater to a character they made superfluous from the start.

Okay folks, that’s about all I have the energy for. But here’s your salty reminder that Alex is in a hole somewhere out in the desert and we likely won’t see him for a month and who knows when him and Michael we get to have scenes together again! Plus, next week is probably going to be m*ria and m*ria/Dallas heavy 🙃Lord, beer us strength.

Link to previous episode posts: 4x01, 4x02

[adiwriting]

(gif by the lovely @darlingnotso)

PSA: As I’ve stated before, I will be putting money towards the Navajo Nation COVID-19 Relief Fund every time that I post Malex fic. 

********Please don’t reblog*********** 

This is going to be the last Sunday Morning fic for awhile. Leaving it untagged with the hopes that it remains just for my followers and doesn’t attract more harassment. If you want to comment, reply or DM me please instead of reblogging.

Week 16

When the puppies start barking at their usual 6:30am time, Alex instantly regrets all of his life choices. His head is pounding, his leg aches, and his stomach is a mess. It doesn’t help in the slightest that Michael is plastered to his side, hot as hell, and making Alex sweat. 

“Why did we get a dog?” Michael grumbles, nuzzling his nose into Alex’s neck and making him feel even worse. 

“Why did you let us get four?” he asks, pushing at Michael’s body. “And why the hell are you so hot?” 

“‘s cold,” Michael says, throwing his arm over Alex’s stomach. 

Alex pushes him away. “You’re a thousand degrees and I already want to die. Roll over or something.” 

Michael groans and Alex swears he hears him curse under his breath, but he thankfully rolls over and Alex feels like he can breathe a bit as cool air hits his overly heated skin. The relief he feels is only temporary though as his mind then zeroes in on how much his stomach is swirling and twisting. 

The puppies continue to bark. It’s too loud and the sun streaming in through the window is too bright. Everything is just too much right now and Alex needs it to stop. The mattress shifts as Bell jumps up onto the bed, making the world spin and Alex’s stomach does a dangerous tilt. He’s not even sure if he could make it to the bathroom fast enough to throw up if he had to, and so he prays he doesn’t need to. 

Michael loves him, but he doubts Michael would love it if Alex threw up in their bed. 

Bell pushes her head against his shoulder, demanding cuddles. Any other day, Alex would be more than willing to give into her demands. He loves cuddling with Bell in the mornings. But right now, he can’t focus on anything aside from not vomiting. She gives up and moves to do the same to Michael, who lifts his arm up and allows her to crawl on top of him and lay down. 

“Please tell me you’re as hungover as I am,” he complains, closing his eyes against the sun and willing the world to stop. He regrets not springing for blackout curtains when Michael was redoing their bedroom.  

Michael chuckles and it makes the bed shake, causing Alex to groan. “No, but I had about five beers and six shots less than you did,” he says. 

Alex cracks his eyes open just enough to give him a doubtful look. 

“Hey, I’m not the town drunk everyone thinks I am,” Michael protests. “And somebody had to make sure that everyone got home okay. Liz and Max were a mess. Only one of you guys who held their liquor with any dignity was Maria.” 

That’s probably fair. Alex doesn’t remember a lot of last night after the first two hours. Isobel had challenged him to a drinking game that he outright refused to lose on principle. But even the first two hours, he could tell that it was going to be one of those nights. He can’t blame his friends. It’s been a long few weeks of one alien drama after another but yesterday had been a surprisingly drama free Halloween night for them and they’d all just let loose. What he can remember of Michael though, is that he’d taken things slow most of the night, taking on the role of caretaker for everyone. 

“You had fun though, right?” he asks, worried that Michael had perhaps seen it as his duty to take care of everyone else instead of partaking in the fun himself. Part of the argument for having the party at their place was so that they could both enjoy the party rather than having to worry about getting home or taking care of the dogs. 

“Yeah, it was nice,” Michael says with a smile, running his hands over Bell, who looks perfectly content. Alex is jealous. He knows that there are few places more comfortable than Michael’s chest, but right now the thought of being anywhere near the furnace that is Michael sounds awful. 

“Don’t tell Isobel I said that,” Michael adds. “I already told her we are not having Thanksgiving here under any circumstance… Which probably means I should start working on making that table I’ve been wanting to build for out back, because I’m pretty sure my protest means that we’re having Thanksgiving here.”

Alex laughs before it causes his head to pound even more and whines. “Don’t make me laugh. It hurts.” 

“I bet,” he says. “I’m not sure why you thought you could out drink my sister. On her lightest days she polishes off two bottles of wine a night.” 

“Because she gets annoying and smug when she wins and I refuse to put up with it,” Alex says and Michael just laughs. “Is Bell still wearing her wings?” 

Michael runs his hands over the fairy wings that Bell had worn yesterday as part of her Tinkerbell costume. They’d dressed all the dogs up in Peter Pan costumes to match their namesakes. It had been adorable, if Alex does say so himself.

“She didn’t want to take them off,” Michael says with a shrug. 

“Oh yeah? She tell you that herself?” he teases. 

“As a matter of fact, I tried to take them off last night and she whined and moved away, so yes she did,” Michael says. “And the puppies were asleep when I came back inside so I left their costumes on as well.” 

Alex reaches over tentatively, careful not to move too much of his body so that he doesn’t reignite the nausea, and pets Bell. “She does make a really cute fairy.” 

“Of course she does. She’s the most beautiful fairy in the world,” he agrees, lifting his head to kiss Bell’s nose. She licks his face in return. Michael turns to look at him, “Look at what Rosa taught her yesterday when they were both hiding out in here.” Michael looks back at Bell and says, “I do believe in fairies.” 

Bell howls twice as if to say, ‘I do, I do.’ 

Alex smiles, holding back his laugh for fear of making his stomach twist even more. Bell’s howl causes the puppies to go crazy from their spot in the kitchen though and suddenly everything is far less cute. Alex’s head pounds and he’s back to hating the world and wanting to curl up and die. 

“I guess I should go walk them since you’re clearly useless today,” Michael says. 

Alex throws his arm over his eyes and doesn’t bother arguing. 

He hears Bell protest before the bed shifts again, making Alex suck in a breath as he fights against his body’s urge to hurl. “Why don’t you try and shower? I’ll bring you breakfast in bed when I get back from walking them.” 

“Can we spend the entire day in bed?” Alex asks, hopefully. 

“I’ll even let you pick the movies we watch today,” he promises, placing a kiss to Alex’s forehead. 

“You smell like a distillery,” Michael says. 

Alex has a flash of Isobel breaking out a bottle of whiskey as they played Two Truths and a Lie with Maria. He’s sure that he’s got liquor coming out of his pores at this point. He doesn’t even remember the last time he drank this much. Perhaps the one time he’d gotten plastered before shipping off to Iraq the last time? The time they’d gotten into that nasty fight over Alex’s decision not to tell Michael he was being deployed again. Michael had had to hear it from Maria and had been none too pleased. 

Michael flips on the light and Alex whines. “I regret all of my life choices.” 

“Surely not all of them,” he teases. 

“Why didn’t you stop me last night?” Alex asks. 

Michael snorts. “Oh, I tried. Several times. You told me that you were a grown ass man who didn’t need a babysitter.” 

Alex grimaces, he doesn’t remember saying that, but he’s sure he probably did. “Sorry.” 

“You’re fine,” he says. “Max was way worse and far less cute while telling me to back off. You’re good.”

“It doesn’t sound like you had a good night,” Alex says, pushing Michael despite his earlier words, wanting to make sure that he truly did enjoy himself and wasn’t miserable.

“I promise, I enjoyed myself,” he says. “Rosa and I had a nice long talk. She’s gonna start working at the junkyard for me. I wouldn’t mind having somebody help run the office side of things. She loves her dad but needs some independence.” 

“That’s understandable,” Alex says. 

“Yeah, then Liz and I nerded out over science before Max stole her away. Kyle, Maria, and I played poker and I won $150. And I ended up watching Hocus Pocus for the first time and making cookies with Rosa once everyone got too shitfaced to form coherent sentences.” 

“You’ve never seen Hocus Pocus?” Alex asks, shocked. 

“Okay, first of all, why does everyone react like that when I say that? I watched it last night with Rosa and it was cute but it does not deserve that reaction out of people,” he says, grumpily. “And second of all, you know that I didn’t have any of that shit growing up.” 

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Alex says, kicking himself for always doing that. Always reacting to experiences Michael says he didn’t have growing up with shock. Alex knows better. He himself grew up in a home void of normal childhood experiences. But he had the Ortechos and the DeLucas to help give him happy holiday memories. He always assumes that Michael had that in the Evans family, but he’s regularly proven wrong. 

“Hey, listen, go walk the dogs,” Alex says. “I’ll hop in the shower. After breakfast we can watch all the holiday movies you never got to see growing up.” 

“Can we start with Home Alone?” he asks, that light, happy tone back in his voice. 

“Of course, followed up by A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” Alex promises. 

Forty-Five minutes later, the entire family is piled in their bed, warm and comfortable. Alex is slowly eating the pancakes that Michael prepared him, keeping his plate away from Peter’s thieving paws as best he can. His stomach is starting to settle and his headache is muted thanks to the ibuprofen that Michael left for him before he took the dogs on their walk. Home Alone is playing on the TV screen and Michael is curled up with a sleeping Bell and John, smiling soft and content. 

And right here, in this exact moment? Life feels utterly perfect.

[roswelldetails]

RNM 2x08 - Say It Ain't So

EPISODE SUMMARY:

JAMIE CLAYTON GUEST STARS — Despite promising Liz (Jeanine Mason) that he’ll take things easy with his new heart, Max (Nathan Dean) sets out to find Cameron after learning that she’s gone missing. Michael (Michael Vlamis) grows concerned about Maria (Heather Hemmens) after a surprising discovery about her family history leaves her vulnerable. Elsewhere, ready to move on, Alex (Tyler Blackburn) goes on a date with Forrest (guest star Christian Antidormi), and Rosa (Amber Midthunder) makes a decision about her future. Rachel Raimist directed the episode written by Eva McKenna & Christopher Hollier (#208). Original airdate 5/4/2020. 

DETAILS:

Rosa's secret identity:

"...Cousin Rosalinda from Arizona. My mom married a minor league baseball player, but when he got relocated to a team in Florida…"

"Okay, you know what, let's just go with, they're dead."

This is a Twilight reference.

Rosa about the Mean Girl's art in the cave:

"That reminds me of Stephen Powers before he sold out."

Stephen Powers is a former street artist who went commercial. Some examples of his older work here:

Other examples of his newer, more commercial work here:

By the way, speaking of the cave:

And this is some fabulous visual storytelling right here:

Max is working at the Wild Pony. Temporarily, of course.

"Turns out debt collectors don't care if you've been half dead in a glowing pod for a few months."

So much for the headcanon that Max "I've been driving the same car since high school and am a homeowner before 30" Evans is good with his money. 😆 Debt collectors don't show up that fast… not that I know from experience or anything.  😳 *backs slowly away*

Iris refers to the cave as the go to hang spot for all the artsy weirdos. So it isn't like it was specifically Rosa's cave/hidden spot.

It's the first time we've seen this particular cave other than in 2008 flashbacks.

Iris Sanchez & Rosa Ortecho. Flower, Mexican family name. 😭 The hint is there!

Also 👀 from:

The iris earned its name from the ancient Greek Goddess Iris, a messenger to the gods who was thought to use the rainbow as a bridge between heaven and earth...these flowers were named to honor the Rainbow Goddess and bring favor upon the earth.

Mimi made Maria take back the necklace.

"She said that it was too late for her and that I needed it more."

Michael has seen the necklace before, but he didn't know what the flower was when he fixed the clasp and returned it to her in 1x10.  It was 1x11 when they learned of the existence of the anti alien pollen. Michael reminds us:

"I know this flower.  Its pollen has a paralytic effect on alien abilities."

Once Maria takes it off, she can name every card Michael pulls from the deck.

Maria lists off a bunch of necklace facts from past episodes that fandom has previously noted...

Her powers were heightened when Michael had the necklace in 1x10. 

She wasn't wearing it when Noah invaded her at the gala.

And she wasn't wearing it at Woman As Warrior in 2x02 when she sensed that Isobel was pregnant.

"Kyle said you aren't an alien."

Fact. Kyle did say that.  It doesn't mean that it's a fact that Maria doesn't have alien DNA in her though.

Kyle determined that her blood doesn't carry the alien protein that's in the Pod Squad and Rosa. He is making an assumption that the protein is tied to being an alien.

He said he ran other tests, but the results would take longer to come in. 

Also, just a personal theory, what else do Rosa and the Pod Squad (and Noah) all have in common? They all spent significant time marinating in a pod full of goo. Rosa (10 years), Pod Squad (at least 50 years), Noah (60 years). Kyle has not studied any samples of alien biology from an alien who didn't spend time in pod goo. It's possible the protein is related to the pod goo, moreso than the alien biology. Again, just speculation on my part.

Maria confirms that her mom started getting sick when she was 18, just after she passed the necklace on to Maria.

"If this prevents you from having more episodes, it probably stops the neurodegeneration process too. It's not kryptonite, Maria. This is preventative medicine. Keep it on."

In 2x06 it was established that in addition to Sanders' place being a junkyard and a mechanic/auto shop, they also do tow truck service.  Now that comes into play again as Michael was hired to bring Cam's car back to Roswell for the investigation into her disappearance.  He brought it to the junk yard first though to give Max and Liz an hour to check the car for clues before the sheriff's department comes to collect it.

Max is smart too, in his own way. He quickly identified that "Agent Powell" was driving a rental car and that her gun wasn't government issue. 

However, it's only when he sees her tattoo (which Cam told him about in 1x07) that he confirms that she's actually Charlie Cameron!

(10 points to fandom!)

Max & Liz's conversation with Charlie is mostly just reminding us what we know about Charlie and Jenna's relationship. 

Liz indicates that Jenna had been looking for Charlie for months.  Charlie responds that she didn't want to be found (both things we learned in 2x04 through Cam's discussion with Jesse Manes.

Max indicates that Jenna thought that Charlie hated her, a call back to us first learning about Charlie and the matching tattoos in 1x07.

"I worked on a controversial project a while back. A lot of dangerous people want to know what I know."

(Again, stuff we learned in 2x04).

They learn through Cam's text history that she was looking for Jesse Manes (which we already knew, because...2x04).

"I'm just a guy standing in front of a tourist trap asking a history buff to shoot him with high velocity paint."

Tongue-in-cheek reference to the movie Notting Hill.

"So, you're cool playing war? Doesn't bring anything up?"

"Oh, yeah, my PTSD triggers are a little more complicated. Suffice to say, this war zone is the only place that my family actually got along when I was a kid."

"Yeah, some of my old platoon buddies actually play in leagues."

"I didn't know that you served."

"Yeah I wouldn't go bragging about it to a guy with a Purple Heart. I might have googled you."

New information… both that Forrest served, that he looked into Alex (which could be innocent OR sketchy…).

And of course this is the first open discussion about Alex's PTSD issues.

Cowboys versus aliens paintball… Alex is the cowboy, so Forrest must be the alien.

The call that interrupted Forrest's attempt to kiss Alex was from the hospital. Hence why Alex goes there to see Jesse.

"Look, if I had a little lucky charm that could stop people like Noah from messing with me, I would have that surgically implanted into my décolletage."

Have to admit, I wasn't sure what décolletage meant, so in case anyone else isn't familiar: 

"These abilities are a part of me. I'm not gonna just throw away the chance to learn about who I am. That make sense to you?"

"Yeah, actually, it does."

"You've gotten stronger this year, right?  Can you teach me to train? Learn how to control it all?"

"Look, it took a lot of practice before I could do anything without puking and guzzling acetone to kill the pain.  And you can't practice, because according to Kyle, every time you do it eats your brain."

"Look, I'll stop before it goes that far, okay? I know the signs. Besides, if you help me, maybe I can help you. There must be something that you want to know about your future."

"What about my past?"

Max meeting with Jesse at the Crashdown. This is super interesting because it's the first time Max has sat down, face to face, with a hostile human who knows he's an alien. 

"My uncle used to bring me here. That was back when it catered to a more civil clientele. People who actually respected the history of this town."

This is likely foreshadowing what's to come next week, based on the promo pics released.

Again, similar to the scene with Charlie at the junkyard, much of this exchange between Max and Jesse is just reminding us of stuff we learned in 1x04.

"The last time I saw her she came to me with questions about her sister.  And I told her that the people most interested in Charlie's device were a black ops group based out of Los Alamos. They're called Deep Sky. This is their logo. Paramilitary. And I told Jenna that what she was getting into was gonna be dangerous. But apparently she didn't listen.

Note: in case any of you are unaware, in Los Alamos there's a US DOE lab that has a long, sketchy history of weapons development.  Makes perfect since that it's where a paramilitary organization interested in Charlie's research would be based there.

The Deep Sky Logo

I compared this to a number of screenshots of alien symbols (like the ones we saw in Jim Valenti's letters in 1x12) and there were no matches.

However, fandom has already noted that the logo matches Trevor's ring in 2x06 (see that episode's details post for the photo).

"Charlie Cameron's mind is a unique specimen. Kind of like you. And there's always someone in the shadows waiting to crack those open."

"What did you do to Jenna?"

"I told her the truth. Which is more than you ever did. You're kind of a wolf in sheep's clothing, aren't you?"

"And what are you? Do you feel like a hero? All those people you tortured, all those people you killed. Turns out none of them were an enemy.  They were refugees. So you're not just a murderer, you're a failure."

"Yeah, I know. I am. But I tell you, something shifted in my brain when I had the stroke.  All the hate's gone out of me. All the fight. Caulfield is over and my son Flint has been reassigned. Look at me. I can barely walk."

Liz and Charlie in the car:

"Waitressing's really got to blow when you've grown a fully functioning heart muscle in a lab.  Or are you not the same Elizabeth Ortecho who co-authored a 2013 paper on cellular reprogramming? Some people build model trains; I do my homework.  Your boyfriend seems more like the train type."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"We've discovered new worlds and changed the course of mankind from a microscope. Should I go Netflix and chill with my boyfriend or stay in the lab, architecting the future?"

"No offense, but if it's true that you've been in prison and in hiding, it does not seem like you've seen much of the inside of a lab either."

"I went too far.  I thought I was building something with real value. The thing is, anything that has the potential to create real change, it scares people. And anything that scares people is inherently dangerous no matter what your intention is."

"You could start over. Get a new identity, work at a research university."

"I've done extraordinary things. Everything ordinary is ruined now."

More exposition that we already know as Max catches Charlie and Liz up on what he learns from Jesse.

"He said Cam is headed to Los Alamos to investigate a group called Deep Sky. Does that mean anything to you?"

"No. Let me reach out to some of my military contacts, do some recon. Give me a day, we'll go from there."

Liz and Michael, in the lab, on The Science:

"I'm looking for the sample of yellow pollen."

"The stuff I swept off the floor after throwing it at Noah? I don't know. I didn't see it while we were packing up."

"Well it was here a few months back.  Did I miss an experiment where it grew legs and a fondness for the outdoors?"

"Could have been accidentally thrown away. Sample was too oxidized to be of much use, and I've been trying to get my hands on fresh flowers, but it's impossible. I think they might be extinct. Why are you freaking out?"

"Because I have a math problem. There's only one flower in Maria's necklace, but there are two DeLuca women and apparently the flower is the key to preventing their illness. This is everything from the Caulfield drives and the experiments done on Maria's grandmother. A lot of it was lost in a lab fire in the '80s, but…"

"I'll take a look."

(Aside… 👀 Lab fire in the '80s. I have a feeling that's more foreshadowing.)

"I just want you to see if anything done could be undone. I don't want you to, like, Dr. Frankenstein it. The experiments were very bad."

"My days as an alien scientist are officially over."

"Why don't I believe you?"

"'Cause it's hard not to think about the far-reaching implications of this kind of research. You don't get sick on this planet. If I could figure out why, I could eradicate all illness."

"But you can't. Because that would expose us."

"Which I would obviously never do. It's over."

Arturo's text to Liz:

Have you seen our little mouse?

"Rosalinda" is late for her first shift.

Isobel and Maria go to Michael's trailer and Isobel shows Maria the newspaper clip of Michael's mom to try to trigger a vision.

"It's not working. And I don't feel great going through this stuff without Michael knowing."

"Why not? One day this palace might all be yours."

"It's not working.  I have a business to run, and you need to go Instagram something."

"Says the social media revitalizer. Listen, word to the wise, every time Max saw Liz in a skirt and tried not to pop a bulb, he wound up setting off a fire alarm. Everytime I push myself too hard, I miss time, or wind up accidentally realizing that my mom still thinks about her ex-boyfriend Rocco, like, in vivid detail."

"Okay, where are you going with this?"

"Effort doesn't equal control. So if you want to do this you're gonna have to embrace your inner ice queen and let it go."

"I'm not great at letting things go."

"Yeah, I know.  That's hard…"

Maria's vision:

Triggered by a t-shirt hanging in the trailer.

Louise is hanging laundry

Walt runs up to her and gives her a little windmill with her name on it. (Initially I thought her name was pressed or punched into the metal, but on second viewing, it looks like it might be puff paint or something similar.)

Walt runs off to find Nora and Louise goes back to hanging laundry.

After the vision Maria's nose starts bleeding.

Max goes after Charlie to stop her from turning herself in.

I wonder if his tire screeching action guy driving is supposed to be emphasizing to the audience that he's not being as cautious as he should be? 

Deep Sky said that if Charlie "...wasn't at Sutter's grain depot by 11pm, that they would torture (Cam) to death."

Charlie heard on the call:

A train rolling by

A demonic laugh

And somehow that's enough for Max to magically know exactly where Cam is.

Alex and Jesse at the hospital:

"Hey, they said that you mixed whiskey with your medications.  That's not like you."

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I don't know. I mean, you're my father. I can't seem to shake you."

"Yeah. I failed."

"Yes. But in what way specifically?"

"Uncle Tripp. I let him down. I never could figure out what he needed of me. And tonight I went to the bunker.  And I keep trying to crack the code."

"Liz said that you spoke to Max Evans. She said that you were half decent to him. Is that what this is about?"

"One of them killed Tripp, you know."

"An alien? Yeah. Then he hunted them. He dragged them to a torture chamber. I'm not surprised one of them…" 

Jesse slams his cane.

"He was the best man I ever knew.

Jesse tries to stand and falls into Alex, then continues to walk away.

The location that Deep Sky is holding Cam looks like a rodeo or horse arena or racetrack with a big grandstand.

There are nearby train tracks, and a warehouse where a mechanic repairs old carnival rides.

As Max and Charlie are scoping out the area you can hear both sounds softly in the background.

The sniper was watching and shooting at them from the grandstand.

Charlie is shot in the leg.

"Let me go get her."

"No. Deep Sky wants me alive. Your brain is worth considerably less to them which means it'll be splattered all over the dirt."

(Oh the irony...confirming that Charlie doesn't know that Max is an alien.)

"If anything goes wrong, call Liz. No doctors."

Max does shoot the sniper!

And then uses his powers to knock out the power (and instantly feeling it in his heart when he starts to use his powers!!!!!!) which, as @angsty-aliens very eloquently pointed out, is absurd because there was a big red lever that would have done the same thing. *facepalm*

Cam on her kidnapping:

"The last thing I remember is this weird sound. It made the hairs on my arm stand up. And this bright light, and the pain in the back of my neck like you wouldn't believe."

Cam's burn is fractals.  Like Liz's burn from Max's powers in 1x03. Top is Liz's fresh burn in 1x03, bottom is Cam's not-so-fresh burn in 2x08. Keep in mind, we don't know how long Cam was missing for.

Rosa and Iris at the "art show".

"So you said you're from Roswell?"

"Oh, I was from Roswell.  I got out and went to art school as soon as I graduated. I work for an artist now. I help her run her gallery. Yeah, I used to want to be a painter, but then I realized I loved curating art way more than I ever loved making it."

👀 I wonder what this says about Rosa's internal motivation. If Iris is the life she wishes that she had, does she not want to be a painter? Or is that her internal insecurity rearing its head.  Like, she can't even dream about that possibility because it's what she really wants above all else.  Which is why Iris then motivates her to paint and prove to her inner self that she is an artist? 

Speaking of which, here's Rosa's painting from the episode. Mucho gracias to @rosaortecho for giffing it for me since it wasn't cap-able in a single shot.

Iris's assessment of Rosa's art:

"This piece is you outrunning your demons. This is amazing. That's what you have to do.  You have to capture them and rattle the cage.  This is art. This is what you're meant to do, Rosa!"

Rosa's hallucination starts to fall apart as they dance.  She starts coughing and having trouble breathing.

"Your star sign's just out of whack."

Play on lyrics from God of Wine by Third Eye Blind, which was heavily referenced in 1x02. 

The direct quote is "your star sign's out of whack" and the next lyric is "a fraudulent zodiac"

Which, of course, is what Rosa had written on her hand before she died in 2008 and is a reference to Ophiuchus, which was Noah's zodiac obsession.

And then Liz finds her overdosing in the cave. 

The coughing in Rosa's hallucination was from smoke inhalation.  Because while passed out she started a fire with her powers.

Feels like a good time to point out that it's the same cave that she died in back in 2008, and she would have died there again if Liz hadn't found her. 😭

At the hospital Rosa tells Liz that she wants to go to rehab, but she knows she can't since she can't control her powers. 

Liz gives her Maria's necklace to borrow since it will suppress her powers and allow her to go to rehab.

Alex and Forrest at the Wild Pony:

"I still have my dad's voice in my head telling me that being seen with a man in public is an embarrassment. To my name and my uniform."

"Well, there's nothing like a dad voice to mess up a perfectly good date."

"It's also just that...I mean, Roswell's so conservative. This bar is filled with cowboys. If you want to go someplace private…"

"Look, I like you. But I don't want to climb into somebody else's closet."

"I cannot tell you how badly I want to be done with this frickin' closet."

"But you're not. And that's okay. Really. Listen, if that voice in your head ever shuts up, give me a call. Because between you and me, making out with a hot guy in public is only made hotter when it pisses off all the bigots and homophobes."

Charlie took off and left a note for Jenna. According to Jenna it says she's gonna disappear again and not to look for her.

Arturo is taking Rosa to a rehab center that Kyle set her up with "a few hours away".

Max tells Liz "let's go home." So… did she move in with him??

Liz says no though.  She says she has to open the diner and cry alone.  But instead she goes to the secret lab.  

Both Max and Liz were evading the truth a little bit here.  Liz didn't tell Max that she wanted to go to the secret lab.  Max didn't tell Liz that his heart did wonk out after using his powers and he did overdo it going after Cam. Bad Echo!!

Liz goes back to packing the secret lab up initially, but then her eyes fall into the Caulfield folders, and she stops. 

She unpacks her stolen equipment (genetic sequencer?), puts on her lab coat, and sits down to start reading the file.

Isobel brings Michael beer as a peace offering, since she's coming to admit that she helped Maria trigger a vision.  She thinks Michael will be mad, but he isn't because he and Maria already worked it out.

So Isobel tells him about the vision and seeing Louise, and specifically about Walt giving Louise the windmill. 

Michael immediately reacts, goes to a shelf, and grabs a similar windmill.

Turns out Walt is Sanders.  He pulls up in his car and Michael immediately confronts Sanders.

"It was you. You're Walt. You're the little boy in the photo.  You knew my mother."

And Sanders nods.

10 more points to fandom.

Max goes to Charlie's hotel to confront her about turning herself in to Deep Sky.

The windmill in both scenes. Until I put this together I didn't think they were the same one (because Louise's name isn't on Michael's. But other details (like the word weight on one of the legs) are the same.

"You think Deep Sky needs to have Jenna by the throat to kill her? Okay, the only way that I can protect her is from the inside."

Then the "abduction scene" happens.

It mirrors what happened to Jenna in 2x04, only to Max and Charlie.

MUSIC:

1.  Hole "Celebrity Skin"

2.  Lukas Nelson & Promise Of The Real "Die Alone"

3.  Shelly Fairchild "Worry No More"

4.  Marc Danzeisen "Some Things Last Forever"

5.  Joey Sykes "Sign Of The Times"

6.  I AM ORFA "Like That Look"

7.  Danny Ayer "Set Us Free"

8.  Hamish Anderson "Trouble"

9.  OMC "How Bizarre"

10.  Muscadine Bloodline "Movin' On"

11.  Little May "Hide"

[angsty-nerd]

On New Year's Eve, I marathon watched episodes 1-6...because it just felt like a good way to end 2019. I did the 2nd half of the season last night.

Yesterday morning I was listening to the current insane version of my Echo playlist on my way to work, and the song Wind & Anchor by the National Parks was playing and it got me thinking about Liz leaving, and how abruptly she changed (or was changed by Isobel's meddling).

Here's what we know from Canon. We have Liz and Max's prom night bonding that we see in 1x06. Two weeks before graduation, Liz tells Rosa, "Maybe I don't want to miss Max Evans". The afternoon of the night Rosa dies, Liz and Max have a semi-date, go out to the desert, drink beer, dance, almost kiss. Liz tells Max, "I don't want to be a leaver like my Mom." It's clearly important to her. Max offers to go with her on her road trip and she is shocked, but thrilled, at the suggestion. She doesn’t pull away. The idea of it doesn’t freak her out. If anything, she leans into the idea. Her body language portrays excitement. Her smile gets wider, she gets closer to him, and eventually just ends up in his arms by the end of the scene.

I tried to find a gif of this scene to emphasize my point, but alas, somehow there seems to be this one Echo scene that hasn’t been giffed! So you’re stuck with my crappy screen caps instead. And I couldn’t resist keeping the first and last one bigger because they’re such friggin gorgeous shots. New Mexico people.

After Rosa dies, Max says he wanted to tell Liz the truth, but when he went to do so, she was saying goodbye to her family and leaving. Isobel and Michael both confirm that he wanted to tell Liz the truth and they both knew it. Isobel and Michael decide that Max's feelings for Liz are too dangerous and Isobel gets inside Liz's head and "erases it" (per Michael) to make Liz forget how she feels about Max (implied by Isobel in 1x04). Michael tells Liz, "you didn't leave town of your own volition." Isobel still swears up and down that she can only influence people, that she can't make them do things they don't want to do, but that doesn't entirely jive with the whole she'll just forget how she feels about you statement.

I know I’ve read some fabulous meta over Isobel’s certainty in how her powers had successfully worked on Liz in the past and therefore why they would work again, and I don’t really want to reexplore this from Isobel’s perspective. I’ll just direct you to @latessitrice’s fabulous meta on it over here instead: https://latessitrice.tumblr.com/post/189111618847/mini-meta-this-time-focussing-on-isobel-sending

In classic angsty nerd fashion, I want to look back at the what ifs instead, because it’s those what ifs that haunt me as a fan of the show and as a person invested in this relationship.

Because it’s fairly clear that Liz’s perspective changed. And yes, most of that has to do with Rosa dying. But I think Isobel’s influence also played a huge factor. I think Isobel got into Liz’s head and erased her memory of her feelings for Max. And I do think she made her leave town, and I don’t think that Liz would have run the way she did without that influence. I DO think Liz would have still gone on her road trip. But I think that after her family being destroyed by Rosa’s death and the resulting racism, that made leaving extremely appealing. And then not having that desire for Max as a driving factor anymore, suddenly there felt like there was nothing worth staying for, and all the reasons to leave.

But, as a fan of the show, the what if that makes me the craziest, is of course being robbed of Liz’s reaction to being separated from Max. Without those feelings, she didn’t get to react, she couldn’t react. Whereas, we know, it devastated Max. We know he pined and suffered and fell into a state of extreme depression that pretty much lasted most of the decade, if his own words are accurate in describing how he felt with Liz gone. But with her feelings erased, Liz was like a blank slate until she finally came home.

I’ve always been somewhat fascinated by Liz’s reaction to seeing Max in the pilot, before the shooting. I’ve seen lots of fandom interpretations of her just being stunned at the sight of him. And I do think there’s some of that, but I think there’s something else going on too. Liz’s mind was likely still affected by Isobel’s influence. There had been nothing to shake her free of it with a decade away from Roswell and Max. Before she sees Max, she’s quickly established as a fighter, as someone with a sharp tongue who isn’t easily shaken. But then she sees Max, and she’s frozen. Shook. Stunned. Speechless.

I think that it’s her brain fighting Isobel’s influence.

She sees Max and she immediately starts to feel. But her brain has been told to forget those feelings. So as she flashes to memories of longing for Max in high school, at the same time as she’s processing those feelings, her brain is trying to shut them down, and thus, the internal struggle leaves her frozen and unable to fully react. And once she’s given an opportunity, what’s the first thing she does? She follows Isobel’s instructions. She leaves the checkpoint and continues on her way without even looking back. And by the time she’s talking to her father, she’s not even thinking about Max anymore. Just about ICE and the potential danger to her father.

Then, a few hours later, Max walks into the Crashdown to see her. And what happens again? The same thing. Frozen. Shook. Stunned. Speechless. At least at first. I love this gifset of that moment: https://goodvibesinroswell.tumblr.com/post/188098149117/good-vibes-of-the-day-max-liz-shook

But then, having that feeling and that internal struggle twice in one night allows her to fight the influence, and somehow she just feels enough to ask him to stay for that milkshake. Which in turn allows her to have a conversation.

Until of course, she gets shot. And Max heals her. And in healing the bullet in her chest, what if the healing also managed to repair whatever was broken in her brain from Isobel’s influence? Because from that point on, she doesn’t seem to have trouble interacting with Max. The next time she sees him she’s got a plan and a purpose and doesn’t struggle to stick to it.

And then once he comes clean to her...once they talk and she begins to understand how he feels about her, the feelings came back quickly. Which takes me back to being AAAANGSTY over the what ifs. Because without that influence, maybe she would have missed Max. Maybe she would have wanted to visit. Maybe just that one more thing would have made Roswell a little less awful to remember.