The CW’s Roswell, New Mexico season three episode six kicks off with a voiceover by key characters commenting on how we never forget the exact moment something terrible happens. Every mystery has one thing in common: nothing is ever what it seems.

Alex’s boss, Director Eduardo Ramos (David DeSantos), joins him as he continues to work on figuring out the mysterious Lockhart machine. Ramos believes there’s life on other planets and claims Deep Sky was created to speak with aliens, not kill them. If they can connect, anything is possible. The symbol on the Lockhart machine may be key to solving the puzzle.

“I believe we have the power to shape the narrative between our worlds,” says Ramos.

Alex (Tyler Blackburn) touches the machine and something activates. Bats begin slamming into the picture window.

Max (Nathan Dean) meets with Liz (Jeanine Mason) and Michael (Michael Vlamis) to go over the attack at his house. He returned home, found Maria unconscious, and then got jumped by someone in an alien mask. Another attacker slammed him into a wall and when he came to, Sheriff Taylor was there. They believe it was an attack by The Regiment.

Kyle’s car was there but there wasn’t any sign of him. Jordan’s behind bars but one of his racist cohorts could have kidnapped Kyle. Liz knows Kyle wouldn’t have voluntarily left behind an injured Maria, and Michael reminds them the funeral could be any day. Michael also notes that since Maria’s in a coma and was healthy in her visions, she has the ability to change the future.

Max adds that he saw a flash of light off in the desert – a detail he kept from Sheriff Taylor. Michael volunteers to check out the flash.

Isobel (Lily Cowles) visits Maria (Heather Hemmens) and uses her powers to enter Maria’s mindscape but doesn’t see anything useful. Liz and Rosa (Amber Midthunder) join her and Isobel explains she can feel Maria but can’t reach her. Liz can’t understand why Maria’s in a coma, and they worry her mind’s degrading faster than her mom’s. Rosa gives up her necklace to help stop any further degradation.

Liz and Max arrive at his place and she’s shocked to see Jones’ dog on his front porch. Max’s front door’s destroyed and they duck under crime scene tape to enter his house. The Regiment tagged the interior of his house and “Liberal Scum” greets the pair as they step inside.

Max hasn’t found any clues and wants Liz to see if she can spot anything he missed. They argue over the fact Max is continuing to push Liz away after calling her to help out.

Max steps out to feed the dog and winds up being led by his new four-legged family member to a spot in the desert. Liz finds them there and Max points out a large empty hole that he now believes is the crime scene. He had buried something out there, which he conveniently failed to mention, and Liz wants to get to work on analyzing the blood on the shovel.

Michael’s discovered the source of the flash Max saw and it turns out Kyle’s radio caused it. The radio’s in pieces and the radio tower’s heavily damaged. Max notes it took a lot of velocity to do this amount of damage. Michael thinks the alien glass inside the radio is the culprit. Kyle might have used the transmitter inside to call for help but instead the glass fried all the nearby radio towers. This particular tower, the closest one to Max’s place, also has dead bats around it.

“There’s a good chance whoever answered the SOS has Valenti,” explains Michael who’s turned into a first-rate detective now that he’s sober.

Liz isn’t sure; she thinks whoever dug up what Max buried in the desert could have Kyle. Michael realizes what his brother buried there and Max is forced to let Liz in on the secret Jones had a sword made of alien glass when they found him. Max thought burying it would be enough to keep it safe since it kills anyone who touches it unless they have his DNA.

Michael confirms it wasn’t Jones. He’s still safely tucked away in the cave.

It’s a real mystery. The person would have had to know what it was, where to dig, and have Max’s DNA to be able to lift it without getting severely burned.

Max no longer believes this was The Regiment. He’s going to get busy investigating while Liz checks out the blood. Michael grudgingly decides he needs to ask Alex if there’s a way to track the radio signal. The odds are stacked against them since the radio signal travels in every direction at once.

Over at Deep Sky, Ramos believes something messed with the bats’ echolocation. Alex points out his bandaged arm and Ramos claims he got a rabies shot, just to be safe. Alex blames himself for killing bats but Ramos warns him the risk was minimal considering what Alex has learned thus far.

Rosa’s working at the café when her sense of hearing ramps up. Sheriff Taylor’s outside yet Rosa’s able to overhear Deputy Deport ‘Em suggesting to Taylor strange things happen whenever Max is around. Taylor thinks it’s all in his head.

Isobel steps back into Maria’s mindscape, returning to a gothic version of the Wild Pony. Isobel dubs the place The Overlook Hotel Bar and promises to wait there until Maria contacts her. She draws a Ouija board on the pool table and uses the eight ball as a planchette. Something is keeping Maria from contacting her as bits of the ceiling and lights crash around Isobel and cover the pool table.

Rosa, sporting earmuffs, interrupts the session and asks for help. Rosa explains she’s suddenly hearing everything, including mosquitoes flapping their wings. As she panics, electrical equipment all over the hospital goes bonkers.

Isobel’s able to calm her down and gives her an “alien puberty” speech about how her body’s changing in “beautiful and unexpected ways.” Suddenly, Isobel has an epiphany; Rosa soaked in an alien pod for 10 years and now has super-hearing. Maybe she can hear Maria!

Rosa and Isobel wander around inside Maria’s mindscape as the bar continues to fall apart. A piercing noise pulls Rosa out of the vision and she storms off, upset. Isobel follows and apologizes for pressuring her. She thinks Rosa can handle this and needs to have more faith in herself.

Isobel confesses she had to learn to block out the noise after Noah’s death. She asks Rosa what makes her feel safe, and Rosa says music keeps her calm. She heard music in the mindscape and Isobel asks her to try and strip away the noise. She does, and now she believes she heard Maria underneath the noise.

Liz is frustrated by how slow the DNA process is going. Max apologizes for shutting her out and for not letting her in on the buried sword. The machine analyzing the DNA goes haywire and cuts off Max and Liz’s heart-to-heart before Max can explain why he’s being distant – again.

Alex meets Michael at the radio tower and asks for help finding out if anyone received Kyle’s radio transmission. Alex is acting weird and shuts down Michael’s suggestion that Kyle’s message was received and whoever was on the receiving end took their missing friend. But when Michael mentions the bloody shovel, Alex is reminded of Ramos’ bandaged arm. Michael says Liz is working on the shovel as they speak.

Michael stops Alex from leaving, upset Alex is apparently blowing this off. He asks why Kyle and Maria don’t deserve his attention, and Alex reveals he doesn’t want Michael near whatever it is he decides to do.

Michael returns to his lair to try and put the pieces together. He blames himself for Kyle going missing and Maria being in a coma. Walt Sanders, who is certain Alex and Michael are meant to be together, suggests Michael quit looking backward and instead focus on what’s going on now. Walt wonders why only vampire bats were affected by the radio signal.

Walt points out vampire bats use infrared to hunt, and Michael realizes infrared only travels in one direction while radio waves go every direction. The dead bats were only found at three towers. Michael figures out the radio signal masked the real signal – the signal that drew the bats. Walt circles the three towers that transmitted the real signal. If Michael follows the signal, he might locate Kyle.

Max meets Sheriff Taylor in the middle of nowhere. They’ve located a car that was on a traffic cam around the time Kyle went missing. It belongs to a member of The Regiment who claims he never uses it. Max thinks whoever stole it did so with the intention of returning it before anyone noticed it was gone. However, they had to ditch it because everything electronic in it broke down.

There’s blood on the steering wheel and Taylor points out the imprint of a sword burned into the floor of the trunk. She demands answers, fully aware Max is lying when he says the sword wasn’t his.

Alex joins Liz in Kyle’s office and they both admit if he wasn’t missing it would be Kyle they’d turn to for answers right now. They reminisce about Kyle and Alex admits Kyle makes doing the right thing look easy – but it’s not. The right thing isn’t always obvious.

“Or maybe it is and sometimes we just don’t see it,” replies Liz.

Alex asks for the samples and Liz hands them over, thankful for his help. (One sample is Kyle’s, the other is the unknown abductor.) That frees Liz up to spend some time with Maria. As she’s stroking Maria’s head she notices an alien glow and discovers a handprint under her hair.

Liz asks Max if he tried to heal Maria and he claims he didn’t, but he did put a pillow under her head when he found her. When he touched her head, he may have caused her to slip into a coma. Max believes he’s always the problem and Liz basically tells him to knock it off.

Alex requests a quick DNA analysis at Deep Sky, claiming it’s Director Ramos who needs it. The result: the unknown suspect is a relative of Kyle’s.

Rosa and Isobel follow Maria’s clues and determine she was trying to lead them to the jukebox and specifically to “Roof with a Hole” by The Meat Puppets. Rosa figures out Maria wants them to look at the hole in the roof.

Michael phones Alex and leaves a message informing him Kyle’s old radio was looking for its receiver. Whoever has the receiver has Kyle. Michael tracked it to a secure facility, while inside that facility Alex listens to the message as he looks around Ramos’ office. He finds a twin of Kyle’s radio just as Ramos enters his office. Alex knows this radio – and Ramos – received Kyle’s SOS call. He also points out Ramos is an uncle of Kyle’s, according to the DNA results. Ramos claims he doesn’t have a nephew. Also, Ramos doesn’t think Alex has his DNA.

Wrong!

Alex got it from the Department of Defense and has learned Ramos has suspected terrorist ties. Ramos continues to feign innocence as Alex demands to know where he’s taken Kyle. Ramos responds by pulling out a gun.

Liz monitors Rosa and Isobel as they return to Maria’s mindscape. They climb up to the Crashdown Café’s roof and are given a way into Maria’s memories. They watch as Max tries to help her and she tells him she believes The Regiment attacked Kyle. Kyle couldn’t breathe and she administered adrenaline. She remembers being attacked from behind and Kyle turning on the radio which then went flying through the doors, shattering them in the process.

Her attacker threw her and Kyle disappeared.

Rosa and Isobel watch this and note Max said he was attacked but there’s no one in sight. Also, he claimed Maria was unconscious and that the doors were broken when he threw his attacker through them. They realize Max is lying.

Liz is given a copy of a request Max made for a suspect who received treatment for third-degree burns to the hand the previous evening. He then retrieved gauze that was used in treating that person.

Liz runs through all the interactions she’s had recently with Max and realizes Max isn’t Max – he’s Jones!

Isobel and Rosa continue to watch Maria’s memories play out. Maria sits up and Max questions her about her grandmother’s visions. Maria knows something’s off and realizes she’s speaking to the clone, not the real Max Evans. When she won’t tell him her grandmother’s name, Jones uses his powers to force it from her mind.

His attack placed her in a coma and kept her mind hidden from Isobel. Fortunately, she was able to drop clues as to how to access her memories.

Liz joins Isobel and Rosa in Maria’s room and confirm they’ve all come to the same conclusion.

As the episode ends, Jones uses his dog, Loki, to help track the men who stole his alien sword. He retrieves it, kills the two men who took it, and then tells Loki they have work to do.

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