The CW’s new addictive sci-fi drama, Roswell, New Mexico, ended episode three with Max slamming the ground and causing the lights to go off in Roswell. Season one episode four kicks off with a flashback to sisters Liz (Jeanine Mason) and Rosa (Amber Midthunder) doing sisterly things. Rosa helps Liz get ready for a date and Liz confesses she’s no longer a virgin. She also reveals she’s not sure if Kyle’s really a nice guy.
Rosa empathizes with her sister but reminds her there’s a cage around her heart for a reason. “People don’t need other people. We need armor,” says Rosa causing Liz to wonder who hurt her. The conversation ends with Rosa offering his sister a gorgeous – and sexy – red dress.
Michael (Michael Vlamis) and Isobel (Lily Cowles) pay a visit to their brother, Max (Nathan Dean Parsons), aware he’s the one who blew out the transformers while in a rage. Max claims to be over his rage and because the transformers are out, he’s prepared a care package to take to town. Max is surprised to learn his siblings haven’t received his voice mails (cell service is out), and he tells them Liz knows Rosa was killed by an alien. Now it’s Michael’s turn to throw a mini-rage.
Max tells them he’s going to confess because if she keeps digging, she’ll learn everything. Isobel has another option: she’s going to use her powers to convince Liz to leave.
Over at the Crash Down Café, Liz is busy working but takes time to talk to Rosa’s ex, Frederico (E.J. Bonilla). She wants to know about a ring she found and wants to know if they got back together before she died. They didn’t, and he doesn’t know who she might have been seeing.
Liz’s dad, Arturo, chases Frederico from the diner. Liz’s line of questioning has been cut short but seemed to be a dead-end anyway.
Master Sergeant Jesse Manes (Trevor St. John) meets with Sheriff Valenti (Rosa Arredondo) and she’s unwilling to work with him. She doesn’t know why the power’s out and doesn’t want his help.
Back at Max’s place, Isobel explains how it feels to get inside a human’s head. Michael believes this will ultimately help Liz and it will make her forget how she feels about Max. Cam (Riley Voelkel) arrives to break up the discussion, reminding Max he’s expected at work. Before he heads off, Max gives Isobel the go-ahead to erase Liz’s memories and send her on her merry way.
Over at the hospital, consequences of the blackout are evident. It’s running on generator power and a young boy who was injured as a result of the traffic lights being out desperately needs a pacemaker. The lack of reliable power means the boy may die.
Liz confronts her dad about how he treated Frederico and while they’re arguing he suffers a heartache. She doesn’t call 911 because she can’t risk her father being picked up by ICE. Instead, she brings him to the hospital where Dr. Kyle Valenti (Michael Trevino) takes care of him. He assures Liz that because the computers are down, her dad’s paperwork won’t make it into the hospital system.
Kyle changes the subject to a possible job opportunity, but Liz claims she’s not staying in town. However, when she looks at her dad hooked up to machines, she seems to reconsider.
Max finally finds time to talk to Cam about their date at the drive-in that was interrupted by Liz. He apologizes for not being himself and admits it’s because of Liz. Since Liz is leaving town it’s over. Cam agrees to let him make it up to her with lots of Tequila and no less than three orgasms. (Seriously in love with Cam at this point.)
Isobel and Michael hit the bar looking for someone she can practice on before she peers into Liz’s mind again. She decides Maria (Heather Hemmens) the bartender is the perfect target. Maria has always hated her, and Isobel is determined to use her powers to find out why.
Maria wants Michael and Isobel to leave, but instead Isobel takes a seat at the bar. Isobel hands over $100 and asks for a psychic reading. Maria grabs her hand and feels that Isobel’s husband wants a child, but she doesn’t. She reveals Isobel thinks the baby might be a freak and ruin their perfect life. Maria stops but Isobel urges her to open her mind and continue the reading. Isobel gets Maria to reveal why she hates her. “Because Rosa hated you. If she hadn’t, maybe she wouldn’t have walked away the night she died,” explains Maria under Isobel’s influence.
Isobel has Maria show her what she means, and we see a flashback to the night Rosa died. Rosa and Maria are sitting at the bar when Rosa sees Isobel. She leaves after asking Maria not to tell Isobel she’s been there.
Back to real-time and Isobel falls from the barstool. Michael comforts her as her nose bleeds. She seems out of it.
Max, in a professional capacity, and Kyle, also in full doctor mode, attempt to be civil as Max checks in on the hospital. The tension’s palpable as they discuss career choices, both claiming they went down their chosen paths to help people. Kyle feels helpless because of the young boy’s condition and Max reminds him they’re just men and can’t play god, although he promises to say a prayer.
Frederico returns to the café with Rosa’s backpack. He’s had it since a week before she passed, and he only took the pills and cash. It looks like she was packing to leave town and he points out that she bought a bus ticket for Los Alamos set to leave the day after she died. In with the ticket is a note that reads: “The first step is the hardest. I’ll always be by your side.”
Back at the hospital, the boy’s condition deteriorates and he needs surgery immediately. They use the defibrillator but can’t operate with the power failing. Max leaves the room, angry he can’t do more. He runs into Cam in the hallway and he’s in quite a mood. When she asks if he’s okay, Max replies, ‘No. People here are suffering and what do we do? We brought a few water bottles at them. Why don’t we throw some paper towels at them while we’re at it?” (Love the way you worked in that reference, Roswell writers!)
Max, talking mostly to himself, talks about how he’s always done the bare minimum. He’s laid low and now the town is suffering. He storms past Cam, determined to fix part of the problem. Max makes it to the electric panel and places his hand on it, charging the system. The lights spring on throughout the hospital as Kyle smiles when told the OR is being prepped for the boy.
Cam finds Max knocked out down in the electric room. He claims he got shocked and when she looks at the panel, she sees a pattern reminiscent of a lightning strike.
Liz goes through their yearbooks, attempting to match the writing on the note. She finds what’s she looking for but is shocked and drops the yearbook.
Kyle shows up at Liz’s house, delivering her dad and ready to talk about a treatment plan. Liz is on the floor still holding the note. She’s obviously still shocked by what she found. Liz explains she compared the note to the writing in her yearbook and Rosa’s but found nothing. Then, she compared the writing to the dedication pages written by the students’ parents. The writing matched that of Kyle’s dad!
“Your father, the town sheriff, was having an affair with my teenage drug-addled sister,” says Liz.
Kyle, understandably, refuses to believe it. Kyle demands to know if she’s doing this just to clear Max’s name. What she’s found will ruin his family and Liz finally decides her sister would never have hooked up with a cop. Plus, he couldn’t have killed her because he wasn’t an alien.
Kyle then has a secret of his own to disclose; his father knew about the aliens among them. He knew the crash was real and that some aliens survived it back in 1947. Liz continues to assure him she was wrong about his dad and Rosa, but Kyle doesn’t believe her. He wonders if his dad got too close to the truth and something happened to Rosa because of it.
Liz doesn’t want Kyle to lose his dad twice, telling him he doesn’t deserve that. They kiss but then she pushes him away. She doesn’t think he wants to do this because she’s a mess. However, Kyle thinks maybe they both need a distraction. One of the perks of being an adult is recreational sex and Liz apparently agrees as they both shed their shirts and fall into bed.
Liz and Kyle get dressed after their recreational sex play and he asks if she’s considering staying. She admits she is but won’t talk about whether the decision has anything to do with Max while she’s just wearing a bra.
Liz confides in Kyle that something broke in her when she lost Rosa. She thinks figuring out what happened will make her feel almost whole again.
As Kyle gets ready to take off, he tells Liz he’ll investigate his father’s past.
Max, no longer in uniform, walks the streets and is headed toward the café. It’s night and no one is around…except Kyle who’s leaving the café in a happy mood. They chat briefly and then Max continues his walk to the café.
Liz is inside cooking something and although the place is closed, the door’s unlocked. Max walks in and Liz looks uncertain (and maybe a little guilty). Max says, “So Kyle, huh? Did you tell him about me?”
Liz admits she did tell Kyle about him because of the mark he left on her, which Kyle saw, and because she was angry. She believes Kyle won’t do anything, but Max is having none of it. Liz broke his trust.
Liz says she hates that he’s hurting and wants to believe him that he didn’t kill Rosa. She has a cage around her heart and uses it as her armor. “I have never wanted anything as much as I want to believe that you didn’t hurt my sister,” confesses Liz. However, she still thinks he’s lying about something.
Max asks her how she really feels about him. She replies that she feels a lot of things but mostly she feels “terrified in all kinds of ways.” That’s the only truth she can give him. He then asks if she believed him when he told her he loves her. She does believe that, and he hopes she’ll take that with her wherever she goes next. She reaches out but he backs away. “Goodbye, Liz,” says Max as he heads to the exit. (This show is breaking my heart and the chemistry between Nathan Dean Parsons and Jeanine Mason is smoldering!)
Jesse Manes and Cam meet over a drink and he has a proposition for her. He brings up someone named Charlie who he apparently wants to hold over her in order to get access to the sheriff’s department.
Liz’s dad makes it downstairs and claims to be feeling better. She apologizes for being distant and then serves up churro pancakes. She has boy problems (I’ll say!) and needs his advice.
Elsewhere, Isobel’s still in bad shape. She’s sweating, her nose is still bleeding, and she’s still unsure why Rosa hated her and avoided her on the day she died. Michael reminds her they made a deal about that night. They don’t talk about it and they don’t ask questions.
A short while later, Michael and Isobel are sitting in the back of the truck as Max walks up. He informs them Kyle knows about him and that he was wrong to ever tell Liz the truth. Their secret is going to spread.
Isobel reveals she can’t change Liz’s mind; she’s simply not strong enough. Michael decides he’s going to be the one who takes the fall for Rosa’s murder. He’s going to confess because he’s the one who killed the little girls. (Way to sneak in a huge revelation in the final scene.)
More on Roswell, New Mexico Season 1:
- Jeanine Mason Interview
- Nathan Dean Parsons Interview
- Carina Adly McKenzie Interview
- Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 3 Recap
- Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 5 Recap
- Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 6 Recap
- Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 7 Recap
- Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 8 Recap
- Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 9 Recap
- Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 10 Recap
- Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 11 Recap
- Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 12 Recap
