The CW’s Roswell, New Mexico season one episode four ended with Michael confessing to murdering Rosa and the other girls. We pick up the story in season one episode 15 with Isobel (Lily Cowles) waking up in the middle of the nowhere, stunned and confused.
Max (Nathan Dean Parsons) tells Michael (Michael Vlamis) he’s not going to let him turn himself in. Max doesn’t want his brother to expose the whole family, aware if Liz finds out what happened that’s it for the family. Noah (Karan Oberoi) arrives to interrupt their conversation, looking for his wife. She didn’t come home and he knows that means she was with her brothers. Max and Michael lie and say she spent the night with them, and then begin their search for her location in earnest after Noah leaves.
Over at the hospital, Kyle (Michael Trevino) is impressed with Liz who’s dressed very professionally. She’s going for an interview for the position he told her about. Kyle’s distracted by a box of his dad’s things, still unsure if there was anything going on between his dad and Rosa. He decides he needs to concentrate on work for now, and they agree to stop the murder investigation until they have more time. Or at least Kyle thought they agreed…
Liz (Jeanine Mason) goes through the box after Kyle leaves the room and spots a tape recorder with a note saying the recordings are from the night Rosa died. She’s listening to it and learning nothing when she’s called into the interview. She’s impressed with the work being done and says it’s all she’s ever wanted to be involved with.
Following the interview, Liz continues to listen to the recordings. It’s a series of 911 calls, most of which are not actual emergencies. Then she hears a caller saying he’s working on a documentary in the mines and can see people floating in the desert. He describes the floaters as three teenagers.
Back at the café, Liz plops down opposite local alien conspiracy theorist Grant Green (Peter Diseth) while he’s doing his podcast. Liz recognized his voice as the person who called in the floating teens and she demands to know what exactly he witnessed. She then confesses she believes him and asks for the video. When he claims it doesn’t exist, she reminds him he said he was making a documentary. He continues to protest, enigmatically suggesting people who talk wind up dead and then hustles out of the café.
Kyle shows up at an isolated cabin with a keychain etched with the same design as is carved into the cabin’s door. The key doesn’t work and as he picks up a piece of wood to break a window, Alex (Tyler Blackburn) appears and catches him by surprise.
Meanwhile, Noah’s still hunting for his wife. He runs into Liz outside a theater that is being renovated into Grant Green’s UFO Emporium. They introduce themselves and then Noah reveals that if Liz is into aliens, she can visit Grant’s storage facility. He’s sure Grant will give her a tour.
Inside the cabin, Kyle explains he just wanted to know what happened to his dad’s old cabin. Alex is surprised that Kyle didn’t know Kyle’s dad, Jim, left the place to him. Kyle wonders why his dad would have done that, but Jim died before Alex could ask him. Alex returned from serving in Iraq to discover the place was now his.
Kyle asks to look around to see if he can find the lock that the key belongs to. Alex leaves, telling him to go nuts.
Michael and Max continue their search out in the desert by an old windmill. That’s where Isobel’s car was picked up, and the brothers argue about whether Isobel is in trouble or is the trouble. Max believes she’s freaking out over the Liz stuff, and Michael asks him to call their sister. He does so by simply using his mind and figures out her location is nearby.
Max and Michael race to retrieve their sister. Isobel’s in bad shape when they get to her and she’s still confused as to how she got there. She admits “it’s happening again, just like before.”
Alex returns and Kyle’s sitting on the floor goofing off with a fishing rod. They reminisce about old times, their childhood, and how Kyle became a jock and stopped hanging around with Alex. Alex was gay and that just wasn’t cool with Kyle’s circle of friends.
As they’re talking, Kyle discovers a hidden door in the floor. Neither knew about it and Alex jokes that now’s the time in most horror films when the audience would be screaming at the screen for the heroes not to open the door. Kyle’s not worried, but Alex worries there might be actual skeletons buried in the cabin.
Kyle lifts the hatch door and they see a ladder leading into a basement. They climb down to find a bedroom furnished for a female occupant. Max admits he’s at the cabin looking into Rosa’s death. He also admits he believes his dad and Rosa were having an affair. Alex finally confesses the reason Kyle’s dad left him the house was because Kyle was fine and he wasn’t. Jim knew what Alex was going through and wanted to help him. Alex is positive Kyle’s dad would not have taken advantage of a teenage girl.
Kyle and Alex find supplies for detoxing. Maybe that’s what Jim was hoping to do for Rosa. Alex spots a locked chest that could match Kyle’s key. They open the lock and inside are a child’s belongings. There’s also a photo of Jim holding Rosa as a baby. Kyle figures out his dad didn’t have an affair with Liz’s sister, he had an affair with Liz’s mom. Rosa was Jim’s daughter!
Kyle apologizes for dragging Alex into this situation. Alex believes Jim was a father to any child who needed him. He was a decent man, unlike his own father.
Liz breaks into Grant’s storage facility and finds the usual alien memorabilia. An old-time radio broadcast starts playing and she doesn’t realize Grant is behind her with a gun. Grant quickly calms down and Liz reveals she’s seen things and now believes him. She really wants to see his film, but he then explains he was a peyote documentarian and was tripping out of his mind when he called 911.
Liz thinks that because Grant was high, he wasn’t a threat. No one needed to silence him. She goads him into revealing who might have wanted him silenced and he reveals two men showed up later and he gave them a videotape. He adds, “Of course, it wasn’t THE tape.”
Grant shows Liz the video and one of the teens is Rosa. Grant explains he took the money instead of revealing the truth about what happened in the desert. Liz then figures out Grant’s being paid to spout fake alien conspiracies while keeping the truth secret. She demands to know who’s paying him and just then a shot rings out. As they hide from the shooter, Grant runs down the list of people who’ve been killed because they knew about the alien crash. The list includes Rosa and Kyle’s dad, Jim.
Isobel feels slightly better and realizes Michael didn’t turn himself in. She admits she was probably just exhausted from trying to get Liz out of town. She slips up and reveals she had done it once before but it’s harder this time. Michael attempts to cover for his sister but Max quickly realizes Isobel has done this to Liz before and that’s why she left town all those years ago.
“You made Liz leave. After Rosa, after high school…she didn’t abandon me. You sent her away,” says Max, stunned by their deception. Isobel explains she was just trying to help Max, thinking he just had a crush on Liz – they didn’t understand Max loved Liz. In yet another heartbreaking scene involving Max, he reveals he didn’t think he deserved a goodbye since Liz just took off without explanation. Max demands Isobel locate Liz using her mind connection, and Isobel figures out where Liz is and that she’s in trouble. Michael hands over his gun and Max heads off to the rescue.
Liz and Grant are pinned down by the gunman who reloads and continues to search through the rows of shelves. Liz sneaks up on him and uses an alien statue as a weapon. Unfortunately, it doesn’t knock him out and he’s able to turn the tables and knock her out.
The gunman, who Liz recognizes as Wyatt, begins spreading gas around outside the storage area where he now has Liz locked in a wooden box. He soaks the box and sets it on fire. Liz manages to kick it open and runs toward her car, just as it explodes in a massive fireball.
Max grabs her as she runs and she hugs him, telling him Wyatt Long attacked her.
Max and Liz find Grant with a bullet through the middle of his forehead. As they’re trying to escape, Wyatt shoots Max in the shoulder and Liz places her hands over the wound. Wyatt’s also been shot. The police arrive and haul Wyatt into their car.
The next we see, Max has already returned home after leaving the hospital quickly. He did self-surgery and Liz asks to look at the wound. He claims to be fine as he tries to figure out what Wyatt was thinking. He’s a racist but not a killer.
Max asks why Liz is helping him, and she says it’s because he showed up when she needed him.
Back at the cabin, Alex spotted the star design from the keychain and the cabin door on the lamp in the basement. He didn’t tell Kyle what he discovered, but now that he’s alone he investigates. Turning on the light causes the pattern to appear on the wall, and he picks up his cane and hammers through the wall in the middle of the design. A hole appears and inside is an object with alien writing on it.
Noah finally tracks down Isobel at Michael’s place. He believes there’s another man, but Isobel assures him there isn’t. He empties a sack filled with bottles of nail polish remover and begs her to tell him what’s going on. When she doesn’t open up, Noah says he can’t do this anymore. She apologizes but it’s not enough. He hands her a bag with her clothes and tells her he needs time.
Kyle’s back at the hospital, devastated by his recent discoveries. His hand shakes as he pushes the box of his dad’s possessions off the desk, and then breaks down crying.
Now alone, Isobel and Michael admit they’re simply tired of all the lies. Isobel’s upset that everything she does is an act and that her own husband doesn’t know her. Michael believes it’s time they tell the people they love the truth.
Liz confesses she was scared for Max and holds his hand. She also confesses she knew she was safe when he showed up. However, her gut tells her not to trust him. Max explains love makes you do crazy, terrible, beautiful things. The heart isn’t logical, and it makes you do illogical things.
Liz senses he’s not talking about her and instead is talking about Rosa. She deduces that Max didn’t kill Rosa; someone he loved did. She knows Michael had a hurt hand back then and it dawns on her that’s why the bodies were floating outside the cave. Michael had to move them with his mind since he couldn’t use his hand. Liz tosses the photo of her dead sister with the handprint across her face in front of Max. He’s incredulous and says, “The mark. How is that possible?”
Over at Michael’s place, Isobel is shocked there are still more secrets between the siblings. Michael’s poker face sucks and he finally admits he didn’t kill the girls, reminding Isobel she has always known who did. Isobel, eyes wide and glistening, backs away from her brother while denying she knows who murdered the three girls.
Liz has a flashback to Max’s hand over her own mouth and realizes his hand couldn’t have left the mark on Rosa. Max’s hand is too big. Michael’s was broken so that means Isobel did it. Max finally admits that’s the truth.
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 4 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
