‘Roswell, New Mexico’ Season 2 Episode 11 Recap: “Linger”

By
Rebecca Murray
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Roswell New Mexico Season 2 Episode 11
Cleo Anthony as Diego and Jeanine Mason as Liz in ‘Roswell, New Mexico’ season 2 episode 11 (Photo: John Golden Britt © 2020 The CW Network, LLC)

After a two-week break, The CW’s Roswell, New Mexico returns with season two episode 11, “Linger.” The episode begins with a flashback to Liz’s ex-boyfriend Diego (Cleo Anthony) bringing her food while she’s buried in her research. He’s impressed with her intellect and calls her extraordinary. He’d planned a much more romantic setting but believes now’s the time to propose. Dropping to one knee, he asks Liz (Jeanine Mason) to marry him. Her response: showering him with kisses before finally saying yes.

And now we’re back to current events with Liz’s alarm waking her up at the lab. Max (Nathan Parsons) also wakes up with a start and deposits a second empty vial into a box. Shortly thereafter, the two meet up at the café. Liz is a bit confused as to how Max got in before the place opens and a peppy Isobel (Lily Cowles) explains her brain can pick locks now. Besides, they were supposed to meet at 6am before the CrashCon crowds arrive.

Liz is shocked to see Max wearing sweats and he confesses he’s ready to start working on his cardio. Liz lies and says she stayed at Maria’s overnight and then points out they should fix Isobel up with someone. Diego’s brought up and Liz reveals Max only started working out since meeting Liz’s hunky ex.

Max fills Isobel in on the status of the abduction case, explaining Cam was injected with butyricol which is a rare memory-erasing drug. They think Cam was abducted to lure Charlie out of hiding. Isobel wonders if they’ve consulted Alex, but Liz says he’s out of town. (They aren’t aware he’s been kidnapped.)

Speaking of Alex, Michael (Michael Vlamis) finds the napkin with alien symbols that Alex had shown him. It’s stuck to his boot and there are spots that look like blood on it.

Max takes off to start his early shift at The Wild Pony when Liz gets a text and remembers she was supposed to have taken Rosa her sketchbooks. Isobel, still being super friendly and helpful, volunteers to go on a road trip to drop them off. As they’re about to go their separate ways, Diego shows up and Isobel is obviously impressed by his appearance.

Diego has decided not to leave town until Liz’s dad is in the clear. He offers to use his connections to powerful lawyers and Liz is thankful. Isobel interrupts, all flirty and introducing herself while offering up any and all of her services.

Over at the hospital, Kyle Valenti (Michael Trevino) is called into the Dean of Surgery’s office. His co-workers give him a hard time about it.

Liz is busy with orders in the kitchen when Diego announces he’s figured out they can develop something that will counteract the loss of memory. One of the cooks tries to shoo Liz and Diego out of the kitchen – the place is hopping and they’re taking up space. Diego volunteers to butter the guy’s buns. (No one in their right mind would resist that offer!)

Michael heads over to Alex’s place and the door’s cracked open. He spots Alex’s dad, Jesse (Trevor St. John), snooping around the living room and Jesse immediately whips out his gun. Michael doesn’t hesitate and uses his powers to disarm Jesse and shove him into the wall.

Michael demands to know where Alex is and Jesse claims he has no idea. Alex is disabled and has PTSD, and Jesse just learned he didn’t make it to Andrews Air Force base. Michael’s not falling for it and threatens Jesse, but Jesse continues to claim they both want the same thing: Alex back, safe and sound.

Isobel arrives with Rosa’s sketchbooks and the news that she ate the pan dulces Rosa’s dad prepared on the drive over. Fortunately, Isobel was only joking and Rosa isn’t forced to beat up an alien. Isobel also admits she really wants to know what’s in Rosa’s sketchbooks/journals in case anything in there is about her. She wonders what’s in there from the “whole Noah thing.”

Surprisingly, Rosa agrees she can look at them. She might even answer questions…maybe.

Meanwhile, Max is tending bar and Kyle’s stress-eating at The Wild Pony. Kyle’s not in a great mood and wants to drown his sorrows in whiskey. Apparently, he was suspended for taking hospital resources for his personal use. Max reluctantly calls Kyle a good person before laying out what he really wants; he needs to know if Project Shepherd is connected to the abductions. Alex is out of town or else he would have turned to him.

A flashback shows Liz and Diego quietly celebrating a grant that will allow Liz to save lives. She’s overcome with emotion and reveals her younger self would never have dreamed this would happen. When Diego asks what she really wants, she immediately says a Nobel Prize. She then adds she wants citizenship for her dad so he doesn’t have to live scared and she wants to be less angry.

In present-day, Liz bluntly asks Diego why he’s helping her. He swears he’s happy and has a good life, but he does miss talking to her about her work. He really, really wants to know about her secret experiment. She lays out a hypothetical surrounding her work.

Over at Alex’s research hub, Kyle and Max search through Alex’s work. Max admits it’s a long shot and that he didn’t look into Alex’s research before because he wasn’t sure he wanted to learn things about himself. Kyle’s still drinking whiskey as Max suggests they head over to Liz’s lab, box up the stuff, and give it back to the hospital. Maybe that will help get Kyle’s suspension lifted. Kyle tries to blow off Max’s offer to help but it doesn’t work.

Jesse’s standing next to his car in a building when Flint (Kiowa Gordon) drives up. As soon as he hops out of the car, Jesse pulls a gun on him and demands to know what he did with Alex. Michael secretly listens from outside as Flint reveals Alex is safe. Flint knows his dad kidnapped Alex and locked him in his basement and he refuses to give Alex back. Flint reminds his dad that he taught him all his life to hate and destroy aliens.

Jesse glances over at Michael who’s outside peering through a broken window. Jesse claims he was wrong and Flint gets back in his car, telling his dad he doesn’t need him for what comes next.

After Flint pulls away, Michael grabs Jesse’s cane and hits him with it. He’s furious Jesse had Alex secured in his basement after kidnapping him. Michael suddenly realizes that if Flint gave Alex back his dad would have killed him! Alex is a loose end and can’t be allowed to live.

Michael becomes emotional as he snarls at Jesse that Alex has evolved past them both, despite how Jesse treated him while he was growing up. Tossing his cane away, Michael leaves but not before telling Jesse he doesn’t deserve to call Alex his son.

Kyle was unable to put Max off and the two show up at Liz’s lab. Max wants to do one good thing today but when Kyle very reluctantly attempts to open the lab using his handprint, it denies him access. He thinks Liz might have been mad about the pollen in his mom’s perfume and had his access revoked.

Max and Kyle kick ideas back and forth as they return to the car. Max wonders if maybe the abductions don’t have anything to do with Project Shepherd and instead are all military operations. A drug that removes and replaces short-term memories would definitely be useful to the military. It could even be used as a weapon.

They both land on the fact that Flint Manes doesn’t really do much for Project Shepherd since it’s not active. Plus, he’s a weapons specialist. They decide to find out what he’s up to.

Over at the diner, Diego is suspiciously persistent about obtaining details of Liz’s research. A flashback shows after she would lose funding for grants once the research progressed from worms to human cells, Diego would try to get her to accept a grant from Genoryx. He claimed it played loose with the FDA guidelines, but Liz refused to do anything shady or secret.

Diego’s still pushing Genoryx which is where he works. However, Liz still believes the company’s unethical.

Two ICE agents stroll into the diner and Liz says, “Oh hell no.”

Michael speeds after Flint’s car and uses his powers to give Flint’s car a flat tire, forcing him to stop. He then disarms Flint just as he did Jesse. He knocks him out by using his mind to fling Flint against his own car. Michael isn’t screwing around.

Roswell New Mexico Season 2 Episode 11
Amber Midthunder as Rosa and Lily Cowles as Isobel in ‘Roswell, New Mexico’ season 2 episode 11 (Photo: John Golden Britt © 2020 The CW Network, LLC)

Rosa and Isobel go through Rosa’s sketchbook and it brings back an assortment of memories. Rosa takes off her necklace and allows Isobel to see her memories. She shares a memory of attending an AA meeting and hearing her mom talk about loving someone other than the man Rosa always thought was her dad. It was painful for Rosa to hear she wasn’t Arturo’s daughter. She confesses she shared that particular memory so Isobel would know that she understands what it must be like to not know her mom – she wishes she knew hers less.

Liz hurries into the kitchen and tells the cook to leave, indicating the ICE agents nearby. She returns to the dining area to suggest they take their coffees to go, and they insult her with disgusting racist remarks. When one says she’d be pretty if it weren’t for her ugly mouth, Liz delivers a verbal lashing. She threatens to pull in the ACLU, her lawyer, and reveals she knows his niece goes to a school in a district she doesn’t live in. When he calls her a bitch, Liz demands he listen up. She unleashes another verbal takedown and then when the agent goes full-on racist, Diego steps in. He tells the agents he’s close with the acting director of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement who happens to be a friend of the family.

Max and Kyle break into Flint’s place looking for anything related to the Camerons. Kyle quickly discovers something labeled Yucca Blooms Ltd but doesn’t tell Max what he found. Instead, he secretly slips it in his pocket. Before they can do any further investigating, they hear a car pull up outside.

They’re hiding in a closet listening to someone walk around the house when Max spots a rifle and scope just like the one used to shoot at him while he was trying to retrieve Cam with Charlie. The door closes and they exit the closet but not before Kyle tells Max he smells like rain. Weird.

Kyle rushes to the window and sees the hunting van drive away. Max wants to get back to town ASAP.

Rosa calls her mom and Dirk answers. She doesn’t say anything as he desperately asks if it’s Helena. Rosa learns just from listening to the panic in his voice that her mom’s gone missing.

Isobel doesn’t want to take the blame for helping her break out of rehab and tells her so as the two drive home. Rosa’s worried her mom is one of the abducted or maybe her mom just bailed on her new family. Either way, she’s done with rehab in a week anyway even though she’d like to stay until she’s all better. Isobel has decided she needs to figure out how to put Noah’s money to good use. She’s committed herself to following in her mother’s footsteps and helping others, and wants to help Rosa heal.

Before they head home, Isobel wants to check in on Michael at the junkyard.

It turns out Michael isn’t at the junkyard but is zapping Flint with one of his own weapons to get info on Alex’s whereabouts. Michael says he was forced out of being a peaceful guy, out of having a family and starting a dad band. He was provoked and that peaceful future is gone. Flint calls Alex a traitor who’s sure to face a court-martial before it’s all over.

Flint warns Michael that if he doesn’t do what he says, Alex will die knowing Michael’s the reason. Flint demands an apology and to be untied.

As Liz and Diego are cleaning the diner, he continues to tell her she should sign up with Genoryx. She could even work in a sanctuary city and they’d sponsor Arturo’s citizenship. Max shows up to interrupt the conversation and Diego heads out for the night.

Max fills Liz in on what he’s learned about Flint’s connection to butyricol. Alex’s other brother, Greg, revealed Flint has a property outside of town, owns a hunting van, and was the sniper the night they found Cameron. Max also found the box Arturo kept her grandmother’s ring in in the trash outside Flint’s place. Max got the ring back but not the box which Helena kept.

Liz reveals Rosa was concerned their mother’s disappeared. Max thinks Flint’s now trying to get to Liz (who he calls a bioengineering genius) by kidnapping her mom. Liz claims it won’t work since she doesn’t care about her mom.

Liz realizes there’s something up that Max isn’t talking about. He finally explains he knows Maria was gone last night which means she lied about where she spent the night. Liz quickly says she wasn’t with Diego, but Max didn’t think it had anything to do with him. He’s connected the fact Kyle’s locked out of Liz’s lab with Liz’s lies. He wants to know why she lied about no one accepting her applications when he found two notices of grant offers in his trash. Liz claims she doesn’t want to go back to worms or mice or rats. She confesses she’s developing a rapid treatment for a rare blood disease to help Kyle’s girlfriend.

Max can’t believe Liz wants to risk alien DNA falling into the wrong hands through her research. She attempts to explain that the DNA is in her hands and begs him to trust her. Max points out she’s only asking now because she was caught in a web of lies.
Rosa and Isobel arrive with new information as the argument heats up. They found a note at Michael’s that was written in Helena’s handwriting. Helena wasn’t kidnapped; she’s working with Flint!

Michael meets with Helena and as she’s introducing herself, she plunges a syringe into his arm. It contains a drug developed at Caulfield that inhibits his powers. He demands to see Alex and she promises he will – after he builds her a bomb.




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