‘Roswell, New Mexico’ Season 2 Episode 8 Recap: “Say It Ain’t So”

By
Rebecca Murray
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Roswell New Mexico Season 2 Episode 8
Jamie Clayton as Agent Powell and Nathan Parsons as Max in ‘Roswell, New Mexico’ season 2 episode 8 (Photo: John Golden Britt © 2020 The CW Network, LLC)

Oh goodie! We start off The CW’s Roswell, New Mexico season two episode eight with a Rosa makeover. Liz (Jeanine Mason) and Isobel (Lily Cowles) apparently have decided in order for her to be back out in public, she needs a new name and a completely different style – a style that Rosa would never be caught dead wearing. Yes, it’s Western attire for “Cousin Rosalinda” from Arizona as episode eight, “Say It Ain’t So,” begins.

But Western isn’t Rosa’s only choice, thank god. They have a bunch of different options style-wise. One option she doesn’t have is keeping the same hairstyle.

I’m not sure exactly what the style is she decided on, but it doesn’t matter. She heads to the cave and tries to be friendly with a bunch of obnoxious teen graffiteers. They insult her, saying she looks like an illegal.

After the racists leave the cave, Rosa sticks around and smashes things. She’s interrupted in her destruction by Iris Sanchez from Santa Fe who explains she used to hang there as a kid. She remembers the cave as a hangout for artsy kids and she thinks Rosa’s one. Before taking off she hands Rosa an invitation.

Max (Nathan Parsons) is also donning new attire. In episode seven he turned in his badge rather than sit behind a desk when what he really wants to do is investigate Jenna Cameron’s disappearance. Maria (Heather Hemmens) has put him to work as a bartender on Sangria Saturday and The Wild Pony is slammed.

After bartending, Max meets up with Liz at the secret lab and although she’s supposed to have packed everything up, he catches her trying to work on a way to speed up healing his heart. He compliments her intellect and passion and reminds her to start working on her grant applications.

Max gets a call that Jenna Cameron’s car is at the junkyard where Michael (Michael Vlamis) works. The totally cute couple head over to check it out. Michael says they have an hour before the cops come to take it. With that, he takes off to see Maria at the bar.

Maria’s wondering what sort of powers the necklace her mother gave her possesses. Apparently, her mom made her take it back when she tried to give it to her to wear, and Maria’s mom swears by the fact it wards off evil. Michael takes a good look at it and recognizes the flower it contains. “Its pollen has a paralytic effect on alien abilities,” explains Michael.

Maria believes the necklace is her kryptonite. When she’s not wearing it, her intuition is “through the roof.” She was vulnerable to Noah without it. Michael reminds her Kyle ran tests and she’s not an alien. Michael disagrees with the kryptonite analysis; he thinks it’s more like preventive medicine.

Liz and Max go through the car and Liz finds Jenna’s phone. Their examination is interrupted when an FBI agent arrives and accuses Max of tampering with a federal investigation. She demands everything they found in the car. However, Max isn’t buying it. He knows she’s a fake and after disarming her, he spots a familiar tattoo. Jenna had half a tattoo and her sister had the other half. This woman is Jenna’s sister, Charlie (Jamie Clayton).

Charlie and Jenna weren’t close lately and, in fact, Charlie had been missing for quite a while. But once she heard Jenna was missing, she sprang into action. Charlie believes Jenna’s missing because dangerous people want information on a controversial project she was working on. They probably kidnapped her as a way of forcing Charlie to talk.

Jesse Manes is on the list of people after Charlie and it turns out Jenna’s last text was to Alex Manes looking for his dad. Max thinks they should all go pay Jesse a visit.

Roswell New Mexico Season 2 Episode 8
Tyler Blackburn as Alex and Christian Antidormi as Forrest in ‘Roswell, New Mexico’ season 2 episode 8 (Photo: John Golden Britt © 2020 The CW Network, LLC)

And speaking of the Manes men, Alex (Tyler Blackburn) has a date with Forrest (Christian Antidormi) at the Alien Gulch Paintball Park that begins with an adorable Notting Hill homage. Forrest wonders if paintball would bring up any bad memories from his time in the military and Alex says he’s fine. Forrest also served but confesses he didn’t want to brag about that to a guy with a Purple Heart. (He also confesses he googled Alex.)

The paintball war’s underway when Forrest shoots Alex in his good leg. It’s painful and he immediately sits down to rub it. Forrest rushes over and it’s then he learns that Alex lost a leg. Alex explains he doesn’t usually tell people right away about it and Forrest replies, “For future reference, you totally should. Heroes are sexy.”

Forrest follows that by leaning in for a kiss. Alex backs away and his phone rings, making the moment just ever-so-slightly less awkward.

Back at The Wild Pony, Isobel takes a seat opposite Maria who immediately realizes Isobel’s there to convince her to wear the necklace. Maria doesn’t want to damper her abilities and Isobel resigns herself to the fact she failed to help Michael with the necklace thing. Maria asks Isobel to help her train to use her abilities, but Isobel reminds her Kyle said if she kept it up it would eat her brain.

Max meets Jesse Manes (Trevor St. John) at the Crash Down Café. Jesse’s pissed because he thought he was meeting with Charlie and admits he doesn’t come to this place anymore because of the clientele. Max picks up on the racist dog whistle and says, “Well if only someone would make America great again.”

Max gets to the point and wants to know what happened to Jenna. Jesse claims all he knows is that Jenna wanted to know who was after Charlie and he told her it’s black ops guys out of Los Alamos. It’s a paramilitary group called Deep Sky. Jesse says he warned Jenna these weren’t people she should be messing with.

Charlie and Liz have a talk in the car while waiting for Max. Charlie admits the device she built was dangerous although that wasn’t her intention.

After Jesse leaves, Max fills Charlie and Liz in on what he learned. Charlie says she’ll ask her military contacts about the group.

Liz returns to the secret lab and Michael’s frantically going through drawers. He needs to find the yellow pollen, but Liz can’t remember seeing it after tossing some at Noah. Liz thinks it might have been thrown out and she can’t find any fresh specimens.

Michael explains he needs one of those flowers – Maria has one in her necklace, but he needs one for her mom. It’s the only thing that will prevent their illness.

Michael has a folder of information on Caulfield experiments but he’s reluctant to hand it over to Liz so she can research a way to help Maria and her mom. Liz acknowledges that if she could keep doing alien experiments, she might be able to stop humans from getting sick. But, if she did that it would expose Michael, Max, and Isobel as aliens. So, she absolutely can’t do that and she swears she won’t.

Liz receives a text from her dad saying Rosalind is late for her shift. As she walks away Michael clearly looks as though he doesn’t believe her.

And where is Rosa/Rosalinda? She’s at an art gallery meeting up with Iris from the cave. Neither Rosalinda nor Iris like what Rosalinda’s wearing and Iris gives her a super-quick makeover. Now in much more fashionable clothing, Rosalinda and Iris walk around the gallery. Iris believes Rosalinda’s an artist and places a blank canvas on an easel, daring her to show off her talent.

Meanwhile, Isobel’s asked Maria if she could try and read her past instead of her future. They go through Michael’s trailer trying to see if Maria gets any clues from photos or clippings. At first, nothing happens but then suddenly she seems to space out and Isobel realizes Maria’s seeing something. She grabs her hand and steps inside Maria’s mind.

They both witness Louise years ago at the farm. Walt’s made her a little windmill and she asks if he’s seen Miss Nora. She seems happy as she hangs laundry out to dry.

They come back from the vision and Maria’s nose is bleeding.

That night Charlie’s driving out of town when Max drives in front of her and cuts her off. They pull over and Max demands to know where she’s going. He’s right when he assumes her trip has to do with Deep Sky. She reveals they made contact and instructed her to go to Sutter’s Grain Depot by 11pm or else they’d torture Jenna.

When she warns him it’s not his fight and to go home, he shoots her tire. He doesn’t think they’re holding Jenna at the grain depot and wants to know what she heard in the background during the phone call. She recalls a train going by and a demonic laugh. Max knows exactly where they’re holding Jenna.

A short time later they arrive at the spot where Max is sure Jenna’s being held. Weapons out, they search the area unaware someone’s got them in his crosshairs. Floodlights suddenly go on and a sniper shoots Charlie in the leg. They get pinned down and Charlie can’t stand so running toward the building isn’t an option. Max asks for her hat and pulls his hood up over his head. He emerges from their hiding spot and makes it behind another trailer while being shot at. After pausing for a moment, he opens the trailer and a metal box that’s inside it. Jenna’s curled up in the box, unconscious.

Max fires a few shots and hits the sniper as he runs to the lightbox. He plays his hand on it and the floodlights blow up. It took a lot out of him but he’s still able to grab Jenna and bring her back to Charlie. He doesn’t know how injured the sniper is, but he’s no longer shooting at them.

Charlie and Max get Jenna to the hospital. She finally comes to and when she asks how long she was out, Max tells her Taylor Swift is president. “That’s good. Someone less emotional in the Oval Office,” jokes Jenna.

Jenna doesn’t know for sure what happened. The last thing she remembered was a weird sound and a bright light. Plus, she had a pain in the back of her neck. Max takes a look and it looks like a burn. She becomes emotional when she can’t remember anything, and she thinks she needs a tox screen and a rape kit. He holds her hand trying to comfort her and lets her know he’s there for her as her Liz and Charlie.

Michael shows up at the bar and although he’s worried about Maria, he tells her he knows she can handle herself. He just doesn’t want anything bad to happen to her and Maria promises she won’t leave him alone.

Rosalinda finishes drawing and Iris feels completely vindicated. She knew Rosalinda’s an artist. Rosalinda is shocked when Iris calls her Rosa instead of Rosalinda. They start dancing but things get weird really fast. The gallery becomes smoky and Rosa begins choking.

It turns out Rosa is back in the cave, unconscious on the floor. Liz runs in calling her name as a fire burns just feet away from Rosa. Next to her body is an open pill container. Liz attempts to rouse her sister, but she doesn’t react.

Once more to the hospital we go and Charlie’s disappeared leaving behind bloody bandages and a note for Jenna.

Rosa’s also at the hospital and Liz promises her they’ll figure this out. Rosa doesn’t know how to fix things and confesses she wants to go to rehab. She wants to do better but doesn’t know if she can. “Today I started a fire when I was unconscious because I blow up lightbulbs with my brain,” says Rosa, crying.

Liz places Maria’s necklace around her sister’s neck, explaining the necklace has the power to suppress alien abilities. Liz assures her sister she will get better.

Alex and Forrest meet for drinks at The Wild Pony after their day of paintball. Alex explains that he didn’t kiss Forrest because he still hears his father’s voice telling him being seen in public with a man is an embarrassment to his name. Alex also thinks Roswell is so conservative that it’s difficult.

Forrest understands but says, “Look, I like you but I don’t want to climb into somebody else’s closet,” when Alex asks if he wants to go somewhere private. Alex wants to be out of the closet but he’s not there yet. Forrest tells him to give him a call when he’s ready, warning him making out with a hot guy in public is hotter when it “pisses off all the bigots and homophobes.”

Jenna reads the note and learns Charlie is going to disappear. Charlie doesn’t want Jenna to search for her.

Max and Liz meet up in the hospital and Liz says Rosa’s heading to a rehab a few hours away. He apologizes for going after Jenna and Charlie without telling her, and she accepts even though she’s really worried about his heart. When he asks if she wants to go home with him, she explains she needs a chance to cry alone before opening the diner for her dad.

Isobel pays a visit to Michael to apologize for triggering Maria’s abilities. He’s okay with that because he and Maria talked it out. Isobel becomes super excited as she describes the vision they shared of a woman she thinks was her mother. When she says a boy gave her mom a windmill Michael becomes agitated. He hurries over to a shelf and grabs a small windmill. Isobel confirms it’s the one she saw in the vision.

Michael’s boss drives up at the exact moment and Michael confronts him. “It was you! You’re Walt. You’re the little boy in the photo,” says Michael. “You knew my mother.”

Walt shakes his head yes.

Liz starts to pack up the lab but stops and instead begins going through Michael’s Caulfield research.

Max finds Charlie in a hotel parking lot before she can leave town. He wants her to stay with Jenna, but she thinks she can only protect her sister from inside Deep Sky. As they’re talking the car alarm goes off and a blinding white light envelops them.




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