The season finale was a wide ride that had some amazing highs and some devastating lows. Complemented with a superb musical soundtrack as always, “Recovering the Satellites” was a true edge-of-your-seat episode.
A storm is brewing at night as we see the graveyard where Rosa is buried with Liz’s voiceover explaining that she quit believing in ghosts and evil things until she met the devil walking around. We see Noah still tied to the chair in Max’s room.
Max keeps his gun trained on Michael as they continue to argue over what to do with Noah. Michael explains that the survivors from the crash were locked up at the nearby prison and were just killed on Manes’s orders. He argues that Noah can give them answers, but Max stands his ground even as Michael tears up telling him about his mother.
When Michael challenges Max to shoot him, Max instead shoots the vial containing the antidote, shattering it. Michael argues that Noah is their one chance to learn about their family, but Max says he needs Noah dead. Furious, Michael yells that he does not care what Max needs, and Max is thrown through the patio doors and knocked unconscious by Michael’s powers.
Michael unties Noah and forces him into the living room at gunpoint while asking where the remaining antidote is hidden. Noah says it’s in the cave with his pod, but he falls down gasping. When Michael leans over to get him up, Noah grabs a shattered piece of antidote vial and stabs Michael in the neck. Michael collapses, bleeding profusely as Noah takes the vial and licks the end. Noah takes Max’s gun and leaves.
At the Wild Pony, Maria and Liz sit together talking. Liz grabs Maria’s necklace off the table, asking about it. Maria explains her mother gave it to her on the day of her graduation, and Liz points out it is a very rare flower that grows in a specific part of the desert. She explains away her knowledge of the flower (the pollen was what rendered Max and Michael powerless in Michael’s bunker), by saying she had tested some of the pollen for science reasons.
Maria also says it’s an heirloom that her mother said protects them from evil. She then divulges that she and Michael hooked up, but dismisses it immediately. “It doesn’t matter because Alex is in love with him,” she tells Liz. Maria feels guilty over it all, but Liz tells her you can’t choose who you fall in love with, or people would choose not to fall at all.
Alex finds Kyle combing over the recovered drives from Caulfield Prison in Jesse Manes’s hidden bunker. Kyle is looking over the security camera footage which shows his father being pushed into the cell with the alien who gave him a brain tumor. Another angle shows Jesse Manes pushing Jim Valente into the cell and watching as the alien touches his head.
Flint Manes approaches his father, who is back in town on the military base, and apologizes for failing at Caulfield. Manes dismisses the apology, telling him the research is backed up and the specimen likely wouldn’t have lasted much longer anyway, but his main concern is the “unwanted visitors” who survived. Manes says they will handle Alex “in due time,” but Kyle is the primary loose end to deal with.
At the Crashdown Café, Liz leaves Max a phone message letting him know that Noah’s handprint is gone, and she plans to grab food and return to his house. As she is prepping things in the kitchen, Noah appears at the counter behind her. He walks into the kitchen and moves the knife nearest Liz (with his mind) away from her as he tells her she is nothing like Rosa who was all fire. Liz quickly runs into the freezer and locks herself in with a large squeegee jammed against the door. As Noah talks, she pulls out the pollen sample still in her pocket.
Lightning strikes nearby, jerking Max awake. Wincing (and still bleeding), he gets to his feet as he spots Michael passed out on the ground. Max uses his powers to heal Michael, blowing out his outdoor spotlight in the process.
Noah unblocks the freezer door and opens it. He shoves Liz into the shelves and puts a hand on her chest, but nothing happens. Liz knees him and runs out of the freezer locking him inside. Now crouching on the ground, Noah spots the shattered bottle and exposed pollen on the floor.
Back at Max’s house Isobel arrives to find Max vomiting into his houseplant and Michael unconscious in a pool of blood. Max explains he healed Michael and they need to leave immediately. As Isobel drives, Max drinks acetone and calls Liz to tell her Noah is loose. She informs him that she has him trapped at the café, and she refuses to leave in case he gets out and needs to be stopped. Thinking fast, she sees a spice the same color as the pollen and tells Max to hurry as she hangs up. Holding the spice and a very large kitchen knife, she and Noah discuss Rosa.
Noah informs her that Rosa made Liz’s mother leave under threat of revealing the truth: that Jim Valente was Rosa’s father. Shocked, Liz yells at him, but his powers return and he opens the freezer. He keeps her arm frozen in place as he takes her knife, but Liz blinds him with the spice. Noah yells and stumbles past Liz as she tries to move out of the way.
He leaves quickly, and she calls Max to tell him that Noah escaped and says she is fine and that Max and Isobel need to stop Noah before he kills someone to regain his strength. Isobel says she has an idea of where Noah may go, and upon further confirmation from Liz that she is ok, Max agrees to continue chasing Noah. Liz hangs up and looks down at her side where she is bleeding.
Noah stumbles toward the Wild Pony and runs into Hank who says something offensive. In retaliation, Noah kills him and regains his strength.
Kyle arrives to the diner to find a bleeding Liz. He asks for a needle and thread, and she tells him they’re upstairs in the closet.
Max and Isobel find Noah in the desert, but when Max asks how she knew where he would be, Isobel doesn’t answer. She gets out of the car, walks over to Noah, and sits down. Max realizes that Noah possessed her, and is completely healed. As Noah stands to face off with Max, he quickly draws his gun and fires. Noah easily redirects the bullet away with his mind and begins torturing Max (tying his intestines into a knot to be exact), who drops to the ground and starts spitting blood.
Kyle stitches up Liz at the café as she explains what Noah said about Rosa. It’s clear on Kyle’s face that he already knew Rosa was his sister, but Liz asks anyway. When he confirms, Liz says that he also lost a sister.
Michael storms into his trailer to find Alex waiting for him, who panics when he sees Michael’s shirt covered in blood. Michael rips it off and quickly changes, telling an easy lie that it’s not his blood and this is a bad time to have a talk. Alex goes on to explain that he shouldn’t have left Michael behind for the military, but that he did want to leave Roswell. He also shares that he feels like he is fighting his father’s battles instead of his own. Before Michael can say anything though, he gets a painful telepathic vision of Noah, Isobel laying on the ground, and their pods. He tells Alex he has to leave but to come back in the morning, and they can discuss things then.
Max tries to wake Isobel as Noah stands near their pods with an outdoor burner stove on which he is melting silver (for entry to the pods) with a blow torch. When Max asks why he needs them alive, Noah reveals that they are leverage for “the alighting.” He believes whichever alien race won the war on their planet will come for Max, Isobel, and Michael. He refers to Max as their “savior,” and he plans to put him back in his pod and wait for the other aliens to arrive so he can trade them.
He goes further, telling Max he isn’t living up to his full potential and that the religion stories he reads are really about beings that come from other worlds and strike people down with lightning. Noah puts his hand to Max’s chest, giving him a heart attack as he says he only need be barely alive to still be valuable.
Michael arrives in the nick of time and throws Noah against the cave wall. He runs to Max’s side as thunder sounds, and Max tells Michael to hold Noah off as he runs outside. He lifts a hand to the sky, drawing down lightning and charging up his powers. Noah emerges from the cave and Max hits him in the chest with his powers, lifting him off the ground as he is slowly electrocuted.
In her mindscape, Isobel meets Noah one final time to tell him that he was never her ‘person’ and she never loved him. She gives him back her rings, and before she leaves, Noah says, “Take care of her, Isobel.”
Noah’s body drops to the ground as Michael and Isobel approach and they all realize he is finally dead.
Kyle is at a gun store trying to decide what kind of gun to buy. When the salesman offers him a handgun, Kyle is surprised there is no background check. Clearly upset, Kyle tells the clerk he isn’t the type of person who buys a gun, but recent family troubles and the feeling that the person who killed his father is following him have driven him to this. The clerk offers him a discount.
In the cave, Isobel reveals that she spoke with Noah before he died and what he said. Max tries to cheer them up, arguing that this is a win and saying Michael should stop looking at the past. Max grabs Michael’s injured hand, and begins to heal it, telling him he does not need that pain to remind him of who he is. “This is Roswell,” Max tells Michael when he is worried about people noticing, and then leaves the cave.
Now morning, Liz arrives at Max’s house to find his patio doors smashed. She hears him call her name from outside and they run to one another. They are all smiles as they realize neither of them is seriously injured, and they make their way back inside the house. As they make out and strip, Max finds Liz’s wound, but she dismisses it quickly in favor of more urgent desires. They make their way to the bedroom and she invites him to use his powers to feel what she feels for him. They sleep together as “Carry You” by Novo Amor plays over the scene.
Outside, Michael and Isobel look for Noah’s cave as they discuss love. Isobel says her love life troubles officially trump his, and he tells her that Alex knows everything. Michael also confesses that he loves Alex, but that love is causing him nothing but pain right now. Isobel suggests Max might be right and they should look forward instead of back. They spot Noah’s cave, and inside are books, candles, and his covered pod. Isobel removes the blanket on the pod to reveal that Rosa is inside.
Liz gets dressed as Max teases her about leaving right after they had sex, and he quietly asks her to stay. Before she can answer, his phone sounds with a message from Isobel. Liz encourages him to go see Isobel and she will go see Rosa. She also says that Rosa feels even more gone now that the mystery is solved, and she must face a new kind of grief alone.
Kyle continues going through the drives in Manes’s bunker when he hears someone approach behind him. He turns to face off with Manes but is immediately shot in the chest and drops to the ground. Manes turns to a nearby table and sits his gun down to take a drink when Kyle hits him over the head and takes his gun. He pulls aside his shirt to reveal a bulletproof vest. Manes tells Kyle that his father wanted to shut Caulfield down and Manes wasn’t going to let that happen. Kyle injects him with barbiturates and says as much as Manes collapses and slips into a coma.
At Noah’s cave, Max, Michael, and Isobel talk over what to do about Rosa’s body. Max refuses to keep this secret from Liz, but Isobel tells him this will haunt her if she finds out. Max begins to theorize about their powers’ potential, but Michael tells him he can’t resurrect her and he can’t undo the past. They leave together with Max throwing a lingering look over his shoulder.
Maria is closing up at the Wild Pony when Michael walks in behind her. He asks if they are closed, but she tells him they are open and he walks up and kisses her. They agree they need to talk, but first Michael grabs the guitar and sits down to play.
As “Here With Me” by Daniel Blake (a cover of the Dido song) plays over the scene, Liz brings a rose to Rosa’s grave and begins to tell Rosa that she is in love with Max. As she talks about him, we see Max in the cave with Rosa. He heats up the silver, dips his hand in, and pulls Rosa from the pod. Liz continues on that she felt guilty for it, but that she loves him and he loves her. She wishes that Rosa had a chance to love and be loved. Max begins to try resurrecting Rosa, using all the power he can muster.
Standing graveside, Liz grabs her chest where Max had touched her. She knows something is wrong and runs to the car.
Isobel sits opposite a picture of herself and Noah at home. As she concentrates, the frame begins to shake. She focuses harder and smiles slightly as the frame shatters.
Alex has returned to Michael’s place and checks his watch while sitting outside waiting.
Maria looks back at Michael and notices his hand is mysteriously ok now. Her smile fades as she looks confused.
Liz gets out of her car shouting for Max but hears Rosa’s voice behind her. She turns to see Rosa walking, and runs to her. They hug and she begins to ask how this is happening, but Rosa tells her it’s going to be ok. Liz asks where Max is and runs into the cave, dropping to her knees beside his lifeless body. She cries and holds him close as she realizes he died bringing back Rosa.
Roswell, New Mexico will return for season two on The CW.
