‘Roswell, New Mexico’ Season 2, Episode 5 Recap: “I’ll Stand By You”

Adrienne
16 Min Read
Image Courtesy The CW.

Week after week Roswell, New Mexico brings it all to the table and this week wasn’t any different. Episode five, “I’ll Stand By You,” was written by Alanna Bennett and Jason Gavin with Kimberly McCullough directing. This week’s episode is more focused on Michael Guerin and his past and backstory, and it definitely didn’t disappoint!

We start off the episode with a young Michael Guerin with young Max and Isobel Evans. Michael tells them to leave him alone. Michael was upset they were adopted and he was left behind after being found in the desert together. Young Max tells Michael they’ll leave him alone, however he’ll be at The Crashdown Cafe everyday waiting if Michael ever changes his mind.

Flash forward to the present and Michael is working on a Jeep (Max’s Jeep) when the mechanic he works alongside with, Sanders, asks him what he’s doing. Michael tells him he’s just fixing it up for a buddy who is on his way home. Michael also lets him know the tractor he was working on was already picked up that morning. Sanders leaves him with the advice of,  “Don’t pay more than you collect.”

Next, we see Rosa painting a mural in the room she shares with Liz when Liz walks in and lets her know their father, Arturo, is asleep. Liz comments how she can’t believe they are a family again and all under the same roof. Rosa responds by informing Liz she thinks Liz should move into Max’s house, so she can get it ready when he’s back home. Liz jokes about how Rosa seems to have forgiven Max after being so angry with him. Liz quickly realizes Rosa wants her own room and the two joke about it. As the two are talking, a nearby radio shorts out, much like the Jukebox when Rosa first came back. Liz asks Rosa how long this has been going on. Rosa blames it on just being an old boombox, but Liz presses the issue and Rosa admits she thought that it was just a side effect of the handprint Max left on her. The sisters notice the handprint is getting smaller and has faded, and Liz admits she doesn’t believe this is a good sign.

Michael, Isobel, Liz, and Rosa are back at the cave at Max’s pod. Michael tells the group that the pod has a charge, and the battery attached to the pod had blown. Michael believes the surge came from the pod, essentially leaving the pod without power. When asked how much longer Max has, Liz says he could be gone by the end of the night. Isobel suggests just putting him into one of the remaining three pods they have hidden. Rosa speaks up and says no, telling them Max will just do it again. Rosa comes clean to the fact that she’s been having nightmares that included Max and him begging her to stop Liz and the group from bringing him back. Rosa also tells everyone that Max told her he is in a lot of pain where he is. Isobel mentions that Noah said his pod, the same pod they put Max in was broken. She recaps how Noah was able to feel the time passing while in the pod. Michael comes to the realizing that in spite of everything they all have been doing to make him stronger, Max pulled his own plug.

Image Courtesy The CW.

Next, we see that Alex Manes is sitting at home playing his piano when an unsuspected guest, Maria DeLuca, comes to his door. Alex comments how Maria has been avoiding him. Maria explains that how him and everyone was lying to her about aliens being real, and Rosa’s return. Maria then tells him since she fell for his ex (Michael Guerin) and she isn’t speaking to everyone else, her and Alex are even. Alex tells her that’s fair and invites her in after joking how she wants him to use his training to break into her laptop that she doesn’t have the password for.

Liz meets Kyle at their makeshift lab, where Kyle tells her Noah’s heart is still not ready to try and transplant into Max. Telling her they are unable to do anything for Max for at least eight more weeks, Liz asks Kyle if he believes that Max has been in pain. Kyle tells her the truth, he’s written papers on how some patients in A vegetative states like Max only feel pain. He also encourages her, reminding her how Noah’s heart was beyond hope but is now healing thanks to her and her efforts and that she didn’t fail. Kyle then tells Liz that maybe she should find a way to say goodbye that she’ll be able to cope if that time comes.

Next, Isobel and Michael are sitting together and Michael tells Isobel the decision will ultimately fall on her being that Max was “her person.” This frustrates Isobel and she tells him how for as long as she’s known him he’s made himself out to be the outsider and she never understood that. She continues telling Michael that he was always family to her and Max. Isobel tells him that she was pregnant, making Michael the only person she actually told. Isobel goes on to tell him she was able to make a difficult choice by pretending that Max was there with her. Michael tells her that he would have been there, and Isobel agrees by saying that she knows but she had to make the decision on her own. Ultimately she ends up telling Michael that the only one that can decide what happens to Max is Max himself and it seems he has already made his decision.

Back at the diner, Rosa finds Liz in their spot under the sign and apologizes for not saying anything sooner. Liz admits that she often dreamt of Rosa when she passed away, saying they felt like Rosa was visiting her. Rosa tells Liz that Max loved her so much when Liz starts to question why he hasn’t reached out to her like he has Rosa.

At Alex’s house, Maria asks him why he isn’t mad at her for falling for Michael. Alex responds with how can he be mad at her, she had no clue of their past and “falling in love with Michael Guerin is the easiest thing in the world.” Alex asks her to not give up on him yet. Maria asks what happened between them, now knowing Michael was the guy at the museum Alex would’ve stayed for if he kept kissing him. Alex tells Maria he tried to get Michael to get his act together but Michael was arrested shortly after. Alex admits it was easier for Michael to push him away when Maria brings up the fact that pushing people away is what Michael does to test people. The two continue talking about Alex’s past with his abusive home.

Image Courtesy The CW.

We cut to Liz visiting Max’s pod by herself, telling him she believed she could’ve fix his heart, and then quickly leaves without saying anything else. Isobel meets Rosa at Max’s house, telling Rosa she wants to talk to Max in Rosa’s mind. Rosa tells Isobel she only sees Max while she’s sleeping, and Isobel responds by hitting Rosa over the head, knocking her out and saying she’ll beg for forgiveness later.

Michael is still unable to get the Jeep started. It then cuts to a flashback of an argument Michael and Max had after Rosa passed away and in a burst of raw emotion, Michael grabs a crowbar and starts hitting the hood of the Jeep. Liz arrives and calms him down just enough to tell him that she’s doing the transplant that night. Liz tells Michael that Noah’s heart would only help Max survive a few minutes, but argues that him being alive for a few minutes is better than just fading away like he currently is and she wants Michael there when he wakes up. Michael declines and Liz leaves, but not before telling Michael that Max believed that Michael could change the world.

Back inside Rosa’s mind, Isobel and Rosa find Max in a version of The Crashdown Cafe that is in ruins. Max tells Isobel she shouldn’t be there and that he can feel it ending. Max admits he wants to die and admits to causing the surge that took out the pod that he’s in.

Next, we’re taken back to Alex’s house and we find out the laptop belonged to Maria’s mother and she wanted to check Mimi’s history, which as mysteriously been deleted. Maria attempts to brush it off as Mimi didn’t want anyone to know what she was doing online. Kyle texts Alex that the surgery is happening that night, telling Maria it’s his responsibility to help Liz.

At the shop, Michael is successful in getting Max’s Jeep to start.  He comes to a realization of how he can help Max, and rushes off telling Sanders that he has a family emergency.

Image Courtesy The CW.

Back in Rosa’s mind, Isobel and Max embrace one more time and Max asks Isobel to tell Liz something. Rosa interrupts and tells Max he can tell her himself. Max insists that Liz cannot bring him back as he thinks it will be too dangerous. He tells Rosa and Isobel that Liz wouldn’t bring the full Max back, but just an infection and he doesn’t want to risk hurting anyone. Max tells Rosa it’s up to her to stop Isobel and Liz from bringing up him. Rosa finally wakes up and finds out she’s been locked in a closet.

Michael shows up at the hospital just in time with a pacemaker that could buy Max a lot more time than mere minutes. At the hospital Liz and Kyle start the surgery and everything seems to go off with no issues until Max flatlines. Rosa rushes past Michael and into the operating room in a tense moment, and we’re not sure what she’s going to do. Isobel quickly gets into Max’s mind to say goodbye and he seems to die in her arms. A distraught Michael collapse to the floor and Liz becomes inconsolable. In a twist of fate, Rosa urges Kyle to shock him one more time just as he is about to call time of death. Kyle reluctantly obliges and Rosa sends a jolt of electricity at the same time, saving Max’s life.

A short time after, Liz is laying next to an unconscious Max and Michael comes to check on him. After a short conversation about the “what ifs”, Liz leaves Michael alone to talk to Max. Michael reminisces about when they first woke up, and even though they were lost and they were together, then he was alone. He continues that he had given up on people, until Max and Isobel found him again, showing up just in time. Michael admits that he pushes people away that try and care about him, saying that Max was the one person he hasn’t been able to scare away. He tells Max that if he wakes up they can be a family. At the same time we see Maria forgiving Liz and Rosa as the three women sit on the front porch. Liz mentions that Isobel is getting ready, and for what we’re not sure.

Flash forward to three weeks later, Max is woken up to Isobel joking that he’s been in a coma for twelve years and Taylor Swift is president. Isobel attempts to comfort Max, but Max says he needs to get away from everyone. Isobel tries to stop him and a fight begins. The episode ends with Isobel telling Max that she made a promise that if she thought Max would actually hurt people she would be the one to kill him.

“I’ll Stand With You” was full of emotion from all of the cast. Michael Vlamis, Lily Cowles, Jeanine Mason, Michael Trevino, Nathan Dean Parsons, Tyler Blackburn, Heather Hemmens, and Amber Midthunder are great together and have the believability that they are a family. I’m looking forward to what I’m sure is going to be an incredible and emotional season. You can watch Rosewell, New Mexico on the CW network Mondays at 9/8 pm central time. You can also watch the entire first season on Netflix.

Guerin cowboy hat count this week: four.

 

 

 

 

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Adrienne is a Certified Medical Assistant, as well as a new writer that joined the team in 2019. She is a lover of all things true crime, Supernatural, Sherlock, spoken word poetry, among others. You can find her on all her social media platforms under adri_lynn.
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