Season 3 of Roswell, New Mexico hit fans with one big twist after another, and episode 7 “Goodnight Elizabeth” was no exception! Let’s recap the biggest reveals and moments from the episode.
Operation Save Max is Underway
Liz, Isobel, and Michael now realize that Jones has body swapped with Max, likely when he healed Max’s heart. This is a huge problem that they quickly set about trying to fix. Jones has Maria in a mind prison (aka a coma), and we don’t know if Max is simply locked away in his own mind or if Max’s consciousness was transferred to Jones’ body. Either way, it’s not good. Liz comes up with the brilliant (though flawed) plan to micro-dose Jones with the alien inhibitor serum they used on Noah. She’ll use the fundraiser for Maria’s medical bills (adorably thrown by Gregory Manes) to drug Jones. Sadly, their emotions give them away. Jones doesn’t take a single sip and then lures Liz back to Max’s house.
We get to experience an ingenious game of mental chess as Liz tries to play it cool and Jones tries to act like Max (spoiler: everyone is terrible at acting). Alone at Max’s, Jones reveals that he intends to kill Liz to get enough strength to break down Maria’s mental prison and uncover the memory he is after.
How did he know? Jones read all their emotions. Anger in Isobel and Liz’s anxiety made him immediately suspicious. Liz (sweetly) tries to reach Max inside Jones, and when that doesn’t work, she decks him (go Liz!) and runs. Operation Save Max is a failure (this time).
Our final moments of the episode show Jones killing poor Officer Pete, gaining the power he needed to force Maria to give him the memory he’s been hunting for in her mind. It’s from March 11, 1969 (see below for why this is significant.)
Jones is the Dictator
The biggest revelation of the night goes to the huge development in the Jones and Michael’s heritage storyline. So far, these have been two different storylines that just mindblowingly turned into one! It’s revealed that Jones is the Dictator, making Michael his son (and also Max’s… son? nephew?). The big reveal happens as Isobel and Michael arrive (conveniently carrying the sword with them). Michael snatches the sword out of the air and doesn’t die!
We also learn that the sword is a reservoir for Jones’ power. The power within it is the equivalent of an army. Jones is just about to kill Liz, Isobel, and Michael when Rosa does the last thing expected. She calls the police and shoots Jones with a shotgun. It doesn’t wound him, but it buys her enough time to tell him the cops are on their way and that he can’t make it out of there without landing in the news. Smartly, he makes an exit. You can check out our in depth article on what this big reveal means for Max and Michael here.
Rosa Becomes a Human Alien Detector
After a brief visit to the makeshift church and a consultation, Rosa decides to pursue her newfound powers instead of subduing them. Though it’s an odd choice, she goes to Michael for help in honing those skills and is met with the ever snarky Guerin, who says “Ultrasonic hearing makes you a dolphin, not an asset.” However, he tests her hearing and reluctantly discovers she’s detecting subatomic vibrational frequencies. (For those of us who don’t speak genius, the various frequencies at which everything vibrates.) Michael, clever as he is, wonders if she can detect alien tech like Jones’ sword. Michael attempts to train her (giving us some hilarious one liners), and Rosa is able to narrow down her hearing to that specific frequency, meaning she’s definitely capable of locating that sword (go Rosa)!
It takes some time, but Rosa, Isobel, and Michael ultimately track down said sword down to a shed in the middle of no where. Rosa talking herself through everything she hears and honing those abilities so quickly is an empowering moment for her! Though it goes awry (see above) it’s proof that she is an asset and will perhaps be in on future alien device hunting missions.
Alex Locates Kyle and Learns Some Hard Truths
After the end of last week, we were pretty sure Alex was about to be killed by Ramos. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find out Ramos’ actions (though questionable) weren’t as bad as we were expecting. Ramos takes Alex to Kyle, who is in a coma in a barn (not an ideal place for medical treatment). It’s here where Alex learns Ramos’ story of that night. He tracked the signal from Kyle’s radio to Max’s and found men stealing the sword. Instead of giving chase, he chose to find Kyle who was unconscious. Kyle’s been injected with a complex drug that Ramos can’t cure. Ramos believes Deep Sky could be compromised and chose to keep Kyle in this barn (again, questionable) instead of taking him to Deep Sky or the hospital.
Ramos also gives Alex vital intel on the Lockhart Box. It was hidden at Caulfield, believed to be created by the alien prisoners. Jim Valenti smuggled it out, and Ramos recruited Trevor Gunther (at the time a codebreaker) to unlock it’s secrets. He became obsessed and eventually was driven mad by the pursuit. With this reveal, maybe we don’t want Alex working on this after all. Rightly, Alex challenges Ramos, asking “How many days did it take for Trevor to go from codebreaker to axe murderer?”
Lastly, Ramos knows that Max, Michael, and Isobel are aliens. He picked Alex to join Deep Sky and work on the Lockhart Box specifically because Alex fell in love with Michael. Ramos thought Alex would be more open minded and want to help further the cause. He presents Alex with a file from Caulfied dated March 11, 1969, which Ramos says contains additional information. Alex is to read it and then decide on his course of action. Naturally, Alex settles down to read it next to Kyle, but we won’t find out the contents until (hopefully) next week!
Roswell, New Mexico airs Mondays on The CW. Check out the synopsis for next week’s episode, “Tones of Home,” here.
