Nerds Rewatch: ‘Roswell, New Mexico’ Season 3, Episodes 12-13

Brianna
9 Min Read
John Golden Britt / The CW

The day has finally come! Season 4 of Roswell, New Mexico premieres tonight, and in preparation for its return, we’re rewatching season 3 of the series! Last week, we watched episodes 10-11, and each week we watched two episodes and discuss our favorite moments and the foreshadowing we missed the first time around. Beware, this will be a spoiler-filled discussion on everything that went down in the final two episodes of season 3.

“I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That”

John Golden Britt / The CW
  • The penultimate episode of season 3 kicked off with Jones holding everyone hostage in his own mindscape. He’s bent on getting Liz to sever his connection with Max and is willing to start killing people she loves to make her comply.
  • Jones makes such a show of reading everyone’s minds and exposing their secrets that it serves to highlight once again just how powerful Michael is when Jones can’t read him. Not only is Michael free to move about in the mindscape but he’s capable of keeping Jones out of his head. It’s a huge hope of mine that Michael is going to expand and explore the full range of his abilities in season 4.
  • Thankfully Isobel trained enough to be able to summon her sword outside the mindscape and breaks them all free. Unfortunately, Jones shatters her sword sending shards into Dallas’ neck and chest.
  • With Dallas’ life on the line and Michael kidnapped by Jones in the first 10 minutes, the writer’s really ramped up the stakes in this second to last episode by also giving Maria yet another vision of three coffins.
  • We get a sweet moment of Kyle coming clean about his crush on Isobel to Maria before he’s called to Deep Sky to operate on Dallas. Isobel boldly offers to help Kyle with the surgery and they are able to save his life.
  • Liz and Heath whip up the serum to separate Max and Jones but the treatment Max must take will take away his powers. That sends him into a slight existential crisis over whether Liz would still love him without powers. I really appreciate that he was given the time in these final episodes to really think through the implications of that rather than just jumping straight into “well, it has to be done” mode.
  • Of course we know Dallas gives Heath the remaining equation and Max gets to keep his powers.
  • My favorite thing about the tail end of a season is the answers we finally get and with Jones taking Michael to his bunker, he finally reveals his and Nora’s relationship. Jones tells Michael that Nora was his right hand warrior until others turned her against him, meaning at some point Nora was “evil,” at least that’s how Michael sees it.
  • He also gets the opportunity to use that very mind reading power on Jones and learns that Jones wants the Lockhart Machine to call someone or something. Michael also reveals that Jones killed his triad and found that murder loophole to charging the sword.
  • We also get a rare Max and Alex moment that just proves once again the excellence of this cast. These two rarely interact and yet it feels effortless as Max lets Alex know he understands his need to stay busy and at least try to find Michael.
  • Easily the worst moment of the episode was Jones using his powers on Sanders who drops to his knees and we just… never saw anything else about it. The writer’s assured everyone Sanders is alive and kicking so we should see him in season 4! The second worst moment was obviously Michael getting stabbed. My trust issues with television had me yelling at the screen for that choice, but knowing his survives makes it slightly less painful to see on the rewatch.
  • Jones arriving at Deep Sky shakes up the party a bit and dropping Kyle, Ramos, and Heath out a window really made for one of the worst cliffhangers. Even with Liz complying and giving Jones the serum, it was a painfully long week when that scene aired.

“Never Let You Go”

John Golden Britt / The CW
  • Bless the writing team for not wasting a single second and showing us that everyone survived that window drop scene.
  • The clock is now ticking to inject Jones with the second shot that will keep his and Max’s DNA apart and then find a way to kill him. They have just nine hours and form a plan to use the radio towers of Roswell to force Jones and Max back into their own bodies. As soon as that plan was revealed it was clear there’d be the classic “which one is Jones” stand off and the moment didn’t disappoint.
  • First they must find a way to make that second serum disperse in Jones’ body and the solution is alien adrenaline. Liz extracting it from Max’s body brought us a sweet moment between the pair. The finale is stressful chaos but the small moments like this full of moving speeches and music are the bread and butter of Roswell.
  • Before they enact the plan, Isobel recruits Rosa and Maria to help her rebuild her mother’s sword. They agree but only on the condition that Isobel rests. Considering she’s got a nose bleed from lack of sleep, I can’t say I blame Maria for that counteroffer.
  • Isobel using the flower petals and her own DNA to rebind the sword was such a great visual and drove home the show’s storyline that alien glass is part alien, part science.
  • Kyle dancing in the lab to Shania Twain’s “Man I Feel Like A Woman” was a scene I could watch on repeat all day. I never knew I needed it but now I genuinely hope we get to see that a couple more times in season 4!
  • Alex absolutely refusing to let Michael say “I love you” to him out of the fear of what might happen was a powerful moment. Michael recognizes that his own self-loathing over killing his father could cause their relationship to crumble, but Alex promises that won’t happen. Thankfully we know everything works out.
  • With Jones free of Michael’s cage and cuffs, the body swapping between Max and Jones is simultaneously chaotic but also hilarious as Max is constantly arriving into a body at the least opportune moments.
  • The intimate questions to determine who was actually Max was a clever move and had me on the edge of my seat. I loved the writer’s planting the final answer earlier in the episode when Liz and Max are in the lab together.
  • With Jones dead at Max’s hand, the finale’s celebratory ending with the crew together and happy made my heart sing to see again.
  • The final scene of the mysterious woman wondering in Mexico and only able to ask for Liz perfectly sets up what we can expect in season 4. More mysteries and more aliens!

That’s it for our season 3 rewatch of Roswell, New Mexico. Be sure to tune in tonight as the season 4 premieres on The CW.

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By Brianna
Brianna works full time in the publishing industry, passionately building books to bring to the masses. Her first fandom was Harry Potter, which she joined at age 11. Her love for books took her abroad to earn her Masters Degree at University College London, after which she lived in New York City, and now resides in Austin. She loves all things fandom including Supernatural, Doctor Who, and more. Ever the introvert, she can usually be found reading, playing with her dog, listening to music and practicing yoga. Brianna joined the Nerds and Beyond staff in 2018 where she unites her love for all things "nerd" with her passion for writing. Find her on Twitter here: @bookbag09
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