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Roswell, New Mexico: Steal My Sunshine

“Is that alien enough for you?”

Timing is everything. And six months of peace and quiet allowed the Pod Squad to settle into their version of normal — Hatch Day Parties and all. Unfortunately, things never stay quiet in Roswell for long.

Max is the interim Sheriff and Liz is teaching when not whipping up half-alien brain-protecting cures. They are also living together and enjoying their post-Jones existence. Max has gone so far as to get Arturo’s blessing to pop the question. A blessing that includes Abuela’s wedding ring and a side order of “If you ever...” Yet, for all Max’s talk of it being the right time, the Fates seem to conspire against him.

It doesn’t take Liz long to realize what Max is up to. In a completely un-Liz-like turn of events, she doesn’t go screaming for the hills. She doesn’t say yes, either. While I’m the first one to say a person shouldn’t have to justify their answer to a marriage proposal (if it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it), her reasoning both did and did not make sense.

If I’m understanding correctly, she didn’t want to say yes because bad alien juju always seems to find her and Max. She also told him she’d say yes the next time he asks. Presumably in that mythical someday when life is perfect and they’re safe from any and all alien juju. Like that will ever happen. Besides, the last time I checked marriage was for better or for worse.

Yet, she’s not wrong. Even as Max searched for the right time to get on one knee, Cameron, now a newly minted FBI agent, pulled him into her investigation of a bank robbery with extraterrestrial overtones. Max would prefer to live in his little bubble of happiness with Liz than admit that alien hijinks are ensuing. Regrettably, reality’s a bitch.

Liz isn’t the only one with doubts. Michael may not be ready for marriage, but he’s decided to move in with Alex. Maybe. Michael knows Alex loves him, but that doesn’t stop him from looking for an escape hatch before he ever set foot through the door. Unlike Max, Michael has spent a lifetime on the outside looking in on other people’s loving families and happy endings. He couches his concerns as possibly “bad timing” but in reality, he still isn’t sure he deserves happiness.

Everyone else sees what he’s doing and calls him on it. Dallas tells him it’s nerves. Max accuses him of “Guerin self-sabotage.” And luckily, Alex, knowing Michael well enough to skip over the preaching or pleading, just tells him the simple truth. He loves Michael, and he wants him there.

Izzy has turned over a new leaf. She sold her house and her event planning business and opened Woman as Warrior, empowering the women of Roswell to find their inner strength and peace. She and Anatsa are still going strong. Anatsa even used the “L” word. Isobel is thrilled, but it causes some complications. I mean, is there a right time to tell your partner you’re an extraterrestrial?

When Cupid was doling out his arrows, he skipped over Kyle. Or did he shoot him with the wrong one? Because Kyle is still pining over Isobel. Instead of living an actual life, he’s taken a page out of Liz’s book and buried himself in work. It appears he, too, is working for Deep Sky. Where else would the world’s foremost authority on alien biology go? On the plus side, it gives him free rein to develop half-alien brain-protecting cures with Liz, but it doesn’t make for a healthy work-life balance.

We didn’t get to dive too deeply into the rest of the Pod Squad’s lives yet. Other than the fact Dallas is taking over Michael’s trailer, we know little about how he spent the last few months. Although he seems to have adjusted well to learning he’s a brother from another planet. The half-alien in need of a brain-protecting cure is none other than Maria. Knowing her brain will no longer dissolve into mush is a relief, but her last dose may have had some unforeseen side effects. Her psychic abilities appear to be waning just when she might need them.

Because the Pod Squad is no longer the only triad in town. Tezca, last season’s mystery girl has brought a couple of bank-robbing friends. And after teasing us since the season 1 finale, it looks like the Alighting is about to begin.

Every other scene in this episode made me go “Awwwww.” Too bad everyone’s happily ever after is about to go up in smoke. Welcome back to Roswell.

4 out of 5 machetes in the kitchen

Parting Thoughts:

Steal My Sunshine is the 1999 release from the Canadian band Len.

In the casting department, Allie Meyers, AKA Liz 1.0, was mentioned but not seen and Rosa was nowhere to be found, although she was listed in the credits. There was no Heath, in the ep or in the credits. However, the male member of our new triad was played by Andrew Lees, another Originals alum.

Operation Hot Latex made me laugh out loud.

Quotes:

Liz: “Life’s an experiment, Vanessa. There are no guaranteed outcomes.”

Liz: “Everything is theoretically impossible until you make it a reality.”

Alex: “Now everything here is yours.”

Cameron: “You owe me tequila if the robbers turn out to be of the pod variety.”

Max: “Wait, is this about you being all Michael about moving in with Alex?”
Michael: “No... Maybe.”

Dallas: “Home is what you make it.”

Eduardo: “You’re here so much, the janitors dust you.”

Cameron: “Okay, Little Green Sheriff, time to down a power line or something.”

Isobel: “How about you join the dark side and come and support Team Iz?"

Alex: “I don’t need a pretend world when I get a chance to build the real thing with you.”

Liz: “Promise you’ll ask me again, Max Evans. ‘Cause I promise I’ll say yes.”

Shari loves sci-fi, fantasy, supernatural, and anything with a cape.

2 comments:

  1. Yay for Shari!

    I love Roswell NM and I'm looking forward to watching the final season, but I think I'll have to wait until it's out from under The CW. The commercials are just too much. I promise I'll post comments then.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm still in denial about this being the last season. Or at least I'm trying to be. Either way, I'm sure it'll be a fun ride.

    ReplyDelete

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