Roswell, New Mexico: How's It Going to Be (4x13)

I can't believe it's over!! I'm so emotional, y'all.

Cons:

So like... here's the thing. I don't think this finale was "good", in a lot of ways. It's just that by and large, the ways in which it wasn't good were things I don't really care about, so it didn't bother me? The big one of course just being Clyde, the whole A-plot with him trying to get back to his planet. Did anyone else feel like the writing of this season literally wasn't sure what the stakes were supposed to be? Was the Alighting really just... this one evil alien dude going home and trying to be an evil dictator? I mean, sure, that wouldn't be great for Oasis, but it's sort of a paltry threat in the grand scheme of things, no? Were we really meant to think that Clyde was so menacing that his return to Oasis would spell disaster for a planet already apparently on the verge of death? It makes no sense, it was a weak-ass final villain for the show, I felt nothing about him, I'm glad Liz got to kill him I guess but I also just really don't care.

Structurally, this season had a lot of problems, and they definitely came to a head for me here in this finale, particularly in regards to the final plan to defeat Clyde, and how ultimately it was Liz's victory and trickery that lead him to his own doom. That's a cool idea in isolation, but when I think back over this season and what it was trying to set up, you've got Michael yearning for home, those moments when Clyde was showing him Oasis. You've got Bonnie's complicated and abusive relationship with Clyde. You've got Isobel's bond with Tezca, something that was way under-explored and felt pretty unmotivated to me, but still... and then in the end, Liz, who has no real personal thematic connection to Clyde, is the one who takes him out, just because he's the bad guy and she's the protagonist? Look, Jones also left something to be desired as a villain, but at least the final showdown with Liz in season three had emotional resonance to it, because the dude was literally a clone of her true love.

Before I get to the big flaw of this finale that's going to stick with me above all the others, a bit of lamenting over some little things I wish we could have gotten to see. It's pretty funny to me that Alex dying ended up just being something that was solved offscreen. I wasn't convinced we'd get a handprint, really, but I did think we'd get some dramatic moment of truth where Alex's life was spared in the nick of time. I feel like this was such an unforced error; just change the stuff in the pocket universe so that Alex is going to die if they don't escape, but he'll live if they manage to get out. That way we know Alex is okay the second they step through the portal, instead having to awkwardly say "oh, Kyle's taking care of him off screen." And if they wanted to stick with Alex being cured once they got home, at least show us a snippet of Kyle and Alex in the finale! They're supposed to be best friends!

Other things I missed: Arturo, who really should have gotten to be at Alex's wedding, come on!! Greg, the good egg, who also should have been around for his brother. Some sort of explanation as to why Tezca targeted Alex in the first place (this is a sticking point for me, I wish there was some reason why it happened to begin with, but nobody even questions it!). I also wanted more pod squad time, I really miss how much their sibling relationship connected with me in the earlier seasons, whereas here I felt a little distant from it, since Max, Michael, and Isobel haven't had nearly as much time together this whole final season. This finale, at the end of the day, in a lot of key areas, felt underwhelming. Not insultingly bad or absolutely unworkable, but just... yeah. Setting Michael and Alex and their love story aside, no other element of it felt epic enough to be a proper wrap-up for the whole show. And that's because they weren't sure it was going to be. And yeah, I am a little bummed about that, I won't lie!

Everything I've listed above falls entirely into the category of "yes, these are problems, but oh well, I don't really care particularly." There is one thing though, that's a little bigger, a little harder to brush aside and say this finale was an uncomplicated win for me as a fan of the show and that's...

Well, it's our girl Liz Ortecho.

I am pretty unhappy, honestly, with where the show left Liz as a character. This is in relation both to the romantic relationship with Max, but also just to her as an individual character on her own journey. What I realized watching that final scene, with the big final kiss for Echo, and the engagement, and all that, was that Liz didn't feel like the character I fell in love with back when I started the show. And I realized that that's been largely true for the entirety of season four. She just... reverted into old unhealthy patterns at some moments, and then just kind of passively behaved as the plot required in other moments, and I think back on the Liz we met in the pilot, then look at the Liz we got in the finale, and I just don't gel with it. I don't feel like she had a proper conclusion to an arc of growth, even though the writing tried to make it seem like that was what we were getting.

I'm here for Malex, they're my main squeeze, but when I was watching things develop, when I realized the show was going to end with Max leaving, I kept thinking about all the people for whom Echo is the main draw. It's the main couple of the show, after all, and while I know Malex is the wildly popular ship in the fandom sense, ostensibly there are still plenty of people who tuned in for four years mostly to check up on Liz Ortecho and Max Evans, and for those people's sakes, I've just got to say, yeah, this kind of sucked! This is not the final sendoff I wanted for these characters and that relationship!

The thing that kind of kills me about it is that for Max, this ending kind of works. I had some issues with the pacing of this whole season, as I've said, but if they'd smoothed out some of the rough turns, had Max's struggle with his powers and his identity a little more cohesively interwoven, the idea of him embracing his savior status and going off into Oasis at the end works quite well! I could be into that. It's bittersweet, but that's alright...

But where does that leave Liz? A full-circle ending where when this show starts, she was coming back to Roswell after years away, chasing some form of peace she could never achieve, and then... what, she builds that peace for herself, only for the show to end when her person walks away? Liz, a character defined by her assertiveness, her confidence, for both good and bad, being left on this lingering shot of her standing still, watching as other people go off to continue changing the world? Like, what are we left with, here, a Liz Ortecho who stays around in Roswell twiddling her thumbs waiting for Max to come back? Ostensibly she'll heal from her brain degeneration and keep doing her science, but we don't have a focus for her, we don't have something that feels like an accomplishment, other than that she got over her fears and decided to marry Max... but that's been a foregone conclusion since season three, hasn't it? I don't know, I just find myself wondering a lot about what a planned ending for Liz could have been. Maybe I would have been happier if she was going with Max to Oasis, or if there was some concrete scientific task that she was going to be doing on Earth that was going to aid him in his mission, so they could be partners, each playing to their different strengths.

As it is, while this ending for Echo certainly could have been worse, and we know that they'll reunite and be married someday, it still felt pretty dissatisfying as a note to go out on.

Pros:

But hey, let's stop being so negative and get into why this finale still put a big smile on my face overall! Obviously I'll have a lot to say about Malex, but first a few other notes:

Rosa and Liz getting a final sister moment, Rosa really settled in her older sister mode, where she's there for Liz and checking up on her, that really means a lot. I love that Rosa got to forge a path in life on her own terms, and the thought of her living it up and being an artist in New York really is just the loveliest final image for her character.

Kyle and Isobel didn't get a ton of time to develop as a couple, but I appreciated everything we saw of them here in this finale, leaning in close during the wedding, slow dancing at the bar, cuddled up together at the fire, Kyle asking Isobel if there's anything he can do to help her as she processes Max leaving... I just think these two are going to settle so naturally and beautifully into true happiness and I'm glad that the show was able to set them on that trajectory, even if I am mourning what we might have seen of them as a couple in season five.

Dallas/Maria? I don't hate it, y'all. I'm bitter because I miss my man Gregory Manes, and I felt like it was oddly clunky to have him brought up so Maria could be like "yeah, he's not it for me", I almost wish she'd just said "we broke up" during the first episode of the season, but whatever. Point is, Dallas and Maria's dance was super sweet, I loved their chemistry, and I felt like them separating each to explore their gifts and their own alien journeys was a much more appropriate milestone for them as a potential couple, than it was for Liz and Max, as an established one. Dallas has some exploring to do, he has a leap of faith to make, and he cares for Maria, but knows he can't start something new before he sees what else is out there. I'm comforted by the idea of Maria astral projecting, strengthening her abilities and forming a bridge to connect Max and Dallas with the rest of their family on Earth. I honestly think that Dallas and Maria got some of the strongest and most satisfying character endings in terms of leaving it open for further exploration, but still feeling settled with what we got. (Another bitterness point goes to Maria not really having any on-screen time to process Mimi's death; timeline-wise, this season happened over a couple of weeks, meaning Maria just lost her mother, y'all).

While I've expressed my overall frustration with Clyde as a villain, I did like that he sealed his own fate, that his desire for power and control led to him underestimating the humans. It felt appropriate, insofar as anything about this villain had thematic or narrative weight. It's nice that Liz got to give him his comeuppance, if only because I wanted my girl to have a little more to do in this finale.

And yeah, seeing the original Liz in the form of Allie Meyers, the two stars of these shows hanging out at the Crashdown, I definitely really loved that. She even put on the alien headband, which I'm sure was a real burst of nostalgia for all those fans of the older show. It felt very finale-like, in a way that several other things really did not. There was a sense of gravitas there, and I like that we see the hints of Shivani and Allie being able to heal and move forward as well. Shivani was a character I never felt really hit her stride, but I'm still happy to see her on a journey towards peace.

As I said, I don't hate the thought of Max embracing his savior status, and while I felt kind of conflicted about it, I also liked the final pod squad moment, with Max telling Michael that his destiny is to be with Alex and write their future story together, and him passing on the mantle of protector of their family to Isobel. That felt like such a good brother moment, like Max was incredibly in tune with both of his siblings and where they were at on their personal journeys.

And yeah, I've saved the Malex stuff for last, because of course I have! If someone were to come up to me and say "okay, so, the show is ending, and in the finale there's only time for one couple to get a big finale-like sendoff with all the cheesy romance you could want", I would have picked Malex. Of course I would. Sure, I can lament what happened with Echo, I can yearn for more Kybel, but Malex has been the draw of this show to me from minute one, before I'd even started watching it properly, and I've got to say, it was enormously healing and cathartic to get to send them off in proper style, knowing they'll live the rest of their life in happiness.

So much to talk about here: Michael being all nervous, his siblings bringing Sanders in to calm him down... maybe the best dialogue of the night was the "is it tequila?" / "it has tequila in it" moment, with the reveal being that it's Sanders, come to give Michael a handkerchief that belonged to Nora... they share a hug, and Sanders gives him a hard time about the copper wire, and Michael calls himself a work in progress... I just loved seeing Michael's giddy nerves, how much this day clearly means to him, how important it is for him to have this, for himself, and also as a gift he can give to Alex.

And meanwhile we got an Alex and Maria scene, and I was ecstatic! I love that they call back to Alex being against marriage, and now all the way here, to him literally wanting to marry Michael as what he thought was his dying wish, and now getting to do it at the start of a whole lifetime together, with his friends around him... he looks so handsome, and Maria looks stunning, and he says he knew he was ready with Michael because he followed his heart...

I know some people are probably sad we didn't actually get to hear the wedding vows but I'm okay with it: I feel like so much of what Michael and Alex have said to each other over the years have been vows already. We know their devotion, we know their love. Now we get to see them celebrate it in peace, with their family around them. It was so smart to have Michael play a song for Alex, but for them to back up and montage over the actual ceremony so we didn't have to deal with Vlamis singing and instead got to soak in the nostalgia of a '90s classic one final time... such an amazing and cheesy song choice, I'm kind of living for it. Michael and Alex both just had the most adoring looks on their faces, the biggest smiles, as they slipped the rings on... I am going to be weeping about it forever.

And it doesn't stop there! Literally every second of them dancing together is something I want branded on the inside of my eyelids. Alex taking Michael's last name?!?!?! Admittedly I kind of always liked the idea of Alex reclaiming the Manes legacy, so a part of me thinks maybe I would have gone a different direction with it, but at the same time, it's so fucking cute that I really don't mind. Michael has always wanted a family, and now he gets to give his name to the man he loves, so they can be each other's homes? Yes please. I'll take it gladly. Also Michael noting that he got to marry his high school sweetheart, Michael saying they're married now so he's gonna embarrass him on purpose, calling him "husband"... not to mention the way they were dancing together during the whole background of Maria and Dallas's scene, just swaying entirely in each other's arms, Michael's face buried in Alex's neck... all of this was so good it's making my heart flutter just thinking about it.

And they get the cutest little sendoff moment, Michael grabbing food from the Crashdown, Alex taking his hand, Michael kissing his hand, like what the fuck kind of high romance bullshit is this, my heart can't take it! Driving off with "Just Married" written on the back of Michael's truck... y'all, remember when Michael stole Alex's guitar in high school, and Alex found him in the back of that truck? Well now they're RIDING OFF INTO THE REST OF THEIR LIVES IN THAT TRUCK. It's been 14 years, I just... I cannot. I seriously cannot. It's all too good.

I'm going to give this finale a score that I feel reflects the cohesive truth of it, which is that it was a mixed bag, but also honors the fact that I personally had a blast with it, because I got exactly what I wanted for my faves. Let's put it at...

7.5/10

As is my tradition when I'm reviewing the finale of a show, I'm going to try and give the entire run of this series one final overall score. It's tricky when I get hyper-fixated on something like this, because my level of love for it isn't always matched by the objective truth of its quality. Is Roswell, New Mexico a "good" TV show? Well, to be honest, if we're going with my favorite definition of "good", which is "does this thing know what it wants to accomplish, and does it accomplish it well", then I'd say absolutely, the first two seasons of Roswell, New Mexico are good TV. They are fun, and soapy, and dramatic, and the characters have great chemistry, and the plot is ridiculous but the themes are actually cohesively explored and concluded. The character arcs are thoughtful, and examined in surprising depth. It's funny, the music is great, it establishes a great vibe through and through... it's overall some good shit. Seasons three and four I'd say overall are a lot weaker in terms of structure, but still contain plenty of content that I greatly adored, as a function of already being deeply invested by the time I got there. How to encompass my overall thoughts into a single number? Well, I'll leave off with this. I'm truly thankful I found this show, and I'm going to miss it a hell of a lot. I would have happily hung out with these characters for a long time to come, and I plan to write tons more about them moving forward. That's got to say something in the show's favor, does it not?

8/10