Among the less extreme surprises was how quickly Roswell seems to have wrapped up the mystery of Guerin’s mother. Will Michael and Alex move on to Michael building a spaceship of his own, now that he has a full schematic and a bit more of the materials, thanks to Alex finally handing over the piece that Jim Valenti left him? So far this season’s various moving pieces, like Cam’s sister who just happens to have worked on a genetic sequencing program that could save lives or be used as a bioweapon, seem a lot less scattered than last season. That being said, with the elder Manes up and about, Cam back on the scene (and her sister likely in the mix), Roswell’s character count is once again headed northward. Even with Max down for the count and the DeLuca family sitting out every other episode, it feels like there’s no longer enough room in the episodes to get to everyone.
It feels odd for Rosa and Isobel to have both sidestepped their one-time romantic relationship, but at the same time, seeing the two actors together, it’s hard to see what else they could do. Lily Cowles, who plays Isobel Evans, is so formidable, so mature in a specific way, that Amber Midthunder’s Rosa somehow looks even younger next to her than she does next to her younger-older sister Liz. 19 and 28 are such drastically different ages, and it’s easy for a bunch of 19-year-olds—or a bunch of 28-year-olds—to be all over the map even among themselves. Liz and Rosa are both having to come to terms with all the pain that was waiting for Rosa once the tragedy of her death and physical addiction were gone, but there’s still so much growing up for her to do. And while the rest of the group certainly have more growing up to do of their own, Rosa’s presence makes it clear how much farther along they are now than they were 10 years prior.
Which brings us back to Isobel and Rosa. While it would be “legal” for the two to pick back up and explore what they were feeling before Rosa’s death, a time that feels incredibly recent for Rosa, it would be hard for it to not look squicky on screen. Narratively, they seem to have plenty to do when it comes to working on themselves, and it’s doubtful that a show like Roswell would want to go there. But it still feels weird to leave that loose end without so much as a conversation.
All the same, Isobel’s gift of giving the Ortecho family back to one another was a beautiful thing. It’s hard to imagine how that’s going to work for the rest of the town—will they tell Arturo she has to be a secret from everyone else? Will Isobel become so powerful she can mindmeld everyone? But it was both a good demonstration of her growing power and discipline as well as how she’s using her strength as part of her healing, to make things right with those Noah harmed through her.
Other notes
Whoever does the music for this show is a genius, and thank you for bringing Len’s Steal My Sunshine back into our lives, with all the overly close mixed gender siblings and pregnancy weirdness that music video underscores for the Evans siblings and the show in general.