The questions we’ve all been asking was finally answered on Roswell, New Mexico Season 2 Episode 5.
Will Liz be able to bring Max back from the dead?
On one of the strongest installments to date, Liz and Kyle race against the clock to make it possible.
There had to be another reason why Max didn’t want to be revived. We figured as much, from the start.
Max is a unique brand of selfless, and he never makes a move unless it’s to benefit the people that he loves.
Liz: I thought you’d given up.
Michael: Yeah, it’s what I do. The thing is, Max doesn’t. He would never pull his plug to stop his own suffering. Unless he thought he was saving us form something. And I’m a little sick of his heroic martyr crap. It’s a pain in the ass.
Liz: So, you built an alien pacemaker in seven hours?
Michael: My genius increases when I’m pissed off.
Our suspicions were confirmed when Isobel used Rosa to take a trip into the depths of hell.
Alright, maybe it wasn’t actual hell, but it sure seemed a lot like it.
Isobel and Liz’s desperation to bring Max back, despite his desperate pleas not to, caused me some concern as a viewer.
As much as we all want Max to grace our screens again, is holding onto him truly what’s best?
But Max revealing his true motives for staying dead puts everything in perspective, and whether or not to bring him back suddenly became a very easy decision.
When I resurrected Rosa, I took in ten years of emptiness. So, if you resurrect me you will be bringing back an infection. I don’t want to come back as a monster. I don’t want to hurt anyone.
Max
To everyone but Rosa, that is.
It’s hard to feel anything more than a slight annoyance for Rosa, because she ended up having Max’s best intentions, at heart.
Max begged her time and time again to help him, and she finally decided to give in to his wishes at the last possible moment.
But Liz’s hysterical reaction after Max flatlined was proof that Rosa values her sister over everything else.
It was always evident how important Rosa was to Liz, but viewers haven’t seen quite the same amount of love on her end.
Liz did spend the last decade missing her sister, while Rosa had no idea any time had passed since Liz saw her last, but an act of love on Rosa’s end felt necessary to exemplify their bond.
Rosa using her newfound powers to revive the man Liz loves, was a powerful move. Max resurrected Rosa, and now Rosa has done the same for him.
Everything has come full circle.
Maria and Alex’s friendship is one of the purest and most enjoyable dynamics on the show.
Rather than having any sort hostility between them, due to their mutual feelings for Michael, they have nothing but love for each other.
It’s very telling that Alex was the first person Maria forgave out of their entire group.
Alex: You’ve been avoiding me.
Maria: Well, I learned you and all of our friends have been lying to me about aliens and murderers and resurrections. So, I haven’t been feeling particularly social. That being said, I fell for your ex. So, I decided that even though I’m still not speaking to them, you and I are even.
Alex: That’s fair.
Then again, it’s hard to stay angry with someone like Alex for long.
They were both able to talk about Michael without any resentment, and their closeness is something that Roswell would be smart to hold on to.
It’s easy to think of Liz as Maria’s best friend, but the truth is that Liz has been gone for the past decade.
Alex may not have always been around after enlisting, but he and Maria have remained friends throughout their entire lives.
No matter what happens with this love triangle in the future, it’s safe to say that nothing can tear Alex and Maria apart.
Out of all the characters on the series, Michael has always come off as the most emotionally damaged.
While it may be necessary, his quest to learn more about his heritage doesn’t have him in the most stable state of mind.
Add Max’s death to that and he’s in pretty bad shape.
The flashbacks throughout the episode served to give the viewers more of an insight to Michael’s relationship with Max and Isobel.
Up until now, I had never even thought much about Michael not being related to his siblings by blood.
If that didn’t already make him feel like an outsider, being rejected by the Evans certainly did.
But despite the animosity Michael showed towards Max, Max never gave up on him.
Isobel: You know, our whole lives you’ve kept your distance. And you’ve always insisted that you’re an outsider. And I never got that. Because for me and Max you were family. You always were. On the worst day you get to say, “he’s your person.” Pretend like he hasn’t been ours all along. I see that now.
Michael: You got me. My abandonment issues have all been a long con in case your half-resurrected brother decides to short-circuit his stasis pod.
That was what Michael ended up holding onto, and it was what inspired him to make an alien pacemaker to save his life.
If Max can find a way to fight off the darkness, Michael can tell Max how much he means to him when he’s not in a medically induced coma.
As Michael Vlamis revealed in an interview with TV Fanatic, this was the Michael Guerin episode.
Michael has always been an enigma to himself, as well as to the audience, and the flashbacks gave viewers more of an insight to why he is the way he is.
Overall, “I’ll Stand By You” was an incredibly satisfying episode of television.
The story that has been building since Roswell, New Mexico Season 2 Episode 1 went up in flames, and something even more interesting has been created from the ashes.
Max’s fight against the darkness won’t be an easy one to win, and it’ll probably be something that continues through a good chunk of the season.
Roswell never runs of things to explore, and now that Max is back in some form, we can’t wait to see where the rest of Roswell, New Mexico Season 2 is going to take us.
It’s your turn, Roswell fanatics! What did you think of “I’ll Stand By You”?
Are you surprised that Max has come back to life? Or did you see it coming from the start?
Drop a comment down below, and let us know your thoughts and predictions for the rest of the season.
And don’t forget that if you missed the episode, you can watch Roswell, New Mexico online right here at TV Fanatic!
Roswell, New Mexico airs Mondays at 9/8c on The CW.
Rachel Foertsch is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.