Roswell, New Mexico recap: 4 people who should have held their tongue

On this week’s Roswell, Liz learns that local conspiracy theorist, Grant Green, may be part of a cover-up surrounding Rosa’s death.

When is a lie better than the truth? Perhaps when someone you love has their life on the line. Just when it appeared the Roswell tomb of secrets was tapped out, “Don’t Speak” proves the opposite is true. Everyone, from resident nut-job Grant Green, to dearly departed Jim Valenti, is hiding something.

1. Grant Green

Sticky-fingered Liz Ortecho swipes a recorder from the box of Jim Valenti’s things after meeting with Kyle. On it, are calls from the police scanner dated the night Rosa died. Amidst the normal ones (although I’m not sure someone worried they’re a cabbage can be labeled “normal”), Liz recognizes the voice of Grant Green. His virtual voice sounds spooked as he recalls seeing three floating bodies out in the desert.

Following up on her “intrepid” streak, Liz visits Grant Green in his natural habitat. The usual loose-lipped-wannabe-whistle-blower is surprisingly unwilling to go into the details about what he saw that night. After some prying on Liz’s part, she learns the reason is because Grant Green is a fraud. Turns out, all his rantings and ravings have been at the behest of Wyatt Long, or at least, whoever Wyatt works for. Grant was paid to keep silent about what he saw that night, especially because he was high on peyote anyways and the odds of anyone believing him were slim to none.

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No one has to worry about that anymore though, since Wyatt Long sends Grant Green to an early grave. He attempts to send Liz into one behind him but she manages to escape before that can happen.

2. Isobel Evans-Bracken

Waking up in the middle of a desert, alone, dazed, and with a foggy memory is usually a sign of a wicked bender, a fugue state, or your powers exhausting you to the point of losing your ability to function properly. Guess which one befalls our Alien Barbie this week?

Isobel is still reeling from over-exerting herself trying to get Liz to leave town. Her husband, the ever-forgettable Noah, is desperate to find her. By the time Max and Michael catch up to her, she’s exhausted and sun-drunk. Given her mental state, it’s no wonder she accidentally lets it slip that this isn’t the first time she and Michael have tried mentally coaxing Liz out of Roswell.

Max does not accept the news of their betrayal well at all. Knowing that Isobel was the reason Liz left (a reminder to Max they weren’t actually together so she didn’t leave him) was because Isobel persuaded her to against her will. Even though Isobel and Michael have had time to reconcile their decision, for Max, the wound is fresh. It’s going to take some time for him to forgive.

To make matters worse for Isobel, Noah isn’t ready to welcome her home with open arms. He found her stash of nail polish remover! I gasped when he threw the empty bottles on the ground in front of her. It’s like when you’re trying to find the bag of hair that proves the guy you’re dating is a serial killer. How is Isobel going to explain all those empty bottles of acetone? If I was Noah I’d be signing her up for TLC’s My Strange Addiction, (pretty sure there actually was an episode about someone addicted to drinking nail polish).

Luckily, or un-luckily depending on how you look at it, Noah explains it for her by assuming she has an alcohol problem and has been masking her drinking by pouring liquor into the containers. Rather than confess the truth to her husband, Isobel struggles to come up with any kind of acceptable answer except that she can’t tell him the truth. It’s not good enough for Noah and he sends her packing.

3. Max Evans

And the grand reveal of who killed Rosa? Isobel! Although I’m willing to bet there is more to this story. Maybe she was mind controlled by someone else? Maybe it wasn’t what it appeared to be? I’ll have to consider my theories in more detail but I highly doubt it was cold-blooded murder. Either way, Max doesn’t deny it when Liz puts the pieces together and comes to the correct conclusion.

A photograph of three floating bodies, a hand-print that doesn’t fit the size of Max’s hands but also can’t be Michael’s since his was broken at the time, and Max’s own admission that people lie sometimes to keep the people they love safe. The only answer that makes sense is Isobel. Even worse, Max has been covering it up all this time to protect her.

4. Kyle Valenti

This is kind of cheating since Kyle probably did the right thing by snooping. After the memory of his father threatens to get tainted by the possibility of him having an illegal affair with a teenage girl, Kyle steals a key from his dad’s belongings and goes to his old cabin. The cabin belongs to Alex now, left to him in Jim’s will since it used to be a place for him to escape from his homophobic, abusive father.

It’s a nice change of pace to see Alex and Kyle together. Together, they find a secret underground bunker in Jim Valenti’s cabin, one that houses a creepy detox room. Kyle deduces that Jim was keeping Rosa here to help her get clean but not because he was sleeping with her, because he was her real father. That’s right, in a very Gossip Girl twist – Kyle and Liz share a half-sister!

Later on, left alone in the cabin once again, Alex does some poking around of his own and stumbles on a hollow portion of the bedroom wall. Doing what any normal person would, he breaks it down with his walking stick and unearths an alien artifact.

It’s a good thing Michael is starting to become more open to the idea of telling his secrets because I can’t imagine Alex is going to be able to keep it hidden for long.

Odds & Ends

• Put on the spot, Michael says Isobel is at “goat yoga” when Noah asks. The look Max gives him is priceless.
• Isobel getting the boot from Noah is sad but I think it’s better for her character. No offense to Noah’s actor but that relationship wasn’t adding much to the show.
• “This is the part in the horror movie where the audience starts screaming: No! No! Don’t go in there!”
• “Alien fake news.”
• Kyle tells Alex he’s the bravest person he knows. Awe! I’m enjoying their relationship quite a bit.

A new episode of Roswell, New Mexico titled “Smells Like Teen Spirit” premieres February 26th on the CW.