The siblings go to find some more of the truth behind their past on an old reservation. Liz has to turn to an old friend when Arturo finds himself in trouble.

If I’m honest, Roswell is starting to lose me a little, not so much in terms of appeal as detail, as it starts to sprawl all over the place. I don’t recall the third Manes sibling, Gregory, ever being mentioned in the show before, and yet here he pops up as if he’s supposed to be a character I knew about all along. It was bad enough keeping up with newly introduced saint of the Manes family ancestry, Tripp, but this is getting silly.

Then there’s the siblings themselves and their continuing search for details on their birth mother which leads them down increasingly twisty roads of revelation. When it starts to reveal hitherto unknown connections between various characters’ family histories, despite rewinding several times, I had genuine problems following it.

Still, let’s focus on what it does get right, and as always that’s the characters. The road trip involves not just Max, Isobel and Michael but also Alex (because his formerly undiscussed other brother lives where they’re going) and Maria (who just tags along for the ride). Maria and Isobel really don’t get along too well even now, and it’s actually quite entertaining watching the two of them snipe at one another with poor Michael stuck in the middle.

There’s also some lovely character moments between Isobel and Max, and Isobel and Michael, where we get to some of the real hidden depths in all three. This has always been as how about family, real and adopted, and it touches on some dark areas while also bringing a lot of light.

Meanwhile, back home Liz runs into bother when an ICE raid at the hospital while she’s there waiting with her father for more test results ends up picking him up for deportation. This part really doesn’t hold back on the writers’ thoughts on current immigration policy in the US as well as the subject of racial inequality and white privilege, as Liz is forced to let Cameron get answers she can’t, ostensibly by virtue of Cameron being a white blonde woman. Even after this, Liz is forced to rely on assistance from perhaps the last person she’d ever want to ask, and we get to put a face to another background character who’s only been a name until this point.

By the end of it, there are still more questions than answers. Alex is in bother again. Max has so much more he needs to unlock about his past. I just wish the show would take things a little more slowly, so I could take all the details ion a little more easily.

Verdict: Great character work but some confusingly labyrinthine plotting lets things down occasionally. 8/10

Greg D. Smith