Max’s resurrection leaves everyone with new challenges to face. Maria and Alex get into a spot of bother when they investigate the origin of Maria’s mother’s mysterious new boots.

I worried that the show would struggle to wrap a satisfying conclusion around the Max problem at the end of the last episode. The idea that he didn’t want to come back because he’d be full of all the negative energy absorbed from Rosa upon her resurrection, built up over the decade she was dead, felt too silly, and unfortunately the resolution to this comes too quickly and easily. I hold out some hope that the writers are playing a long game here, but as things stand from very early on in this episode – it’s a bit of a damp squib.

Still, that leaves us to explore the pressing mystery of Maria’s mother’s turquoise cowboy boots, which I have to confess have failed to hold my attention so far and this is where the show goes entirely off the reservation, starting with Alex and Maria’s encounter with the apparent maker of the boots. While the show avoids actually having Duel of the Banjos play (possibly because they didn’t want to spend out on the royalties) it all gets deeply weird very quickly, and the resolution of this too feels unsatisfying partly because of how help suddenly arrives and partly because the show throws a big reveal down and then shows no interest in following it up.

And as if that wasn’t enough, then the Most Awkward Love Triangle in Roswell™ gets just that little bit… awkwarder? I don’t really know what to do with this one. It’s nice to see the show playing up to its nature of inclusivity for all but it’s also all a little out of nowhere. Throw in another character suddenly exploring hitherto utterly unsuspected sexual leanings and it all starts to feel less Roswell and more Hollyoaks.

Maybe my expectations have just become too high for the show, but it’s starting to feel like things are unravelling slightly, and that having done the brilliant slow-paced reveal of the central Big Bad last season the writers are struggling to know where to go next with the characters. Certainly it’s seldom a good sign when you start killing off and resurrecting characters…

Verdict: Starting to fray at the seams a little, like it’s run out of cogent ideas and is starting to just throw ideas randomly at the wall to see what sticks. 6/10

Greg D.Smith