Trapped in the influence of a mega dose of the alien-power mist, Liz must fight to save not just herself but as well.

I am on record as someone who dislikes the genre trope of a character being trapped in a dream and the audience having to view a significant chunk of an episode from their point of view, but I have to say that Roswell manages to nail it with this one because it actually runs with the idea and has fun with it, despite the seriousness of the stakes.

Yes, Liz has collapsed into some sort of coma as a result of the alien mist. Shivani apparently wasn’t as badly impacted (we only really hear about her reaction rather than seeing it) so she’s been bundled off by the Scooby Gang to try to magic up a solution. First this involves Isobel attempting to piggyback into her mindscape with Max, but when that goes badly wrong, it’s down to Liz to try to work out what’s going on before she and Max lose their lives.

As mundane an example of the trope as this might sound, the fact it’s portrayed as a western is what makes this. I’m put in mind in fact, of the old Red Dwarf episode Gunmen of the Apocalypse. Not because it’s out and out comedy, but because the show really leaves any cares at the door and lets the characters in Liz’s mindscape be whatever they can be. So we have Sheriff Liz, deputy Rosa, deputy Machete and Michael the gambler. Kyle turns up too, though perhaps not in the way anyone might expect.

Ranged against our posse are Clyde the gunslinger and his boss, a shadowy figure who may well be Liz’s true equal. As Liz battles against this nemesis, the question hanging over everything is what exactly it is that she’s fighting against in her own mind. The answer comes after a few false starts, any of which might have been used in another show and would have been sickly sweet and cliched. That answer? It’s dark. Like, really dark.

Because beneath all the fun wrapping, this is an episode that deals with a fundamental question underpinning the character that is Liz Ortecho – a brilliant, driven scientist who has the knowledge and the resources to literally shape the world but who chooses to live her life in a dusty American town with her cowboy boyfriend. The answer to that question when it finally comes is surprising – I’d say brave even – because it allows our protagonist to be human, including all the faults and failings that condition carries. To be honest, the attached ‘twist’ revealed just before the credits isn’t all that much of a surprise (because it’s telegraphed pretty clearly) but that doesn’t matter because that twist isn’t the point of the episode – the circumstances and revelations which lead to it are, and it means that as the show heads towards its conclusion, we have yet one more variable thrown in which leaves the ultimate conclusion as a genuine question.

There is other stuff here too, and it’s good, though overshadowed by the main plot. Michael gets frustrated as only Michael can. Rosa reveals more than she might have intended as the gang search for help in the absence of Kyle and Isobel and Maria have a moment in which some feelings are shared and advice dispensed. It’s all genuinely enjoyable character development, but it can’t help but all play second fiddle to an A plot which is so very engaging.

Verdict: Once again, a show takes a framing device of which I am not a fan and makes the absolute best use of it to get to important plot and character developments. 9/10

Greg D. Smith