Max and Cameron continue their investigation into the mysterious deaths. Michael has to open up to Alex just as Isobel has to with Noah. But as Isobel starts to regain long lost memories long lost, even more questions arise.

Roswell really has turned things around in the latter half of its maiden run. Avoiding the temptation to drag things out, proceedings open with Max reviving Isobel from the pod so that Liz can administer her antidote. After that is where things start to get interesting.

For one thing, Isobel has to have a pretty unusual conversation with Noah, especially seeing as how (as we know) he saw her in her pod. His response, and indeed the whole interaction, are pretty much perfectly pitched, from horror to disbelief and finally acceptance through a range of other emotions, with just enough small bits of humour sprinkled in. The writers face everything down in one conversation, and it’s really remarkably well done.

Across town, Michael is having a not dissimilar conversation with Alex, wherein each has some secrets to reveal. That in itself is a nice little chain of surprises, especially for Michael who approaches the conversation with his trademark cockiness then finds himself wrong-footed when Alex starts to share revelations of his own. It’s an odd point at which these two now find themselves – Alex knows Michael slept with Maria, and Michael knows that he knows, and that’s an awkwardness between them. Whether they will be able to overcome that remains to be seen, but I’m hopeful because they are by far the best couple in the show.

At the hospital, a protest against research work turns ugly, with Liz, Noah and Isobel caught in the middle until Max arrives to try to save the day. However, while it seems like just another example of TV narrative convenience at first, as the episode progresses it becomes clear that in fact there may be more to this than meets the eye.

And as a side effect of Liz’s antidote, Isobel seems to be recovering memories which may shed light on the fateful night of Rosa’s death. This may well be a double-edged sword – though Liz has forgiven Max, she understandably harbours a certain amount of anger still at his sister for having killed hers. Nevertheless, she also wants to know exactly what happened, leaving her with a huge amount of tension to negotiate, but that may be nothing compared to what could happen when the real truth starts to emerge.

Verdict: Tense, densely written but flowing so easily that you’ll hardly notice the hour flying by. I have no idea how something that started so mediocre grew into something so good, but I’m hooked. 9/10

Greg D. Smith