Roswell, NM – #112 Creep Review by Leonard
Written by Leonard
A flashback to the crash on June 14, 1947 is shown with Noah’s voiceover saying they were coming from a war torn desolate planet searching for a new home. The ship was hijacked and crashed because of a stowaway. The Army is shown on site and are heard shooting at the aliens as Noah is hidden amongst the debris hearing all the gunshots and screams. Noah is now pushing a pod into a cave. Noah says his pod was flimsy unlike theirs and cracked on impact. It was his only option to silence the screaming, so Noah climbs into the pod. The scene fast forwards to 2004 and we see the flashback from 106 of Max, Michael and Isobel camping near the crash site. As the man grabs Isobel, we see buried deep underneath her is the cave with Noah inside his pod. Noah says the pod barely kept him alive and he turned into a rotted mangled version of himself. He was alone and no ever came for him until he heard her screams that night. It’s now present day in the cave with Max, Michael and Isobel. Isobel is looking at the pods. Noah is in one of them. Max remarks this isn’t healthy. Isobel asks hanging in the cave or her husband using her body commit the first of 14 murders. Michael wants to take him out and torture him for information. Isobel says he’ll die because he has Liz’s serum still in him. Michael says Liz can just make a fresh batch of antidote so he can live a long life of him torturing him. Max says they don’t have to do anything now as it’s only been 3 days so Isobel should heal and can make a decision tomorrow or 10 years from now. Michael insists because they’ve wondered their whole where they came from and why they’re there and now there is someone to ask. Max says to give it time. Isobel says they’ll decide what to do together but not today. Michael agrees saying they’ll discuss it again tomorrow. At the Crashdown, Kyle comments on Liz’s antennas. Liz says it was the one thing missing in her angiogenic research. Kyle tells Liz she’s brilliant and will be back in a lab in no time. Hank at the other end of the counter asks for more space jam. Liz is upset because she has 3 degrees. Kyle replies she also has rocket relish on her collar. He touches the collar and notices part of the handprint on her chest. He asks if it was from Max. Liz says no as he hasn’t seen Max in a few days and tells him the handprint is from Noah. Kyle can’t believe Roswell’s Mr. Congeniality is the killer. Liz says he’s in alien jail forever probably so justice is served and she got the answers about Rosa she was looking for. Kyle says he wants to visit his father’s grave this weekend and pay respects to Rosa too if she wants to come. Liz agrees to come and says that Rosa always liked him. Kyle replies she didn’t. Hank interrupts them again asking for service. Alex comes to the junkyard and finds Michael drinking. Alex tells him about Caulfield and that there are heat signatures there inconsistent with human body temperatures, so potentially aliens. Michael thinks there’s no way others survived otherwise they’d have known. Alex says there’s no harm in a road trip but Kyle who has just pulled up has to come along. Back at the cave, Max tells Isobel he basically hibernated there while she was in stasis in the pod, talking to her, reading to her, telling her about his day. Isobel says she didn’t hear any of it and time stood still to her. Max says he doesn’t deserve to hear her voice again but it might feel good to just get it off her chest. Max goes to wait in the car. At the Crashdown, Liz delivers an order then holds onto the jukebox to stay up. In the cave, Noah starts stirring and escapes the pod to Isobel’s shock who calls out for Max. Liz short of breath holds onto her chest as Noah escaped. Max pulls out his gun, Isobel stands between them saying he still has Liz’s serum in him so he can’t control her but they need answers. At Max’s house, Max has his gun pointed at Noah, Isobel right behind him on the couch as Liz arrives. Max says Liz is on time because Noah is just about to talk. Noah recites his voiceover from the start of the episode. Noah says his pod was broken so he couldn’t get out and he wasn’t in the stasis like he was supposed to be so he sat there waiting for help that may never come. Noah says Isobel’s scream was the sweetest sound. Liz reminds Isobel she blacked out right after the assault, Isobel figures that’s how Noah got into her head. Noah says every time Isobel left her body whenever she was scared, that’s when he’d borrow it. Max knocks him out. Isobel steps outside for air. Max asks Liz to make sure Isobel is okay. Liz says Noah is weak and won’t make it through the day if they don’t do anything. Liz asks if that’s what he wants. Max doesn’t answer so Liz just tells him to be careful and goes to check on Isobel. Alex and Kyle have arrived at Caulfield. Alex explains he bypassed the advanced camouflage technology but the storm coming is messing with his radar. Kyle says there must be something worth hiding in there otherwise his father wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of hiding the word Caulfield in his letters before he was murdered. Alex says they don’t know he was murdered, you can’t give someone a brain tumor. They spot a heat signature which turns out to be Michael. Michael asks Alex why Kyle has to be here as he was a dick to him all throughout high school. Alex says he only cares about the government conspiracy in front of him at the moment. Michael senses screaming coming from inside Caulfield so they head towards the prison. Max ties Noah up to a chair in his room and asks him where they are from. Noah says he has a map tattooed on his shoulder. Max asks what does it mean and how to read it. Noah says he doesn’t mind the pain because it reminds him he’s alive and if he’s going to die anyway he’d rather watch Max twist in the wind. Isobel leaves a voicemail for Michael telling him to get there soon if he wants to question Noah. Liz tells Isobel that it’s okay to grieve for and miss the Noah that she loved. Isobel asks if Liz wants her to relate to her mother who left or Rosa who didn’t have it all figured out at 19. Liz says it doesn’t matter what Michael needs to know or how angry Max is, she asks what she needs. Isobel admits she never lost someone she loved and asks if anything made her feel better about Rosa. Liz admits the truth helped. Michael opens a door with his powers so he, Alex and Kyle can enter the prison. Michael says he feels them. Michael tries to open a second door but can’t. Alex notices someone coming and tells Michael and Kyle to go back towards the entrance. A soldier comes from behind and points his gun to the back of Alex’s head. Alex drops his bag and takes the gun away from the soldier. The soldier is revealed to be Alex’s brother Flint. Flint says he didn’t think Alex had it in him. Alex lowers the gun and says it’s good to see him. Inside a laboratory, Flint asks Alex why he’s there. Alex says their dad sent him to fortify their digital security measures. Flint asks isn’t he supposed to be on desk duty in Roswell, Alex replies like he’s supposed to be stationed in Munich. Flint explains the breakthroughs that have been found there since the crash. Alex asks Flint again why he is there since he’s a soldier not a scientist. Flint explains his dad brought him in 5 years prior to prepare against an impending alien invasion. The blueprints that Alex sees on the computer is a smart bomb that will kill only aliens using their DNA against them. Alex points out that bioweapons are banned by international treaty, Flint points out that the U.N. jurisdiction ends at the ozone layer, the aliens intend to perform genocide on humans when they invade so the question is whether or not they will be ready. Flint deduces Alex wasn’t sent by their father. Isobel asks Max for a moment alone with Noah. Max says no, but Isobel says she wasn’t asking. She sits down and enters Noah’s mind. Noah tries to be nice to her, Isobel cuts him off immediately. Max tells Liz he needs to stop this, Liz says Noah can’t hurt her physically. Max tells her he appreciates her concern but she doesn’t know Isobel like he does. Liz replies he doesn’t know what it’s like to lose someone. Max asks Liz if she is sympathizing with Noah, she says she isn’t and shows the handprint Noah left on her. In Noah’s mind, Isobel asks to know why. Noah says his body was barely alive but his mind was sharp, so when he had the chance to see Earth through her eyes he did. He says Rosa wasn’t prey but couldn’t be trusted. Isobel says Rosa was too smart to love him when she saw through his façade and died for it whereas she fell for his lies. Liz tells Max she feels Noah’s fear of dying right now. She says she hasn’t slept in days as she made a makeshift lab to make more antidote not so Noah can live but because she doesn’t want to be a killer. Isobel tells Noah his body and mind are deteriorating. Noah says he can tell her where the antidote is and they can go back to how it was before when they were pretending to be human. Isobel gets out of Noah’s head and tells Max she doesn’t want to do this alone. Michael and Kyle are exploring the prison. Kyle says Michael’s ship crashed into his family in 1947 and his father is dead because of it so he wants answers too. They’re standing in front of a door marked 7A. Kyle shows Michael his dad’s letters where he repeats 7A-N38 multiple times. Flint asks Alex again why he’s there. Alex says tying up loose ends before an honorable discharge. Flint asks if he’s tired of being the black sheep, Alex questions if he’s tired following the flock. Flint says he tried to protect him from their dad, Alex doesn’t believe him and won’t tell him he let him into Caulfield, Flint tells Alex he can’t leave. Michael and Kyle find a cell block with elderly prisoners. Michael senses all the prisoners are aliens. Kyle points out if they survived the 1947 crash, then they’ve been held in captivity for 71 years, Michael tells him to shut up. Kyle notices the aliens are covered in bruises, scars and needle tracks and that their antisocial behavior indicates it’s been happening for a prolonged time. Michael says 7 decades of torture. Michael wants to break them out. Kyle asks where to take them as they are feral. Kyle looks for N-38. Michael recognizes one of the elder women, she seems to recognize him too. A door opens, Kyle hides Michael in an open cell and grabs a clipboard. The guard asks Kyle to identify himself. Kyle says he’s a lab tech and needs to get a sample from N-38. The guard says there’s been a ban on interacting with N-38 since 1962. Kyle says it must be a mix up, but he looks harmless. The guard says looks can be deceiving they used to send rabbits in there to him, but anything he touches would die of violent rapid cancer. Kyle asks if a human ever went in there, the guard replies once. Isobel takes Max into Noah’s mind with her. Max tells Noah he can make his death slower and more painful. Noah says he didn’t want to kill Rosa but killing her is what brought him back as kills make them stronger physically, asking Max to confirm. Isobel says that’s why he’s stronger than them because he kept killing. Noah says he kills to stay alive because of all those years in the pod. Max calls Noah a parasite, he calls Max an aberration. When he heals people it nearly kills him but he hasn’t admitted that he feel like a God after he killed the man in the desert that night. He also got a taste of it again when he blew out the power in Roswell. Alex asks Flint what their dad has on him. Kyle comes and explains to Alex that Caulfield is Guantanamo for innocent people and their fathers facilitated it, that they’ve tortured aliens for decades. Flint tells them that they’re all killers, kills make them stronger and they have the research that proves it. Kyle says his father deserved it for participating in the research. Isobel asks Noah why he never killed her if it makes him stronger. Noah says he needed all of them for leverage. Max asks why they were in the upper class and protected and he wasn’t. Noah says he’ll tell them everything if they give him the antidote. Max doesn’t believe him, Isobel points out again that Noah can’t lie in his mind. Isobel tells Liz that Noah wants antidote for answers but she doesn’t want the answers and the truth didn’t make anything better for her. Isobel gets up to go home and tells Max to call her when he’s dead. Liz offers to drive Isobel home, Max asks for the antidote so if he’s the one holding the cure then he’s the one refusing it to Noah and not her. He tells her he won’t lose any sleep, she finally gives it to him. Michael tries to short the wires to open the cell with the elder woman but it won’t open. Michael asks why he knows her. She just smiles at Michael. Michael tries to open it with his powers but the glass only cracks setting off the alarms. Flint says the quarantine breach means they have 10 minutes to evacuate before the building is destroyed. The P.A. voice confirms this. Alex tells Kyle to grab anything he can like hard drives, Kyle tells him where to find Michael. Max thanks Cameron for bringing him more cuffs. Cameron says there is a serial killer in his bedroom and this isn’t order or justice and he shouldn’t be handling it on his own. Max says he wants to turn him in but he risks exposure and Noah could escape. Cameron tells Max she took the fall for what happened with Noah at the gala. Max apologizes for everything, Cameron says it’s fine. She tells him her sister is being transferred to a prison in Ohio, so she’s going there to be close to her and says goodbye. Michael is trying to break the glass with a fire hydrant as Alex comes to try to get him to evacuate. There are 2 minutes left now. Michael says they are his family, Alex replies maybe but he is his. Michael tells him to leave but Alex won’t. The elder woman puts her hand up to the glass, Michael puts his hand up to hers. The elder woman becomes younger and so does Michael. The elder woman is Michael’s mother. There is now 1 minute left. Michael tells Alex she said she loved him and told him to run. Kyle is shown collecting hard drives and then the 3 of them are shown running from the building and taking cover as the prison explodes. Max grabs Noah by the throat and says he was right earlier that he wanted him dead and he wants to be the one to do it. Noah asks if it’s about the possessions, the kills or the mark he left on Liz. Noah says he knew that would make him crazy, humans spend their lives looking for meaning but have none whereas they have a purpose and if he dies he’ll spend the rest of his life on this planet not knowing what it is. Max holds up the antidote and says he got this far and he’s better off just being a guy from Roswell. Kyle asks Alex what if there’s some truth to aliens are killers. Alex says Michael is a good person. Kyle says what if the good ones are the exception to the rule. Alex says he just saw the government blow up a building with elderly people, you’re just trying to justify it so you government can be right. The coldest reality about war is sometimes you just do what you’re told then things are burning, people screaming and you realize the evil is you. Max asks Noah if he has any last words as some like to repent before they die. Noah laughs at repenting to God or him. Noah asks Max not to leave him to die alone. Max asks to tell him where they are from and why they are there. Noah doesn’t answer. Max tells Noah he’s going out the same way he came in – weak, desperate and completely alone. Max is leaving as Michael arrives. Max asks Michael if he’s ok, Michael asks where Noah is. Max tells him he’s in the back dying. Max asks what happened, Michael doesn’t want to talk, he wants to talk to Noah and they have to give him the antidote. Max refuses, Michael punches him. Max drops the antidote. Michael who says he’s not letting another alien die, he uses his powers to grab the antidote, saying not until he gets the truth. Max pulls out his gun and points it at Michael. Michael asks Max if this is how it goes. Max replies it depends on what he does next.
I think this was the best episode so far. As I’ve been saying, when the show keeps its focus on just the mystery and mythology is when there is a solid show in there. The revealing of Michael’s mother is the first time for me feeling connected in some way to this Michael character. Likewise with Isobel, her finally coming to the realization her entire life is based on a lie was similar. I would have liked to know more about N-38 but otherwise, I don’t have any gripes with this episode.