Roswell, New Mexico Review: I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing (Season 1 Episode 10)

Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 10, “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing,” is a balanced episode packed with reveals, poignant conversations, and a few almosts that leave us aching for more.

It doesn’t have the BIG events, i.e. first kisses, of Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 6, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 9, “Songs About Texas,” but “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing,” is more subtly essential to the story and earns five stars. 

I absolutely love all of the family connections we get to see on the episode. The mystery is unraveling, but the characters are being equally revealed by how they relate to the people they hold most dear. 

Sheriff Valenti is honest and vulnerable with her son Kyle.

At the same time, she is careful to honor her boundaries and not put her grief or bitterness on his shoulders. That is how she honors her code to always protect the children. 

It is through the lens of this core relationship that we can understand how Kyle has been able to change and become the healthy, humble, and confident man he is. 

Juxtapose that to Alex and Michael, who both have never had parents keeping them safe, and it easy to see why they struggle to change for the better. In order to see our own flaws and change them, we have to be rooted in a safe place, as Kyle has been since childhood. 

Alex and Michael are coming to terms with how to build trust with each other, the deep kind of trust that you have with family. I think only then when they both feel secure and aren’t afraid the other will leave, will we see the two of them change and become the confident men they can be. 

But, change is coming. Growth is coming. 

I don’t think those egg-pods look like wombs by accident. I think the family motif on the episode is signaling to us that a re-birth of sorts in on the horizon for our orphaned characters.

Malex isn’t family, not until they get married anyway. But, they share something very special around the bonfire when Michael opens up about what his family life has been.

It of course matters that he has sent from one abusive home to another. 

But, I think the most meaningful insight we get into who Michael is, which is Alex’s whole point in asking, is that Michael’s feeling upon returning to Isobel and Max is relief.

Not relief that he somehow has more support. No, the abusive settings continued. 

Michael felt relief because he learned that Isobel and Max didn’t have to go through what he did. 

His deep empathy and humility are so touching I could cry. He might outwardly seem like a Bad Boy, but at his heart, Michael is just a boy hoping that the person who he cares about in a cosmic way can know him, and still want to be seen with him. 

I think Michael yearns for Alex to want to be out with him as his boyfriend. Not because he has an insecurity about his sexuality. No, because he has deep insecurity about being loveable. 

Michael was happily shocked when Alex stayed the night. I think for Michael, true love is going to be someone who will fight to stay with him forever. 

These insecurities and desires are paralleled for Alex. He too wants Michael to stay.

Alex doesn’t say that he has a missing piece of the ship because he doesn’t want Michael to leave. Just the fact that Michael even wants to leave, the planet, shatters Alex.

Alex is so used to fighting and being rejected that he is having trouble believing Michael’s feelings. Just when he’s taking those steps, Michael is adding uncertainty to their future. 

How should Alex take the fact that Michael would just fly off into outer space to get his needs met. How can Alex trust that Michael “never looks away,” if he is going away? 

It is interesting because the face that Michael gives after Alex voices that Michael wants to leave strongly echoes the sentiment Alex shared with Maria. It seems clear to us viewers that if Alex would just keep kissing Michael, there is no way Michael would leave for another planet. 

But Alex doesn’t see that. 

Alex sees instead that he is rejected again, that he isn’t enough as he is. Alex sees that he must remain vigilant. 

Malex is the Romeo and Juliet of the show. 

I am so looking forward to their reckoning, where they come to find safety and acceptance in each other. It may take seasons. Lots and lots of seasons, you hear that The CW? 

But, I feel that at the center of their cosmic connection is a well of mutual understanding and depth of acceptance that will carry this ship beyond Earthly limitations. 

The sibling connections on the episode are also a fount of character unpeeling. 

Isobel and Michael can be themselves with each other. Isobel knows Michael so well, she guesses that he stole some antidote. They don’t judge each other, they just support each other, and use the power of snark to massage out tensions they may be feeling. 

It isn’t mushy, but it’s real.

And even though it seems that Max and Isobel share a mind reading thing that Michael isn’t privy to, I actually think that the relationships we choose and we work for are even more powerful than what we inherit. 

So, Isobel and Michael represent something very meaningful on the show and I am so very, VERY, glad that it is within their airstream conversation that we hear Michael say bisexual and that Isobel exhibits a neutral sister-like reaction.

This normalizes bisexuality, sibling communication, and processing difficult things with people we care about. 

All of that absolutely is normal. But, I’m not sure I ever get to see that on TV.

I appreciate how Roswell, New Mexico is showing us the 2019 version of family. It hurts and it heals. That’s important to see represented. 

Diner Dish

• Someone needs to tell Maria. 
• I want to put the look Max gives Liz when she says she’s going to leave in a locket and wear it on my neck. It’s so precious. 
• On that Echo note, I might even prefer the almost-kiss to their first kiss? I don’t know, but I really like the kisses, keep em’ coming. 
• The fourth alien is a boy. So, it is Noah, Maria’s dad or FREDERICO?! Remember him from before?! I am loving all these clues. 
• Rosa’s feelings about being defined by her town could fuel a separate series in itself. Rosa’s Arroyo. 
• The shooting scenes were hard to watch. I think the episode should come with a trigger warning. 

What did you think of this episode of Roswell, New Mexico? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Roswell, New Mexico airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.

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