Roswell, New Mexico Review: I’ll Stand By You (Season 2 Episode 5)

Michael Vlamis brings us to our knees with his performance as cowboy alien Michael Guerin on Roswell, New Mexico Season 2 Episode 5, “I’ll Stand By You.” 

Thanks to various flashback scenes, we get an encompassing view of how Guerin has come to be who and how he is.  

The chip on his shoulder is more of a shield than anything else; it allowed him to survive the many blows that came his way. Even though he was born into a trio, the aloneness he experienced right after is what stuck to him. 

GUERIN: When you’re a kid who no one loves, kindness is a commodity.

He tests people, pushing them away to prove to himself that he is right to never let his guard down and let himself be included.

Guerin’s confessional at Max’s side provides us a context for Malex that makes my heart ache and makes it all make sense. 

Michael feels safe with Alex, especially when they’re alone in the back of his truck.

The rest of the world melts away to the point that he forgets about his injured hand. That is scary for any teenager and even more so a teenager who has learned that nothing good will stay. 

Alex tells Guerin to get his ish together. The very brilliant Michael takes that as a clue for how he can best test Alex. Tragically, Alex doesn’t want his love to get it together because he cares about image or success. Michael’s volatility scares him. His GTFO survival response is literally triggered by Michael’s out of control and violent behavior. 

The dominoes continue to fall. Alex runs away, which is how he survived his childhood. He does this without ever explaining or apologizing to Michael. In fact, he does it while he is literally in a jail cell by himself (this is a really nice parallel to the scene where we first meet Michael in the pilot). 

Alex leaving Michael is a monumental blow to the lonely boy. That injury is far greater than what Father Manes did to his hand. 

But, Max has never left Michael. He stays in Roswell because of Michael, in fact. Even though it manifested in some seriously controlling and not okay action, namely fixing Michael’s hand without his consent, Max’s devotion to his brother is absolute. 

Michael has resisted his brother’s care since he was 11 years old. It’s only now, when he is actually willing to be a part of a family, that this is most threatened. 

It’s a mess. Michael’s a mess.

But, it is beautiful too. Michael walking into that tattoo shop with visions of a trio tattoo dancing in his head is the most gosh darn hopeful thing I’ve seen on this show. 

Vlamis has developed as an actor and it really shows on “I’ll Stand By You.” His angst is just a bit more grounded. His heat is more smolder and less firecracker. Even as he bashes the heck out of the vehicle’s hood, a reference to Dean on Supernatural, his anger is realized, not a show. 

Vlamis is matching the maturity of a bit more veteran actor like Nathan Parsons. This elevates the impact and authenticity of the entire show. 

Guerin’s fabulous character development is in stark contrast to the confusing disaster of Isobel’s arc on the episode.

It is going to be very difficult, and perhaps impossible, to get over the fact that Isobel assaults Rosa and then violates her bodily integrity, essentially raping her, to talk to her brother.  

Not only is this what Noah did to Isobel it is how Rosa was murdered! 

Then Isobel locks her in a closet so Rosa is prevented from saving Max how he wants to be saved: letting him die. 

Honestly, it’s unconscionable. 

This show is painting love as something that takes over you and you can’t control. That’s a cow pile if I’ve ever seen one. 

Love is respecting boundaries. Love is listening. Love is doing what is RIGHT even when you have to chain yourself to a wall to prevent yourself from doing what you WANT. 

What Isobel and Liz do is not love. It’s a manifestation of their pain. 

I don’t have a problem with this. This is very real and makes for a juicy, cathartic story.

The problem is that in this instance, it is being told as a love story.

It seems we are supposed to weep at Isobel’s gesture of never giving up. We’re supposed to consider her strong and bold to be willing to take on Monster Max. Same with Liz. 

It seems from the swelling Bright Eyes, the cinematography, and the other characters’ reactions that we are supposed to think that Liz’s willingness to sacrifice her sister to Isobel’s mind control and to forsake Max’s explicit wishes is romantic. It is a Shakespearan tragedy of lovers who’ve lost each other. 

None of this is romantic. 

In my view, it is dangerous to put this out as anything but toxic. 

It absolutely makes sense that all of those grieving Max would make some terrible decisions right now— how has NO ONE had some grief sex!? But, it needs to be clear in the storytelling that this is monstrous behavior.

Liz needs to seem unhinged, not like a forlorn Juliette.

It’s such a hard pivot from what the show seems to realize about the sacred nature of autonomy. Isobel gives a lovely speech to Michael about how Max’s choice is Max’s choice. 

And then she does an about face and revives Max. She hits Rosa so hard she is knocked out in the process of undermining her twin’s choice. 

Truly, color me confused. 

Maria and Alex’s resolution is also thoroughly confusing. 

Let’s review the scorecard here. 

Maria is dealing with a crap ton of pressure and sadness as her mom slips further and further away from her. Michael keeps on showing up, flirting with her, and being a solid shoulder to cry on. 

She sleeps with Michael at the end of a drunken evening. 

She learns that Michael is her very best friend’s BIG love. She says she won’t continue the relationship, but she does anyway.

She doesn’t just hook up with him again, she gets together with him all monogamous like. 

During this time period, Maria is drugged and made the tool of a murderer. She is still the person responsible for keeping everything afloat in her life and in that context, her mom goes missing for a month. 

Alex knows that Maria is going through it. He also knows about possible Mimi DeLuca’s alien connections. He is privy to top-secret knowledge that he ends up sharing with the person who made his life hell in high school. 

He also shares the information with Cam, who he doesn’t know from Harry. 

He knows Maria was drugged at the gala. 

He doesn’t tell Maria any of this, including anything about her mom even when she has been missing. He is more involved with finding out about Nora than Mimi. 

Okay, so there’s my view of the scorecards. 

Maria comes over to Alex’s house and they gloss over every single bit of all that. 

Why? 

There is no way that two people who are as close and as hurt and as wronged as these two would just let bygones be bygones because, well, they both did some bad stuff. 

Even if Maria and Alex would be satisfied by that, I am not as a viewer. 

Glossing over the complex conflicts between the two best friends robs us of needed insight into their internal emotionality. 

Alex has lived his life in a mode of retreat. It makes sense that he would shrink back from pulling Maria into a situation where her world could be blown up. Or maybe he takes his military duty to keep things top secret very seriously. 

The problem is that we DO NOT KNOW because the episode does not let the conflict happen. 

We get time with Alex this season to really understand who he is. The same is not true for Maria. 

We have no idea WHY she is so attracted to Guerin. Alex says he can’t blame her because “it’s the easiest thing in the world to do,” but that blocks us from figuring out why. 

What would bring someone to betray their best friend like that? That’s not a rhetorical question. There are actual reasons. 

Perhaps Maria has witnessed her mom being selfless their entire lives and she gives up and just wants to selfish for one time in her life, no matter the consequences?

Maybe she is so desperate for someone to hold her and help her process her burdens that she just can’t say no to this support. 

Again, there are many possible explanations and each one would tell us about who Maria is. 

We don’t get anything so we still have no idea who this main character is. 

Neither of them even apologize in a real way to the other. They recognize their mistake, but not how that hurt the other. They don’ dig into the dirt of their decisions.

As a result, their scenes are deeply dissatisfying. 

Also, what the heck is with Maria sitting in Alex’s lap? Even if Maria has forgiven Alex, and Alex has forgiven Maria, you don’t go from pain to cutesy cuddling in less than a minute. 

It’s getting harder and harder to hold out hope for a well-developed Maria. 

The aesthetics on the show remain very strong. The cool Crashdown mindscape really transports us. And, I’ve never seen a show make such excellent use of logs! So good. 

As far as where the show is headed, I could not be more pleased that we are going to get Monster Max. The journey to return Max to his true self is going to be epic. 

Diner Dish

• As always, Maria’s style is jaw-dropping. 
• Kylex silently sharing that flask hits the spot.
• Guerin’s face molding stuff is super distracting to me. The truck bed moments are adorable but don’t pull me in because I’m too focused on his strange face.
• Michael absolutely would have been there for Isobel. He is such a good brother. 
• Yet another bangin soundtrack. Roswell, New Mexico has the best music taste on screen right now.
• Where’s Cam?!
• Don’t worry Max, I randomly show off my back tattoos when I’m drunk too. We get it.
• I am very here for Rosa having powers. She deserves some power. 

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 Mondays at 9/8c on The CW.

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