Roswell, New Mexico Review: Sex and Candy (Season 2 Episode 6)

Forget quality time, KYLE WITH THE BEDAZZLED FACE IS MY LOVE LANGUAGE.

I completely understand that we need to talk about the Malex and Maria of it all on Roswell, New Mexico Season 2 Episode 6, “Sex and Candy.”

But, we’ll miss the Forrest for all the trees if we stay too zoomed in on that.

After all, there is a mini-horror film featuring David ducking Anders tucked nicely into this otherwise romantic episode. The range.

The disparate tones and plots flow together in a natural and logical fashion, a reminder that this show can be really darn fun.

Isobel in an environment where she feels safe and sexy is a glitter bomb of awesome. It would have been without Kyle, but with Kyle, it’s a revelation! 

Everything about the Meterochella night is brilliant. 

First of all, Kyle Valenti can FLIRT. When he ditches the boa and turns Isobel around for some actual up close dancing, he burns up that atmosphere. 

It is super hot indeed, and it is also sweet. Kyle is honest about how attractive he finds Isobel and what he’d love to do with her, but he wants to respect his feelings for someone else. 

Qué caballero! 

I very much ship this. Kybel has a nice ring to it, yes? More Kybel! **in Christopher Walken voice**

After Kyle’s rejection, Isobel is quickly scooped up by Blaire (who could be her twin). It’s all just good, clean, dirty, sparkly fun. 

Both Kyle and Isobel feel safe at this place where everybody DOESN’T know your name, (And Isobel’s certainly glad she came, wink).

ISOBEL: I figure here I’ll feel a little bit less like prey.

It is significant that this bar is not just catered towards gay men. We see a range of gender expressions and couples. That’s rad. 

This shows us that Isobel isn’t just fetishizing or using gay men. Going to a gay bar isn’t always that, of course. But, there can be a dynamic between straight white women and gay men where the first group seems to feel entitled to the performed sexuality of the second. 

“Sex and Candy” totally avoids that and instead provides a moment of queer celebration by crafting the event as LGBTQIA-friendly, not just G.

The only bad thing about the Meterochella story is that it really, really, REALLY makes me miss bars. 

Kyle feels a serious gravitational pull towards Steph. Justina Adorno does a great job of making Steph a bold, mysterious, but also quietly yearning person.

KYLE VALENTI: You’re just my favorite person I can’t stand. 

Kyle, Steph, and Isobel is the triangle I’ve been waiting for and literally nothing will convince me otherwise. 

Meterochella is amazing, but the best part of the episode is absolutely every single second of Echo (ship name for Max and Liz). 

Their meet-cute at the Mexican Market is so stinkin’ charming. It is impossible not to be giddy and giggly throughout the whole encounter.

The Spanish mistakes are SO funny and so common! It’s a great way to reconnect these two lovebirds. 

LIZ: Presertivos are condoms. 

MAX: Well, that’s exactly what I meant to say. I don’t want condoms on my jerky. 

Liz is a flirty machine. She should be at least a little worried about what she’s doing to that poor alien’s heart!

LIZ: My hands have been inside your chest cavity Max, your gynecologist can suck it. 

Jeanine Mason has shown that she can act her pants off in a wide variety of emotional moments.

Even though the emotions she portrays are on the light and bright side of the spectrum, for me “Sex and Candy” is the most impressive display of the actor’s talents so far this season.

We get to see Liz and Max fall in love with each other! It is so clear that it is happening that we don’t even need the I love you declarations. 

I mean, we want those declarations because they make a Jane Austen-loving gal’s heart sing, but the performances alone support that conclusion. 

We are shown not told and that always feels satisfying.

The scenes are very intimate. Without the pressure of dark secrets between them, they can finally talk about some tough stuff. 

We learn about Liz’s engagement to Diego and Max shares his feelings about killing someone with his power. 

Enmeshed in all these important conversation points are sweet little idiosyncratic things. The way Liz asks for the whiskey, Max’s near giddy excitement for the meteor show, them getting it on where The Crashdown meets the sky. 

Sigh. 

The sails are full on this ship! 

 

The controversial aspect of the episode is the threesome between Maria, Michael, and Alex.

At the top here, I want to be clear that I am not a gay man, a bisexual man, or a black woman, and that colors my interpretation. 

The threesome scene is particularly ripe for multiple interpretations because it happens after this super-charged and scary event, after a discussion between Alex and Maria where Alex tells her like he likes her touch and will always love her even if she gets back together with Guerin, and in a small little space with poor lighting and even worse acoustics.

It is messy times three.

To me, the scene comes across as a misguided attempt for Maria to apologize to Alex and offer up the thing in her life that has come more naturally and with less pain: self-love and sex.

Maria has had a lot of strife and adversity in her life. But, as we learned on Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 7, “I Saw the Sign”, her mother has always provided space and support for Maria to love herself.

Where Alex lived in fear of his father destroying anything he ever dared to love, including himself, Maria was free to dream of a future filled with love and all the minutes in heaven she could ever want. 

Maria is not willing to give Guerin up for Alex. But, she also loves Alex and wants him to be able to experience self-love and acceptance and all the good things. 

So, she initiates a threesome with the man they both love. 

Terrible idea, in my opinion. A terrible idea that I myself would definitely have had. 

Surviving a murderous twin would make anyone feel a little wild, and perhaps randy.

And, I think the threesome idea makes sense for Maria.

She is an adder. By that I mean, when things get hard in her life she works her gorgeous ass off to fix it by adding to her life. 

She doesn’t spend less; she works more. The Mexican Market is a good example of how Maria approaches her life. If she wants to grow, she does something extra so that she can have more experiences and resources. 

She doesn’t run away and she doesn’t give things up. 

There’s a selfishness to that and maybe gluttony, but heroism also. 

On Season 1 when Liz says that Maria DiLuca saves herself, she is highlighting this trait. 

When we see the corn maze horror show, Maria does not wait to collect Alex or Michael before she runs away. That’s not how she survives. 

And you know what, that’s okay. 

For me, that ties into her decision to initiate the threesome because her “fix-it” and “safety” framework is additive. She’s not going to give Guerin up, but she is absolutely willing to add Alex to their sexual relationship.

I stand by my assertions regarding Roswell, New Mexico Season 2 Episode 5, “I’ll Stand By You,” that Maria needs more actual development. We are still far too in the dark regarding her interior emotions and morals. 

That needs to change. Her actions on “Sex and Candy,” are a step in the right direction because they are confusing and complicated and interesting, which gives Maria some depth. Now, we need more content to pull from to know why she’s making these choices. 

Alex is envious of Maria. It seems to me that he wishes he could love himself like she loves herself.

He wishes he could stay. He wishes he could be the type of person to have all his fingers down in Never Have I Ever. But, that’s not him.

Alex may indeed be, as Forrest puts it in his spoken word, a prisoner wanderer. 

He runs away to survive. He sacrifices himself to make sure the people around him are safe. 

And you know what, that’s okay. 

Alex says yes to the threesome and not because he feels pressured by Maria.

He says yes because he wants to stop running away from experiences because of fear. And because he loves these two people. And because he wants to have sex with Michael. And because he wants to even out the ratio of good and bad memories. And I’m sure a thousand other reasons that Alex himself may not understand.

Look, it’s not really fair of Maria to spring this on him the way she does. She’s not being empathetic.

But, the experience did for Alex what new and strange and risky (consensual) experiences often do for people: it clarified who he is and what he wants. 

I can’t speak on how this comes across to gay men in regard to disrespecting Alex’s sexuality. 

What I can say is that experiences are not the same thing as identity. LGBTQIA people are allowed to experiment with different sexual practices and gender identities without changing their identity.

This is more than just innocuous experimental fling. So, the stakes are high both for the writers and the characters themselves. But, for Alex, I think the payoff makes the choice absolutely worth it. 

Alex learned that he is not going to be with Michael in the way he imagined or the way he wants.

Michael may always love him, but that’s just not good enough for Alex. Alex does not want to be in a love triangle. That is not who he is. 

 

Alex walks away from Michael’s trailer a freer man. Alex walks toward the possibility of the type of love he wants and the one he deserves.

Forrest is such a fabulous addition to the characters on Roswell, New Mexico.

From the get-go, he is not ambivalent or unclear about his feeling for Alex. 

Then his gorgeous spoken word. Malex may have a cosmic connection, but Alex and Forrest have a grounded, real, and piercing connection. 

Based on Buffy, being a historian, and that poem, it is clear that Forrest gets Alex. 

He wouldn’t be ready to see that if it wasn’t for the clarification the threesome gives him. 

Side note, this may be the first time a show says, “this is a character who is a talented poet,” has a legitimately strong poem on it. That spoken word is really good. 

The whole threesome situation is complicated. The feelings are complex and probably come more in waves than any kind of stable. 

Even though it isn’t tidy or easy to interpret, I think it is a way to begin to actually show us who Maria is, who Alex is and how they are breaking free from their alienation. 

Diner Dish

• David Anders’s appearance as twangy twins Travis and Tyler is the horror camp content I need. 
• The vampire ring reference is clutch. 
• The little exchange between Alex and Maria about black people dying first in horror movies cracks me up in a bubbly and sardonic way. 
• Werewolf Man is back! What a lovely and howling surprise. 
• The quick resolution to Monster Max is a bit confusing. But, thank goodness it is over quickly because we get right to all that yummy Echo stuff.
• Alex tossing away Maria’s smoothie is a teensy bit of sweet justice.
• Isobel needs to address what she did to Rosa. That’s not something that should be glossed over or forgotten.
• I NEED Liz’s jean jacket. 
• Alex gingerly picking up that chonky beagle named Buffy slays me. He is so darn loveable. 
• What is wrong with Steph?! Where is Cam?! Who is that shoulder grabbing dude?! Do cobblers still exist?! The juicy mysteries abound. 

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 9/8 on The CW.

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