Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 | Episode 8 “Barely Breathing” Review

It’s easy to think that if you did something horrible, like unknowingly murder people with your powers, you’d be ridden with guilt and fear that you’re a danger to society. The question is, what lengths would you go to stop that dangerous side of you that you have no control over? Isobel’s voice over at the beginning of this week’s episode of Roswell, New Mexico hints that she’s willing to risk it all to do just that. “Barely Breathing” is a race against time to save Isobel when her need to be normal and not dangerous puts her life on the line. It also gives us the team-up I didn’t know I’d been waiting on until I got it: Michael and Liz. Meanwhile, Isobel and Max’s mom pays a visit and Max asks her and Michael about the symbol that keeps popping up everywhere. Elsewhere, Alex turns the tables on his father.

Race Against Time

Since spending time in the psych ward, all Isobel wants now is to go back to normal and not be unknowingly lethal. Willing to do whatever it takes to get what she wants, she mind-tricks Kyle into injecting her with Liz’s power-dampening serum. Since the handprint on Rosa means that Isobel killed her with powers that she’s not even aware of, she’s just trying to do the right thing for everyone. The serum seems to work. Her powers aren’t working, and she excitedly talks to Noah about getting back to normal and having no secrets. It goes downhill from there. She coughs up blood and passes out in Noah’s arms. Even Max’s warm connection to her turns cold. Unfortunately, the serum is doing more than just dampening her powers. It’s rotting her blood cells, and not even Max can heal her. At this rate, Isobel will be dead by the end of the day if they can’t find an anecdote.

Two Heads are Better than One

Michael takes all his frustration and stress over Isobel’s ailing state out on Liz, accusing her of stripping Isobel of her identity. Liz never intended to use the serum, but that doesn’t change the fact that Isobel’s powers are dangerous. This leads Michael to a powerful statement about people condemning those who are deemed dangerous to society and how it doesn’t reflect well. He compares it to how she’d feel if someone tried to make her less Mexican. It’s a loaded comparison that Liz doesn’t appreciate since Isobel’s technically a murderer. However, Michael points out Max’s psychic connection to Isobel and how he literally went cold the moment the injection went in. So, if Isobel were to die, it would destroy Max, a man who only ever loved her.

With Max on the verge of destruction if Isobel dies, Michael’s the one that lights a fire under Liz to do something when he finds her on the roof of The Crashdown jamming to “Jagged Little Pill” with journal in hand. In her defense, this is how she channels her creativity, which is what she needs to think of a solution to save Isobel. She wants to team up with Michael since he’s a genius, but he doesn’t trust her. When he says he’s leaving because he can’t let Max watch Isobel die alone, Liz stops him by saying she can’t let him watch her die at all. That must be all Michael needs to hear because he takes her to his secret bunker that holds all his alien artifacts – Side note: does everyone in Roswell have secret bunkers full of hidden secrets?? My guess is yes. – Anyways, before they dive into the artifacts, Michael tells Liz about Isobel making her leave 10 years ago because Max was a wreck, and they were afraid he’d spill the tea. Liz assures him, though, that Isobel can only influence people, not control them. She’d been planning that trip since sophomore year. With that, Michael gets a sample of fluid that kept them stasis in their pods. It’s the key to saving Isobel. Who else loves this smart-cookie dynamic duo as much as me?? Give me more of this possible friendship please!

The duo head to the pods, and Liz believes she can synthesize a similar fluid that can heal Isobel. However, to keep Isobel from dying right now, she must remain in stasis in her pod while they work. Unfortunately, the process of formulating an antidote could take years. This worries Max and Isobel, even after Liz promises not to stop until they find a way to save her. They worry she won’t remember them when she returns, but Michael and Max promise to remind her of everything. With that, Liz helps Isobel soak herself in a solution that allows her to enter the pod.

Turning the Tables

While all of this is going on, Alex is turning the tables on his father’s lies. He knocks Sgt. Manes out with his crutch and zip-ties him to a chair in Manes’ secret bunker (SO MANY BUNKERS). After finding that alien reflective glass in the cabin, Alex did a dive into the deep web, started following his father, and reconstructed a burner phone. He knows all about Project Shepard and his father’s involvement. Now, he has the perfect leverage that he’s been searching for all his life. However, his stealth and threatening demeanor falters slightly when he hacks into the Project Shepard database and Michael’s picture is at the forefront of a suspected terrorist list. Manes tries to convince Alex that he was just trying to protect his son because Michael is a monster trying to destroy the world. Alex scoffs at the idea of protection. He’s not buying any of this BS. He’s sending his father to oversee training somewhere, and when he returns, he’ll request a transfer out of Roswell. Should Manes not follow through with this, Alex threatens to alert the Pentagon on how his father has been going against protocol and direct orders since 2010 when they shut Manes down the first time. You go, Alex! Way to stand up for yourself!

Notable Mentions

• Max and Isobel’s mom telling Max the story of Michael drawing the symbol all over the walls of their foster home and saying that he needed attention a wealthy family couldn’t give him broke my heart. ☹
• Speaking of that symbol, I’ve been thinking they knew what it meant this whole time, but apparently not. Michael might be on to something thinking it’s like a beacon for them.
• Kyle almost slipped up and told Liz that Rosa’s his sister!
• Poor Noah just wants his wife back ☹
• Maria going to Michael for help fixing a sign? Maria confiding in him that that sign guides her mom back home when she’s lost? Maria and Michael slowly becoming friends? I’m loving it!
• Max broke my heart this whole episode. When he pushed himself so hard to try to heal Isobel that he barfed. When he cries over how losing Isobel will kill him. Him breaking down crying in his mother’s arms at the end of the episode. ☹

• Liz assures Max that Isobel will survive, and that he should forgive her because missing her will hurt less if he’s not angry. She’s also glad Isobel made her leave town 10 years ago because she saw two oceans that summer. “Besides, you and I weren’t meant to be together.” UGH! Just rip out my Echo loving heart, why don’t you??
• Manes enlisting Jenna to be his eyes and ears, especially on Alex, while he’s away. – eye roll –
• Michael is secretly trying to rebuild their ship!

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