#roswellnm meta

[angsty-nerd]

Thinky Thoughts on Max in 2x06

I’ve been thinking a lot about the various perspectives on Max’s character changes in 2x06, and while I was VERY insistent yesterday on Max being Max and being happy during the calm before the storm, I definitely have forced myself to rethink a little bit overnight. Even in my delirious, sleep deprived state of mind from this episode, I still refuse to believe that Max wasn’t Max during those scenes with Liz (particularly after getting his memories back). But that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t something WRONG. So here are some big thoughts from me.

Not going to lie. It did seem way too easy to “fix” Dark!Max. 10 years of destructive energy and all it took was a little earthquake, some lightning thrown around and that’s it? TEN YEARS. Liz wasn’t even dead for like a minute in the pilot and he blew out all the power in town with that dark energy. And his little earthquake didn’t seem to extend outside of the gym -- nothing was damaged or anything outside or around town. I definitely see an argument for there still being dark energy within him to expel.

It was JARRING how quickly he went from “I don’t like a stranger knowing all of our secrets.” to flirting and “people who don’t know each other go on dates all the time”. I was able to dismiss it easily at first because he was so friggin charming and cute at the market. What was it that Mo said? The full weight of his charm thrown at Liz for the first time? And I know he was grumpy about the sciencing and the talking about him like an experiment in the lab, but he was kinda rude to Liz. And then to be showing off in front of her and flirting? People, he had a jacket on in the market scene, but you can see that he’s wearing the same shirt as he was in the lab scene. It’s CLEARLY the same day and very little time has passed. So did Michael and Isobel just have that good of a talk with him? Or what?

I might need to just explore the Liz erasure in his brain some more at some point. I think the thing that bothered me was the absolutely lovely exchange about the worst things they’d ever done - one of my favorite scenes in the episode, to be honest. It makes sense to me that he doesn’t remember the Rosa incident. It also makes sense to me that he thinks that killing the drifter was the worst thing he’d ever done. Even in 1x06, he made it pretty clear that his first murder was still haunting him, even years later. Even after Rosa. But the continuation of that...the feelings about death and not being willing to hurt someone else. His admission that he wanted to stay dead so that he didn’t kill again. He remembers that. He remembers begging Isobel to let him die. But he doesn’t seem to remember Rosa (because she’s connected to Liz) and he doesn’t seem to remember Rosa being his only connection to the outside world, and he doesn’t seem to remember that what he was begging for was for them to “Stop Liz”. I keep thinking of his mindscape, and the storm and the darkness... is it just this weird patchy cloud over pieces of his memory? Like parts of it are clear to him and other parts are just fuzzy or shrouded?

And speaking of darkness and light, let’s talk about the other side of that. The happy. GOD, Max without the memory of Liz was so happy. He was so light, and confident, and inhibition free. It was so compelling and lets be real, it was friggin sexy as hell. Clearly Liz thought so too, until that “worst thing” conversation when she figured out WHY he was so light and happy. But the thing is...I’m not sure it actually went away after his memories came back. Even after remembering Liz and Rosa and everything, he still seemed to be lighter than before. Mind you, some of that is getting the girl, getting laid, etc, etc. But I wonder if some of it is also just the weight of the guilt lifting off of his shoulders. Like, for right now at least, everything feels like things are right in the world. Until the flash of course...

And I’ll get to the flash eventually, but first this. Isobel pointed it out. “Does he seem different to you?” And yes, it seems like a warning shot. But Liz pointed it out too at the end of the “worst thing” conversation. He IS different. And he SHOULD be different. First, because of the lack of Liz history, but then also because of the lifting of the guilt. I’m not entirely convinced that this was supposed to be anything more than building to that epiphany from Liz (which was probably mostly directed at the audience) that he might be better off without her -- which was also intended to lead to that response from him on the rooftop, “I am not whole without you”. That Max was light and fluffy, but he was missing something. He was *gasp* WRONG. So maybe this was all just building to that moment of acceptance of himself too.

Sort of off topic here, but did anyone else find themselves wondering about how open and public Max was in this episode? Amnesia!Max going to the Mexican market by himself. Meeting Liz publicly for a date. Making out on the street in the middle of town. This is the same Max Evans who was missing for months because supposedly he was so heartbroken. This is the same Max whose boss thinks he murdered Noah and hasn’t stopped investigating him in the months that he’s been missing. Thye’re not going to just DROP that, right? At some point they’ve gotten give us some Max & sheriff interaction? Does he even get his job back after all this!?!

Anyway, back on topic. The time jump. Yes, that was weird. And purposeful. It’s clearly early morning when Max leaves Liz at the Crashdown, and Isobel says it’s, like, 2pm when he got home. Is this simply the fault of a cut scene? Crappy editing? Or is it a purposeful time jump. I will throw out there one naive and happy theory, which is this: it is totally in character for happy lovesick Max to stop everything to write his feelings down. He was going through his journals earlier in the episode. It’s possible he was just sitting somewhere writing poems about Liz. Or love letters. Or whatever. BUT, that does feel too obvious. I think the idea of him losing time, of someone else taking over while he was heading home, is a very interesting, scary, and plausible theory.

Okay, so I still think that’s a memory flash at the end. I think from a plot standpoint, the purpose of the whole amnesia plotline was to feed Max some antidote so that he would start to remember things from before the crash. And maybe it took a little longer because the “natural” amnesia had to resolve itself first before the “unnatural” triggering of memories from the antidote could do its thing. And I do think the hand on the shoulder is clearly mirroring the hand in 1947 that lit the military dudes on fire. And I suspect they’re the same person, but I could be wrong. I could get behind the theory that it’s even Max -- some dark version of him, some Alien!Jesus version of him. Although if it’s the latter then it’s kind of super creepy. Especially given the evil twin imagery that @maxortecho has documented really well over on her blog.

Okay, another thing about this whole evil twin, Jekyll and Hyde thing. I don’t think we’re done with Noah yet. I think IF there’s an evil presence inside of Max it might be Noah, or it might be there because of Noah. I just want to remind y’all about the end of 1x13 right before Max kills Noah. “We are Ophiuchus, Max! The man and the serpent, the serpent and the man. They aren’t killing each other. They are one!” That was a pretty fascinating and direct line, and it brings me back to this: we still don’t know what the deal with Ophiuchus was. Why was Noah so obsessed with it? He identified with Ophiuchus, but he also identified himself and MAX with Ophiuchus. Is Noah the shadowy figure in the cave with Max? Is Noah the darkness inside of Max? Is that Max/Noah struggle that we saw in Rosa’s dream in 2x01 still ongoing? Is Noah going to still try to take over? I think it is very plausible that all of this imagery is still leading back to that incident.

So, to sum it up. Things are both as good as they seem, and as scary as they seem. There are a lot of interesting possibilities out there. And I am fascinated to see what comes next for Max.

Shallow eye candy to close this out:

[larenoz]

Guerenti - Michael and Kyle - I Like It

I’ve been Team Guerenti for a while now, but it’s a ship I want to see in fic, not in canon (because of my thoughts about the importance of straight Kyle). For me it’s also based on my thoughts about what happened in Roswell while Liz and Alex were away. I don’t see either of them returning to Roswell often. If they did, they kept there interactions to a very limited number of people (ie not Max or Michael). So my thoughts are definitely grounded in what happened to the people who stayed in Roswell during the Lost Decade, especially Michael, Maria and Kyle.

We know that Kyle spent a fair bit of time outside of Roswell at the start of the Lost Decade, getting his degree, doing his residency etc. It’s during this period that Kyle’s outlook and attitudes undergo a fairly massive change, so that when he returns to Roswell he is a changed man.

For me that period where Kyle returns to Roswell and starts to integrate himself back into the life of the town is the period where he and Michael start to interact. I don’t see Michael and Kyle having interacted much during high school, but Michael was very aware of how Kyle treated Alex, and how Kyle’s taunts applied to him as well, even if no one knew it. Since Kyle does his emotional growth while outside of town, the first step in their relationship developing is Michael seeing that Kyle has changed.

There are any number of scenarios for how this could happen but since we know Michael is a hard no for doctors and hospitals, their connection has to happen outside of the hospital. For me, the scene I always imagine is something like Michael finds Kyle sitting in his car on the side of the road that’s broken down. He initially starts out giving Kyle a hard time but realises pretty quickly that Kyle isn’t taking the bait. In fact he’s on the verge of tears. Cause Kyle has had a REALLY bad day at work, lost a favourite patient or couldn’t save someone or some other tragedy. Something that makes Michael begin to realise that maybe Kyle isn’t the person he remembers.

So Michael stops giving him a hard time, hooks up his car and drives him back to town. On the way he checks in with Kyle, does he want him to call anyone for him, his mum etc. Kyle says no but he takes note of Michael being kind.

That then sort of begins Kyle noticing Michael around town, seeing him quietly helping people, doing odd jobs for free or for barter. And Kyle starts to realise that maybe there’s more to Michael than the macho cowboy swagger that he presents to the world.I think Kyle seeing Michael help people, especially those who might otherwise slip through the cracks or have nowhere else to go would be something that flags Michael as a caring person willing to act on that compassion.

In turn, Michael sees Kyle helping people with their medical issues where he can, fixing minor wounds, health advice, maybe prescriptions etc. These interactions then go from random to deliberate, from the 18+ Discord discussion, which totally sums up how I see it playing out:

“Over a series of encounters-- Kyle happens by as Michael is helping someone who has spun out into a ditch and they need some medical help.... Michael gets Kyle to stitch up a bartender's hand at the Pony when he slices it on a broken glass, etc... they start to build a rapport and trust with each other. And the supports keep getting bigger-- Michael drives a kid who was injured in a fight to the hospital, gets Kyle to treat him because he's figured out the kid is half-fallen through the cracks like he was and needs the help. He fixes Kyle's car for free in return. Comes to Kyle one time because he's trying to get Sanders to get his blood pressure checked, since the guy keeps having dizzy spells. Kyle comes to the junkyard to do it...stays for a beer. Kyle gets Michael to fix a patient's car because the finances are so tight that the mom is having to ration her insulin and is about to lose her job because she can't afford to fix the car that gets her to work.” (@daughterofelros)

All of this slowly builds up trust and a grudging respect between the two. But being who they are (especially Michael), they both fight it and their interactions are all snark and sharp edges.

“I see them as very... hungry and unintentionally self-soothing with each other and just like, this connection they can't understand but can't get away from. Like all rational thought leaves their head when the other is close.

like those moments of softness are something they crave but never ever acknowledge or talk about bc they're terrified to admit they actually care about each other.” (@chasingshhadows)

Eventually, one day after seeing Michael trying to work with an injury, Kyle forces him to sit down, looks after the wound (feeding my very strong H/C kink, ngl) and then, one thing leads to another....

Both Michael and Kyle strike me as action oriented people. Despite what some people on the show seem to think, Michael is constantly helping people. He comes across as very service oriented, very action oriented (even if he doesn’t always think those actions all the way through). He doesn’t trust what people say, people lie. People have spent his entire life judging Michael and getting it very wrong. He assesses (not judges) people by their actions, not what they say. So he needs to SEE Kyle be this changed person, and that’s what happens over the Lost Decade.

For his part, Kyle is also very action oriented, although he manifests that in being hyper-focused in all that he does (he only has 30 seconds to talk to Jesse on his run!!). But that focus is tempered by compassion and the Valenti Code and while Michael may not necessarily always act within the law, because he acts from a place of care and compassion, he is unknowingly acting with the Valenti Code, especially when it comes to protecting his family - who for Michael have ALWAYS been more than blood.

So, that's my random Guerenti thoughts. What have I missed? What have I gotten wrong?

Guerenti Fics

“small towns make for small friends” by @AnnCherie -

“This Hard Lie” by @lambourn - Chapter 5 of the “This Hard Life” stories focused on Michael Guerin.

Guerenti on Ao3

Shout out to @lambourngb, @chasingshhadows, @daughterofelros, @finditagain24

[saadiestuff]

RNM characters per ep

I have made a spreadsheet of all character appearances in RNM per episode! It is really quite cool and you can look at trends. CLICK FOR THE SPREADSHEET.

A little preview of it! (There are many more rows!)

A couple of notes:

1. I have shared a version you can comment in. (Right click in cell.)

2. The spreadsheet is likely FULL of errors. 😅 I kept mixing up columns/seasons as I entered data, plus IMDB is often wrong (my main source of info). Please comment if you find errors!

3. If you can tell me who the characters are (i.e. notable actions/encounters in the episode) in the WHO DIS?? categories, please comment! And if you can't, then please join me on a scavenger hunt activity over the hiatus 😆

4. Apologies for some instances of unnecessary gendering of characters in the document (assumptions based solely on actor names) -- this is temporary to try to help as I try to spot people in episodes and identify their role in the story.

[forgadgetsandgizmos]

There are a dozen reasons (analyzed by people way better at it than I) that could prove that Michael and Alex saw each other during the lost decade. Which I believe they did. But I realized something yesterday which basically confirms it for me. 

And that’s this statement: 

Michael’s biggest recurring problem with Alex is that he doesn’t stay. Alex won’t be seen with Michael in public, he hides from Isobel and repeatedly walks away.

And yeah, later on Alex gets tangled in with the Manes legacy, Caulfield, and for Michael, that means memories of pain. 

But this is 1x03. They don’t know about any of that. And yet, the fact that Alex stayed makes Michael smile like this, his leaving causes him to be so conflicted. 

Which leads me to ask: At what point during their teen summer romance would a pattern of Alex leaving been established? We know that they stayed together after the shed and during that time period, if anything, Michael was the one who left Alex that summer. He was drinking, generally falling apart, and he purposely getting arrested to avoid saying goodbye to Alex. 

The only explanation I can think of for why Michael would be saying with surprise (and why in S2 said “in all our years of this. . .”) is if Alex made a pattern of visiting him on leave before leaving, most likely for a hookup.

Edit: See here for possible answer about timeline between episodes.

[lizortech]

i think half the reason this season of roswell hasn’t been the best (amongst other quite obvious reasons) is that carina, by her own admission, believes that “trusting the audience to connect some dots on their own is important” and while i wholeheartedly agree, i think that’s where the main issue lies. 

you can’t have scenes where kyle and rosa talk about being related and them wanting to be in each other’s lives, and then not have them interact.

you can’t have scenes where kyle admits that his greatest failure was how he treated alex and how he’s one of the only people in his life he now trusts, and then not have them interact. 

you can’t have scenes where you state the importance of rosa and maria in each other’s lives and then not have them interact.

you can’t have scenes where you state the importance of liz and maria in each other’s lives and then not have them interact. 

there’s a difference between letting the audience figure it out on their own, and then just blatantly tell us instead of show us. stop telling me all these things and start showing me. it’s not enough to just say it, especially when your show (at least season one was more so) is mostly character-driven instead of plot-driven. 

[chasingshhadows]

look at michael’s face.

Watch the little twitches of his brow as he absorbs what she's saying. He looks up at those words, eyes totally betraying the words he won't say.

Because that lie?

That lie was that Michael was the dangerous one. Michael was the volatile one. Michael was the one that lost control.

And what he hears when Isobel says that isn't what she meant. He doesn't hear that her comfort was based in her own docility.

What he hears is that Isobel felt comfortable believing Michael to be a killer.

What he hears is that she thinks so little of him as to find that truth acceptable.

That expression is so hurt, she just gutted him and doesn't even know it. Because she confirmed for him (though I thoroughly believe it was not her intent) that Isobel, his rock, his favorite person on the planet, the one person who is supposed to know him better and love him more than anyone else, comfortably believes him to be a murderer.

Because we know how much those lies ate Michael up - he’s said it again and again, he’s so sick of the lies. He’s sick of secrets. Of pretending to be something he’s not. This lie, telling the person he loves the most that he was a killer to protect her from believing herself to be one, was anything but comfortable.

And hearing Isobel call it such is one of the most devastating things he’s ever heard. And it shows.

[cowboyswagger]

It’s take me a couple of hours to tease out but I think I’ve finally clicked why Michael and Maria hooking up when they did makes me feel disappointed, and it’s not from a ship perspective. That was a perfect opportunity to really build on the comfort and support Michael gave her at the end of 1x07, a situation where Maria let herself be vulnerable around Michael and he didn't obviously throw it in her face the next time they got snarky, which proved to her that he clearly got how important and rare it was. That’s the kind of thing that makes you take a second look at someone, or realise maybe there is more to them than you thought before. We don’t know how much she told him, but it must have been something given the conversation about the sign in 1x08 and that he doesn’t seem surprised by the mention of her mother.

Now I just can't help feeling like they took a step backwards hooking up because Maria was having a hard time and losing hope for helping her mother and maybe she needed it to work off some steam, but now she might feel like she has to draw those hard lines between them again and most people wouldn't open up to someone they're trying to do that with, especially someone who acted as Michael did; disbelieving and doubting, even if it was just in jest. If Maria is serious about it not happening again, she’s going to reinforce that with her actions and there’s a chance Michael wouldn’t take that well and if he’s going to throw anything in her face, it might be there. I point to Alex and the way Michael has handled some of their interactions as my base here and while I know there’s feelings there and may not be with Maria, its proven that Michael gets defensive when others try to distance themselves from him. 

So there's every chance Maria won't let herself be vulnerable with him again, or she would just be too hurt or concerned to, even as a friend, and I'm disappointed by that because it was a great opportunity to see these two characters who, despite being in each others orbit for over a decade still don’t know one another that well. I have nothing against the hookup or even the circumstances under which it happened because they’re totally believable; I just wish from a writing and development standpoint that it hadn’t been that moment in which they did so. 

But oh well. Probably just wishful thinking on my part with such a short season and the amount of development they’re kind of having to skip over due to that. 

[angsty-nerd]

So, I started writing this months ago. Like, maybe early summer? Never finished... But after watching Songs About Texas today, it seemed like a good time to come back to it, so here we go!

This weekend, watching Songs About Texas, I got mentally stuck on the passage Max reads at the beginning, from Frankenstein. Mostly I found myself considering the passage in the context of where the season ended and all of the religious imagery in Recovering the Satellites. In case you, like me, haven’t spent too much time thinking about it, here’s the passage:

“Even broken in spirit as he is, no one can feel more deeply than he does the beauties of nature. The starry sky, the sea, and every sight afforded by these wonderful regions, seems still to have the power of elevating his soul from earth. Such a man has a double existence: he may suffer misery, and be overwhelmed by disappointments; yet, when he has retired into himself, he will be like a celestial spirit that has a halo around him, within whose circle no grief or folly ventures.”

― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

First off, let me caveat this by saying that a decade ago when I was studying for my totally useful (haha) English degree, I think I studied Frankenstein for at least two, maybe three classes - and I didn’t mind at all. It’s one of my favorites. Just as a quick summary for anyone unfamiliar with the novel, yes Frankenstein is the scientist, not the monster. But also that's not really the point of the novel. The novel is really more about man's connection to the natural world, to their own emotional state of being, and a huge metaphor for parental abandonment. It's not a horror book at all.

Typically, when studying it, discussion regarding this particular part of the book focuses on the romantic period of art and literature, and how it connected man to nature in a soul inspiring way that could feel almost like a religious experience. Other typical themes of the overall book include illusions of "loss, guilt, and the consequences of defying nature" (quoted text just pulled from the Wikipedia page for the novel). 

On the surface, when it first aired, I just interpreted this as Max reading one of his favorite books to Isobel. Because, of course Max would relate to Frankenstein. I can see this on so many levels. There’s just the pure and simple fact that Max is a man who feels his emotions so deeply and doesn’t try to hide them away - very characteristic of Frankenstein. Max seems to enjoy a lifestyle that allows him to be close to the natural world - he lives on the outskirts of town, wanders the desert, drives the Jeep, etc. And of course there’s the obvious metaphor of the man and the monster within him that he creates, that in turn destroys him.

We’ve all talked about Max’s guilt, how he hid for years from his alien side, wishing he was normal. All of this is logical to me. Which is why...haha..one of my fics-in-progress even has a whole scene with Max thinking about romantic period themes in literature. Yes, I’m a huge nerd.

But now, in the context of the finale and that whole religious imagery thing...there is SO MUCH MORE there. Of course there’s all of the negative emotion, which certainly can be related to Max: broken in spirit, suffering misery, and overwhelmed by disappointments... these all tie directly back to his lingering guilt over Rosa’s death, his role in it, and the resulting danger that it caused to Ortecho family. This is something that he hasn’t been able to let go of. It keeps him up at night, “I see her every time I close my eyes.” This is why he became a cop. It’s his penance for his mistakes, “I like protecting people. It helps me sleep at night.” And this guilt is something that he can’t let go of. Even with Liz’s forgiveness, he doesn’t feel like he deserves it. And as every post-finale meta has discussed, this, combined with all of the feels from the connection with Liz, is what drives him to try to bring Rosa back.

The consequences of defying the laws of nature...another clear theme in Frankenstein that runs through Max's character arc in RNM. It starts from the very beginning as Max struggles with his emotional control and power in the wake of healing Liz, an act of defiance of the natural order of things. And upon his recovery from that incident he retains control...until of course another defiant act (killing Noah) causes him to lose control again, which leads him to the most unnatural act of all, resurrecting Rosa, which has the ultimate consequences.

Defiance aside, there is also this religious imagery in the specific passage that is somewhat fascinating to me. "When he retires into himself" (i.e., dies) "he shall be like a celestial spirit that has a halo around himself" (Jesus imagery, self sacrifice, almost soul cleansing...).

Also, do I even need to talk about the whole man living a double existence line? Obviously that's something that has always been a part of his life as he juggles his alien identity with his human life...and I have a feeling that this is only going to get harder for him as they learn more about whatever this alien Jesus savior thing means for him versus the quiet life he wants (and deserves) being Liz's house husband. 💚💛

[angsty-nerd]

Whoa...

Why have I never noticed this before right now?

I was just scrolling past my feed and saw a beautiful set by @lesbianmaxevans, and this gif caught my eye and wouldn’t let it go.

This is the end of “So Much for the Afterglow”. I know y’all know that. But, it’s not long after Liz learns that Rosa was murdered by an alien, right after she first begins to suspect Max, and catches him lying to her.

So what is it that caught my eye this time?

Rosa’s gravestone.

It’s the dominant visual here...taking up more than half the screen, and it LOOMS over Liz and Kyle. It is literally the death of Rosa, or the memory of Rosa, or Rosa’s ghost, dominating over all else in this moment. Which is exactly what Liz is feeling too.

This show, y’all. Just so fucking brilliant in so many ways!

💚💛👽👏

[angsty-nerd]

Whelp!

Cut for more episode 3 theories!

So all of my thoughts that I posted yesterday are out the window with what we learned today. So, new theory, nothing to do with the title!

Things must be complicated between Max being dead, and Wyatt’s trial coming up!! Obviously Max can’t testify if he’s dead!  So, Jenna comes to town to testify only to walk in on all the madness and....help?  Meanwhile Liz is frantically trying to get Max back before it causes any real world trouble with this legal crap?

Thoughts?

[saadiestuff]

Aliens & Flowers

Isobel in 2x10 about Louise’s grave: Oh, my God. It's covered in flowers. It's winter. Greg explains: Rumor is, they grow year-round unattended.

Jones in 3x03: It was that night in '47. Our ship was breaking apart before we even hit the ground. And the chemicals it spewed... it killed cattle. It made the cactus flowers bloom, but then it turned that little stone into something else entirely.

Oh and the first shot of THE WHOLE SHOW (which starts by talking about the UFO crash) is this:

(I have always wondered why this was the first shot!!! I’m not sure if it is supposed to be a sunflower but it could maybe be a “little becka sunflower” -- sometimes they look similar to this. Or it’s just a random flower. But still.)

Other flower references:

Of course we have the very important purple flower with the yellow pollen that affects alien powers. (Which is back in s3 in a big way with the necklace, and Liz’s samples from Libya.)

We have Michael growing sunflowers.

The drive in movie theatre is called Desert Flower.

Potentially, flowers are cluing us in to Maria’s vision changing -- see this post. (Is that a Yucca in the second image in that post?? If so, interesting!)

In 3x01, Wyatt defends his art to the therapist saying, “It's a cactus. See? That's a flower right there on that testicle.” I’m thinking that is not connected but hey, maybe some alien chemicals made that flower bloom? Errr....

This is stretch, but in s2, at Flint’s house Kyle finds a Yucca Blooms (a florist) branded USB stick that contains a letter to Helena that directs her to a storage locker where they find a box of stuff. Given the significance of Jim’s radio, I wonder if there are any clues in that box.

Bonus -- flowers mentioned in music on the show:

The song Hypnotised by Years & Years featured in 2x06 has the lyric “The fortune said: Flowers bloom with no regret”, and that line plays while Michael and Maria patch up Alex’s wound.

In 2x07, the song Blood from a Stone by Honey County is played, and interestingly the only lyric that the closed captions pick up is “I was just a little flower”, which happens to be right as Michael appears, walking up to Kyle and Maria sitting on the Wild Pony patio.

(I said I created the searchable transcripts for the show so fandom content creators could use them but really I made them for me so I could do this kind of nonsense 😂)

[saadiestuff]

Song from 3x10

We need to talk about the song that plays at the end of 3x10 (Contessa - "Feel It Coming On"). I can’t find the lyrics anywhere!

During the scene where Kyle watched Isobel/Anatsa we get: ♪ Running in a circle ♪

Then we cut to the Malex drinking scene for: ♪ Circle of fire... ♪ -- obvious, Michael has fire resistant powers. Is this foreshadowing about the coming battle with Jones? Malex gets surrounded by fire??

Michael then says, “We're not the same kids we were back in high school, in the back of a pickup truck” and we get the lyric: ♪ I want to feel something new... ♪ -- I think it is actually “real” instead of “new” but the closed captions say “new”.

Then Malex kisses to these lyrics:

♪ Feel it coming on ♪ ♪ Earth beneath me falls off ♪ -- I think instead of “falls off” it might be “frozen”, but the closed captions say “falls off” and it could work. ♪ Frozen in time ♪ -- Isobel froze Dallas in place and talked about it with Kyle, resulting in the great “ice powers” line. Frozen in time also applies to aliens in pods.

There are other lyrics playing under the Malex scene but I’ve only discussed the ones the closed captions pick up.

Then we cut to the Dallas and Kyle scene and get: ♪ The past will never find me... ♪ -- This fits more with the Malex scene, though I guess Michael is feeling the opposite. Kyle and Dallas are discussing a message from the past from Theo.

The lyric ♪ Feel it coming on ♪ repeats over other scenes. Again there are additional lyrics playing underneath that aren’t picked up by the closed captions.

Some of those other lyrics from the song that the closed captions don’t pick up and may or may not be present in the scenes are:

Falling off a spiral, spiral of light -- Lightning? Pods falling off the crashing spaceship?

Break a chain so we are free -- Baby Max in the ankle chain freed.

Feel it moving underneath - Some loving happening idk?? Or alien power beneath your skin you can feel coming on??

The world we could build -- Malex build your hear a home stuff?? Or build a safe peaceful Oasis?

Watch it all becoming still - Death?? [Pronounced Deeth  😂]

Watch as the ashes fall from the sky -- funeral vision

Also, we’ve been talking a lot about the elemental type powers of the aliens this season. Max with lightning, Michael with fire, Dallas with water, and Isobel with... idk? This song touches on the elements of earth and fire, and also about freezing (ice from water), and lightning.

[saadiestuff]

Flower meta update

I did a previous meta here through 3x04.

There hasn’t been much to update since. We had Manny and Vinnie growing sunflowers, and we saw the Purple Flower necklace some more.

But 3x11 gives us a few things:

- Jones takes a flower out of a vase to give to Liz.

- We have Jones on Oasis picking a purple flower from a field of many.

- We got some science discussion about the purple flowers. They grow from the genetic material of dead aliens - which I thought we already knew? But I guess we have more details now about the stem cells and such.

- The best part though is Dallas says, “You know, sometimes hope blossoms out of darkness.”

[saadiestuff]

Auras in RNM

Have we talked about the fact that Mimi Deluca can read auras? Just like her aunt Isobel?

There have been two uses of the word aura in the entire show, both instances in 1x07 by Mimi. (Isobel calls it “a sort of halo” -- the word aura has never been used in season 3, yet.)

#1

Mimi: You look like your dad today.

Alex: Oh, good. I was hoping that the rage face might skip a generation.

Mimi: Not your face. Your aura.

#2

Mimi to Liz: The last time I read your aura, you were at a crossroads. What happened? What road did you take, Rosa?

[saadiestuff]

From 1x01 and 3x10. Foreshadowing of the symbol being on Theo’s forehead?

[saadiestuff]

“Goofs” (?) in RNM 3x04

There were a few potential “goofs” in this episode. Or, they might be intentional? 👀 (Even if these never come to be explained on the show, I still won’t call them goofs unless there is *no way* to headcanon explain them while staying consistent with canon -- which I don’t really see a risk of in this case.)

1. Kyle tells Michael that his great-grandfather made the radio and that it was the “family business”. However, in 3x02, Michelle gives Kyle the radio and tells him:

It was your dad's. His uncle stayed in Mexico when the rest of the family came over, and he used to carve these things. He always said, "Music leads your heart where it needs to go."

Possible in-universe explanation: Kyle misspoke/forgot what Michelle told him. Or, Kyle did some digging and found out his great-grandfather also tried his hand at making a radio, since it was the family business. Maybe that great-grandfather is Hector Valenti? (Michelle’s comment had previously ruled out Hector as the maker because Hector obviously didn’t stay in Mexico.)

2. When Maria and Isobel are in Maria’s subconscious at the Wild Pony, Kyle is there tinkering with the radio. However, neither Maria or Isobel know about/have seen the radio. (Credit to @angsty-nerd for pointing this one out to me!)

Possible in-universe explanation: Off screen, Kyle told one of them about it. Or, Maria can see the future, so it made it into her subconscious because she will encounter the radio in the future.

3. When Isobel tells Maria about Jones, Maria says, “Wait, I'm sorry, you kept a man in a cage for a year?” but Isobel had not said anything about the time period.

Possible in-universe explanation: Maria has sensed something was off for a year, and made the connection. Or, Maria could kinda read Isobel’s mind in the subconscious space once Isobel started opening up.