Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 8 Review: Barely Breathing
Paul Dailly
at
.
The mission to save Isobel brought everyone together!
On Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 8, Isobel's life was hanging in the balance, and it was all her own fault.
Isobel agreeing to go into the hospital in the first place to allow herself to be experimented on was quite the surprise, but using her compulsion on Kyle to inject her with the serum was her dumbest move to date.
On the surface, she was trying to be a better person and thought that Liz was smart enough to have engineered a serum that would help suppress her powers and murderous tendencies.
That was far too good to be true because these surprise solutions need some time to be tested and Liz didn't have anything to test them on other than a group of mice.
Nothing is ever easy in the world of Roswell, New Mexico. The moment Isobel's cells started to rot, I began to wonder just how Max would cope if he lost her.
Max is far too emotional to just up and move on with his life in the way Michael probably could. It must cut Michael up to know that Max has a bond with Isobel that allows him to know when she's in danger.
Michael struggled to find his place in any family in his younger years, so it's entirely plausible that he would be upset about his lack of connection to his siblings.
Learning that Michael was trying to engineer a ship to take him and his siblings to wherever they came from was touching. It continued to solidify the fact that he felt alone in this big world, and that he was waiting for the moment everyone learned about his status as an alien.
"Barely Breathing" also shed light on Liz's true feelings for Max.
Liz genuinely cared about Max's wellbeing. It was only a handful of episodes ago that she was telling him that she would never be able to forgive him.
She felt somewhat responsible for Isobel's predicament and wanted to take accountability for her own actions. Liz may be harboring ill feelings towards Isobel, but killing her is not something that Liz would be able to deal with.
Liz being anti-alien has actually hindered the narrative from moving forward, and it's made the pace of Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 feel a little off. Not to mention that it's also taken a lot away from the epic love story we were promised on Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 1.
The team-up of Liz and Michael to find a solution came out of nowhere, but it was about time Michael was put in the spotlight to help him save somebody he loved.
Going back to the pods was a good idea because it helped give us the truth about why the trio were young when they first emerged from their slumber.
There has to be a reason why somebody put them in the pods.
I'm glad that questions surrounding what happened to them are starting to be answered now.
Someone else must have survived to give them a blank slate and put them inside a makeshift egg.
Noah's reaction to everything was perfectly natural. He's confused, has no idea his wife is an alien and everyone is keeping things from him.
Lashing out at a mirror was not a bad thing, but he also needs to fight to get answers from here on out. Nobody in their right mind would allow their significant other to be tested on without knowing the facts.
Related: The CW Renews 10 Dramas: Which Shows Missed the Cut?
There's no telling what outlandish theory everyone else will cook up to explain Isobel's absence to him, but I'm getting the feeling Noah is not going to allow her absence to be brushed under the rug.
Before long, one of the aliens is going to have to come clean to Noah about everything, and that will be the deciding factor whether he is meant to be with Isobel.
He knows his marriage is built on lies, so it will give him an easy way out, but it's not out of the realm of possibility for him to be understanding of it all. It will be tough, but he could find a way to live with it.
Isobel will not stand for him having his mind controlled because that will just make the whole thing seem like a sham, and Isobel is trying to make things in her life be less superficial.
The introduction of Claudia Black as Ann was a welcome one. As a fan of Containment and The Originals, it was great to see her make her way back to the small screen.
Ann's fraught relationship with her children was a strong point, and it needs to be explored more.
The way Ann commented about the boy who was drawing the symbol in the group home was upsetting. She didn't even have a name for him, and it really struck a chord with Max.
Michael had the worst start in life to his siblings, and it would have been exciting to see where he would be in life if he got a decent upbringing.
He proved to be a smart individual with the way he fought to get the answers he needed to keep his sister alive. That being said, I wasn't sold on the way Liz concluded that he could help her.
It came out of nowhere and felt like an easy way to throw these two together to come to an understanding.
While Michael's pairing with Liz seemed random, I'm starting to dig the dynamic between him and Maria.
Heather Hemmens is still woefully underutilized, but her chemistry with Michael Vlamis is off the charts.
More scenes from them, please!
As for Alex, I loved just how badass he was when he kidnapped his father. Alex waited his whole life for a moment to be in a position of power.
He wanted revenge for the years of torment he endured at the hands of his father, and he got it.
Now that Alex knows just about everything there is to know, he's probably going to do some digging into Michael himself.
Related: Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 7 Review: I Saw the Sign
Calling Michael a terrorist was a low blow, but Cameron and her loose lips can be thanked for that. Alex knows a lot, and given that Wyatt was sent to kill the radio host a few episodes before, I'm betting Alex's life is also in danger.
I don't think anybody realizes how relentless the government will be in keeping Roswell's alien problem quiet.
It will give Michael an opportunity to save the man he loves, so there's that.
What are your thoughts on the way it all panned out?
Do you want Isobel to survive?
Hit the comments below.
Roswell, New Mexico airs Tuesdays on The CW.
Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.
