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Alex Whitman is a principal character on Roswell. He is portrayed by Colin Hanks.

Character

Alex is a sweet, smart, witty and funny guy, who goes to great lengths to always be there for his friends. Alex is charming and gets along with almost everyone at school, possessing an ability to make people around him feel at ease. He is also very direct and not afraid to call his friends out when they're not being real with him, which happens a lot early on in their sophomore year as Alex is left out of the loop by Maria and Liz for a while. Alex is a bass player and music fiend. He starts a band his sophomore year, who are chosen to open for a big name at a radio contest in Roswell.

Series arc

In the first few episodes, Alex is left out of the know, unaware of the events occurring in his best friends' lives, and trying to start up a band. But after a while of radio silence from Liz and Maria, Alex decides to confront them and try to figure out what's going on, but Maria saves them from that conversation by talking about periods. Alex gets more and more suspicious of his friends' behaviors when they start talking about Czechoslovakians, a code word for aliens, knowing that Czechoslovakia has not been a country for 10 years.

After Max is hospitalised with injuries sustained in a car accident, they have to do something, or let Max's alien identity be revealed to the whole of Roswell, New Mexico. So, with the knowledge that they can tell what gender someone is by their blood, and all the males readily available are aliens, they have to find a human male to be a blood donor for them, Alex. Begrudgingly, and with many questions, Alex allows them to take his blood, but gets absolutely furious with Liz for not telling him the reason why they need it so badly. Alex assumes that it's drugs, and Liz, even though she wants more than anything to tell the truth, goes along with it, knowing that the truth was too unbelievable, and not her secret to tell.[1]

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Alex tells Liz he's done with her lying to him

Still under the impression that Max is into drugs, Alex goes on about his life, frustrated with Liz for not telling him the truth, and trying to walk away from whatever is going on. He has a dream about Isabel when she decides to dream walk him, to find out what's going on in his head. The dream features Alex and Isabel dancing in a romantic setting, and Alex telling her how beautiful she is and how he knows there's more to her than people might think. Isabel then decides to pursue him in order to keep him quiet, and asks him to go to the big party in the old glass factory with her. He, uncertain and flustered, agrees and meets her there. They talk and she offhandedly mentions how grateful she is that he's going to stay quiet about Max's secret, he then realizes she must be using him, and leaves.

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Alex and Isabel dancing together in Alex's dream

On his way he runs into Liz and confronts her, but not before a random stranger puts alcohol in their hands. They are arrested for being in possession of alcohol and get thrown in jail for the night. Put in cells right next to each other, Liz tries desperately to try and get him to talk to her about what's been going on, but frustrated and furious, Alex refuses to listen, confronting her about Isabel, before learning that she had nothing to do with it. Finally, Liz tells Alex the secret about Isabel, Max and Michael, and although Alex has difficulty believing that there really are aliens in Roswell, he believes that she believes it and lets her off the hook. Then, he tells off the Sheriff, and threatens to sue him for harassment. They are both released then and are shown to be close friends again.[2]

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Isabel and Alex's first kiss

Later, still in disbelief, he decides to talk to one of the aliens himself, Isabel, and she tells him all about their powers and even demonstrates. When everyone is discovering the flashes, Alex offers himself up to Isabel for experimentation, and it isn't until the end of the episode, when Isabel is desperate to find her brother, that she actually takes him up on the offer, showing up at his house early in the morning and asking him to kiss her. It is said that nothing useful was revealed during the kiss, but it leaves them both smiling.[3]

Hella

Isabel and Alex kissing in the Eraser Room

Alex and Isabel are shown as close friends all throughout the season, but it is not until after Alex helps Liz find out Topolsky's true identity, that anything really happens between them. After Isabel begins having sexual dreams about Michael, she begins to overcompensate and throws herself at Alex, attempting to make a relationship with him. The relationship is short lived, as Isabel comes to realize that she can't handle a relationship at a time like this, when everything is aliens and stress. Alex is understanding of this and still offers himself up as a friend to her, faithful and compassionate.[4]

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Alex, embarrassed, greets Mrs. Evans, before scampering off to the kitchen

During Isabel's 18th birthday party Alex does a striptease for her, which is cut short when he realizes that her mother is there. Embarrassed, he only says hello and runs away.[5]

Alex disappears for a while for unexplained reasons, and until his return, when he comes back from a trip to Sweden. He gives Liz and Maria a slide show, displaying all that happened while he was there, and invites Isabel, who leaves early because she needs to take care of Laurie Dupree. He seems fine with it, and we are lead to believe that he has changed, grown and matured since he returned from Sweden and that's the only reason why. He ends up alone with Liz and tells her all about how beautiful the northern lights were, before ending the slide show and telling her how he's ready to overcome his feelings for Isabel and move on. It is revealed that he had a girlfriend in Sweden named Leana, and they were keeping a long distance thing.

When Maria and Michael are going through relationship troubles and it becomes apparent that Michael may be cheating on her, Alex confronts Michael about it and punches him in the face.[6] Alex and Kyle Valenti are sent out to dig for alien crystal, they end up venturing inside the cavern, and getting stuck inside as alien crystal forms in the hole they'd gotten in through. They spend quite a while together, and Alex, seeming especially Zen, tells Kyle that it's not really so awful a way to die, and they seem to bond, singing American Pie together and awaiting what they're assuming will be their death. However, after Kyle inadvertently discovers how to kill the crystal, Michael is able to save the day and they are released gratefully back into the real world.[7]

Alex is invited by Maria to join everyone on a trip to Las Vegas, and is seen spending most of his time there with Kyle. He takes photos of Maria on stage when she performs and seems just grateful to be there at all. When he spots Isabel entering, he tells her that he thought she had plans, and she tells him she did. They talk about how she thought that she was getting what she thought she deserved with her random guy, before he asks her if she'd like to dance. She says yes.[8]

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Alex and Isabel hug

When Isabel witnesses a couple making plans for prom, she seems to have an epiphany. She, studying with Alex, encourages him subtly to ask her to go to prom with him, but he tells him that he can't, because he knows that she'll be on to the next thing tomorrow, and he can't handle that again. Heartbroken, Isabel accepts this and moves on, attempting to understand. But later, in the day, at night, she knocks on Alex's window, he raises his guitar to defend himself, and then sees its her, and lets her in.

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Alex and Isabel kissing as they slow dance

She tells him that this is going to be her last chance to go to prom and all she wants is to go with him, so after a minute, Alex asks her, and she says yes and hugs him in thanks. They go to prom together and are seen very happy when ever they are seen. They dance together all night. Isabel tells him that she's about to do something she said she wouldn't, and Alex tells her not to, before she kisses him, and he kisses her back.[9]

Isabel calls Alex after Prom and asks if he'd like to see her, but Liz and Maria tell him to play coy and stay home, so he does. Later, when his Tai Food arrives, he is portrayed as being very depressed, for apparently no reason at all, and then we see Valenti, and he tells us that Alex is dead. Everyone is devastated, and Max attempts to revive Alex, but fails. Later, Isabel has a dream about Alex, and he says that of course he isn't really dead, she hugs him and kisses him and then he takes off for brand practice. Evidence is piling up that says that Alex may have killed himself, but Liz is convinced otherwise, and goes on a mission to find out what really happened to him.

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Alex and Isabel kiss in Isabel's dream

Isabel has another dream about him where he tells her that she has to accept that he's really dead, and that he's just a part of her mind. He reassures her that his death was not her fault, and they kiss. She tells him that she loves him, and he tells her that, obviously, he loved her too.[10]

It is revealed that in reality, Alex never went to Sweden, and in fact stayed right there, in New Mexico. In Las Cruces, more specifically. And Leanna was, in fact, a young woman named Jennifer Coleman. He was in a dorm room at the University, and was doing never ending research under the name Ray. We are told that he never left his room and only came out to get his Thai food everyday. They also discover that while he was in La Cruces, Alex had been working on translating the text from the Royal Four's home planet.

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Isabel and Alex slow dancing on his grave

Isabel has a conversation with Alex in her head, about how she's going to leave, and asks for his advice, he comforts her and she tells him that dancing with him at prom was one of the best nights of her life, he then asks her to dance, and she slow dances with him, even though he isn't really there. Finally, it is revealed what really happened to Alex, when the mindwarp that Tess did on Kyle begins to fade, and we see that Alex was there at the Valenti home the night he died.

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Alex fighting against Tess

Tess attempts to make him forget it again, and he does until Liz and Maria realize that the tapping that Kyle has been doing all day was similar to the tapping that Amy, who had been mindwarped by Tess, had been doing earlier, and encourage him to attempt to remember. He then remembers everything that happened.

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Alex dead on the ground in Tess's room

We see Alex arrive angrily in Tess' room and confront her about her making him work on the translation and then mind warping him into forgetting it. He yells at her that his entire life is a lie, that he is losing it, and he might as well be dead, he's yelling but it's not until Kyle arrives in the room that things begin to get physical because Tess has to try to get him to stop.  In a moment of absolute fear and frustration, Tess mindwarps him one last time, and Alex dies. Tess then mindwarps Kyle into carrying Alex to the car by convincing him Alex's body is a duffle bag.[11]

Alex appears one more time, functioning, essentially, as Isabel's conscience when confronted with the possibility that Jesse Ramirez might propose to her. He tells her to follow her instincts and he encourages her to forgive herself and stop putting all the blame for his death on her. He forgives her, and she manages to forgive herself. She goes out there and talks to Jesse, and after he leaves, frustrated and upset, Alex encourages her to go after him. It is only after things are resolved with Jesse that she can finally let Alex go.[12]

Relationships

Isabel Evans

Main page: Alex and Isabel

Alex quietly dreams of popular Isabel from a distance, always underestimating the truly great guy he is and how much he has to offer. Although Isabel is aware of his attention, she doesn't know how genuine of a person Alex is until she dreamwalks him and sees how much he really cares about her.

Liz Parker

Alex and Liz became friends in 5th grade, Alex noting that they met in 4th, but Liz didn't really notice him until 5th. From then on, the two along with Maria DeLuca have been best friends, considering themselves a sort of three musketeers group who always talk about and share everything they feel and experience. Keeping Isabel, Michael and Max's secret about their true identity from Alex puts their close bond in danger, but once Alex knows the truth they remain inseparable.

Photos

Alex Whitman/Gallery

Appearances

Episodes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3

References

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