Recovering the Satellites

Season	Episode	Overall
1	13	13

Info

Series

Roswell, New Mexico

Air date

April 23, 2019

Written by

Carina Adly MacKenzie

Directed by

Julie Plec & Tim Andrew

Episodes
← Previous	Next →
Creep	Stay (I Missed You)

"When I committed my life to science, I stopped believing in magic... in fairy tales with happy endings... in gods... and in ghosts. But then I met a demon, a creature who could possess an innocent. So I can't help but ask: if the devil is real, what else walks amongst us?"

―Liz, opening narration

Recovering the Satellites is the thirteenth episode of The CW science fiction series Roswell, New Mexico, and it is the finale episode of season one. It first aired on April 23, 2019.

Synopsis[]

Official synopsis:^[1]

UNDOING THE PAST — Max and Michael find themselves at an impasse over how to deal with the 4th alien. Liz has a dangerous encounter with an unexpected visitor. Kyle spirals after uncovering a dark secret about his father’s death. And Michael is forced to make a difficult decision about his future.

Plot[]

Act 1: At Max's place, the standoff between Michael and Max continues. Michael tells Max about Caulfield prison and now he needs answers from Noah, but Max shoots the antidote out of Michael's hand to stop him. Michael pushes Max and knocks him out, and while getting Noah out, Noah stabs Michael in the neck and gets away.

At the Wild Pony, Liz visits Maria, who tells Liz about her necklace, which contains a unique flower, and admits to liking Michael. At Project Shepherd, Kyle has been reviewing the information they took from Caulfield prison, and he shows Alex footage of Jesse Manes pushing Kyle's father Sheriff Jim Valenti into the cell with Subject N-38, which gave Jim cancer. At an Air Force base, Jesse Manes talks to his son Flint about Caulfield, and they need to deal with Kyle Valenti. At the Crashdown Cafe, Liz arrives and leaves Max a voicemail, and then Noah arrives.

Act 2: Liz locks herself in the freezer to protect herself from Noah, and she has a small bottle of the power-muting pollen in her pocket. Noah breaks into the freezer, but Liz locks him in with the pollen. At Max's place, Max wakes up and heals Michael. Isobel arrives, and she and Max take off and call Liz, who tells them that Noah's in her freezer. Noah tells Liz that Rosa isn't Arturo's daughter, she's a Valenti. He breaks out and runs off. Liz calls Max, and she says she's okay but she's been stabbed. Isobel thinks she knows where Noah might be. In the Wild Pony parking lot, Noah runs into Hank Gibbons and kills him.

Act 3: At the Crashdown, Kyle arrives and mentions he's being followed, and he starts stitching up Liz's wound. She tells Kyle what Noah told her about Rosa being his half-sister, and he confirms it. Out in the desert, Isobel brings Max to Noah, and Noah reveals that he's controlling her body. At Sanders' Auto, Michael returns to his trailer where Alex tries to talk to him, but Michael gets psychic flash from Noah and runs out. At the turquoise mines, Max wakes up. Noah says that the alighting is coming, and he'll leverage Max, Michael, and Isobel for a ride home. Michael arrives and holds off Noah while Max runs outside into the storm. He channels lightning attacks Noah. In her mindscape, Isobel speaks with Noah and tells him that she never loved him, and he asks Isobel to "take care of her." Outside, Isobel and Michael see Max kill Noah with lightning.

Act 4: At a gun store, Kyle is considering buying a gun. At the turquoise mines, Max heals Michael's hand despite Michael's objections that people will notice. At Max's in the morning, Liz arrives and meets up with Max, and at her request he puts the handprint mark on her to create an empathic connection. Out in the desert, Isobel and Michael find Noah's pod with a girl inside - it's Rosa's dead body.

Act 5: At Max's place, Max gets a text from Isobel, and Liz leaves to visit the graveyard. At Project Shepherd, Jesse Manes arrives and shoots Kyle, but Kyle's wearing a bulletproof vests and he knocks out Manes with an injection or barbiturates. In the cave with Noah's pod, the trio discuss what to do with Rosa. Max suggests telling Liz or trying to bring Rosa back, but Isobel and Michael object.

Act 6: At the Wild Pony, Michael visits Maria and they kiss. He starts playing a guitar, and Maria notices his healed hand. At Frontier Valley Cemetery, Liz visits Rosa's grave. In the cave, Max pulls Rosa out of the pod and tries to heal her. At her home, Isobel practices powers and breaks a picture frame of her and Noah. At Sanders' Auto, Alex is waiting for Michael. At the cemetery, Liz feels something's wrong through her connection with Max. She runs to his location at the cave. Rosa steps out wrapped in a blanket, and Liz finds Max dead in the cave.

Cast and characters[]

Starring:

Guest-starring:

Kiowa Gordon as Flint Manes
Amber Midthunder as Rosa Ortecho

Co-starring:

Matthew Van Wettering as Hank Gibbons
Bruce McIntosh as the gun store clerk

Additional:

Sheriff Jim Valenti

Powers[]

Mind control - Noah controls Isobel to bring Max to him.
Telekinesis - Michael, Noah, and Isobel are all shown moving objects with their minds.
Mindscape - Isobel speaks to Noah in her mindscape just before his death.
Killing / Channeling life energy - Noah kills Hank to make himself stronger.
Electromagnetic manipulation / Lightning wielding / Channeling energy - Max channels energy from lightning to make himself stronger and attack Noah.
Healing / Resurrection - Max heals Michael, and later heals and resurrects Rosa.
Handprint / Empathic connection - Max puts a new handprint mark on Liz so they can feel what the other is feeling. This connection allows Liz to feel when something goes wrong later and find Max's location.

Trivia[]

The episode is named after the song "Recovering the Satellites" by Counting Crows, released in 1996.
The song that played near the end of the episode is "Here With Me" performed by Daniel Blake. The Roswell series used the original song performed by Dido for its opening.
Guest stars are usually credited at the beginning of each episode, but Amber Midthunder, who plays Rosa, is credited at the end. This is likely to conceal the ending plot twist.
Liz, Max, Michael, and Isobel are the only characters to appear in all thirteen episodes this season.

Quotes[]

Michael: "He's the only chance we have to know about our family."

Max: "I know my family. You are my family!"

—

Maria: "Oh. It's a family heirloom. Mom always said it protected us from evil. Used to remind me of the long line of badass women I come from."

Liz: "Used to?"

Maria: "Guerin fixed it, and now it just reminds me of his stupid face, stupid voice, stupid hands..."

—

Alex: "Look... I shouldn't have left you behind when I enlisted. I could... I could stand here and tell you that I didn't want to leave, but I did. After what my dad did to you, I just, I... I wanted to be the kind of person who won battles. It felt good. But now I-I look in the mirror, and I-I don't even see myself sometimes. I see my father. I'm still fighting his battles. Not mine."

—

Clerk: "Rifle? Semiautomatic pistol?"

Kyle: "I just want a gun."

Clerk: "$249.99."

Kyle: "No background check?"

Clerk: "(chuckles) Where do you think you are, son, California?"

—

Max: "What are you leveraging us for?"

Noah: "The alighting. They're coming for us, Maximo. I'd hoped we could go as a family, but... plans change."

—

Noah: "We are Ophiuchus, Max. The man and the serpent, the serpent and the man. They're not killing each other. They are one."

—

Max: "We don't need his answers. Why you're here doesn't have anything to do with our past or where we come from. Why you're here is about our future. Quit looking in your rearview mirror, Michael."

Isobel: "What are you doing?"

Max: "You don't need to live in the past."

Michael: "No, no, don't, no. Please!"

Max: "You don't need the pain to remind you of who you are."

—

Michael: "Love is the worst thing that ever happened to me, and I was in a spaceship crash."

—

Michael: "He knows everything. His family is involved in the conspiracy that tortured and killed the other aliens. He's tangled up in all these terrible memories in my life, and... I love him. I probably always will. But lately that love just hurts. Coming back to him, it always feels like a crash landing."

Isobel: "Maybe Max is right. Maybe it's time we stop looking back and... start looking forward."

—

Max: "I-I need to call Liz."

Isobel: "And tell her what, exactly? That all this time, Rosa's been some naked, burned-up trophy on display?"

Michael: "Maybe we don't put it like that."

—

Liz: "I wish you had the chance to have someone love you, Rosa, purely, without expectation or entitlement. I wish you had time to let your heart out of its cage."

—