The gang takes a road trip to Texas in order to find that geodesic dome that Michael's so obsessed with. Could it contain the key to the aliens' past?
(originally aired November 10, 1999)
Written by William Sind and Thalia St. John
Directed by Arvin Brown
GUEST STARS
Julie Benz - Ms. Katherine Topolsky
Michael Horse - The Deputy
Daniel Hagen - Mr. Somers
Steve Hytner - The Ufologist
WHAT HAPPENED
Michael's monomaniacal urge to find the geodesic dome that's been stalking his dreams leads him to hijack Maria's car to Texas. Meanwhile, a bizarre homework assignment -- motivated by increasing government interest in reports of alien activity in Roswell -- forces Liz, Isabel and Max into a bonding experience of their own. (more detailed spoilers)
ANALYSIS
What else can we say? "285 South" is another nuanced, multi-textured episode from the pen of series producer Thania St. John, whose previous Roswell effort, "Monsters," set a high standard of both humor and humanity for the young series.
This may be more difficult than it looks. While Roswell's creators can take understandable pride in putting out an hour of literate, thoughtful entertainment every week, the first handful of episodes have suffered from a slight lack of direction, or rather from an embarrassment of directions.
The fact is, series creator Jason Katims set an almost impossible goal for himself and his team by allowing the show to remain an unclassifiable hybrid with one foot in The X-Files and the other securely at home in My So-Called Life.
From the former -- as embodied by executive producer David Nutter -- Roswell takes its apparently complicated "mythology arc," where each episode builds on what has gone before and where characters change through exposure to outside events. In the labyrinthine, epic world of The X-Files, plot is everything -- Mulder and Scully are at best passive bystanders, idealized representatives of the audience. The important thing is that the parade keeps passing.
In Roswell terms, this dynamic is easy enough to see, particularly as the overarching questions of who the aliens are and where they come from drift in and out of focus. Unfortunately, as seen in last week's "Missing," this mythology arc is not terribly interesting in itself, and the show reveals this underlying weakness when it spends too much energy forcing the plot along. So Michael and the Evanses are aliens. So what? Who cares?
The solution is to keep the plot moving, but to subordinate the flow of events to the show's main strength, the reactions of its cast of characters. The plot itself becomes a "macguffin," an elaborate excuse to tell the story of Liz, Maria and company. At its best, Roswell's mythology gives us a reason to get into the characters' heads.
This concern with the emotional development of fully-realized characters is of course the legacy of My So-Called Life. Much like Roswell at its best, episodes of the short-lived Life were character-driven, with resolutions determined not by outside events but by changes in emotional state. It was a quieter program, requiring more effort from its viewers and offering different rewards at a slower pace.
However, My So-Called Life died an early death, having failed to provide enough action to create a mass audience. The show was too quiet, the resolutions too internal. While things happened, it was hard to get a handle on how fast the characters were moving or where they were going.
In short, MSCL was too much like real life and not enough like television. By adding a basic, overarching plot -- aliens among us -- to the character-driven development seen before, Katims and company may save Roswell from the same early grave. Given the WB's order of at least two full seasons in an otherwise dangerous climate for new programming, they seem to have a good chance.
WHAT WE LEARN
Maria is in fact a child of a broken home. She never knew her father and was apparently fairly unhappy, at least part of the time.
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK
Reruns continue. Michael and Maria kiss, Liz and Kyle have another fight and Isabel is perplexed, all in "River Dog." Meanwhile, a mysterious intruder leaves a necklace at the Evans house. What does it all mean? Guest director Jonathan Frakes knows, but he's not telling.
What do you think? Send your comments to the editor.
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