Roswell: Crashdown (Episodes)

Episodes - Tess, Lies and Videotape

Tess, Lies and Videotape
written by Kate Ancel

New Girl in Town

Roswell Review of 'Tess, Lies and Videotape'

by Kate Ancel copyright April 18, 2000

"I'm checking out the new girl."

"Tess? Why?"

"It's classified."

The storyline, furthered by this episode written by Richard Whitley and Toni Graphia, just kept getting more tangled and complicated and so did the cast of shady characters. Now, in addition to the shadowy alien hunter Pierce, we also have someone who may or may not be Tess' father added into the mix. What part does he play in all this? Is he really Tess' father or is that set up all part of some elaborate plan to trap the kids into exposing themselves? Or are Pierce and Mr. Harding one and the same person? Maybe Mr. Harding is actually Nacedo. They both seem to have quite a photo collection of one or more of the kids.There were a lot of questions raised in this episode and very few answers.

Random Thoughts:

After the events in "Crazy" I wondered if the sheriff really had bought into the story Nacedo gave him about Dr. Margolin. It appears that he not only did buy into it, but that Pierce had covered his bases by holding Topolsky in the mental ward at Bethesda after all. Since those things really did happen, Nacedo was able to use those facts for himself in the last episode instead of needing resources to falsify medical records.

Why does the sheriff concentrate so exclusively on Max? By this time, he knows that whatever Max is hiding, Isabel and Michael are hiding as well. But he's never approached either one of them to try and get answers or to gain their trust. Surely he must realize that in order to earn Max's trust, he's also going to have to earn Isabel and Michael's. He should be making attempts to gain the confidence of all of them.

No wonder Max has always been so afraid of losing control. When he does get himself into a mess and tries to work it out with the people he loves and trusts, they all turn on him. Liz can't seem to make up her mind about whether he's God's personal gift to her or the Devil incarnate. Granted, she did have grounds for hurt and anger after witnessing the kiss, but she was having doubts even before that. And if she wanted to talk about the situation with him, it seems like there should have been a better way to approach it than grilling him about whether he's going to continue to be Tess' lab partner. How is he supposed to know?

Then there is Michael. His hero has fallen off the pedestal in a big way and he doesn't forgive that easily. First the punch last week and now collusion with the enemy. Unforgivable. Even after he discovers that Max was right about there being something fishy about Tess, he still didn't let up on him. They didn't even call him to let him know Liz was in trouble.

It was surprising to me that, even as well as they all know Max, no one was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when he tried to tell them something strange was happening. Certainly strange occurrences are not so strange for them and, given recent events, it seems to me they should have taken him a little more seriously. Max is not the type to cheat, he's proclaimed Liz as his soul mate, and he's pretty good about taking responsibility for his own actions without trying to make up excuses. And yet at the drop of a hat, every last one of them believed he would just out of the blue have some secret fling with a girl he barely knows and doesn't trust.

It was also made clear in this episode that Max is the alien most susceptible to the memory/vision flashes that come through the kissing connection and that they don't have to have some sort of emotional connection in order for the flashes to work. Just think what they might have found out about themselves if Max were a little more uninhibited.

So Topolsky died in the fire, huh? I have my suspicions that we haven't seen the last of her.

Was anyone else reminded of The Truman Show when the mini camera recorded events from Michael's refrigerator?

Thania St. John seems to be doubling as an investigative reporter these days.

I was just waiting for Tess' dad to start sculpting the Devil's Tower out of that mound of mashed potatoes on his plate.

I don't remember things being so sexual in my high school science classes. Everything they talk about seems to take on sexual overtones. I must have been taking the wrong classes. Or maybe I just have my mind in the wrong place now.

What's the point of referring to the aliens as Czechoslovakians if you are going to say they're not human in the same sentence?

Michael is either working on keeping his electric bill down or relying on his enhanced vision, but he doesn't make much of a habit of turning the lights on in his apartment.

So Tess was born in Omaha, Nebraska and last went to school in Chicago. I couldn't quite place her accent, but it didn't sound Midwestern to me.

Dislikes:

Tess. She's nosy, she's manipulative, she's got an agenda, and I wouldn't trust her as far as I can throw her.
How convenient that the science teacher picked Max out of everyone else in the class to be lab partner to Tess. She couldn't have planned that better if she'd asked him herself.
And speaking of convenient plot devices, what are the odds that the army is going to show up at the Harding house on what appears to be urgent business and station an armed guard at the door just when Michael happens to be there looking for clues? Although the armed guard doesn't appear to have been very competent since Michael was able to sneak away without being detected.
Have these people never heard of eavesdropping? They all talk about the most private things in the most public of places. The Crashdown is certainly not their own private dining room and yet they carry on their conversations in regular voices most of the time completely disregarding the fact that there are other customers in the area. If we are to assume that other customers couldn't overhear their regular voices, then why can they hear each other from across the room? And what was the sheriff thinking just laying the orb on the counter for all the world to see when he gave it back? I've heard the argument that the orb and the other artifacts don't have any significance to anyone else, but that is obviously not true or there wouldn't be so many people after them. If they are really so scared the FBI is after them, they should learn to use a little more caution and take Mulder's advice…Trust no one. And for heaven's sake, keep your voices down.
I still have a problem with how quickly Isabel bonded with Tess. Now all of a sudden she's the only friend Isabel has ever had and she immediately leaps to her defense assuming the worst of Michael and Max when they are suspicious?
Tess' dad was creepy and unnatural. He was fairly normal with Isabel, but could he have broadcast "bad guy" any more loudly when Liz was there? The contrast between his face and Tess' smile when they practically demanded Liz stay for dinner was spooky.
Set inconsistency of the week…Michael has apparently replaced his front door. When we last saw it, there was only a peep hole and now it has 4 panes of wavy yellow glass.
Nit-pick of the week: When Liz called Max from Tess' house, there was bright sun shining through the windows and yet when the kids showed up in front of Tess' house, it was dark, foggy and raining. It didn't seem like enough time had passed for that drastic a change in the conditions.

Likes:

It was nice to see Kyle make an appearance. So he's been holed up watching basketball all this time. Now that the Final Four are over, can we expect to see more of him or does that have to wait until after the NBA playoffs?
The pictures of Liz and Maria in Liz's locker at the Crashdown were cute.
I was glad that Liz wasn't completely convinced even with first hand observation that Max would cheat on her. Her heart knows what's true, even if her head doesn't.
I liked how protective of Liz Michael was in this episode. Maybe there is potential for a friendship there after all. We haven't seen much evidence of it since Missing, but he was really trying to watch out for her. There were signs of it throughout the entire episode. From giving Max a hard time about kissing Tess behind Liz's back to sending Maria up to take care of her when she was so upset to his frantic insistence that they get Liz out of that house, his concern for her was touching.
I like the way Emilie De Ravin plays Tess. She's very good at using her expressions, gestures and tone of voice to create a character we don't trust.
The ending was extremely well done. The way they transitioned from sleepy boredom, to alertness to downright shock when Tess put the figurine back together was very well played. I did find myself wondering if Tess knew the camera was there and was performing a little show for anyone watching. After all, the marble bowl wasn't the most inconspicuous place to hide the camera.
My "awwww" of the week comes in the form of a sweet little Alex/Isabel moment when I caught sight of Isabel resting peacefully on Alex's shoulder during watch duty.
I like that they are keeping us a little off kilter as far as the sheriff is concerned. Just when I think I've got him figured out, he does something to make me wonder about his real motives. He seems like he's become someone they can trust and his arguments to Max that he's in danger as well, hold credence. But then he goes and does something like spying on them and taking pictures without their knowledge.
Shiri Appleby did a good job of showing Liz's struggle with what she believes in her heart and what she is seeing with her eyes. Her confusion over actions that don't make sense was well played.
Max underwent a wide variety of emotions in this episode and they were carried off beautifully by Jason Behr. Feelings ran the gamut from loving playfulness to fear, confusion and anger and they were all believable and heartfelt.

Favorite Quotes:

Isabel: "Do you have to do that?"

Max: "What?"

Isabel: "Be so public. It's kind of creepy."

Maria: "So either give it to me straight or you're not going to give it to me at all."

Michael: "You're just making friends all over the place."

Alex: "I don't mean to get all warm and fuzzy, but I'm really glad I can use what I know to help out…you know, what we're doing."

Michael: "Whatever."

Maria: "I'm not as flat as I thought I was."

Michael: Well, it's a wide angle lens, so…""

Isabel: "What are they doing in there?"

Alex: "Passing the mashed potatoes."

Maria: "Max isn't human. What if Czechoslovakians can't resist temptation?"

Liz: "So what you're saying is that this is not just a romantic problem…now it's intergalactic?

Max: "I didn't want anyone to panic and do something stupid."

Michael: "Hey, I'm trying to know which problem to panic over."

Maria: "Whatever you do, you know I've got your back, right?"

Maria: "What happened to partners? What happened to an equal exchange of information, Michael?"

Michael: "I lied."

I give this episode 4 UFOs out of 5.

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