S02.E07: Como La Flor

[jewel21]

Liz is forced to revisit a painful part of her past when her mother Helena shows up at the diner unexpectedly. Michael urges Maria to seek help after she experiences a strange vision, and Kyle’s attempt to get Steph to open up doesn’t go as planned. Finally, Helena’s arrival in Roswell sends Rosa spiraling.

Airdate: 04/27/2020

[UNOSEZ]

Some strong beats this epi... Liz and her mom.. Geesh that lady was the worst... Arturo is a man among men... Rosa blew a crater in Isobel's newfound confidence and peace in about 11 seconds... Max was tolerable... Did like his confrontation with the mom... Still not into this Stephanie woman.. Do like the actress.. But the character.. Smarmy standoffish and needy all at the same time... She's obviously sick.. But not sure why I'm to care.. I guess she's supposed to be one of those " pull up your own bootstraps" minority conservatives.. But seeing as she's all quips it feels super shallow... 

Not totally sure how I feel about the Maria reveal... Read the description for nxt week so I think I'll have a better handle on what it means after that... As it stands did like her Outlook in it... Also loved how she knew exactly what it was while Michael.. ( granted a white presenting alien.. Who's also the town drunk/lay about/ genius and somehow functioning adult who can't pay for beers)  was stumped.. But why is kyle.. Ostensibly a POC and a doctor shoulda put 2 and 2 together... But most importantly 

 

BECKY TAX!!!!!  100 Points for the writer who put that in there... If I wasn't scared to death of my older sister I'd use it when taking money from  her.. But she'd kill me.. Still tho I was dying

[Lady Calypso]

I actually found myself liking this episode, so there's a plus.

Liz and Rosa's mother? Nah, I didn't like her from the start. Whether it's because the actress is weak or the character just plain sucks (or both), I just didn't buy a THING she was selling. Her claims that she was trying? No, she definitely wasn't. So I'm glad they revealed her to be just as shady as I thought she was. And some excellent acting from Jeanine. 

I can't blame Rosa for her reaction all episode. Not just figuring out her newfound powers, but her mother suddenly shows up after abandoning the family. 

More Maria! Yay! I was happy to see Michael play a more supportive role. I'm glad we got a few more answers on her family history. So, her grandmother was experimented on, which passed down psychic abilities to Maria, I'm guessing? That's kind of cool. Hopefully this isn't too much of a negative, but with how Maria's mom is, I can't blame Michael for being worried that Maria might head down a similar path. To be fair, we don't exactly know that the full ramifications are for the experimentation done way back when. We know it affected Maria's mother, and we know that, so far, it's given Maria psychic abilities...but what other damage has it done? I'm interested, so there's that.

Kyle and Stephanie? Meh. Stephanie was in full force uptight mode here. She suddenly became very cold toward Kyle and this is the first episode where I definitely didn't find myself liking her.

But, with Maria's revelation that she knows that other black families were experimented on, I'm guessing Stephanie will be shown to be part of one of those families? But, instead of turning out like Maria, maybe she'll be more evil? I just get a weird vibe from Stephanie in general, and not just because she had a sudden attitude toward Kyle for half the episode before kissing him. 

But I liked the Maria/Michael/Kyle scenes. Give me more Kyle, show!

I liked Isobel and Michael's conversation at the end. I guess they will be exploring their family history, and we'll circle back to the flashbacks! 

Max continues to be a much better character than last season. And he got back the family ring! Hooray! Seriously, though, I hope this is the last time we ever see Liz and Rosa's mother....and if it's not, the next time we see her is in a body bag.

I totally forgot about Rosa's parentage so I had to do another double take. And no surprise that Rosa completely relapses at the end. She's had a hard couple of months.

Overall, a very solid episode.

[bettername2come]

I liked this episode much more than last week's. They kept the witty dialogue and nice combinations of character interaction, but moved the plot along better and kept creepy threesomes out of it. Love that Arturo knew all along about Rosa's father, which I had already expected.

Nice twist with the vision of Kyle not being about abduction, but I was kind of looking forward to an alien abduction plot. 

 

[jewel21]

I liked Max in this episode. 

Rosa and Liz's mother sucks. I enjoyed Max getting the ring back. 

So Maria can see the future? Interesting. This revelation should hopefully bring her further into the plot. And I liked Michael being protective of her. 

I do wonder if that car that tried to run down Kyle was indeed a drunk driver or if there's something more sinister happening?

I'm sad Rosa relapsed again. 

Lastly, I did not miss Alex. 

 

[RachelKM]

I enjoyed this episode.  I like seeing different combinations of people together. 

Once Rosa found the pills in her mother's car, I figured there were only two ways it would go, relapse or confronting her mother and outing her resurrection to her.  Then I sort of forgot about the pills until Liz told Rosa that the bright side was if "Hurricane Helena" could get sober, so could Rosa. Oof... I felt that for Rosa. The relapse was pretty much sealed then.

Still do not care at all about Stephanie.  I really like Kyle.  Which actually makes me resent Stephanie more because they spend a lot of scenes together and the closer they get, the more my ability to see Kyle is likely to be tied to her annoying ass.

I'm interested in the Maria plot.  And I get why Michael is still concerned.  But I didn't love that he was telling Isobel that he needed to "cure" Maria when it seems that Maria likes her ability.  Investigate it?  Sure.  Want to make sure Mimi's cognitive issues are not a direct result of the same ability and/or find a way to avoid that for Maria?  Also, sure.  But looking for a "cure" as if she's got a terminal illness that she doesn't necessarily agree is a problem and to apparently want to do so behind her back?  No.  Do not like. 

Oh, yeah.  And Max was fine. I like his characterization more this season than last.  But I wasn't terribly interested in him this episode. Might change next week when he's trying to help Cameron.

Edited April 28, 2020 by RachelKM

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, jewel21 said:

I'm sad Rosa relapsed again. 

But did Rosa relapse? She only took one pill, and if her mother didn't steal her 10 year AA chip, the pills might have been some sort of mood stabilizers --especially considering all the talk by Rosa and Isobel  and Maria (and wasn't there someone else) of how "I inherited my screwed-up-ed-ness blah blah blah." It's not unusual for people living in the same household to try one another's medications for the same symptoms and then get a prescription from a doctor if they work; this isn't always about abusing the medications. They might just be retconning Rosa into less of a drama queen whose alien powers keep turning off the lights.

Speaking of personality retcons...
This was the first episode I didn't hate this show's version of Max. I actually kind of liked him.

[Cristofle]

32 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

the pills might have been some sort of mood stabilizers

Oxy is pretty seriously addictive, so I don't think they're going to sell it as a mood stabilizer (nor should they). Rosa frankly probably needs Lithium; Oxy isn't really an alternative to it.

Helena was pretty much as awful as described. What a terrible person/mother. I was glad Rosa blew up her car and Max got the ring back from her (and was pretty clever in how he went about it). However, my heart kinda broke when Rosa said she'd blown up the car and Helena "still didn't stay", admitting part of her always hoped her antics would get her mother to stay. And the scene where Liz confronted Helena was really well done by Jeanine.

I continue to love Arturo. I figured he knew about Valenti, and part of me thought he might know about Rosa too, but it was lovely to hear him admit it so frankly and say it never mattered to him, that Rosa is still his daughter.

So the Pod Squad had a similar discussion to the one we've been having: they don't think they conform to any concept of human sexuality. Isobel's delivery of "ride a cowboy" was hilarious.

I do not care about Steph at all. 

I think there's more to the Maria story than we know. How did Mimi know how to use the flower, in order to put it in a necklace and later give it to Maria?

[UNOSEZ]

9 minutes ago, Cristofle said:

I think there's more to the Maria story than we know. How did Mimi know how to use the flower, in order to put it in a necklace and later give it to Maria?

I still think so as well... That piece of info denotes some idea about alien stuff.. And now that it seems obvious we'll be looking into the past again.. There's no way the 1947 crew will just disappear... You don't cast all those folks.. Especially Gaius Charles'  character.. Have him fall for an alien lady.. Then just kill him.. With no lasting connection to what's happening in the present. 

[shapeshifter]

15 minutes ago, Cristofle said:

Oxy is pretty seriously addictive

Definitely. Did they show or tell that the Mom’s pills were oxycodone/OxyContin? I couldn’t see on my screen, so I assumed they were not supposed to be identified by viewers. 

[Cristofle]

2 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Definitely. Did they show or tell that the Mom’s pills were oxycodone/OxyContin? I couldn’t see on my screen, so I assumed they were not supposed to be identified by viewers. 

Yes, I saw it on the bottle when Rosa picked it up. It was oxycodone, prescribed by someone to Helena.

I think Liz might have a hard time accepting Rosa getting hooked on Oxy again, incidentally. She took Rosa drinking fairly gracefully, but that one is tougher to swallow, so to speak, and Liz just got slapped in the face with the reminder of what her mother is like.

[peachmangosteen]

Wow, I loved this ep. I mean, Steph is still boring as hell, but otherwise everything was great.

More Maria! And Maria and Kyle together! More please! I'm intrigued by the Maria stuff. I really thought they were going to have her be part alien so that surprised me. Obviously though, her family must be tied to the aliens in some way because of Mimi having the flower. 

I continue to like this version of Max/Liz a million times better than the original. Max is so much more entertaining now than he was in s1. Also, Jeanine was fantastic in this ep.

I don't really have a lot to say I just really enjoyed this ep. If they could just completely drop the Steph stuff and pretend it never happened, that would be great lol.

[Cristofle]

Re: who all might be who, I remember that I thought Old Man Sanders (Michael's boss he briefly referenced in this episode) was an alien, but my mom thinks he's Walt all grown up (from the 1947 flashbacks, and his missing eye was whatever injury he got escaping from the barn). I thought that was an interesting theory. I think Mimi must somehow know an alien. The only being we have ever seen know about the pollen is Noah.

Also, I wonder if the protein would ever show up in someone who has not been in one of the pods, regardless of their biology.

Going back over the dinner scenes, I am easily amused by uncomfortable social situations, so I was giggling at Max and Arturo's ongoing uncomfortable glances at each other as Liz and Helena went at it (also, their twin looks of horror when Rosa accidentally turned on the stereo - I get the impression Arturo is aware Max knows Rosa is alive, however he thinks Max got that information). And on a sweeter note, it was nice that Max had his hand on Arturo's back as if to try and comfort him about overhearing about Helena and Valenti right before Rosa blew up the car.

I have zero issue with Rosa having beef with Max given their history, but I am unclear on why that does not apply to Isobel (who is the one who most recently knocked her unconscious with a dictionary) and it's not the first time I've felt Carina doesn't grasp that Isobel- and Michael- are as responsible as Max for the fallout of the cover-up. 

I am not over Helena making a snarky comment about Sheriff Valenti "being the last to know" - TO LIZ AND ARTURO. I think she might literally be a sociopath. 

Is it me, or did they not at all acknowledge Steph appeared to be on an operating table when last scene, other than an implication she may have had blood drawn? Did they, and I didn't hear about it because I don't care, lol, or is the writing for her as shoddy as I think it is? This is such a waste of Kyle, especially given that Trevino and Lily have proven they have chemistry.

[peachmangosteen]

10 minutes ago, Cristofle said:

Is it me, or did they not at all acknowledge Steph appeared to be on an operating table when last scene, other than an implication she may have had blood drawn? Did they, and I didn't hear about it because I don't care, lol, or is the writing for her as shoddy as I think it is? This is such a waste of Kyle, especially given that Trevino and Lily have proven they have chemistry.

I didn't notice them mentioning it either and I was like what the fuck lol. It was like they were having them be so coy about it but why? Stupid. But I too don't really care and therefore do not play particularly close attention to their scenes so I might have missed it.

Kyle and Isobel had off-the-charts chem imo and hell Kyle and Alex have way more chem than Kyle has with Steph.

[Cristofle]

Part of me thinks Carina is aware she's making Steph unlikable given that she has her say things I know Carina disagrees with, but then that begs the question of what is the point of her, other than to waste Kyle's screen time. 

I am also not clear on if Max actually blew the power? I think he thinks he did, from his look of resignation when Arturo showed him the fried wires, but he just was not that upset. He was mildly uncomfortable. In the past, Max has had to either be highly upset or extremely turned on (LOL) to cause a light show, and he was aware he was doing it. Max at best was mildly wishing to get out of an uncomfortable social situation here. I sort of wonder if Liz did it, actually, if whatever change he caused in her by bringing her back to life is finally making itself known. Liz was the one who was really upset in that moment. 

So Max and Isobel's parents are named Anne and Dave. I figured it wasn't Phillip and Diane since I'm 99% sure that was specific to the OG show, but I wasn't totally positive. 

[I-Kare]

11 hours ago, RachelKM said:

Still do not care at all about Stephanie.  I really like Kyle.  Which actually makes me resent Stephanie more because they spend a lot of scenes together I the closer the get, the more my ability to see Kyle is likely to be tied to her annoying ass.

No way I could have said this any better other than I'd add I don't think the actress is particularly strong, which only stands out even more because I think Michael Trevino is a really solid actor. 

[peachmangosteen]

6 hours ago, Cristofle said:

I am also not clear on if Max actually blew the power? I think he thinks he did, from his look of resignation when Arturo showed him the fried wires, but he just was not that upset. He was mildly uncomfortable. In the past, Max has had to either be highly upset or extremely turned on (LOL) to cause a light show, and he was aware he was doing it. Max at best was mildly wishing to get out of an uncomfortable social situation here. I sort of wonder if Liz did it, actually, if whatever change he caused in her by bringing her back to life is finally making itself known. Liz was the one who was really upset in that moment.  

I totally thought it was Liz too and for the same reasons. It being Max doesn't make sense to me but also I didn't even realize they were trying to imply it was Max. I thought it was a ~mystery~ or whatever lol.

[CabotCove]

I for one liked Steph in this episode. Felt like her and Kyle finally showed some chemistry in that kiss scene. They were playful and finally admitted they are attracted to each other. Kyle is no longer alone, cool.  I'm interesting to see where it will goes from here, and finding out more who Steph is. 

Interesting new stuff about Maria's background, now we know how she got her "powers". Ok, with this, wasnt too fond of the half alien theory. 

Edited April 28, 2020 by CabotCove

[KellySunshine]

I think Liz is the one who blew the power too. There was a teeny gust of air that blew her hair a bit when she was confronting her mother, and then boom, the power went out. She just didn't realize it was her that did it.   Rosa was with Isabelle at that point and I'm sure Max wouldn't been aware if it was his powers that caused the black out.

 

[Lady Calypso]

Honestly, I just assumed that it was Rosa who blew out the power, even though I know she wasn't even in the building lol. 

I hope it's not Liz. I would much rather have Liz stay human. I don't want more residual after-effects from being healed by Max. Rosa already has gained powers because of Max; I really think including Liz in this would be overkill. 

[Cristofle]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

I didn't even realize they were trying to imply it was Max. I thought it was a ~mystery~ or whatever lol.

I think Max does think it was him, from the look on his face when Arturo showed him the wires. He had this "Dang, I just snapped at my girlfriend and she was right" look. But I don't think it WAS him. Maybe it was Liz, maybe Rosa's power can somehow travel, or maybe it was someone else entirely, but I don't think it was Max.

[Scarlett45]

I really liked the scenes with Liz and Helena- it felt very realistic how POS parents who run away from their responsibilities are always somehow in the right because they 1. Had a working reproductive system, 2. Stayed away and the kid turned out okay. 
 

I was so happy Max got the ring back from Helena. 

Regarding Maria- Grandma Patty likely received a large settlement after the experimentation (Maria’s inheritance) and was cognizant for long enough to set up an estate plan to leave it to Maria. It could be that the results of the experiment cause the subject to have uncontrollable visions or not be able to tell a vision from reality as time passes- which would make someone look insane to the outside world. This reminds me of a quote from a novel I love about reincarnation entitled “My Name is Memory”; “persons with partial memory are the highest population of those in asylums”(meaning those who remembered just bits and pieces of past lives, but not enough to understand it was a past life are often committed and assumed to being insane). Maria’s Mom (can’t remember her name) May have manifested the physic powers differently which caused more problems for her earlier in life. 

[Heartsparkgirl]

6 hours ago, CabotCove said:

I for one liked Steph in this episode. Felt like her and Kyle finally showed some chemistry in that kiss scene. They were playful and finally admitted they are attracted to each other. Kyle is no longer alone, cool.  I'm interesting to see where it will goes from here, and finding out more who Steph is. 

Interesting new stuff about Maria's background, now we know how she got her "powers". Ok, with this, wasnt too fond of the half alien theory. 

Agree! I've actually liked Steph from the start. She's super sexy and I dig the chemistry that she has with Kyle. She's obviously hiding something and someone else mentioned this...but did they even mention the surgery that she had? She looked ill to me during this episode and when he mentioned her being a ghost I was like, yep...that makes sense. Would prefer if they didn't go the Denny Duquette route though.

This was the best episode of the second season so far. I enjoyed the Ortecho showdown and loved that we're getting more of Maria and her abilities. They hinted at it more than once last season and I've always wondered about it.

23 hours ago, jewel21 said:

 Lastly, I did not miss Alex.

Not even a little bit!

[tennisgurl]

That was a lot better than the last episode, it had better dialogue, better character interactions, and of course, no weird and problematic three way! 

So Maria has some sort of psychic powers now because of experiments run on her grandma? That sounds like it could be interesting, and I am thrilled to see her get more of a plot now, plus I think that there is still more we dont know, especially with the 40s style flashbacks. I also really liked that Michael was in a more supportive role to Marias main story, it showed them actually like a real couple...another reason to ignore the whole bizarre three way and the bizarre way we were apparently supposed to interpret it! Kyle being added to the story made it even better, it was really nice to see some mixed up character pairings, with different people interacting with each other. Also interesting that what Maria thought she saw (alien abduction) was different than what actually happened (almost car accident) was different. A part of me thought that doing another alien abduction with Kyle could be interesting, but another is glad that Kyle isn't going to be gone from the story. 

Stephanie was a bit better this week, but I am still hoping for an Kyle/Isobel hook up. 

So we finally meet Helena, and what a piece of work. Even beyond her ditching her family and endangering her children when they were little and having an affair, the second we saw her waltz into the diner like she owned the place (which I guess she kind of does, but whatever) I just couldn't stand her. I guess its nice that she is sober now, but she is also clearly a crappy person who has no regard for her family or how much she hurt them, but now she doesn't even have the excuse of being high! I was so pissed when she was going on about how she Facebook stalked Liz like that made her mom of the year and that Liz should be grateful to her just because she had her, thats not enough to be a parent lady! Like, congrats, you did the bare minimum. I wasn't surprised at all to find out she had an agenda, and I love that Liz told her off, and then Max got the ring back from her, and in a pretty clever way too. Oh, and that crack about how Sherif Valenti "is always the last to know?" Screw you, what an asshole! 

I do continue to like Max and Liz a lot more this season, maybe because they actually seem to like being around each other, as opposed to never ending angst? I also love that Arturo knew about the affair and that Rosa wasn't his biological daughter, but still considered her to be his daughter in every way that mattered. I am always happy to see Arturo in general, he just has this warmth and kindness to him that comes so naturally. In the midst of all of these alien soap opera shenanigans, he just seems so real. I am curious if Kyle and Rosa will ever have a relationship, they are half siblings after all. 

I thought that the lights getting broken was Rosa, but maybe it was Max? Rosa trying to deal with having powers while also, you know, coming back from the dead and already being rather unstable, is an interesting story and I like her scenes with Isobel a lot. Super powers and emotional instability can be a very bad combination if not dealt with.

[peachmangosteen]

9 hours ago, Heartsparkgirl said:

She looked ill to me during this episode and when he mentioned her being a ghost I was like, yep...that makes sense. Would prefer if they didn't go the Denny Duquette route though.

Yea, I wondered after she made the ghost joke if maybe she was indeed a ghost. I can't remember, has anyone besides Kyle interacted with her at all? I will lol for days if she's like an actual ghost.

[UNOSEZ]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

Yea, I wondered after she made the ghost joke if maybe she was indeed a ghost. I can't remember, has anyone besides Kyle interacted with her at all? I will lol for days if she's like an actual ghost.

The only time was when she caught kyle and Liz in the closet cuz she was with her dad.. But since then naw.. And before tonight we saw her in the O.R but as she looks worse and kyle wasn't mourning her Obit I guess she's still alive... Or Kyle did mourn her but  we didn't see it.. Can't deal with it so he's blocked it..  and is now being haunted

[Chick2Chic]

On 4/28/2020 at 1:15 AM, jewel21 said:

Lastly, I did not miss Alex. 

I am fine with Alex but it is interesting the seemingly strongest ep this season - ever? - does not include him. It may have also shown that without him and Carina giving him Maria's canon to a degree that Maria gets a chance to shine and have emotions & POV and to be loved; that it isn't just about "Poor Alex." 

Captivating Ortecho family drama too.

[KittenPokerCheater]

It was refreshing and nice to see Michael happy for a change. Instead of wanting to build a spaceship and fly away, he seems present, and happy where he is.  And looking forward.  

I feel like when he's around Alex they are both full of angst and sadness and spinning their wheels instead of growing.

I like the idea that Steph is a ghost.

And Liz and her mother- that was GREAT.  I'd love to think that that is the last we've seen of her, but I doubt it.

Why did the mother want the ring in the first place- if she's a politician's wife, why does she need the money?

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, KittenPokerCheater said:

I like the idea that Steph is a ghost.

The reason that Steph is not a ghost, she goes into the closet and gets a hat,  Liz and the Dean of Surgery, her father, should have seen her.

The reason that Steph is a ghost,  she was having surgery and she didn't require any time to recover. I didn't see a scar when she was wearing a low cut top (not really proof). Another possibility is that Kyle's father was also experimented on an Kyle was having a future premonition.

[jewel21]

Stephanie was very pale in this episode and not wearing make-up which made me think she was sick, or recovering from the surgery she just had. I guess it could also mean she's dead, lol. 

[Cristofle]

That commentary in the episode on whether Steph was a ghost was super weird. She definitely HAS been seen by other characters, albeit not since her surgery (which, granted, wasn't that long ago). 

[Kymmi]

Rosa is getting on my last nerve. I see where I’m supposed to sympathize with her, but she’s so irritating I can’t see past it. Stephanie is a bore and takes up screen time, but I do like Kyle. 

I’m finally connecting to Maria outside of Michael. I’ve always liked the actress, but I’m finally seeing her and interested in what’s next. Michael continues to be my MVP. 

Liz and Max work well with all characters, which I really appreciate. 

All in all a mixed bag for me. 

[Cristofle]

10 hours ago, Kymmi said:

Rosa is getting on my last nerve. I see where I’m supposed to sympathize with her, but she’s so irritating I can’t see past it.

For me, she's starting to remind me of the vibe I got from her last season, which is that she is toxic to everyone around her. I remember being seriously bothered by her 'armor' speech - like, who on earth thinks that's good advice to give your little sister - and I was also bothered in this episode by her telling Isobel she must be broken for Noah to have preyed on her too. I don't think she MEANS to do it, it's clearly largely driven by her mental illness, but she is still just...bad for pretty much everyone she interacts with since she is unable to see beyond her own pain nine times out of ten. And looking at her mother, I can see how she got to be that way, but it still doesn't make for an especially enjoyable character to watch.

[CabotCove]

Quote

Yea, I wondered after she made the ghost joke if maybe she was indeed a ghost. I can't remember, has anyone besides Kyle interacted with her at all? I will lol for days if she's like an actual ghost.

Now Im actually considering it,maybe she died on that operating table Kyle saw her on, but before that she was alive... I wonder what would be the point/purpose though, if she turns out be a ghost. How would that connect with the alien premise of the show? Only thing I can think of is maybe she has a family history of being experimented on by the government, which caused health issues.,,just maybe

They need to reveal whats the mystery with her character soon.