S04.E03: Subterranean Homesick Alien

[jewel21]

Liz, Max, Michael and Cameron put a plan into action that could finally get them a step closer to catching Bonnie and Clyde. Maria is hiding her recent lack of visions and Kyle has a date.

Airdate: 06/20/2022

[backhometome]

Anatsa is so slimy. Trying to get the girl to drink more to get info. Like her only personality is being a reporter. Can she go already. Iz/Kyle have so much chemistry. 

Max sucks. Why does Liz let him get away with lying to her all the time. 

I love Dallas and Michael. He is good for Michael. 

[KittenPokerCheater]

The lack of pacing and stakes on this show is killing me.  I don't see any sense of urgency in any of the characters. 

It's got me missing the old angry Michael who drinks his feelings and Max's bad karaoke.

Even Kyle's cheekbones aren't cutting it for me anymore.*

*it's that dire.

[AnimeMania]

[Cristofle]

The pacing and characterization of this episode was a mess. I don't even know where to start. Why are Max and Liz both (but mostly Max) seemingly all in with Shivani when that seems possibly pretty dangerous? Why is Michael so sappy with Bonnie? (side note, Bonnie is literally nothing like Michael, lol, she has a natural urge to see happy things here versus Mr. Feral Rage Attacks, BUT, he did encounter her trying to get blackout drunk so I guess I see why he thought so). Also, the fact that Clyde was Team Jones ALONE is kind of justification for putting him the cage while they figure out what is going on (that said, I wouldn't mind waking Jones up tbh). Michael does this every single time and it's bitten him in the ass repeatedly - Max was clearly more correct, only for the show to obviously be (nonsensically) Team Michael. Why would Maria telling Liz the truth be a problem? Did I blink and miss anyone mentioning Alex? And yes, it was Anatsa's turn to be creepy by trying to get Kyle's date drunk to get more information out of her, but still, why can't Isobel actually take charge of her own life? We're told she does, but here we are and when push came to shove and it was obvious she can't be in a real relationship with Anatsa, Anatsa was still the driving force in putting the brakes on. 

This is very random, but Liz "smushing" Eduardo was weird. Even with the note in the dialogue as to why. 

Final note, I'm sure they had limited access to Shiri, who is busy directing, but I don't CARE about her wife, I want to see her. 

[RachelKM]

I'm so confused by the tone of the show this season.  Last week each scene seemed to be genre hopping and this episode it seemed Cam and Max were in cat and mouse caper movie on Valium and everyone else is in one of those day in the life near real time passing exploration of a small town doing nothing and having feels.

That said, I liked Michael and Dallas hanging out.  So I only can't stand Michael as a romantic partner. Dallas is actually fun with pretty much everyone. So maybe I should credit him. But I seem to recall liking Michael in scenes with Max. Isobel, and Liz too. Kyle also makes everyone better so I can't speak to Michael's contributions there.

On 6/21/2022 at 4:05 AM, Cristofle said:

Why is Michael so sappy with Bonnie?

I found that pretty consistent.  Michael has always been super woobie-wistful about all things alien. Meeting any alien would cause peak Michael-swoon, but a similarly displaced feeling wistful alien?  Michael-nip.

Are they trying to make us not like Anasta? Like, seriously not like her?  She was moderately annoying last week seemingly disregarding hospital visitation rules and pressing the issue. This week being a total a-hole trying to get Kyle's date drunk and hijacking both Kyle's and her own date for work which was clearly making both Kyle and Isobel uncomfortable, which would have been the case for people not hiding something too. I don't recall her being this obnoxious last season.  And it's not because I ship Kisobel because I did last year too and still liked Anasta and Is. 

Maybe they have heard the general preference is for Kyle and Is to get together but they fear backlash over breaking up a queer couple for a straight one.  If that's the case and they are just trying to crush dissent in advance, sorry my dudes.  No go. People that ship them for whatever reason are not idiots. And if someone is even partially agenda shipping, purposely tanking a queer character to tank her ship is not a better look to them or the general audience. 

On 6/21/2022 at 4:05 AM, Cristofle said:

Final note, I'm sure they had limited access to Shiri, who is busy directing, but I don't CARE about her wife, I want to see her. 

Same.  Also, doesn't matter how many times the wife (can't remember her name) pulls out a picture of their family and smiles, I DON'T TRUST HER. She's too eager and too rich.  That never goes well on these shows.  And sick child dying and no science to help is classic villain origin.  There is a reason Shiri is in Mexico and not with her wife and I don't think it's what was said. 

Edited June 26, 2022 by RachelKM
Typos.... as always.

[Cristofle]

57 minutes ago, RachelKM said:

Are they trying to make us not like Anasta? Like, seriously not like her?  She was moderately annoying last week seemingly disregarding hospital visitation rules and pressing the issue. This week being a total a-hole trying to get Kyle's date drunk and hijacking both Kyle's and her own date for work which was clearly making both Kyle and Isobel uncomfortable, which would have been the case for people not hiding something too. I don't recall her being this obnoxious last season.  And it's not because I ship Kisobel because I did last year too and still liked Anasta and Is. 

I really don't know what their idea is with Anatsa this season. I was never happy about Anatsa and Isobel due to my longstanding "siblings should not share sex partners" viewing rule, but I liked her okay as a character. If they wanted to go for Isobel and Kyle this season, why not either simply not bring Anatsa back, or explain that they broke up offscreen? Obviously they are putting no thought into Anatsa and Isobel. Their progression has happened about 99% offscreen. Isobel looked awful last week, Anatsa looks awful this week. So seriously, what was the purpose of this? To try and claim they're serious about writing Isobel as bisexual? Because this is not the way to go about that - Anatsa wasn't a good choice to start with, given that she started last season sleeping with Max, and the writing for them has somehow managed to get much worse this season.

1 hour ago, RachelKM said:

There is a reason Shiri is in Mexico and not with her wife and I don't think it's what was said. 

Yeah, and when this inevitably blows up in their faces, Liz and Max will only have their own dumb asses to blame, lol. I can't even say this is due primarily to Liz's longstanding blind spot when Max seems to have exactly zero problem with Liz diving in headfirst. 

[shapeshifter]

The unpleasantness of the way-too-coincidental double date did give us some lovely alien-human pod squadding between Isobel and Kyle. Too bad they didn't interject a little more humor into the scenario, which could have easily worked with members of the I Know An Alien Club (Izzy and Kyle) exchanging glances about double entendres spoken by their dates.

I agree that there's way too much going on in this show if this is the last season -- or even if it wasn't.

If they're planning on killing off a few of the new or minor characters in some Evil Alien Event, they should feel free to dump any of the side characters except Dallas. Dallas added a lot to the episode, both talking with Maria after she adrenalized herself (in spite of the terrible dialog in that scene), or during the voiceovers with Michael while milking the Alien museum proprietor (better dialog). 

There are different writers on each of this season's episodes so far. Maybe that's part of the problem.

The chemistry between Michael and Bonnie feels like a sweeter version of OG Roswell's Max & Liz during the early episodes.

Meanwhile, Clyde reminds me a little bit of OG Roswell's early Michael. But he and his purple-eyed Overlord (Tezca?) can go away any time now. 

[tennisgurl]

What the hell is going on this season? Why is everyone acting so weird? I would say they're acting like aliens, but half the cast are aliens and they have never acted so weird! So many scenes are just so awkward, I don't know why people are making the choices they are, and there is WAY too much going on. Its like every character has their own subplot that they refuse to share with everyone else for no reason other than drama. 

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that getting your girlfriends good friends date drunk to get her to spill secrets about her job for a story is majorly unethical. Anatsa came off looking really bad here, while Isobel isn't looking great either after she mind wiped her, why are they even bothering with these two? Isobel and Kyle have amazing chemistry, Kyle was clearly interested and Isobel seems to have just found some new feelings for him, so stop wasting them in these boring filler romances and get them together. Why are they seemingly making Anatsa so unlikable and unethical? Does she have no personality outside of journalist? Isobel and Kyle were clearly uncomfortable with what she was clearly doing, why didn't she stop? 

Of course Michael gets all googly eyed for Bonnie, a fellow "lost soul" who he can project all of his sad boy feelings all over, even if this is all so clearly going to bite him in the ass, like most of his impulsive sad boy plans. I'm sure Alex will be thrilled to learn that his boyfriend has been having jam sessions with one of the aliens who apparently kidnapped him. 

[RachelKM]

10 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

I'm sure Alex will be thrilled to learn that his boyfriend has been having jam sessions with one of the aliens who apparently kidnapped him. 

Holy shit... I straight up forgot Alex was sucked into the ground last week. Even thinking of it now, I can't care.  Considering my love for TB, that's just sad. 

[Katesgr811]

Has the cast completely forgotten last seasons reveal that Michael is Jones’ son?? The lack of cohesion on plots is driving me nuts.

[shapeshifter]

8 minutes ago, RachelKM said:

Holy shit... I straight up forgot Alex was sucked into the ground last week. Even thinking of it now, I can't care.  Considering my love for TB, that's just sad. 

Wait. What? Clearly my mind was wiped of that event. I thought Alex was just out looking for weather balloons.
Okay. Just rewatched (had to multitask through at least a dozen commercials to get to it).
Right. Quicksand. But Alex is "part of Jones' contingency plan" according to Evil Tezca.
Is Alex dead?
Have the writers decided whether or not Alex is dead?

[RachelKM]

1 minute ago, shapeshifter said:

Wait. What? Clearly my mind was wiped of that event. I thought Alex was just out looking for weather balloons.

No joke, I did too until @tennisgurl mentioned Alex had been kidnapped by the new alien triad. I suddenly remember Alex being stuck in the ground and then disappearing into it.  Honestly, I remember watching now that I've been reminded. But I don't think I gave even a passing thought a moment between when it aired and then end of the above post.

[peachmangosteen]

1 hour ago, Katesgr811 said:

Has the cast completely forgotten last seasons reveal that Michael is Jones’ son?? 

Well, I had forgotten that lol.

[Cristofle]

Something tells me that may come up later (that Michael is Jones' son). This show, despite not having actual rights to the OG show, loves to steal plots from it, and one such plot was when Michael decided he'd be a better king than Max because there was a group on their home planet that believed it. I can see Bonnie and Clyde deciding Michael is now the "savior" and him eating that up like chocolate.

I didn't forget what happened to Alex, but didn't Michael...notice? That Alex is MIA? Don't they live together now? 

[shapeshifter]

16 minutes ago, Cristofle said:

I didn't forget what happened to Alex, but didn't Michael...notice? That Alex is MIA? Don't they live together now? 

We were presciently given this line from Alex to Michael last week:

• I hope I'm gone for days, not weeks, but, I promise, I will come home to you.

[RachelKM]

18 hours ago, Cristofle said:

I didn't forget what happened to Alex, but didn't Michael...notice? That Alex is MIA? Don't they live together now? 

Alex is supposed to be running all over hill and desert finding the weather balloons that were effected by the event in the season opener. It was mentioned by Michael in his opening scene and I think later by either Liz or Max. Having forgotten he'd been eaten by said desert at the apparent direction of the purple glowy eyed HBIC of the Team Jones Triad, I accepted it each time it was mentioned in the show.  

Apparently no one has yet noticed that Alex hasn't checked in. Or for some reason the one gadget/tech innovation Deep Sky* doesn't have access to is a satellite phone, despite them being readily available even to the general public, and no one is bothered by this. 

*That is the name of it right? Deep Sky? It feels right but only because I know whatever the actual name is always sounds to me like a pretentious but failed 70 rock bad that wanted to be Deep Purple but ended up more of a less tolerable Steely Dan.

Edited June 22, 2022 by RachelKM
Typos

[Cristofle]

I don't think I realized how unavailable Alex indicated he might be, so I guess that makes sense. That went over my head last week. I guess Michael figures the reason Alex hasn't checked in is some sort of lack of desert signal. But perhaps now that she's done something to Eduardo, people will start realizing the other member of the triad is seemingly the leader and probably the most dangerous, and they should keep track of each other. Or not. LOL. This show loves to drag out plots and then hastily fix them at the last second. 

[Quickbeam]

“Closer to Free”…..for all of us who went Party of Five right into OG Roswell.