It’s definitely time for Isobel to explore this side of herself, and I hope that one day she and the other queer characters will actually have more conversations about this, considering the tendency of LGBTQ folks to find one another and cluster, in small towns and big cities alike. What will Rosa’s journey look like, as someone who’s development was very much put on ice? Guerin seems 100 percent comfortable with his bisexuality if literally nothing else in his entire life, and the one conversation he and Isobel had about it was deftly written with all the sarcasm, love and charm it warranted, but we could use more.
(However, let it be noted that Guerin’s still wearing that bandage on the hand he didn’t want healed from a homophobic beating, even when he’s with only people who know the aliens’ secret, so it’s not like it’s an issue of secrecy. So still some issues to resolve.)
“Sex and Candy” made it clear that Alex Manes needs to explore what it means to be gay and find that pride and self-love that he never could growing up in an abusive home or in the military. This episode posits it will come with another relationship with a man, in this case Forrest. Yes, Forrest is gorgeous, and sure, romantic and sexual relationships are the most obvious expression of queerness. But so is community, and apparently there is something of an LGBTQ scene in Roswell, even beyond the characters we’ve already met. Part of me is more excited for Alex and Forrest to talk about Buffy and what it meant to them growing up than for them to hook up.
So about that threesome. It’s surprising to see a threesome handled as an emotional issue rather than a titillating one, though we all know Roswell is not an average show. If ever there was a chance to see polyamory on network television, this is it. It felt a bit abrupt for the next morning to be treated as a goodbye between Michael and Alex, for which the groundwork had perhaps been laid in previous episodes, but not really this one. While the show clearly isn’t there yet, the three of them stumbling through some sort of poly arrangement, Generation Q-style, would have felt more in keeping with the trajectory of the episode.
While in the overall life of the show, I understand sending Alex and Michael (who are clearly meant to be together in the long run, that chemistry is white-star-level-electric) off in opposite directions. They’ll do some growing on their own, which is especially key on an emotionally aware show like Roswell. But the ~morning after~ read as Michael and Maria recommitting to one another and Alex and Michael saying goodbye, also known as Michael making a choice, which didn’t feel all that rooted in the previous 40 minutes of television.