Roswell, New Mexico Boss Talks [Spoiler]'s Arrival in Season 3 Finale: 'The Fans Are Going to Love That'

Andy Swift
·5 min read

Roswell, New Mexico saved its biggest Season 3 surprise for the tail end of Monday’s two-part finale, culminating in a final moment that was both unexpected and unreal.

Following Jones’ long-overdue defeat, the episode took us to Mexico, where a naked woman was wandering the streets of Careyes in a daze. Believed to be “one of the sky people,” she was directed to a woman named Allie, who instantly awoke from her mezcal-induced stupor when she heard that this stranger was looking for Liz Ortecho.

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“Liz Ortecho was a student of mine,” Allie said, emerging from the shadows to reveal that she’s being played by (gasp!) Shiri Appleby, aka the original Liz from The WB’s Roswell. Though Appleby has notably directed two episodes of Roswell, New Mexico — Season 1’s “Songs About Texas” and Season 2’s “What If God Was One of Us?” — this marks the first time she will have appeared in front of the camera. (Appleby’s Max, Jason Behr, previously recurred as Tripp Manes.)

“We’ve been having discussions about this since Episode 10 of last year,” executive producer Chris Hollier tells TVLine. “We reached out to her, we started talking about how to fold her into the show, and pitched her a mini arc. She said, ‘I love it! I’ll come out and do it.’ We know the fans are going to love that moment.”

But if you’re hoping for the inside scoop on Appleby’s mysterious character, you’re going to have to be patient. Hollier is remaining tight-lipped about Liz’s former teacher, as well as the (potentially extraterrestrial) woman seeking Liz’s help.

“That’s definitely what it presents like,” Hollier says of the woman possibly being an alien. “You can never trust what your first image is, but I look forward to people speculating for a couple of months. I can say that she will be back in Season 4.”

Now that we’ve address that final twist, let’s see what Hollier has to say about the rest of Monday’s finale, including the futures of several fan-favorite couples:

TVLINE | Is Jones officially out of everyone’s hair for good?
He was such a delicious character, and Nathan [Dean] had so much fun playing him. There are little things that he has set in motion. Jones won’t be running around as our villain, because we’ve moved on to other stories, but he made a big impact. There’s a lot of aftermath to deal with.

TVLINE | Good, good. I’m also very excited for Rosa, who’s off to New York. What is she hoping to gain from that experience?
True growth. She was afraid that she’d never make it out of that town, that she’d die there. And in fact, she did. Looking at where our world was — we went through a global pandemic, and we’re still standing in it — we wanted to end this season differently than the other two. We collectively decided to end it on a hopeful note. Let’s give some of those things we’d been wanting. Let’s delay Max and Liz having a real kiss until the end, like One Fine Day. Plus there as the “Malex” of it all, and what fans have been asking for forever. Those are two things I loved paying off this season.

TVLINE | I especially appreciated the “Malex” ending. I feel like they’ve grown so much this season, both as individuals and as a couple.
One of our other goals this season was to grow the characters up a little bit, and to give them new problems. Just because you’re in love and find your mate, that doesn’t mean everything is always rainbows. New challenges come as you grow. That’s what we were excited to re-platform all of our characters with.

TVLINE | Speaking of happy endings, are Max and Liz ever actually going to see the ocean together?
[Laughs] It depends on how many more seasons we can get. In the rom-com of it all, we purposely delayed the kiss — Heath interrupts them a bunch, she kisses the wrong [Max] by mistake — and the ocean is kind of like that. It grew to be this metaphor, it means something larger to them. They got the snow globe, and that’s good enough for them for now. The metaphor holds true.

TVLINE | I have to say, I never even considered Kyle and Isobel as a couple — but now that it’s been presented to me, I’m intrigued. Should we anticipate a full-on love triangle with them and Anatsa next season?
As we came to the natural conclusion of two romantic comedies, we thought about poking at a third. Romance is about longing, which is why every song on the radio is about getting the person, not necessarily keeping the person. So we wanted to explore a new potential pairing with complications that arise. And sometimes you have two really good options! Anatsa’s great, but Kyle and Isobel also have chemistry. So who do you root for there? We want Isobel to be happy, so who’s going to be able to do that?

OK, let’s talk about that finale. Are you still freaking out about that closing cameo? And what are your hopes for next season? Cast your votes in our polls below, then drop a comment with your every thought.

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