Roswell 2.6: "Harvest"
Written by Fred Golan
Directed by Paul Shapiro
In which the hybrids investigate the cover-up surrounding Whitaker’s death, and discover an entire town filled with Skins, while Michael uncovers the truth about Courtney…
Status Report
Like the first season, the writers established the elements of a long-term arc early in the second season. The first couple of episodes suggested something of a measured pace, again mirroring the original conception of the series and its slowly unfolding mysteries. It seems rather clear that the network wanted something a bit more frenetic, because it didn’t take long for the plot threads to accelerate to the point of absurdity.
Perhaps it was partly a desire to move on with the characterization. Having the characters under siege from an unseen enemy was a good way to generate tension and shake up relationships, but it also prevented those relationships from moving on. The writers had to let the conflict come to a head somewhat earlier than expected as a result, to allow the characters to move forward.
The network forced another set of conditions on the season’s pace by immediately waffling on the fate of the series. The renewal for the second season was a struggle as it was, but the network placed unrealistic demands on the second season. As such, the network was ready to cut the season short at 13 episodes, which meant that the writers had even less time to bring the relationships back to a reasonable status quo.
(Ironically, the network would change their minds several times over the course of the season. The writers intentionally pushed the plot threads towards something of a conclusion for episode 13; “How the Other Half Lives” would have been that episode. When the network optioned the “back nine” for the second season, the writers added the Christmas episode to the schedule, and then developed the plot for the remaining eight episodes to bring the series to the expected conclusion. “Departure”, like the series finale “Graduation”, was originally conceived as a two-hour finale, cut back to an hour when the network made yet another flip. This is why the series always seems to move forward in fits and starts after the first season.)
Because of all the network-related intrigue, this episode became the middle of the anticipated season; as such, the plot threads needed to complicate. “The End of the World” began that process by derailing the key relationships, and this episode escalates the situation with the Skins. It’s immediately clear that the writers would have preferred to have more time to work out the nature of the conflict; too much is covered in exposition and some elements of the plot were contrived to move things along.
The teaser is a perfect example. It’s important that Michael communicate what he’s learned about Courtney; it’s also important to introduce the idea of someone covering up Whitaker’s death. How the writers accomplish this is the issue. Michael tells Maria that Courtney is an alien right in the middle of the hallway, where anyone can overhear them. Even worse, the gang learns about the cover-up of Whitaker’s death from a newscast…on a TV that just happens to be on in the middle of an empty classroom.
As with many of the problems with this episode, it’s hard to pin down the root cause. One could easily blame the writers, but it’s not necessarily the case. Many of the scenes seem hastily edited, as if the episode ran long and the director had to hack and slash scenes to bring it in on time. One can easily imagine deleted cutaways where, for instance, someone turns on the TV to mask their voices as they talk. But without it being on screen, it looks like a mistake.
Max logically assumes that Liz might know something about the cover-up of Whitaker’s death. That provides the logic for tossing Max and Liz back together in this episode, forcing them to face the events of the previous night, but it doesn’t provide the link to the cover-up. So the writers have the Skins, in the guise of the Universal Friendship League, send Whitaker a thinly veiled communication about checking in on time. All well and good, except the communication is signed by the coordinator of the “Vilandra Project”. Why would they use a term that is so obviously connected to the Royal Four?
Of course, this prompts Isabel to remember what Whitaker told her about her previous life, turning the attention once again to the season’s theme. Isabel is terrified that she will follow in the footsteps of her former incarnation. The writers also make it clear that Michael is still annoyed with Max and his apparent lack of leadership skills. In a nice move, they have Max agree with Michael, which highlights the conflict in a new light. This also serves to bring Michael and Maria together in the same way that Max and Liz are forced to work together.
As anticipated, Max doesn’t believe that Liz slept with Kyle. Jason does a great job of communicating Max’s inner turmoil, especially when he’s glaring from the back seat like he’s ready to kill somebody. The writers neatly cut directly to Michael and Maria’s bickering while searching Courtney’s apartment, tying the two plot threads together emotionally. The revelation of Courtney’s obsession is well handled, especially when Michael makes the observation of where the picture had been taken.
Max and the others might have known something was seriously wrong with Cooper Summit when the first person they talked to denied the existence of tourist attractions in the town…right across the street from the tourism headquarters! For that matter, the entire town was a bit too rustic, something that should have set everyone into some serious paranoia. Max certainly gets the message, since he warns them to stay together and trust no one.
While it’s relatively clear that the writers weren’t thinking too far beyond episode 13, the conversation between Tess and Liz does speak to the fact that Tess may not have Max’s best interests at heart. The previous episode seemed to suggest that Tess was interested in Kyle in lieu of Max; her conversation with Liz suggests otherwise. In retrospect, this could be interpreted as a sign of Tess’ self-interest.
The first sign of Isabel’s dangerous impulsive need to know her own past history comes during the conversation with Greer. It would have been wiser to stick with general questions, but Isabel comes right out and asks about the Vilandra Project. At that point, Greer had to know or at least suspect that Max and Isabel were among the Royal Four.
If the initial creepiness of the town and the brush-off from Greer weren’t enough to give Max and the others a clear warning, then staying with the Crawfords ought to have delivered the message. They were just plain weird, and it seemed like they knew exactly what was going on, stringing the hybrids along. Nicholas in particular is disturbing as all hell.
The scene between Michael, Maria, and Courtney covers a lot of important exposition, but it’s quite the mess in terms of editing. At one point, Michael reacts to something Courtney says several lines before she says it! This scene doesn’t explain everything Courtney has done, but it does provide more context to the situation on Antar.
It’s interesting to think that Max is considered by many to be the one who brought the Golden Age of Antar to an abrupt end. Courtney makes it sound as if Kivar’s revolution was a necessary act, when Max was seen as a terrible leader to be dethroned. Courtney also makes it sound as if Michael could have gained enough support from all sides to keep things stable, but Michael’s loyalty forced Kivar to seduce Vilandra into betraying her brother.
Based on what has been shown over the course of the series, Max was not the best of monarchs. Both his sister and his wife betray him in favor of Kivar, and Michael is seen by many as a more palatable contender. Michael never forgets this little piece of information (as seen near the end of the third season), and one has to believe that Max gets the message. It’s bad enough to suddenly shoulder so much responsibility; it has to be even worse to know that he didn’t do it very well the first time around.
One of the best scenes in the episode takes place between Max and Liz. Max finally lets some of his anguish out, and it’s not pretty. Liz remained terribly conflicted, and that’s communicated very well in the scene. The score for this scene captures the mournful quality of the dialogue and the underlying emotions; it’s not at all surprising that this music was chosen for the DVD menus.
Isabel’s second foolish mistake comes during her conversation with Nicholas. He’s clearly testing her, and she falls right into the trap. What’s amazing is that he’s not even subtle about it. It’s likely that Nicholas is simply confirming what he already suspects, based on Greer’s information, and Isabel tells him exactly what he needs to know.
On the ride to Cooper Summit, Courtney continues to act as Exposition Girl. Having covered the somewhat complex political situation on Antar, she now turns to the matter at hand. It seems that the Skins on Earth arrived on the heels of the Roswell crash, and the human “husks” that they have been using in the past 50 years are beginning to degrade. In order to continue living on Earth, the Skins need to “harvest” new bodies. That time is rapidly approaching, which serves to provide the hybrids with the information needed to deal with their enemies.
Isabel’s third mistake is separating from the others at the absolutely worst possible time. This is in keeping with the idea that Isabel is fated to betray Max, at least thematically, since she’s not there when he comes under attack. What she does learn, of course, is that the new “husks” are ready to be harvested. (Why the “husks” are fully clothed is never explained, and it makes no sense at all!)
The confrontation in the hall of the Universal Friendship League is nice enough, but not very well thought through. Greer wonders whether or not Max can withstand an attack from the entire group of Skins, but they don’t all attack; most of them just stand there, glaring with menace. None of them even try to flank Max or block his eventual exit!
Meanwhile, Nicholas gets to do the traditional villain speech, punctuated by some interesting information about the Skins’ purpose on Earth. It’s not just about killing the Royal Four. The Skins sent to Earth in 1950 were sent, under the command of Nicholas, to find and retrieve Vilandra. Some of the Skins, it seems, were part of the underground movement to back Michael as the true leader of all five races, and came to find him.
This is problematic. On the one hand, it doesn’t make sense for Whitaker to hunt down and then try to kill Isabel if the Skins were supposed to deliver Vilandra above all else. If the mission was to find Vilandra and then use the granilith to get back to Antar, then why would Whitaker make it seem like the granilith was the real goal?
On the other hand, if the Skins sent in 1950 were supposed to find Vilandra, then why the plot with Tess to conceive an heir to the throne with Max and deliver it to Kivar? It’s possible that the deal was separately made with Nasedo, but that doesn’t quite track. The most probable explanation is that the overall plot was to use the others, one way or another, to eliminate Max and deliver as much legitimacy to Kivar.
If Vilandra were to return to Antar to be with Kivar, raising the heir to the throne as provided by Tess, with Max and presumably Michael dead and gone, then Kivar would be unchallenged. So what about the Michael supporters? They might want Michael to return, marry Vilandra, and rule with Max’s heir in Kivar’s place. No matter how it shakes out, things don’t look very good for Max.
Nicholas seems to be a wild card in the equation, because he’s let his own ambitions and anger get in the way of whatever mission he was given. As he says in this episode, even though he’s in charge of the Skin population on Earth and the mission to retrieve Vilandra, he has come to hate women. He certainly doesn’t seem all that worried about what Kivar wants, at least not when he’s ready to wipe out Tess in the process.
It seems a bit too easy for the gang and Courtney to get out of the trap. Why would destroying the “husk” facility cause the Skins to suddenly writhe in agony? Perhaps the harvest was already upon them, and they were beginning to connect with their new hosts in some symbiotic fashion. Whatever the case, Michael manages to get Courtney’s “husk”, which suggests that they were unaware of Courtney’s true affiliation before this episode. The Skins are left to swear vengeance, which oddly enough, comes more quickly than one would expect.
So much effort is made to advance the science fiction elements of the plot that little time is spent on the core relationships. The time that is spent on Max and Liz, however, is a highlight of the episode. The science fiction angle has plenty of interesting ideas, but the writers seemed to be unable to make the action flow in a logical fashion. As mentioned earlier, it’s hard to blame them entirely, because some of the problems were caused in editing. The blistering pace didn’t help either, since some of the plot elements would have worked better with more time.
In many ways, this episode is representative of the second season as a whole. The writers struggled to keep the relationships between the characters at the forefront, even while dealing with a complicated and difficult science fiction mythology that seemed to evolve in fits and starts with each round of network interference. It didn’t always hang together as well as it might have with more planning and consistent support, but despite the flaws, it is still very entertaining and full of potential.
Memorable Quotes
MICHAEL: “I tried chasing her…”
MARIA: “But it’s hard to run with your pants around your ankles?”
MARIA: “Culture Club? WHAM? The Backstreet Boys? God, she really is an alien, this one…”
MICHAEL: “What the hell is this?”
MARIA: “It’s Graceland…and you’re Elvis…”
MARIA: “You know what? Just to make things simpler, from now on, you should consider everything to be your fault, OK?”
MICHAEL: “She’s obsessed with me.”
MARIA: “Well, I guess that makes two of you, then, doesn’t it?”
MARIA: “Oh, please! Do your lips not get chapped from all the ass-kissing?”
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode did much to advance the Skins plot thread from the season premiere, but also seemed to be less focused than it could have been. The writers toss a lot more information into the mix, but at times it feels rushed and scenes seem disorganized. Network interference is at least partially to blame, but it’s hard not to recognize that there were some shortcomings in the production as well.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 1/2
Style: 2/4
Final Rating: 6/10
Directed by Paul Shapiro
In which the hybrids investigate the cover-up surrounding Whitaker’s death, and discover an entire town filled with Skins, while Michael uncovers the truth about Courtney…
Status Report
Like the first season, the writers established the elements of a long-term arc early in the second season. The first couple of episodes suggested something of a measured pace, again mirroring the original conception of the series and its slowly unfolding mysteries. It seems rather clear that the network wanted something a bit more frenetic, because it didn’t take long for the plot threads to accelerate to the point of absurdity.
Perhaps it was partly a desire to move on with the characterization. Having the characters under siege from an unseen enemy was a good way to generate tension and shake up relationships, but it also prevented those relationships from moving on. The writers had to let the conflict come to a head somewhat earlier than expected as a result, to allow the characters to move forward.
The network forced another set of conditions on the season’s pace by immediately waffling on the fate of the series. The renewal for the second season was a struggle as it was, but the network placed unrealistic demands on the second season. As such, the network was ready to cut the season short at 13 episodes, which meant that the writers had even less time to bring the relationships back to a reasonable status quo.
(Ironically, the network would change their minds several times over the course of the season. The writers intentionally pushed the plot threads towards something of a conclusion for episode 13; “How the Other Half Lives” would have been that episode. When the network optioned the “back nine” for the second season, the writers added the Christmas episode to the schedule, and then developed the plot for the remaining eight episodes to bring the series to the expected conclusion. “Departure”, like the series finale “Graduation”, was originally conceived as a two-hour finale, cut back to an hour when the network made yet another flip. This is why the series always seems to move forward in fits and starts after the first season.)
Because of all the network-related intrigue, this episode became the middle of the anticipated season; as such, the plot threads needed to complicate. “The End of the World” began that process by derailing the key relationships, and this episode escalates the situation with the Skins. It’s immediately clear that the writers would have preferred to have more time to work out the nature of the conflict; too much is covered in exposition and some elements of the plot were contrived to move things along.
The teaser is a perfect example. It’s important that Michael communicate what he’s learned about Courtney; it’s also important to introduce the idea of someone covering up Whitaker’s death. How the writers accomplish this is the issue. Michael tells Maria that Courtney is an alien right in the middle of the hallway, where anyone can overhear them. Even worse, the gang learns about the cover-up of Whitaker’s death from a newscast…on a TV that just happens to be on in the middle of an empty classroom.
As with many of the problems with this episode, it’s hard to pin down the root cause. One could easily blame the writers, but it’s not necessarily the case. Many of the scenes seem hastily edited, as if the episode ran long and the director had to hack and slash scenes to bring it in on time. One can easily imagine deleted cutaways where, for instance, someone turns on the TV to mask their voices as they talk. But without it being on screen, it looks like a mistake.
Max logically assumes that Liz might know something about the cover-up of Whitaker’s death. That provides the logic for tossing Max and Liz back together in this episode, forcing them to face the events of the previous night, but it doesn’t provide the link to the cover-up. So the writers have the Skins, in the guise of the Universal Friendship League, send Whitaker a thinly veiled communication about checking in on time. All well and good, except the communication is signed by the coordinator of the “Vilandra Project”. Why would they use a term that is so obviously connected to the Royal Four?
Of course, this prompts Isabel to remember what Whitaker told her about her previous life, turning the attention once again to the season’s theme. Isabel is terrified that she will follow in the footsteps of her former incarnation. The writers also make it clear that Michael is still annoyed with Max and his apparent lack of leadership skills. In a nice move, they have Max agree with Michael, which highlights the conflict in a new light. This also serves to bring Michael and Maria together in the same way that Max and Liz are forced to work together.
As anticipated, Max doesn’t believe that Liz slept with Kyle. Jason does a great job of communicating Max’s inner turmoil, especially when he’s glaring from the back seat like he’s ready to kill somebody. The writers neatly cut directly to Michael and Maria’s bickering while searching Courtney’s apartment, tying the two plot threads together emotionally. The revelation of Courtney’s obsession is well handled, especially when Michael makes the observation of where the picture had been taken.
Max and the others might have known something was seriously wrong with Cooper Summit when the first person they talked to denied the existence of tourist attractions in the town…right across the street from the tourism headquarters! For that matter, the entire town was a bit too rustic, something that should have set everyone into some serious paranoia. Max certainly gets the message, since he warns them to stay together and trust no one.
While it’s relatively clear that the writers weren’t thinking too far beyond episode 13, the conversation between Tess and Liz does speak to the fact that Tess may not have Max’s best interests at heart. The previous episode seemed to suggest that Tess was interested in Kyle in lieu of Max; her conversation with Liz suggests otherwise. In retrospect, this could be interpreted as a sign of Tess’ self-interest.
The first sign of Isabel’s dangerous impulsive need to know her own past history comes during the conversation with Greer. It would have been wiser to stick with general questions, but Isabel comes right out and asks about the Vilandra Project. At that point, Greer had to know or at least suspect that Max and Isabel were among the Royal Four.
If the initial creepiness of the town and the brush-off from Greer weren’t enough to give Max and the others a clear warning, then staying with the Crawfords ought to have delivered the message. They were just plain weird, and it seemed like they knew exactly what was going on, stringing the hybrids along. Nicholas in particular is disturbing as all hell.
The scene between Michael, Maria, and Courtney covers a lot of important exposition, but it’s quite the mess in terms of editing. At one point, Michael reacts to something Courtney says several lines before she says it! This scene doesn’t explain everything Courtney has done, but it does provide more context to the situation on Antar.
It’s interesting to think that Max is considered by many to be the one who brought the Golden Age of Antar to an abrupt end. Courtney makes it sound as if Kivar’s revolution was a necessary act, when Max was seen as a terrible leader to be dethroned. Courtney also makes it sound as if Michael could have gained enough support from all sides to keep things stable, but Michael’s loyalty forced Kivar to seduce Vilandra into betraying her brother.
Based on what has been shown over the course of the series, Max was not the best of monarchs. Both his sister and his wife betray him in favor of Kivar, and Michael is seen by many as a more palatable contender. Michael never forgets this little piece of information (as seen near the end of the third season), and one has to believe that Max gets the message. It’s bad enough to suddenly shoulder so much responsibility; it has to be even worse to know that he didn’t do it very well the first time around.
One of the best scenes in the episode takes place between Max and Liz. Max finally lets some of his anguish out, and it’s not pretty. Liz remained terribly conflicted, and that’s communicated very well in the scene. The score for this scene captures the mournful quality of the dialogue and the underlying emotions; it’s not at all surprising that this music was chosen for the DVD menus.
Isabel’s second foolish mistake comes during her conversation with Nicholas. He’s clearly testing her, and she falls right into the trap. What’s amazing is that he’s not even subtle about it. It’s likely that Nicholas is simply confirming what he already suspects, based on Greer’s information, and Isabel tells him exactly what he needs to know.
On the ride to Cooper Summit, Courtney continues to act as Exposition Girl. Having covered the somewhat complex political situation on Antar, she now turns to the matter at hand. It seems that the Skins on Earth arrived on the heels of the Roswell crash, and the human “husks” that they have been using in the past 50 years are beginning to degrade. In order to continue living on Earth, the Skins need to “harvest” new bodies. That time is rapidly approaching, which serves to provide the hybrids with the information needed to deal with their enemies.
Isabel’s third mistake is separating from the others at the absolutely worst possible time. This is in keeping with the idea that Isabel is fated to betray Max, at least thematically, since she’s not there when he comes under attack. What she does learn, of course, is that the new “husks” are ready to be harvested. (Why the “husks” are fully clothed is never explained, and it makes no sense at all!)
The confrontation in the hall of the Universal Friendship League is nice enough, but not very well thought through. Greer wonders whether or not Max can withstand an attack from the entire group of Skins, but they don’t all attack; most of them just stand there, glaring with menace. None of them even try to flank Max or block his eventual exit!
Meanwhile, Nicholas gets to do the traditional villain speech, punctuated by some interesting information about the Skins’ purpose on Earth. It’s not just about killing the Royal Four. The Skins sent to Earth in 1950 were sent, under the command of Nicholas, to find and retrieve Vilandra. Some of the Skins, it seems, were part of the underground movement to back Michael as the true leader of all five races, and came to find him.
This is problematic. On the one hand, it doesn’t make sense for Whitaker to hunt down and then try to kill Isabel if the Skins were supposed to deliver Vilandra above all else. If the mission was to find Vilandra and then use the granilith to get back to Antar, then why would Whitaker make it seem like the granilith was the real goal?
On the other hand, if the Skins sent in 1950 were supposed to find Vilandra, then why the plot with Tess to conceive an heir to the throne with Max and deliver it to Kivar? It’s possible that the deal was separately made with Nasedo, but that doesn’t quite track. The most probable explanation is that the overall plot was to use the others, one way or another, to eliminate Max and deliver as much legitimacy to Kivar.
If Vilandra were to return to Antar to be with Kivar, raising the heir to the throne as provided by Tess, with Max and presumably Michael dead and gone, then Kivar would be unchallenged. So what about the Michael supporters? They might want Michael to return, marry Vilandra, and rule with Max’s heir in Kivar’s place. No matter how it shakes out, things don’t look very good for Max.
Nicholas seems to be a wild card in the equation, because he’s let his own ambitions and anger get in the way of whatever mission he was given. As he says in this episode, even though he’s in charge of the Skin population on Earth and the mission to retrieve Vilandra, he has come to hate women. He certainly doesn’t seem all that worried about what Kivar wants, at least not when he’s ready to wipe out Tess in the process.
It seems a bit too easy for the gang and Courtney to get out of the trap. Why would destroying the “husk” facility cause the Skins to suddenly writhe in agony? Perhaps the harvest was already upon them, and they were beginning to connect with their new hosts in some symbiotic fashion. Whatever the case, Michael manages to get Courtney’s “husk”, which suggests that they were unaware of Courtney’s true affiliation before this episode. The Skins are left to swear vengeance, which oddly enough, comes more quickly than one would expect.
So much effort is made to advance the science fiction elements of the plot that little time is spent on the core relationships. The time that is spent on Max and Liz, however, is a highlight of the episode. The science fiction angle has plenty of interesting ideas, but the writers seemed to be unable to make the action flow in a logical fashion. As mentioned earlier, it’s hard to blame them entirely, because some of the problems were caused in editing. The blistering pace didn’t help either, since some of the plot elements would have worked better with more time.
In many ways, this episode is representative of the second season as a whole. The writers struggled to keep the relationships between the characters at the forefront, even while dealing with a complicated and difficult science fiction mythology that seemed to evolve in fits and starts with each round of network interference. It didn’t always hang together as well as it might have with more planning and consistent support, but despite the flaws, it is still very entertaining and full of potential.
Memorable Quotes
MICHAEL: “I tried chasing her…”
MARIA: “But it’s hard to run with your pants around your ankles?”
MARIA: “Culture Club? WHAM? The Backstreet Boys? God, she really is an alien, this one…”
MICHAEL: “What the hell is this?”
MARIA: “It’s Graceland…and you’re Elvis…”
MARIA: “You know what? Just to make things simpler, from now on, you should consider everything to be your fault, OK?”
MICHAEL: “She’s obsessed with me.”
MARIA: “Well, I guess that makes two of you, then, doesn’t it?”
MARIA: “Oh, please! Do your lips not get chapped from all the ass-kissing?”
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode did much to advance the Skins plot thread from the season premiere, but also seemed to be less focused than it could have been. The writers toss a lot more information into the mix, but at times it feels rushed and scenes seem disorganized. Network interference is at least partially to blame, but it’s hard not to recognize that there were some shortcomings in the production as well.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 1/2
Style: 2/4
Final Rating: 6/10
posted by John Keegan | 11:15
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