Roswell, New Mexico EP Reveals the Series Finale Ending We (Thankfully) Didn’t Get to See — Grade It! (2024)

Why Max and Liz's Story Ended Like That

“We had to leave something in case The CW reversed [its decision], or they decide they want a movie or a reboot of a reboot, right?” Hollier jokes. “You need somewhere to start!”

In truth, the decision to end Roswell, New Mexico‘s fourth season with Max and Liz apart was made long before Hollier knew for certain that it would be the show’s last, though he admits there was “some speculation” at the time.

“There was one tiny moment afterwards that got removed,” he admits. “I had already started to pitch story about where the show would go if we did this, because everybody had to sign off on the ending.”

Long-Distance Relationships

But while absence would certainly make the heart grow fonder, Hollier also reminds us that Maria “now has this ability to see things across the universe,” meaning that she could keep in touch with Dallas from a distance, presumably passing along messages between Max and Liz in the process.

“We love both of those characters so much, and both of those actors,” he says of Maria and Dallas. “We felt that they had so much chemistry, we wanted to codify in the finale what we think the audience was feeling about them anyway.”

'When and How' Max Would Return

The specifics of “when and how Max returns” will have to be left to “our imaginations,” Hollier says, but it’s important to note that he doesn’t say “if.”

“We all crave a happy ending in a pretty dark world, so I’d say that after about 13 episodes more strife, [Max and Liz] would have had their happy ending,” he says.

What Would Have Happened in Season 5

In making this a series finale, as opposed to just another season ender, Hollier “took away some jeopardy that could have come afterwards. We chose to end it in the bliss of [Max and Liz’s] happiness, even though they had to part in that moment.”

Had this not been the end, “there was potentially going to be a beat where the [portal] console melted behind Liz after Max left. There was no way he would be able to come back.”

Hey, let’s all just be glad the show didn’t end likethat, OK?

Inside the 'Malex' Wedding

“We started the season with a proposal, so the fans were expecting a wedding at the end,” Hollier says. “We tried to give them the wedding theydidn’texpect.”

And the surprises didn’t stop there. Michael and Alex’s big day was a solid celebration of their love, one that required the perfect song — in this case, Edwin McCain’s 1997 hit “I’ll Be.”

“That song came from going on a lot of walks and runs in Santa Fe, thinking about that moment,” he says. “We knew that Alex wrote a seminal song for Michael, so we wanted to fold music into [the ceremony], but we soon discovered that we had too many things we wanted to include and not enough page count. So we decided to build a montage. The song was also born out of a joke I used to have with [previous showrunner Carina Adly MacKenzie]. Whenever we wanted to get a musician, we’d say, ‘What’s Edwin McCain doing right now?'”

Shiri Appleby's Full-Circle Moment

One of the biggest moments of the finale was also one of the smallest. Liz received a visit at the Crashdown Café from Allie — played, of course, by Shiri Appleby, Roswell‘s original Liz — who ended up leaving with one of those iconic alien headbands “to remember my time in Roswell.” Cue the emotions.

“I was on set for that,” Hollier says, though he clarifies that the scene was actually filmed during production on Episode 9. “We didn’t know at the time that it would be our last season, but there were certain things we were shooting — and this was one of them — where we could feel a sense of finality there, and we tried to embrace those moments as they came.”