Continuing in my Roswell reread.

The Watcher begins pleasantly enough, with relationship drama between the six teens more or less stabilizing. Liz is no longer angry at Max for shying away from a formal relationship on the grounds that it endangers her, Isabel and Alex have become a couple, and Michael and Maria are both getting closer to sorting out their issues. The girls are even bonding looking at one of their classmates’ silly websites, one in which she rates boys on their kissing abilities. But Max…is not doing good. Turns out members of their race bond to the Collective Consciousness during their adolescent period: it joins their mind to all other members of the race, possibly including those who are deceased. If Max doesn’t join the Consciousness, he’ll die. Unfortunately, Earth is too far away from (mystery planet) for Max to join, unless he can use the communication crystals aboard the crashed ship. The gang knows the ship is being held at some Clean Slate Complex, but now they have to not only figure out where the complex is, but find a way to get inside it — and aboard the ship! — without getting shot. The ante has been upped considerably, and when the gang use new powers taught to them by Ray — changing their appearances to mimic guards and even Sheriff Valenti — they descend into the compound and things get even hairier.

The Intruder is a direct sequel to The Watcher: Isabel has returned alone from the Clean Slate compound, as Ray Iburg was shot by the sheriff (not the deputy) and Michael was fighting to give her time to escape with the communication crystals. Once she gets back, relationship matters deteriorate drastically, teen drama wise. Isabella is not taking the presumed capture of Michael well: he has a special place in her heart. Almost like a brother, and yet someone she’s harbored feelings for as well — seeing a …romantic dream of his involving her didn’t help.(If these kids stopped invading one another’s dreams they’d have far fewer issues.) Despite the sudden drama between Alex and Isabel, the gang has to figure out how to work together and help Michael escape the compound. Michael, meanwhile, is being treated fairly well as a prisoner: there’s no torture, just interviews and tests in which he’s encouraged to explore his abilities. There’s also two new faces: Adam, the last incubated baby alien who Ray Iburg couldn’t save back during the crash, and a teenage girl named Cameron. Cameron claims to be captured by Valenti for having psychic powers. Like The Watcher‘s conclusion, The Intruder is heavy on action thrills from its midpoint on.

At the conclusion of The Intruder, there are some bits of good news. Project Clean Slate has been wiped out, and Sheriff Valenti has been immolated with it. The bad news is that the new guy Adam is the one responsible, and he seemed to take sadistic glee in burning Valenti alive and very nearly bringing the roof down on many of the gang’s heads. The sweet summer child appears to have been replaced by a sadistic monster. While the kids keep feeding him sedatives and discussing what to do, plot uncurrents begin happening under their noses. Isabel suddenly starts acting strangely, very much like Adam — violent, and demanding to know where the late Ray Iburg might’ve kept something valuable. Something like…..the Stone of Midnight that caused so much drama in The Seeker. The kids soon realize that there’s another alien on this planet: the criminal who caused the crash didn’t die, but lived, and he’s a nasty piece of work who is perfectly happy to mentally enslave people to make them do his bidding. The kids come up with a plan to deal with him, but it…um, has unexpected consequences.

So, some thoughts on continuing this series: one, there’s more graphic making out scenes in these books than anything I’ve read since, and the action ramps up insanely fast. These kids go from essentially pranking the sheriff to infiltrating top-secret government bases while at the same time juggling relationship drama and hormones. Also, it’s strange that the kids’ homeworld and species are never named.