At the end of The Stowaway, the gang formed a psychic link with one another, and then with the alien collective consciousness, in order to create a wormhole to send the villain back home for justice. Unfortunately, at the same they were also all disguised as said villain in order to distract his two monster-minions so said minions would not eat them. In a not-hilarious case of mistaken identity, the wrong man was sent through the wormhole: Alex Manes is now in serious danger of missing his mid-terms. In The Vanished, the gang is suitably upset about this, but it’s not a hugely eventful novel. They go back to the ruins of the Clean Slate Compound to see if there’s anything useful on the the ship, but an unknown car drives them away from the site until the alien kids conjure up a dust storm. When they return, the ship is gone. Like, zoinks, Scoob! They figure there can’t be that many places to hide a big alien ship, and Isabel and Adams’ scattered memories of being mental slaves to the villain indicate that Carlsbad Caverns is the place to go When they arrive, though, they’re in for a surprise — and not the happy “Oooh, we arrived just in time to see the bats fly out” kind. There’s also a little thread of Adam having a growing crush on Liz, which will feature more later. There IS an actual cover design for this one in the same style as the originals, but I don’t think it ever got printed.

Moving on to The Rebel. The gang has tried twice to bring Alex back from …where ever (why don’t we have a planet name?), but to no avail. The good news is…he’s back! (Somehow, he returned.) Despite the Consciousness indicating to Max that it will be months before they can try another collaborative attempt with him, Alex has just shown up exhausted and terrified with no memories of his time on Whereever. He beelines for the Evans’ house, both because he loves Isabel and wants to see her, and because Max is The Leader of this little enterprise. Mr. Responsible will figure out what to do. What to do about what? Well….maybe the fact that when Alex was in the wormhole being sent back, he felt a terrifying presence of someone else in pursuit, someone who would kill him to get what they wanted. And what do they want? Well, Alex suddenly has another Stone of Midnight, just like the other one that’s been causing so much trouble. Also, another teenage alien has appeared: Michael’s brother, Trevor! After admitting that he hitched a ride in the wormhole and that he belongs to an underground group on Wherever that hates the Consciousness, a rift forms in the group between those who think Trevor is good people and those who are wary or outright suspicious. On the teen drama side, Max keeps zoning out while being connected to the Consciousness, which distresses Liz: its like he’s not there even when he is there. Interestingly, “phubbing” has allowed everyone to experience this now! The emotional alienation is making her vulnerable to responding to Adam’s puppy crush in kind, but then Maria’s brother is kidnapped by…well, I’ll save that for the next paragraph.

One thing I’ve mentioned about the Roswell High series is that it has three villains whose stories fold into the others: The Dark One features all three, very nearly. The Sheriff was killed, but his son Kyle is out for vengeance and is certain that the kids had something to do with it. Worse yet, he has possession of some Clean Slate tool that can snuff out the aliens’ power usage. The kids are scrambling to figure out how to dispatch the Villain, who now has Trevor helping him — in fact, Trevor came through the wormhole to find the villain, who is the leader of Whatever’s rebellion against the Collective Consciousness. Unfortunately, the kids are in a Hitler vs Stalin situation. The Villain is a monster, sure, but so is the Collective Consciousness — as it proves when Isabel, entering her akino, resists connecting to it. She seeks out Trevor’s help, since he insists that it is possible to survive not connecting — he and the Villain are both not part of the Consciousness — and the Consciousness begins torturing Max and even destroying his body in an effort to force Isabel’s hand. Alex, who was previously distracted by the wormhole making him a babe magnet, rallies after he learns that his beloved Isabel is in trouble. The book ends with the Villain being destroyed, but at a cost: Adam is dead and Max is comatose, a complete captive of the Collective Consciousness.

And finally, we arrive at The Salvation, the series’ conclusion. The kids are free from both the terror of the sheriff and of the Villain (whose name I continue to omit in case anyone decides to read a 27 year old YA book series), but still have to face the fact that Max is a vegetable. He occasionally rises, puppet-like, to demand the Stones of Midnight, but Michael is keeping them well hidden. While everyone tries to think of a plan to destroy the Consciousness, some emotional drama continues. Maria continues to be heartbroken by Michael’s apparent lack of love for her, and this is made worse by the fact that he and Trevor are talking about returning to Wherever after the Consciousness is destroyed. Did Michael talk to anyone about this? Nope. Ultimately the kids find an approach that works, and Michael changes his mind at the last minute and finally tells Maria he loves her. And everyone lived happily ever after, with smooches all around, until the WB decided to make one series that messed the characters up a bit, and then 20 years later made another series that took the characters and threw them in a canon woodchipper.

And that’s the end! This was a fun series to blitz through, and I was intrigued by the little details I’ve remembered over the years. Having watched the first WB series through several times, there was some annoying mental contamination regarding the characters, varying on the character. The books’ Valenti is so cold and evil that it was easy to retain my middle-school image of him, so unlike William Sadler’s depiction of him. I kept hearing Jason Behr talk when Max was active, though, despite the fact that series-Max is far more subdued and popular than book-Max, who is regarded as highly attractive. (Well, all of the aliens are regarded as highly attractive: I suppose that’s part of the hyperadaptability.) One thing the original show did far better than the books is the use of parents: they’re practically nonexistent, almost wholly background here, while in the books Liz and the Evans’ parents play larger roles and there’s a lot of emotional storytelling that comes out of that. Honestly, reading this has made me want to drag out my Roswell DVDs and dive in again. (“If I disappear for a few days, it’s nothing personal. I’ve just been abducted.” used to be my AIM away message…)