Roswell, New Mexico, certainly looks to be going out with a bang!
With only one more season left to finish up the series’ epic run, things start action-packed for our heroes, who deal with relationship milestones and the arrival of some new aliens.
We were lucky enough to score some time with EP Christopher Hollier, who gave us some great insight into the couples, what’s on the horizon, and what he hopes the masses remember about this show.
If you haven’t seen Roswell, New Mexico Season 4 Episode 1 yet, turn away now! Spoilers abound from here!
Hi Chris, how are you?
Christopher Hollier: Hi, Whitney. I’m good. How are you doing?
I’m doing great. Thank you.
Christopher Hollier: Great.
So, I just want to jump right into the premiere here. We meet a new triad in this hour. What can you tell us about these new aliens and their presence in Roswell?
Christopher Hollier: Sure. Well, the things that intrigued us were cowboys and aliens. We got a lot of cowboys. We wanted to introduce some more aliens. We’ve always talked about what a triad is and how one should function, right? But our heroes don’t actually have those tools.
They’re a little bit behind the gun there. So we wanted to introduce one that’s supposedly being a functional one. And what does it look like to play off each other’s strengths? But again, this is Roswell, so I’ll just say that where we start, every member of that triad is not probably where they’re going to end up.
And in the premiere, time and the notion of making sure it’s the right time for certain decisions seem to be a major theme during the hour.
Christopher Hollier: Yeah.
Is that something we’ll continue to see throughout the rest of the season, this idea of making sure it’s the right time for things?
Christopher Hollier: Not necessarily time implicitly, but more about being at a place that you’re comfortable with and knowing enough about yourself to take that next step in life.
And sometimes you don’t know. Sometimes you jump even if you don’t have that. And so, in that larger sense, that’s what we’re playing with. What it means to be emotionally ready or not ready, or whose hands you hold when you make good or crazy decisions.
Sure! Which kind of leads to Max and Liz. They make that decision together on the roof of The Crashdown, about their engagement and the next steps. And it feels like a really mature decision for them. So can you kind of walk us through the decision to get them to that place in their relationship?
Christopher Hollier: Absolutely. We felt like in previous seasons, sometimes they had made decisions that were rash, and they made them separately. And so they really did make a promise to themselves at the end of last season to make more together.
And sometimes, when you make them together, it doesn’t mean that you make every correct decision, or that it’s not heartbreaking, but they come to this very, very difficult place out of love, essentially, right?
That this isn’t the moment because it won’t give them the best chance of success.
Sure, yeah. And I love that they have that conversation, and then, boom, here comes the next big thing in their lives that they have to deal with.
Christopher Hollier: Yeah. We wanted to set that up. We were like, how can we make a non-proposal the most romantic thing ever? That was our goal when we sat down to write that.
Yeah. And I think you succeeded. It’s a really beautiful moment between them.
Christopher Hollier: Nice!
Switching over to another couple, Michael and Alex. They move in together. That’s a major step forward in their relationship, and we see Michael struggle with the reality of that situation. What can you tell us about that relationship, where it stands now, and where it could go in the future?
Christopher Hollier: Sure. Well, we wanted to advance them as well. We felt like last season, we got them to a place where it’s like, enough nonsense. We love each other. We want to move forward together.
But moving forward together, again, it’s not always the easiest path. Just because you found that person to stand next to, it doesn’t mean that life stops throwing you challenges. So, we really wanted to say they’re a functional couple. They love each other, right? The littlest things aren’t going to unmoor them.
But how do we challenge them in a new way for them to find their next step?
For sure. Yeah, I’m excited to see where they go from here because it seems it’s been building to this, and them being together and finally what that looks like.
So, Isobel has had a profound journey over the course of this series. And in the premiere, we learned that she sold her house and her business. It’s almost like she’s stepping into a new phase of her life. So can you kind of speak to her journey and preview what’s next for her?
Christopher Hollier: Exactly. We felt that she had a lot of fear of standing up and saying who she was. And again, we got her to that next place. For her character actually, though, we have a little bit more defining of it. For all of our characters, we’re getting them to say, what’s that next step.
Many of them are looking forward to that. They’re also looking backward, right? So, who got us to where we are now, and then who’s going to help get us to that next place.
And so for her, we really tend to, as she stands up and says, I’m ready to be a mentor, based upon the things that I’ve learned, we’re going to challenge her in a way that’s like, well, who’s my next mentor for the next stretch of my journey?
Okay. I like that.
Family, friendships. They’re really at the heart of Roswell in a lot of ways. And in the premiere, we got to see some great friendship dynamics like Dallas and Michael, Max and Cameron, Dallas and Maria, a new one.
So, I was curious with you, which dynamics have you enjoyed writing, and will we continue to see different pairings along with the whole crew coming together at points as well?
Christopher Hollier: Yes, to both. That was one of the greatest discoveries coming out of the pandemic. It was hard to bring people in, so we had our players, right? We had our troop. And so the goal then was to put them together and see how they interacted with each other. And we were like, we love all of this.
So, I think especially too, as we started to maybe get the sense this might be done, we wanted to make sure we were crossing everyone and letting people have scenes with each other.
Mm-hmm. That’s great.
Christopher Hollier: But we are still doing “Avengers assemble.” There are going to be a lot of people standing in a lot of places by the time we get to the end.
Oh, that’s great. What character arc are you most excited to see play out this season?
Christopher Hollier: I couldn’t say. That’s like saying what’s your favorite kid. But I love, in particular, the journey that Max goes on. He takes a really big step, I feel, this year in understanding himself, whereas he’s been very supportive to other people’s journeys.
I love Liz continuing to redefine being comfortable in two places. I’m comfortable with letting other people take the reins, but I’m still a genius, and I know that I’m going to change the world. I love that.
And I just love, actually, the challenge…I don’t want to give anything away, but I love the challenge that we did create for Michael and Alex. We found a new, different, romantic way to tell the story, I think, that people are going to dig as it unfolds.
If you could describe the season in a word or even a couple of words, what would you say?
Christopher Hollier: In a couple of ways? I will say completed circles.
Ooh. Okay. I like that. Looking back across the entire series, since this is going to be the last season, what are you most proud of?
Christopher Hollier: What I’m most proud of? I think we did lots of great storytelling things that I love. We had a lot of nineties music. We put a lot of residuals in people’s pockets. But the thing I’m actually most proud about…I’m most proud of our entire cast and crew.
What they were able to accomplish, again, in a time when the world was really crazy. Everything that they brought together is a product of what you’re seeing. It’s all of their creative minds. It’s all of their great attitudes. And all of their willingness to play that made this.
For sure. And how hard is it to say goodbye to this world?
Christopher Hollier: Goodbyes are always hard, I would say. We didn’t know, but the storytelling lends itself to an end. And you could feel the shift for some of these characters, not just the characters, but them personally. They started to understand what it might mean to play these scenes.
And at least we got to do that. We got to say goodbye together. The best thing I can say out of the goodbye.
How do you hope that Roswell, New Mexico, will be remembered?
Christopher Hollier: With a little bit of hopefulness that love is the way through, and science should be paid attention to.
That’s great. Thank you so much for your time today, Chris.
Christopher Hollier: No worries. Thanks for watching.
Roswell, New Mexico airs Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.
***This interview has been edited for length and clarity.***
Whitney Evans is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.