Enhanced CD feature
“ And here it comes. That’s the moment where they know in their hearts that they’re in love with each other. They’ve never said it. He doesn’t actually say it now either. But what he’s telling her is ‘I’m breaking up with you because I’m in love with you’ and the pain in her heart right now is making her angry yet she understands. But she’s still so alone when he walks down the ladder, and we know that they belong together and they are in love and what Max is doing right now is for the good of both of them. And half way through our first season we’ve broken them up and yet we’ve completely allowed them to profess their love for each other at the same time. We’ve given ourselves more fodder for the back half of the season because the love story really needed a wrench thrown into it. We wanted to see what it was like for them to be so happy so that we would know ultimately what they needed to search for and find and live through the pain to get there again.”
- Thania St. John - The Balance commentary
“That moment to me seems like a transcendent moment. It’s the gift he gives to her. It’s him thanking her for being there for him and being a friend. And it’s not a moment about them getting back together as a boyfriend and girlfriend. It’s beyond that. He’s able to go to her even with everything that they’ve been through”
Jason Katims - A Roswell Christmas Carol commentary
« “The Max-Liz connection works so well, as is so popular with “Roswell“‘s fans, because, in Moore’s opinion, “It’s very romantic in the classic sense of the word. Max is a young man from another planet, with secrets. He saved her life in the first episode, and they became soulmates across time and space. It’s a classic set-up. Beyond that, the appeal of their relationship has a great deal to do with the chemistry between Shiri Appleby and Jason Behr.” »
- Ron Moore (co-executive producer and writer), source
The love affair between Roswell and music was born in the editing room while we were working on the first few minutes of the first episode. In early cuts, there was something unsatisfying to me about the moment Max healed Liz after she was wounded by an errant gunshot. This moment was so important. It was the foundation for the pilot episode and the entire series. I felt it needed to be not only a heroic moment, but also a spiritual one. It needed to be something that would create a deep, life-altering bond between Max and Liz.
The sequence was originally temped using traditional underscore. Even thought it seemed like a very atypical spot for a song, I started listening to all of my CD’s.
When I heard ‘Fear’ by Sarah McLachlan something clicked for me. We dropped it into the cut and it was like magic. The moment immediately became internal, emotional. Suddenly Max and Liz were having this incredibly intimate, private moment in this very public place under this horrorific circumstances. Max wasn’t merely saving Liz’s life, they were falling in love. And the arguably silly premise of the show itself— a teenage alien falling in love with a human teenager— was no longer silly. It was real. We cared about these people.
That moment started a tradition for us of seeking to deepen moments using music. Roswell has continued to call upon the singular power of music to help bring to surface the emotional lives of its characters. Roswell’s debt to music is considerable. Very simply, it has made the show more.
Jason Katims, commentary released with the original Roswell soundtrack
“we know that they belong together and they’re in love and what Max is doing right now is for the good of both of them. And half way through our first season we’ve broken them up and yet we’ve completely allowed them to profess their love for each other at the same time.
We’ve given ourselves more fodder for the back half of the season because the love story really needed a wrench thrown into it.
We wanted to see what it was like for them to be so happy so that we would know ultimately what they needed to search for and find and live through the pain to get there again.”
- Thania St. John - The Balance commentary (DVD)Roswell 1x10 The balance
