While Max Evans and Isobel Evens fought to save Liz Ortecho, she had her own internal struggle. But, the question is, did the evil or good Liz win?
The riddle was pretty easy in Liz’s (Jeanine Mason) mindscape. It was all about Max and wanting to live happily ever after with him, but she’s afraid she can’t. She should realize that not all relationships work out, but does that mean she shouldn’t try, especially when she loves him?
It was a fun western version of Roswell, New Mexico. We had Michael Guerin (Michael Vlamis) as Doc Holladay. Liz made a pretty sexy sheriff. Maria DeLuca (Heather Hemmens) and Rosa Ortecho (Amber Midthunder) also made good-looking cow women. And Clyde (Andrew Lees) made an excellent Terminator cowboy. Andrew is just good at paying the bad guy. He’s so cute and charming that you want him to be good, but he’s so bad. It was fun, even if we all knew the riddle Liz was trying to solve.
But I didn’t see that twist at the end. I should have known that something was up when we didn’t see Liz shoot herself. And Heath (Steven Krueger) didn’t understand how her body fought the drug off (oh, yes, Steven was back! This excited me so much.) And then we got a look back at what had happened, Liz let her fear take her over, and she gave into her dark side.
We can probably blame Max (Nathan Parsons) partly for this. Yes, Liz is a grown woman who can make her own choices, but she would never have felt like she had to make this decision if Max hadn’t gotten rid of his powers. I love Echo, but neither one can understand what the other needs. Max doesn’t want to have abilities. He wants to be a regular guy. And now he wants to find out who he is without those powers.
On the other hand, Liz wants to protect him. I can understand why the timing of him losing his powers is pretty bad, but it’s what he wants. I think this dilemma is worse than worrying about if she can protect him. Max has never liked having his powers. In contrast, Isobel (Lily Cowles) and Michael love their powers. It’s part of who they are, but it’s not the only thing. If only Liz could understand that Max has never felt comfortable with his powers. It could be part of the reason he’s never had complete control over them. Look at Rosa. She’s becoming so much stronger. She’s embraced her powers and owned who she is. That’s just never been, Max. And that’s okay.
If Liz did choose to take in the drug to become stronger, this is just a desperate attempt for her to save the people she loves. She already listed off the things that could go wrong. She could lose herself.
It shouldn’t be a big surprise that she decided to utilize the drug since she is all about saving her loved ones and is terrified of losing Max. This will come back to haunt her, though. It could break her and Max. Echo will have a rocky go for the rest of the series. I still hope they are endgame, but things look pretty bad now.
We thought that they saved Liz, and all they needed to do was save Alex Manes (Tyler Blackburn) and Dallas (Quentin Plair), but in reality, they still have to save Liz from herself.
While it could mean devastation for Echo, I’m glad the writers gave us that nice twist. Last week she was sticking with her principles, but after being shown her fears, it was hard to turn down a way to save them all.
Also, this was Michael Trevino’s directorial debut. It was a pretty fun episode for him to direct. Mindscapes are always fun. He was good at bringing out people’s emotions when necessary. He was also good at creating funny scenes in the western fantasy. Congrats to Michael on a job well done.
Do you think Liz chose her dark side? And how do you think that will affect her relationship with Max? Tweet me @PrimetimeDrama or @MandyTTCarr or comment below.
