It turns out aliens and zombies do mix.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
If the unfortunate reality of some horrific apocalypse fell upon the Earth and somehow I managed to survive I think one of the first things I would want to do is take a trip to some super secret government installation and dig around in all of its secrets. “Rozwell” does a decent job of making that dream come true with a trip to Roswell, New Mexico and an Area 51 facility filled with strange creatures and secret technology. It’s an absolutely blast.
The setup is that people have been making a pilgrimage to Roswell in hopes of making contact with visitors from another world who will take them away on a spacecraft. Well, that’s nothing new as people have been making trips to Roswell for just that since 1947. These individuals however claim to have been specifically contacted and are lead by an unusual woman named Bernadette who says she is in direct communication with the alien beings. It’s funny that the group thinks that the concept of alien contact is absolutely ridiculous and sci-fi despite the fact that they are in a zombie apocalypse and are escorting a blue human who can control zombies with his mind. Of course, 10k believes and is invested in the idea of there being an actual alien presence from the very beginning.
Things get interesting when the group, along with Bernadette, check the local military facility for supplies only to find themselves unexpectedly transported by an elevator that just happened to be disguised as a waiting room. It’s a great gag with the entire group falling over themselves as the elevator plummets at a ridiculous speed.
The “alien” design is actually quite creepy and they do a good job of keeping it shrouded in enough darkness, hiding its true form. Their movement is unnatural as well, which only adds to their creep factor. The concept of zombie aliens is genuinely a great way it’s just too bad they didn’t follow through on it in the end as the aliens just turn out to be test pilots in some sort of special spacesuit. That still doesn’t explain their creepy walk or run though. That wasn’t the type of zombie movement we’re used to seeing. There’s also the incubator we were shown in one of the rooms that suggests an actual alien was kept on site at one time. It’s too bad we didn’t get a glimpse of it. Aliens would be a great fit for Z Nation. I think I could accept them more than Murphy’s creepy zombie baby.
It’s too bad the Zona thing didn’t end up going anywhere as well. It turns out that it’s just some sort of face recognition software that picked up Murphy and the group at some point in time. This felt like the perfect episode to reveal something new about Murphy’s unusual situation and whether or not he was a point of interest even before he was a test subject for the vaccine.
The ship itself definitely suggests that at one time there was a real alien presence at the military base. Again, it’s only a tease though as the real pilot turns out to be the appropriately named Dan Scully, who we are introduced to earlier in the episode. His love for Bernadette apparently drove him to come up with this crazy scheme to fly her away to Zona.
Bernadette was great. Her ability to quietly sidle up to someone or disappear at a moments notice was hilarious. Her crazy eyes were a nice touch as well. It was good to see that she was keeping up the ruse at the end as well.
As fun as this episode was it’s almost frustrating that the group wouldn’t be willing to spend more time down there. The complex is huge and if that strange Zona UNIX interface can tap into video feeds it must have the ability to contact someone like Citizen Z. Remember Citizen Z? I guess the writers finally realized that if there is nothing for him to do he probably shouldn’t be in the episode.
“Rozwell” is a fun romp through a post-apocalyptic military instillation. It’s just too bad the creepy aliens didn’t actually turn out to be creepy aliens in the end. That would have been a lot more fun than test pilots in really weird jumpsuits.
