Diva Duckling

I only watched Roswell because of Emilie, so there was no way I was going to hate Tess.

But even I was surprised how much I grew to like her, by the end of the first season, and how much I shipped Max and Tess in certain episodes. I liked the whole "past life spent together" aspect of their relationship very much.

LilMouse

Were you at first suspicious of her? Did you know a lot about her character before watching?

past life stuff in fiction and two people finding each other again and again over centuries is the ultimate romantic SL for me.

Roswell 10/2/00

I started watching Roswell my freshman year of college in season 2 so I had no knowledge of season 1 except the voice over Max did in Skin and Bones and what my college friend who got me into Roswell was telling me.

I remember when Tess came on the scene she was like ew we don't like her. Her roomates and myself asked why she said becasue she tried to break Max and Liz up.

From the beginning I loved Tess's character. I then watched season 1 and I loved her even more. I loved her story and I loved how she was one of the group.

I was crushed when they made her evil. I was like what no. I was also so upset over Alex! Yes I am a Dreamer at heart but I always felt sorry for Tess and I loved the moments Max and her shared in the End Of the World with the bench scene of her reaching out to him to say I understand and him looking at her. I also love the end of Off The Menu when Max tell Tess he remembers her.

It is such a powerful moment because Tess wanted to belong for so long. I think we all can relate to her story in someway.

Those scenes still pull on my heart to this day. Beautiful shot and acted!

I remember the end of season 3 I was so sad with Tess's goodbye and how she saved the group yet again.

She was a true Queen till the end always saving her King and her fellow Pod Squad from the FBI.

Diva Duckling

YESSSSS! Exactly. God, I love that scene. And Emilie's face in it. I think there are really good gifsets of that moment somewhere.
She was only like 18 and already such an amazing actress!



Yes, I actually knew who she was, because of tumblr. I also knew that in the end she was going to accidentally kill Alex and betray the group somehow and then die.
At first I just thought it was entertaining as hell how she was trolling the group (cause she is such a little troll, seriously when she and Nasedo invite Liz for dinner, or when she confronts her in the bathroom at school with those huge eyes being all like "why is everyone following me?").

She became my "protect her till the end of all times, let me wrap her up in a blanket and give her hot cocoa" kind of character when she and Max were in the desert and we saw that flashback to the moment when Tess got left behind. And as we were shown that little person, being left by the others, not waking up in time like the others and I knew that at the end it's all going to end with her not finding her place, making some bad decisions and dying alone to save everyone... Knowing the end, seeing that flashback scene that showed us how it began was what made me her favorite.

LilMouse

It's so much easier watching a show when you already know a character's fate.
Like with TVD, I didn't watch it until it was in the middle of s2. So I knew Caroline was going to turn into a vampire and that made me love her from the beginning meanwhile I read so many people didn't originally like her.

when Tess took Max to the desert and he held her down...it's the toughest scene to watch. He was too violent with her there.

starryeyesxx

It is a tough scene, but I can understand why he was like that to a degree - he thought she was a dangerous killer after all.

Also, I think Emilie looks just gorgeous when she tuns to him & says 'think Max, you've seen my fave before, you know who I am'

LilMouse

I would be less uncomfortable with the scene if Tess had been violent towards him first. But she wasn't being violent so him pushing her around and holding her head down makes me cringe.

But she did look really pretty in the scene, I agree.

Diva Duckling

Yes, this is so true! I think that's why I could enjoy Roswell much more easily than I could enjoy OUAT for example.

It also made me see Tess as a tragic character from the very first moment and that was part of the reason (though by far not the only reason) why I loved her.

Agreed. I understand his motivations and why he acted that way, but at the end of the day what you visually see is a guy throwing down and tiny woman on the ground and being violent with her. It's not a pretty image and I do hope they did wanted us viewers to be uncomfortable with it, at least on some level. Though with Max you never know - I think he did have a violent streak and I don't think the show dealt with that properly.

On another note: Do you guys remember the scene when Tess is already dead (or... at least accoriding to what we see in canon, she is assumed to be dead) and Max gives up Zan and does some alien thing and when the others (maybe Liz or Mr Evans, I don't remember) asks him what that was he says something like "memories" ? I've seen the dubbed version, do I don't exactly know what he says in the original script, but I think that the point was that he had given Zan some memories. I'd like to think (and this is my favorite headcanon) that he gave him happy memories with Tess. So he could remember her mother and father together. So he could remember the mother who died for him. I choose to belive that.

starryeyesxx

Oh, I definitely think it's meant to be tough to watch. I think that at that point in the show, the writers didn't have any idea Tess would be so hated, not once they did the reveal that she wasn't actually Nesado. I think that you are meant to feel sorry for her in that scene

I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure he said 'a memory', so maybe just one, I do hope that it is of Zan's parents

LilMouse

I think of her as the most tragic character on the WB.


the psychiatrist should've done more to help with his anger. I wonder if Zan was as angry as Max could be?

I do hope the memory included Tess and wasn't only a Max/baby Zan memory.


and I forget if they had the whole season filmed before the last 6 aired. I'm assuming they did have it all filmed? So them not having any idea the audience would despise her makes sense.

starryeyesxx

I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that they did have it all filmed by the time the Tess episodes were airing. & even if she had been hated in those first episodes, I think the writers still would have thought that once they did reveal that she was actually like Max & the others.

.....unfortunately the audience wasn't that rational & hung on to any reason to hate her

LilMouse

I also don't think any kind of flashback would've helped people like Tess. They could've showed her as a child being dragged around and berated by Nasedo, and people still would've been like she wants Max and he belongs to Liz

starryeyesxx

Yeah, it really didn't matter who she was, what she had been through, no matter how many times she saved them, they were going to hate her. Makes their opinions pretty meaningly to me

LilMouse

I don't trust anyone who easily accepts the Tess killed Alex therefore she's evil storyline just cause it justifies their hate which already existed before the end of s2.

starryeyesxx

Yeah, it's not hard to see that her killing Alex was a last minute thing of the writers caving into a vocal part of the audience....