Roswell New, Mexico: Nathan Parsons Shares What’s Next for the Newly Resurrected Max

Fans of Roswell, New Mexico were thrilled in the two most recent episode of The CW series when Max Evans was not only brought back from the dead thanks the efforts of Liz Ortecho (Jeanine Mason), Kyle Valenti (Michael Trevino), Michael Guerin (Michael Vlamis), and surprisingly, Rosa Ortecho (Amber Midthunder) but officially reunited with Liz. However, as the dust settles on these happy moments, there’s a lot everyone involved will have to deal with — especially Max.

Nathan Parsons, who plays Max on Roswell, New Mexico, recently sat down with ComicBook.com to talk about his character’s journey. From how death and resurrection changes his relationships to how the mystery of who the aliens are and where they really come from to how death specifically impacts Max’s powers going forward, Parsons gave us a lot of insight into what’s next for the fan-favorite character and teased some big things yet to come.

Read on for our full, spoiler-free interview with Parsons below.

Roswell, New Mexico airs Mondays at 9/8c on The CW.

On Max’s resurrection and relationship with Rosa

ComicBook.com: So Max is back on Roswell, New Mexico and that’s super exciting but it’s also going to probably present some interesting challenges going forward. One of the things that really stuck out to me just watching the most recent episode and the one previous to that Rosa wasn’t the biggest fan of Max back in the day. She wasn’t the biggest fan of Max while he was in her head and you know, now that she’s aware that he is part of the situation around her death she’s really not his biggest fan, but she still helped bring him back to life. They also have Liz in common. And now Rosa has got these powers. How is this going to affect Max?

Nathan Parsons: Well [laughs] that is a great question. I mean it’s the whole sister… so massively complicated from top to bottom. I mean just start, you know, she was, she was the older sibling. Now she’s 10 years our junior, you know, she’s now the child and that’s a hard left turn from always having to be the older, maybe I wouldn’t say responsible for Rosa, but the older party and now you’re the baby of the family. You know also it’s the thing that’s Liz’s said and Michael and Isobel you know, you have, you had no right to make this decision for not only Rosa and for yourself, but for us. So that there is in there a question of, you know, this sort of selfish decision to upend everyone’s life.

You know, I don’t think there’s a way to necessarily consult and be like, Hey, can I help end your life? But Max has done that to all these people and Rosa more than anybody. Yeah. I mean there is definitely, I think someone wasn’t like there, but also there’s a weird bond that they now share. They both brought each other back to life. And it’s, it’s, that’s a weird thing that you can’t really escape. You know, you’re always tied to that person. I mean, you hear stories about people who had heart transplants or whatever and, and they become very connected to the family who, whose family member they lost, but who donated the heart that saw the person live. And it’s sort of the same thing except everyone’s still alive. And so yeah, there’s this weird connection there that we can’t quite explain it and that’s good and bad.

How this changes his relationship with Liz

So now with this new connection with Rosa, that’s definitely going to take some, some time to kind of figure out. What does this look like for his relationship with Liz, especially now that they are together?

Well, yeah, I mean now that they are officially together. Once you’re in a relationship with someone, you end up inevitably being in a relationship with their family. And while Liz is trying to learn how to have a little sister now or overcoming… but now you’re adding this relationship on top of it. I mean there’s, there’s a lot, a lot under the surface there for Liz. I think more so than Max because I have no memory of most of that stuff of any of it really. So for me it’s truly a fresh start, but Liz still she hasn’t lost any of the memories. She still knows everything that happened and was in the trenches during the worst of it. So there’s sort of, there’s a huge imbalance there. I won’t say power of imbalance but emotional imbalance, if you will, in what Liz has invested or is investing and overcoming to be in this relationship with Max and what matters so that, I mean anytime you’re in an imbalanced relationship, you know there’s going to be spillover into the day to day.

Max’s “whiplash” adjusting to everything

Speaking of the things that have kind of been going on, a lot has been going on since Max was gone, even just in terms of his own family like Isobel’s pregnancy and abortion, Michael’s love life, not even to mention the suspicions around Noah’s death. How are these things going to factor in for Max as he learns about them?

I mean, it’s sort of like whiplash, right? You wake up and for you what seems like a moment has been six to eight months, whatever it’s been, and all of these new things have happened and you don’t even remember half of what’s going on in the first place. And you know, suddenly you get whiplash a little, wait, you’re pregnant. Oh wait, you’re not with Alex anymore. Now you’re with Maria what is that about. You know, all the stuff.It’s just you’re going back and forth trying to play catch up essentially. It’s like treading quicksand. Eventually it’s going to just pull you down and you’re going to have to kind of deal with it. So that’s sort where Max is. And honestly that sort of mirrors how it was for me coming back, because I was gone for so long that by the time I came back to filming, everyone had already been through the ringer for two months. And I was, you know, all fresh faced, they going like, “all right, what are we doing guys?” I had to, I had to play catch up, dude. There’s no way to try and be like, okay, wait, what’s happening here? Who are these people? What’s going on? So it was a, yeah, we had Max and I had to have our journey the second half of the season.

How he prepared for his return to the show…or didn’t

How did you prepare for that coming, coming into things as an actor when everybody else is already, like you said, been through the ringer and you’re like, “Hey guys, what’s up?”

I mean, you can’t really prepare. You know, I always say that any time I, if I take like a long hiatus from work, any time I come back, I have to get in work shape again, I call it. Cause you end up going from doing nothing for a month at a time, to being on your feet 12 to 16 hours a day, you know, going through it and it’s just like going back to the gym for the first time after two years, you know, you’re exhausted and sore the next day. You know, you’re just like trying desperately to keep up with everyone who’s going full speed. So yeah, I mean I’ve learned, I can’t really prepare for it. You’re just kind of fling yourself into the, into the riptide and try to, you know, get swept up in it.

About the big alien mystery

Noah in Season 1 said something roughly to the effect of that the winners of the war on the aliens home planet would be looking for them. Now that Max is back, do you think Max ever worries about that or is he going to just cross that bridge when he gets there?

Well, I think that’s definitely a worry in the back of my mind. You know, so much happened at the very end of last season with all the bombs that Noah dropped about who we are and where we come from. Then getting swept up in this crazy battle and getting this surge of just rip roaring energy and healing Michael’s hand and resurrecting people and all this crazy, that there was never a moment of like what the hell is going on? What is he talking about? What is this? And Michael had been on that journey, Caulfield and that whole thing to try and kind of learn more about it. Michael, Max, and Isobel ultimately all have the same questions when it comes to where we come from.

I think Michael is the one who is going to go after this the hardest because he has, I wouldn’t say the least to lose but he’s the hungriest for answers. I’ve worked so hard in my entire life to suppress that part of who I am that to have it all come to the surface and be like literally shouted in your face and you know, suddenly it’s like, it’s like being called out when you’re, you know, in a crowd or something and someone calls you out for something that you’re thinking or that you did or whatever and you’re just sort of paralyzed. And I think there was a little bit of this sort of rage surge that killed Noah and brought Rosa back. This sort of clouded that out a little bit or this was like a, a way to avoid that.

And so now that I’m back, we start to see it with these little flashbacks that are happening of the kid, of the symbol. We’re starting to see all of that stuff that I suppressed so hard for my entire life is forcing its way back up and there’s nothing I can do to suppress it anymore as much as I’m trying. So as we go forward, that’s going to become more and more of a thing and that question it has to be answered. I mean it just, it has to at this point that’s too big of a bomb to be like “huh, he’s probably kidding”. You know, that’s too much. So it’s forcing itself to the surface now. And as we charge towards the end of the season, we’ll start to see that.

On Rosa’s powers and Max’s frustrations with his new limitations

Speaking of kind of as we get towards the ends of the season. We know that we’re going to see Rosa kind of working on her powers a little bit. What can you tell us about the upcoming episode in terms of what’s going on with Max or what’s something fans should be looking out for?

Oh, well, I mean I think the main thing with, with Max right now is these little memory bubbles, you know, in terms of, in terms of what’s happening with Rosa, we’ve seen Isobel since the beginning of the season training and training and training and learning becoming super powerful. And I think Rosa is kind of on a similar journey as Isobel this, you know, Max is probably not the best person to learn your powers from because I have a tendency to, you know, blow out light bulbs and stuff. So I’m probably not the most well-equipped to train anybody. I think if anyone is, that would really be Isobel.

So do you think now that Max has kind of come back from the dead, he might work on getting a better handle on his powers or do you think he’s actually going to be more of a loose cannon with them?

I, you know, I, I think it’s, I think after seeing what I’m capable of, you know, we’ve seen it not only when I killed Noah, but then the fight with Isobel, my personal desire to explore the range of my powers is limited by this faulty ticker that I have. So it’s sort of this my boundaries are set for me, which has never been done before. I’ve always set my own boundaries and now there’s something placed upon me that is limiting me, which is frustrating. You know, if you know you can run a six minute mile and someone is saying, “Nope, you can only do it in seven,” “I can go faster. I can go back and do better. I can do more.” They go, “no, you’re not allowed to. You can’t.” It’s, that’s frustrating. That’s going to piss you off. And when I get pissed off things tend to explode, you know? So that’s, we’ll see. We’ll see what happens.

On what super powers he’d personally want

I have got to ask, if you could have super powers, what would they be?

Oh, I love that question. I think for me it’s telekinesis. I would love to be able to like stand or sit on my couch while opening the fridge and pouring myself a bowl of cereal and flying it over to myself without having to move a muscle.

I have to say, you’re the person. You’re the first person I have talked to in my entire career who’s actually wanted to use telekinesis for a practical purpose. Everyone else wants to do crazy things with it and you’re like, nah, just give me the cereal. And I appreciate that so much.

[Laughs] I don’t, I don’t know. I’m not, I, you know, I don’t have these big aspirations here. It would just be convenient. Right?

This interview has been slightly edited for clarity and length.