Emilie de Ravin walked onto the sets of Roswell as Tess Harding in Crazy, and nothing has been the same since for the podsters and the humans. In a few short weeks, she revealed herself as alien and also unloaded some pretty unbelievable stuff about her role in the podsters' lives. No one questions whether or not Tess is alien. But as the supposed young bride to Max, the DREAMERS think that this alone is enough to prove that she is evil. Tess is featured in the last six episodes of season one.Click here to see a psychological profile of Season 1 Tess as created by Karst and DocPaul. |
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Here is a general plot synposis of her in each episode:Crazy: Tess shows up as a new girl in school. She makes friends with Isabel. Max calls her a stranger.
Tess, Lies, and Videotape: Tess seduces Max. Isabel and Liz find out that
Tess has been spying on Max and has a box full of photographs of him.
Four Square: Mrs Evans shows Tess pictures of Max and Isabel as children. Tess refers to "signs" and makes Isabel see an alien symbol from sugar cubes. Using her breathe on a cold window, with four finger prints she makes the Four Square sign for Michael. She also pulls an alien book out of a wall, and lures Max away at night. Tess tells Max that "It's our Destiny" to be together and Max accepts Tess as a podster like himself and Michael and Isabel.  
Max to the Max: Tess gives the "Saturn" book to Michael. Max returns it.
Tess goes over procreation and explains the visions Michael and Isabel have
been having together.
The White Room: Tess, Isabel and Michael go to rescue Max. Tess causes Pierce to see a false mental image so Nasedo and Michael can break in and rescue Max from the White Room undetected. Destiny: Tess tells us that Nasedo cannot die. Tess makes the FBI agents see something that isn't there to lure them away from Roswell and Pierce. Trys to tell Liz that she should leave Max. Posters have looked for patterns to explain the inconsistancies. If Tess an evil shapeshifter, then it seems the writers have left it up to us to look for the clues to prove it. Here's a general recap of a conversation Qfanny had with GraceKel about a certain flower delivery.: In Crazy, Tess overhears Michael asking Max for advice with Maria. Maria wants Michael to treat her better. Max suggests that girls like surprises, like flowers in the middle of the day for no apparant reason. Later in the eposide, Liz receives flowers at the Crashdown, with a handwritten note that say, "Meet me in one hour at Senior Chows." When Liz arrives, it's Topolsky--not Max. GraceKel noticed the connection between what Tess overheard and the flowers Liz receives. The theory is that Tess is a shapeshifter that is trying to scare the podsters into trusting Topolosky, who is a member of the FBI special unit. Tess wants to get the other Orb so they can be used together and alert other evil aliens. |
Certainly, Tess is not on the same page as the podsters. But does this make her evil? She did not reveal herself in trustworthy way. She remains mysterious. The best way to prove her as an evil alien is to shed light on the glaring holes in the Tess story line. Here are some excellent questions from Linda posed for both Tess and Nasedo:
Linda Level 3 |
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GraceKel found the Anti-logical proof. The Evil Shape Shifter = T.E.S.S.
Evid gave more physical proof of Tess's shapeshifting abilities. Even though
she denied to Max in Max to the Max that she could not shapeshift, there are
problems with her story. Here are some posts on the plot holes surrounding Tess and her story:
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Tess is definitely the representation of "the other woman," but oddly enough there was even discussion about whether or not Liz's blind date, Doug Shellow, was really a shapeshifted Tess. Max's line about how Doug would "look better as a blond" was cited, and Doug's name "Shellow" was thought to refer to the shallowness of Tess. It was also suggested by several that Tess was the other survivor of the crash who was held in captivity for 3 years by the Special Alien Hunting Unit. Some thought she had escaped; others thought Nasedo had retrieved her essence to create another podster. shapeshifter proposed that Tess was Nasedo's wife, partly because Harding and Tess seemed to relate more like a cranky old married couple than parent and child. A lot of discussion surrounded the observation that on Tess's school record her mother was listed as 'Sheila Harding.' Recall that 'Sheila Hubble,' Ed Hubble's wife, was killed by a silver handprint. Liz saw Sheila Hubble's corpse when she was kissed by Maxcedo. Could Sheila Hubble have provided the DNA for Tess's body? 
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