THE SHOW: Star-Crossed
THE PAIRING: Emery (Aimee Teegarden) and Roman (Matt Lanter)
THE EPISODE: “Pilot” – (aired February 17, 2014)
THE MOMENT: Roman takes a huge risk by saving Emery’s friend Julia. And he does it all for Emery.
If you aren’t familiar with Star-Crossed, I’ll give you the quick rundown. It’s the new CW romantic series that just premiered on Monday (so if you haven’t watched it yet, there’s plenty of time to catch up!) But basically it’s about a young human girl Emery and an alien boy named Roman (who comes from the race of Atrians) and their epic, forbidden romance. They first met when the Atrians came to earth ten years earlier when they were both six-years-old. The humans believed the Atrians were trying to invade, so they attacked them. Eventually, all of them were rounded up and put into internment camps. On the day of the big invasion, little Emery helped rescue Roman and even gave him cold spaghetti in a shed. They bonded, but it was only short-lived as the soldiers found them and shot Roman. Thinking he was dead for ten years, Emery is surprised to learn that he’s still alive when seven Atrian students (reminiscent of Little Rock Nine) integrate into the human school in a new program to integrate the aliens into society. Of course, they both find each other again very quickly and their bond deepens.
So for this week’s romantic moment, I decided to go with a scene from Star-Crossed because of the huge potential I think the series has. The pilot episode wasn’t perfect by all means, but it has a lot of promise. Not only that, there aren’t that many TV shows out there that actually embrace the romantic genre (and of course I’m all for another alien/human romance; Roswell is still one of my favorite series ever). So it’s nice to see when a series actually does.
The episode has many nice romantic moments. There’s the scene when “the Atrian 7” first enter the school with all of the protests and circus like atmosphere; Roman then sees Emery and everything gets quiet. He recognizes her right away even though it has been ten years. He even flashbacks to some of their moments together.
Later on in the episode, after a fight between Atrians and humans at a party, Emery chooses to go with Roman over human boy Grayson. They have a nice conversation in the dark which leads to an almost kiss.
But the most romantic moment of the episode belongs to the end which brings me to the romantic moment of the week. Early on in the episode, we learn that Emery used to be sick, really sick and in the hospital for four years. While Emery is now all better, however, her best friend Julia (Malese Jow) is still in the hospital and unfortunately dying. Throughout the episode, there’s a rumor that the Atrians have a magical herb that heals sickness. Roman laughs it off and pretends that it’s just that, a silly rumor. But is it?
In the very end when Julia slips into a coma (to the point of never waking up again), Roman decides to do something about it. It’s reminiscent of Mr. Darcy. You know how he helps Elizabeth’s sister Lydia by providing money to Mr. Wickham… “Surely you know I did it all for you…” Well, Roman heals Julia because he can’t bear to see Emery broken-hearted over her friend. He does it all for Emery, despite the personal risk.
In a grand, romantic gesture, he takes the plant, puts it into his skin (which gives Roman the ability to create a healing elixir), and heals Julia. It’s a powerful moment because this choice is not without consequences. One, he’s breaking the Atrian curfew to be there at the hospital; two, he risks humans finding out about their healing ability; and three, he never told his father who ends up getting killed while trying to find his son. No doubt, by healing Julia, he’s going to have a lot of guilt over making this choice.
Soon after, Emery walks back to Julia’s hospital room only to find Julia’s parents beaming over their daughter who is now miraculously awake and healthy looking with a big smile on her face. As Julia walks into the room, she sees the healing plant on the floor. Figuring out what has happened, she kicks it under the bed so no one else will see it. She then embraces her friend.
All the while, Roman watches from a distance. He’s happy to see her happy. It’s a nice little moment, like a guardian angel with romantic feelings for his charge and certainly worthy of being the most romantic moment of the week.
It will be interesting to see where the series will go from here.
Did you watch the premiere of Star-Crossed? What did you think of this end moment? Do you think this series has romantic potential? Sound off below.
Photo Credit: CW
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Read our Review of Star-Crossed!
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