PLOT
It's October 19th. I'm Liz Parker and this is what I've been
thinking. Can life ever go back to normal? The
Crashdown is packed due to an orthodontist convention. Liz tells
Maria that her Grandma Claudia, "the basis of my existence", is
coming on Friday. "I have been going through Grandma
withdrawal," Maria tells her. "I just love Grandma
Claudia." Liz
takes the food over to table 6. The orthodontists ask to see her
"wonderful overbite", which she shows them. Part
of me wants safety, wants to go back to how things were, to a life that I
could predict, where I know how life is going to be. And the other
part of me wants to go somewhere else, into the unknown. After
finishing with the orthodontists, Liz walks over to Max's table, explains
about the convention and asks if he's waiting for Michael. He tells
her isn't and, after studying the menu, says, "I'll just have an
alien blast." "Me too," replies Liz. While
he was talking to Liz, a pair of jocks were watching Max. After the
Crashdown has closed, the pair tell him to "stay away fro her"
before beating him up. Michael
wants to kill the pair, but Max tells him to do nothing, or what he did to
Liz will be exposed. Michael still wants to shut the guys up, but
Max tells him they have to go back into the shells and that he has to stay
away from Liz. Maria
catches Liz studying a calendar of athletic events, and guesses that she's
positioning herself so she can run into Max who has PE 4th period.
She does run into Max and asks what he did to his face. He tells her
he fell, then says that he has to go. After he's gone, Liz runs into
Kyle and they agree to meet at the video store at 6pm. Michael
accidentally collides with a jock and then watches as he starts scratching
himself while chatting to a cheerleader. Grandma
Claudia arrives at the Crashdown. She and Liz go upstairs to catch
up, and Liz tells her about Kyle. She's not going to marry him, but
they have a good time. Claudia tells her that everybody wants to
find her soulmate, but there's plenty of time for that. Liz
hesitantly asks what if there's someone who could potentially be hers,
only it's complicated. Maria
enters. She's not particularly interested in Liz telling her that
the American Journal of Archaeology is going to run an article
called Lost Treasures which Claudia has written on the Navajo
Indians. She asks what the pair were talking about.
"Boys," Claudia tells her. Maria asks if this means Kyle
or Max, and Liz shoots her a look. Claudia is intrigued, but Liz
tells her "Max... he's so not possible. He's just like this
whole different..." "Life form," suggests Maria,
before Liz adds, "type." At
the UFO Center, Isabel finds Max repairing one of the alien
exhibits. Michael's already told her that Max fell over on the
basketball court and she asks him what really happened. Max admits
that some friends of Kyle's roughed him up and tells her that her didn't
tell her because he didn't want her to get mad. He also tells her
that he's staying away from Liz. Liz
and Kyle are walking back from the video store when they see an ambulance
parked outside the Crashdown. At the hospital, Claudia is being
wheeled in on a stretcher, followed by an anxious Liz, her parents and
Kyle. After waiting in the lobby for news, Liz goes to buy a drink
and phones Max. He's out but she leaves a message on his answering
machine saying that she just wanted to here his voice or something. The
doctor tells the Parkers that Claudia has had a stroke, but that there's
every reason to be positive about the outcome. Max shows up and says
that he's visiting his cousin who's been in a car accident before making
his excuses. Outside, Kyle is waiting to talk to him. He tells
Max that he knows he did something to her in the Crashdown such as calming
her down, which he appreciates. But since then Max has been all over
her and he doesn't like it. "Believe me, I can see that,"
Max tells him. Sheriff
Valenti returns home with a bag of groceries. Kyle tells him that
Liz's grandmother has had a stroke, but there's something else bugging
him. He thinks Liz is just going through the motions and when Max's
name crops up, his dad tells him to steer clear of him. At
school, Michael is sitting a test when one of the guys who beat up Max
hands his paper in. Michael follows him and hands in his own test,
changing the jock's answers as he does so. Liz
catches Max by his locker. He asks how her grandmother is, and she
says that she thinks she'll be okay. He tells her that he shouldn't
have gone to the hospital and Liz apologises for it being really
awkward. She adds that she shouldn't have called, and Max agrees
with her. In
the bathroom, Max breaks a stall wall. Michael guesses that Max is
in love with a girl and that she's with another guy, but that he's got
something that will cheer him up. He shows him Kyle, who's unable to
open his locker. Max asks Michael what he's doing, saying that he
promised he wouldn't do anything to the guys who beat up Max.
Michael says that he promised not to hurt them. Max tells him that
he's putting them in danger, whereupon Michael replies that Max was the
one who put them in danger when he saved Liz. "Yeah, and I'd do
it again right now," Max tells him. Michael just hopes that
they can trust Liz because he doesn't trust anyone right now. Liz
is sitting on a couch in the school's hallway when Maria comes by.
Liz is taking a break from the hospital but they've promised to page her
if anything happens. Maria tells her that she should be at
home. Liz tells her that she's getting a weird feeling from Max,
like he's pulling away or something. Maria tells her that they had
agreed not to be seen together, but Liz thinks it's as if Max sees her as
his enemy or something. Liz also tells Maria that she'll see her at
work, but Maria refuses to let her work tonight. At
the Crashdown, Maria is struggling to cope with all the customers and her
fellow waitress, Agnes, is no help at all. Outside, Maria is
sniffing her cedar oil when Isabel and two of her friends walk by.
Maria tries to speak to Isabel but Isabel tells her that they'd agreed
that they wouldn't speak in public. Maria swallows her pride and
asks Isabel to help her out but even when she says that Claudia is in the
hospital she still refuses to help. At
the hospital, Liz's parents are telling her about the time that Claudia
made a citizen's arrest when they hear that she's taken a turn for the
worse. Later, Maria shows up. Liz tells her that the doctor
doesn't think that Claudia will make it. She regrets wasting time in
the video store instead of spending it with her grandmother. At
school, the janitor opens Kyle's locked, which looks like it's melted. Max
is lying on the bed when Isabel leans over, dressed in a Crashdown
uniform. She tells him that Liz's grandmother isn't doing too well
and that she could probably do with someone to talk to, and he was the
first person she called. He reminds her that she's always the one
telling him to stay away from Liz. Isabel replies that if anything
happened to their grandparents she wouldn't want to be kept away from the
ones she really needed. In
the Crashdown, Isabel is waitressing. She reacts badly to a customer
who calls her "ma'am" and who then complains about his burger
being rare instead of well done. She takes it away and heats it up
with her power before handing it back and telling him that it looks well
done to her. Her two friends spot her and tell her that if she's
spotted waitressing it will bring then all down, but Isabel just tells
them to chill out. Liz
shows up at Max's house. She tells him that she rang him from the
hospital because he was the one person in the world she wanted to talk
to. She asks if there's anything he can do for her grandmother, but
Max tells her that when she was shot there was something that was
happening to her that wasn't supposed to happen, but he just can't heal
people. Outside
school, Kyle and his friends are discussing the melted locker.
One of them suggests that it was Max getting back at them.
Kyle asks getting back for what so they tell him they beat Max up.
Kyle calls them "idiots." Outside
the hospital, Kyle tells Liz that he had nothing to do with what happened
to Max. Liz doesn't know what happened to Max so Kyle explains,
telling her that they thought they were helping. Liz tells Kyle that
he must have said something to them about Max, and he accuses her and Max
of being together. She says they're not, and neither and her and
Kyle, although she denies this is because of Max. Kyle warns her
that Valenti's got his eye on Max. Liz
enters Claudia's room and suggests that her parents get some air.
After they've gone, Max shows up. He tells Liz that he can't stop
what's going to happen but he can help her say goodbye. He
tries to revive Claudia, but to no effect until Liz hears her voice from
behind her, although Claudia is still lying in bed. Liz tells her
that she just wanted to tell her how much she means to her. Claudia
assures her that she's going to do fine and gets Liz to promise that
she'll follow her heart wherever it takes her. Then she flatlines. The
tough thing about following your heart is what people forget to mention,
that sometimes your heart takes you to places you shouldn't be, places
that are as scary as they are exciting and as dangerous as they are
alluring, and sometimes your heart takes you to places that can never lead
to a happy ending. Outside
the Crashdown, Liz thanks Max, who tells her that it's okay. They
say goodnight. And
that's not even the difficult part. The difficult part is when you
follow your heart, you leave normal, you go into the unknown. Liz
turns around and hugs Max. And
once you do, you can never go back. CAST
Most of Carroll Baker's credits are for films, including Luz Benedict II
in Giant. As well as playing the nurse here, Octavia L
Spencer has played similar roles in, amongst other shows, The X Files:
Millennium and Brimstone: Faces. CONTINUITY
Claudia Parker made the national news with her citizen's arrest of three
deer hunters in Yosemite national park. As
with the pilot, Isabel is shown to be to able to heat food using her powers.
Michael causes an itch, changes the test results and melts Kyle's
locker. Max tells Liz that he "can't just heal people.
I'm not God", although he does allow her to say goodbye to Claudia. NOTES
Amongst items on the Crashdown's menu are Venus Meatloaf Platter, Trekkie
Specials, the Will Smith Burger and the Tommy Lee Jones Bacon
Basket. Max tells Liz he'll have an Alien Blast; "me too,"
she replies. COMMENTS
The arrival, and death, of Liz's grandmother could have resulted in
Leaving Normal overdoing the sentimentality and producing a soppy
episode. But,
it's nothing like that at all. The characters continue to be
engaging, and the episode is both moving and funny. Shiri
Appleby continues to be great as Liz. There's an obvious affection
between Liz and Claudia and, although Max is unable to save her
grandmother, Liz at least follows her advice and follows her heart, as we
see in the final scene. Thank God she's given Kyle Valenti the push
as well, as I was seriously doubting the girl's intelligence on that
score. Max
also follows someone's advice, in his case Isabel's comment that he was
the one who Liz called from the hospital. Her interview with
Topolsky in Monsters showed that she puts
her family first and that's shown her when she tells Max that if anything
happened to their grandparents she'd want to be with the ones she really
needed. There's
also a really sweet scene between Liz and Maria at school before Maria
tells her that there's no way that she's letting her work that night. This
results in her asking Isabel to help out at the Crashdown and apparent
from Katherine Heigl looking great in the uniform, it's also dead
funny. It's ironic given her "great job... Max," jibe at
the UFO Center that she ends up doing such a dignified job, but she shows
that she thinks far more of Max than she does of her rather vacuous
friends. Maria, too, has overcome her fear of Isabel. A couple
of episodes earlier she wouldn't have dared ask her to help out, or call
her a "genius." Back
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