HEAT WAVE

PLOT

Maria is cleaning up the Crashdown at night, while Liz is upstairs studying.  Liz eats a doughnut and goes to the fridge to get some milk, but there's none left.  Maria goes to the door of the cafe and lets in Michael and the pair start kissing.  Liz comes downstairs for some milk and looks into restaurant and sees Michael and Maria on the counter together.

It's December 2nd, 1999.  I'm Liz Parker and this heat wave has made everyone crazy.

Heat expands, melts, makes things boil, sets things on fire.  And seeing the effect of this heat all around me just pointed out in this really blatant way how my life wasn't expanding... that I was stuck.

Liz walks through the hallways at school.  Everyone else appears to be coupled with someone else, including Maria and Michael who are in the janitor's closet.  Liz runs into Kyle and his new girlfriend Vicky Delaney, who suggests that Liz comes to a party on Friday night.  Kyle tries to say that Liz wouldn't be interested but much to his annoyance she tells them that she'll see them there.

Liz leaves them and sees Alex going into the Principal's Office with Sheriff Valenti.  In there, Valenti questions Alex, who tells him that he didn't notice anything unusual about Topolsky's behaviour that day.

Liz finds Max in the library and tells him that she saw Alex and Valenti together, but she doesn't know what Alex told him.  In any case, she doubts that Alex would actually speak to her these days.  She tells Max that there's one piece of good news - Vicky Delaney might take Kyle's mind off his suspicions.  She mentions the party on Friday night and then asks if Max has noticed anything going on between Michael and Maria.

Amy De Luca is causing a scene outside Topolsky's office when she notices Sheriff Valenti, who asks what she's doing there.  She explains that Topolsky wanted to discuss Maria's future with her but that she appears to have "disappeared" now.  She's surprised to find that as single parents, she and the sheriff have something in common.

Liz tries to speak to Alex, but he doesn't want to know - she said she'd explain what's going on, but she won't.  Liz used to be the person he'd trust with his life but now he feels like he doesn't even know who she is.

Maria is examining her neck when Liz finds her, pointing out that it's a heat wave and Maria is wearing a turtleneck.  She offers her something to cover it up and tells Maria that she saw her and Michael at the Crashdown the other night.  Liz tells Maria that somehow she doesn't see Maria and Michael together and asks whether they even talk, which Maria says they do.

Simultaneously, Max asks Michael if there's anything going on between him and Maria.  Michael tells him he just figured "go for it" but that while it feels wrong, it also feels so good.

Maria and Michael are making out again when she suggests that they exchange pleasantries or something.  Michael mumbles a few words and Maria brings up the party on Friday night, which Michael tells her is years from now.

At the Crashdown, Amy is trying to sell cocktail stirrers to Liz's dad when Sheriff Valenti walks in.  He apologises for the time he arrested her.  Amy claims this scarred her for life, but she seems to be enjoying herself when Maria shows up and is surprised that Amy introduces Valenti as "Jim."

Liz and Isabel are painting their toenails together.  Liz mentions that all the guys in school seems interested in Isabel but that she seems happy to keep it all platonic.  Isabel asks whether Liz is afraid to let anyone see the real her - which she is - and says it's a million times worse for her.

"At least we can do cool stuff like this," she tells Liz, changing her nail polish from clear to blue.  She asks Liz about Alex, and Liz says that she wishes she knew what was going on inside of him.   Isabel tells her that she'll look into it, but refuses to go into any more details.

Isabel touches a yearbook picture of Alex and goes to sleep, waking up in Alex's dream.  She follows him into a ballroom where he waits for his date, which turns out to be Isabel herself.

The pair start dancing and Alex tells the Isabel in his dream that beneath her beautiful exterior is an even more beautiful interior, but not too many people get to see it.  Dream Isabel admits this is true and Alex tells her that she can show him.

The next morning, Max is arguing with Isabel about her using her powers to enter Alex's dream.  She won't tell him what she saw but assures him that out of everyone, she is the one who can control Alex.

Michael tells Max that things have gotten complicated with Maria.  She wants to have conversations and to go to the party together as if suddenly the eraser room isn't enough for her.  

Max finds Liz in the biology lab where she is trying to get two slugs to mate.  She tells why is it okay for Michael and Maria to be together but not her and Max.  He tells her that he's not afraid of them trying it and it working out badly, he's afraid that it will work out really well.  He can live with him getting hurt, but not Liz.  She tells him that it's not really his decision, and Max agrees with her.  The pair seem about to kiss when the biology teacher enters and asks Liz who her mating ritual was going.  "I was doing just fine," Liz tells her.

Isabel stops Alex and asks if he's interested in the party tonight.  He asks her to tell him how it goes and Isabel tells him to meet her there at 8pm.

At the party, Liz is getting hassled by one of the guys running the sound system, before Max tells him to leave her alone.

Alex asks Isabel whether she was merely telling him that the party existed or whether she wanted him to go with her.  Isabel suggests they go somewhere to talk.

Michael tells Maria that things are getting pretty intense and that he can't get involved.  He's alone and they should never have started anything.

Isabel tells Alex that most guys just want to maul her but she feels she can trust him, as can Max and Liz.  Alex gets annoyed, accusing Isabel of only being interested in what he told Valenti and not interested in him.  He walks off.

Valenti and Amy De Luca are having dinner.  Amy tells the sheriff that she and Maria aren't as close as they used to be, and mentions that Maria hasn't seen Alex in weeks and won't speak to her about it.  Valenti gets a phone call, telling him that there's a disturbance across town.

Liz and Max are outside the party and about to kiss when Kyle interrupts them.  Sirens wail and police car and fire engines pull up and Max and Liz go inside to look for Michael and Isabel.

Liz runs into Alex and tells him they have to leave, but a guy thrusts a bottle into their hands and Valenti arrests the pair.

Alex is in one cell with the punks from the party, with Liz alone in the adjacent one.  One of the punks assures Alex that their parents will be along shortly and just then the deputy comes to release everyone with the exception of Alex and Liz.  Valenti tells them that their parents have agreed that some time in jail will make the two of them remember where their priorities are, or even just one of them.

Outside the station, Max and Isabel watch the others who were arrested leave.  Isabel tells Max that they would have been better off telling Alex.

Liz tries to speak with Alex, who ignores her.  Then he asks her if she arranged for Isabel to seduce him into keeping quiet.  He says that he's going to tell Valenti everything - about switching Max's blood and discovering that Topolsky was FBI.  Liz tells him that he should know all the facts before he does something like that.

Liz explains that Isabel is scared of being different.  Max, Isabel and Michael are different from them and if the wrong people found out they would be in a lot of trouble.  She tells Alex that the three of them aren't from around here.  Alex asks where they are from and Liz points upwards.  "What, like, Wyoming?" asks Alex.  Liz points higher.  "Ok, fine, Canada," replies Alex.

Liz decides that there isn't any way of telling Alex other than the truth and explains that Max, Isabel and Michael think they were in the 1947 crash.  Alex doesn't believe her.

Valenti comes down to interrogate Alex and suggests they go into his office.  Alex refuses saying that they can do it where they are.  Valenti asks what Alex's involvement with Max, Isabel and Michael is and what happened with Topolsky.

Alex stands up to him and asks what could he possibly have to do with a teacher leaving and what does it have to do with Valenti.  He was at a party and wished that while he was there he had engaged in drinking or sex, but he didn't.  Valenti points out that everyone at the party was trespassing but Alex replies that this has nothing to do with the party.  He wants out and threatens to get a lawyer and sue for abusive treatment of a minor.

Outside the station, Liz tells Alex he was amazing.  He tells her that he doesn't believe in aliens, but he believes that Liz believes.

Later, Liz is sat out on the roof writing her journal.

The heat wave finally broke and I'm probably the only person in Roswell who didn't benefit from it.  But it's for the best.  Because if Max Evans and I had given in to temptation, if we had kissed each other even once, it would have taken us somewhere we both know we never should have gone.

Max calls up to her and asks if he can come up, quickly climbing the ladder.  He tells her that seeing Valenti take her away made him realise just how much he's screwed up her life.  Liz tells him that it's just the opposite.  Max replies that he has to go now or things will change.  Liz asks how.  "I'm gonna have to touch your hair... cos it's so soft, and I'd have to tell you that... no matter what we go through, it's all worthwhile for me because we're together."  "And then?" asks Liz.  "And then... I'd have to do this..." Max replies, kissing her.

CAST

Diane Farr, who appears for the first time as Maria's mother Amy, once worked as a counsellor in a maximum security prison.

Trevor Lissauer plays Miles Goodman on Sabrina, The Teenage Witch.

CONTINUITY

Valenti once arrested an 18-year-old Amy De Luca at a protest to stop the destruction of a 200-year-old piece of Native American architecture, which the Native Americans wanted torn down more than anybody.  Valenti says that he had to arrest someone and that he picked on her because she looked cute in her cowboy boots and little skirt.  Amy claims to be outraged and scarred for life, but she seems to take the news quite well.

NOTES

Isabel's powers are shown to include dream walking (which she does all the time in the novels) and changing the colour of Liz's nail polish.

Liz points upwards to explain that Max, Michael and Isabel are aliens in the same way that Max did in the Pilot.

Amy De Luca's novelty alien business was first seen in 285 South.

COMMENTS

Great.  The departure of Topolsky sees a shift from FBI agents ineptly trailing the kids around town, with a greater emphasis on the previously underused Alex and Isabel.

The events of Blood Brother have brought Alex more into the action, and it was surely only a matter of time before he found out the truth, although at this stage he doesn't seem to believe Liz.

Isabel is just great in this episode.  285 South showed a different side to her, and there's more of that here - chatting over polishing her nails with Liz (it's somehow appropriate that Liz, whose favourite flavour ice cream is vanilla would be using clear polish) and her relationship with Alex (and her unbuttoning of his shirt is fun to watch as well).  Her reaction when she realises that it's her in Alex's dream is just wonderful to watch.

Other good points - Max and Liz finally kiss, with a touch of Romeo and Juliet about the scene, and a good debut from Diane Farr as Amy De Luca.

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