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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 "undignified" job as waitressing, 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 TO THE TOP |
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