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PLOT

Night. Liz is walking home.

It's funny how the world changes sometimes, how the streets you walked your entire life seem darker, colder. How the silence isn't so quiet anymore. How eyes you've barely even noticed now look at nothing but you. How the walk home every night is no longer routine, but a victory. And then you begin to wonder... maybe it's not the world that's changed. Maybe it's just you.

Liz gets home and discovers that journal is missing.

And then, suddenly... you being to wonder all over again.

Liz shows up at Maria's house and tells her that the journal in which she's written everything is missing.

Michael wakes up suddenly and after using his power to sharpen a pencil draws something before showing up outside Max's bedroom. He tells Max that he dreamt it and that he's seen it more clearly than ever. Max asks what's he's walking about. Michael shows him the picture, which is little more than an arc and tells him that he's talking about the vision he saw when he touched the key he found in Valenti's office. "You saw a semi-circle?" Max asks him. Michael says no, but Max asks what the drawing is. Michael doesn't know, but he didn't even remember it until just now and that he had to tell somebody. Max tells him that he appreciates being the one Michael had to chose to wake up at 3am, but can't they talk it about it in the morning?

The next morning at school, Liz and Maria are talking. Maria tells Liz that they need to reconstruct the crime, looking at motive and opportunity. Liz tells her that there was nothing unusual. She was studying with Alex, which Maria points out provides an opportunity. Liz asks why she's reconstructing a crime when the diary has merely been misplaced, not stolen.

Maria points out that Alex has been feeling ignored, curious and asking questions that they don't answer and that her journal provides the perfect place to find those answers. She asks Liz if Alex was alone in her room, and Liz admits that he was.

Alex walks up to the pair and asks what they were talking about. Both Liz and Maria tell him it was nothing important. Alex reminds Liz about an oral report they've got together before heading off for his gym class. After he's gone, Liz asks how she's going to tell Max. "My advice," Maria tells her, "over drinks."

Max uses his power to get some food out of a vending machine, then notices Liz standing beside him. She tells him she has something to ask him. Max doubts whether he's got any secrets left. Liz starts telling him that something has happened before she's interrupted by the arrival of Michael. After she's gone, Max tells Michael that he said he'd be nicer to Liz. Michael replies that Max said he'd stay away from her, so they're even.

Liz is sitting alone in a darkened classroom when Topolsky enters. She tells Liz that she wouldn't be much of a guidance consellor if she didn't ask her what she's doing in a dark classroom. Liz replies that everything's great. Topolsky tells her that maybe she's not the first person she'd turn to, but she's her friend as well as a guidance counsellor.

Maria walks up to Alex, who asks her where Liz is. Maria tells her that she's dealing with some stuff, but it's nothing to do with Kyle attempting to get her back. Alex asks if it's one of those things that they can't talk with him, and admits that the way the pair of them clam up when he's around is a little annoying. Maria tells him that Liz's diary is missing and Alex jumps to the conclusion that she suspects he could have stolen it.

He walks off and slams his locker, only for Topolsky to point out that it's school property. But she's more concerned about him and asks if she can talk with him in her office.

Once there, Alex tells her that people change, you accept it and move on. She asks if it's him who's changed, but it isn't. She asks if it's his girlfriend, but he tells her that he hasn't got one. She replies that teenage girls can never spot the good ones - just look at Liz and Kyle. He tells her that Liz's diary is missing and that Inspector De Luca has him down as a suspect.

Topolsky offers to straighten things out for him, but he passes. After he's gone, she calls someone, who responds as "control." She replies "7-3-2-9-0" and requests some back-up.

Michael shows up to art class for the first time in a week and a half and says that he wants to draw, setting up an easel at the back of the class.

Kyle walks up to Liz and asks about Liz and Max. She tells him they're just friends, which he notes is a popular position these days. She tells him that it's not easy for her either but he doesn't take it well and walks off angrily.

At the UFO Center, Max is putting some books on the shelf. Milton hands him a book called Among Us, which he thinks might be of interest to a believer like Max. While he's talking, Max notices Liz standing behind Milton. She wants to talk to him, and the pair go into another room.

Liz tells him that she's been keeping a journal where she's been recording everything important, which includes quite a few things about Max. She then tells him that it's kind of missing, well, temporarily misplaced. She tells him that she's going to find it and asks him not to tell anyone.

Liz frantically searches her house for her journal. Her mom tells her that Alex called but that she's sure Liz wouldn't be in a hurry to speak with him. Liz asks how she knows this, since she's never told her anything about her and Alex, she's only ever written it down. She tells her mom that she's just edgy and once Mrs. Parker has left she resumes her search.

At the Crashdown, Michael is drawing the image again, much to Isabel's frustration. She tells Max to tell him to stop it but he's too busy reading the book Milton gave him. When she finally gets through to him, he tells Michael that it's getting pretty good. Isabel thinks it's getting careless and that they can't keep pretending what they do isn't noticed, because it is. Just then Kyle and a group of friends enter the cafe. Kyle walks over to Max and tells him that he's onto him.

Max turns up at Liz's house, convinced that Kyle has stolen the journal. Liz tells him that he just meant Max had something to do with Kyle and Liz breaking up. Anyway, the journal has only been missing for one day and Kyle hasn't been in her house for over a week.

Liz's mom returns home and Liz bundles Max into her room so she won't see him. He picks up a CD and has a flashback of Kyle in her room, telling Liz that when things get intense, the aliens can see things.

An enthusiastic Michael continues to work on his drawing of the dome.

Kyle is playing basketball when Liz shows up by the court. She tells him that she got the CD and he tells her that her dad let him in. Liz continues, telling Kyle that when people break up, they might go looking for reasons why and that when he was in her room he had a chance to discover what those secrets are. Kyle asks if Liz's secrets are tied up with Max and what happened at the Crashdown. Liz tells him that what he has she needs back. "We all want something back, Liz," Kyle tells her. "It's too bad life isn't always fair."

Isabel and Max are looking at Michael's drawing which is on display. They tell Michael that it could be dangerous, but Michael tells them that it can't be dangerous since no one knows what it means, including himself. Max tells him that they shouldn't be taking chances like this and when Michael points out that he did, says that he saved someone's life rather than dabbling in the arts.

Topolsky meets with a pair of agents and tells them that Liz's diary provides one of the most compelling leads she's encountered since she joined the unit. She tells them that she has an idea where to start their search since Liz has been having a problem with her boyfriend.

Liz and Max break into Sheriff Valenti's house. Max tells Liz they'll just grab the journal, get out and save his life in the process. They head for Kyle's room and start searching. Max finds a picture of Kyle and Liz hidden under the bed before they see a shadow pass by the door. Max tells Liz to wait and goes to check it out, only to see Kyle's car pulling up outside the house. The pair leave out the back.

In art class, Michael is drawing the same picture again. The art teacher suggests he draw something else, adding that he can't go through all semester only drawing a geodesic dome. Michael has no idea what he's talking about, so the art teacher tells him that it's a type of architecturally postmodern house.

Max, Isabel and Michael are sitting outside when Max admits that Michael's painting isn't their biggest problem. Isabel asks if this implies there's another problem that she's unaware of and Max tells them about Liz keeping a journal. However that they can't blame her for losing it and that it'll turn up - he's handling it.

Liz is cleaning up in a deserted Crashdown when Michael shows up. He tells her that Max told her what happened and that it wasn't smart to write everything down. Liz says that she knows that now and Michael tells her that he knew it a week ago, when he was sat at the first booth in the cafe.

Flashback to a week ago. Liz is sitting at the counter writing and Michael asks if it's homework. "Uh, yeah... a little bit," she replies. From the booth, Michael attempts to read just what Liz is writing.

"But it wasn't homework, was it?" he notes. "You could have put us in an awful spot, Liz. Roswell's not exactly the town you want to be unique in, if you know what I mean. You have to know who your friends are.

"I had to know the risk... so I had to know what your journal said."

"You took it," Liz says. Michael replies that he never meant for things to get out of control, adding that it's nice to know they have at least one friend in town before handing the journal back to Liz.

Liz asks if Max knows that he took it and Michael tells her he doesn't, and it would be really great if she didn't tell him. Liz asks why he didn't just destroy it because anyone finding it would know all about it. Michael replies that they'd know all about her, and thanks her for giving him one more reason to envy Max.

Liz goes to the UFO Center to find Max and tells him that she left her journal at the Crashdown and that a good friend returned it. She feels that she owes him and explanation as to why she wrote everything. She felt that she had to put it into words so that if years from now anyone ever touches her the way that Max did, she'll know what it's supposed to feel like.

Max asks if he can read what she's written, but Liz doesn't think that's a good idea, agreeing with Max's comment that then he'll realise how she really sees him.

The three aliens are sitting outside, with Max still reading the UFO book and Michael still thinking about the dome. Max tells him to be patient and Isabel picks up on his good mood. Max reports that a good friend returned it to Liz, which brings a slight smile to Michael's lips.

He and Max get up to get some stuff, leaving Isabel to flick through Max's book. "Boring," she declares, before dropping it. It opens on the last page, where there's a picture of the author in front of his house, a geodesic dome. She calls Max and Michael back.

Night. Liz is walking home.

October 28th. I've missed a few days. But in my absence I've been thinking about some things, about life before Max Evans saved me, of how I used to pray for something to happen, something to just break the routine, you know, of school and work... something that would make a small town feel bigger, that would make a small town girl feel bigger, too. And ever since I got my wish and Max Evans patched a bullet hole two inches below my ribs, I realised one thing... that the bigger your world gets, the bigger your problems get, too.

Liz hides her journal behind a loose brick in the wall.

CAST

Robert Clendenin has a recurring role as Godfrey on the WB's POPULAR.

CONTINUITY

Amongst the aliens' powers are sharpening pencils, visions (previously seen in THE MORNING AFTER) and speed reading.

NOTES

According to Milton: "Szcerbiak's theory that the military cover-up of the 1947 landing was financed by an international consortium lacks credible evidence to support it. Still it debunks several fallacies that have long troubled me."

Walton's book is "garbage". Atherton's Among Us is "a bit on the alternative side. Atherton had an underground following... never truly embraced by the mainstream, such that it is." Isabel thinks it's "boring."

A season pass to the UFO Center costs $19 and includes the guided tour and a boxed lunch.

COMMENTS

Liz's voiceovers of her journal entries which tie the episodes together take on a greater meaning, with the disappearance of the journal. Fortunately, the series rises above the familiar concept of the disappearance of a diary containing someone's secrets to produce another enjoyable episode which told us more about the characters as well as setting things up for the future.

For once, Liz isn't in control, despite her attempts to convince Max that she's got the situation in hand. After her frantic searches for the journal have yielded nothing, she begins to suspect that it's been stolen, with Kyle and even her mother cropping up on her list of possibilities.

Max hasn't really been in control since he saved Liz, although Isabel and Michael still seem to look up to him for leadership. Yet he's still prepared to accept Liz when she tells him that she's got things under control. The scene when she bundles him into her room also highlights his obvious unease at being there.

Liz's suspicions about Alex and Kyle seem to be storing things up for future episodes, with Kyle even more suspicious of Liz and Max than ever. Alex, feeling shut out by Liz and Maria - and being suspected of taking the diary is unlikely to improve things in the short term - innocently tells Topolsky about the missing diary, and we discover that she's clearly not the guidance counsellor that she claims she is.

Although as noted in MONSTERS, no one seems suspicious of her - she was originally a substitute teacher, and unless she's as interested in all the students as she is about the series' main characters, surely one of them would pick up on this? Kyle finding his house unlocked and the shadowy figure who sees Max and Liz in the Valentis' house are another couple of points that may well be picked up on in the future.

But it's Michael who is the episode's real star, highlighting his obsession with his vision (and the great scene when the art teacher tells him to draw something else and he draws the statue as a stick person) and how much he envies Max. Before all this started, Max had a nice home, parents and a sister, while Michael lived with Hank in a trailer park. Now he's got something else to envy him for.

In THE MORNING AFTER, Maria told Liz that Michael creeps her out, and you can see that in the scene where he finds her alone at the Crashdown. Liz definitely isn't in control here, and Michael strings her along until he tells her that he was the one who took her diary, but she still tells Max that it was a "good friend" who returned it. BACK TO THE TOP

GUEST STARRING
JULIE BENZ
Kathleen Topolsky

JO ANDERSON
Nancy Parker

ROBERT CLENDENIN
Mr. Cowan

and STEVE HYTNER
Milton Ross


CO-STARRING
ROBERT HEARY
Moss

RICHARD ANTHONY CRENNA
Baxter


US/UK TRANSMISSION DETAILS
The WB: 3 November 1999
Sky One: 10 February 2000
BBC2: 5 October 2000


EPISODE RATING: 8/10


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