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PLOT Michael breaks into the UFO Center and searches for James Atherton on Milton's PC. He prints out the results then notices Milton sleeping at a nearby desk. The printer beeps, waking Milton and Michael tries to escape, only to run into Deputy Blackwood. The next day, Max, Isabel, Liz, Maria and Kyle are in class listening to Mr. Somers talking about the role of the historian. Listening to Mr. Somers, I realised how strange it must be for Max, Isabel and Michael not to even know their own history, and how scary it would be if anyone discovered it before they did. Mr. Somers hands out a set of questions for the students to use to write up an oral report and pairs them off, including Liz with Isabel, Max with Kyle, Maria with Michael. Maria finds the questions "kinda personal" and objects to be paired with Michael, especially since he's not even in class. Mr. Somers tells her that in this case it'll be like true field week, tracking down her subject. Outside class, Maria continues to moan while Liz see Kyle with Max and asks if things could possibly get any worse. Kyle, who seems to be enjoying it, arranges to meet Max at the Crashdown where they can get to know each other a little. After he's gone, Liz explains that Kyle has been acting weird ever since they split up. Max assures it that it will be okay before the secretary tells him that he's got a phone call. In the classroom, Mr. Somers thanks Topolsky, who provided him with the questions and well as suggesting the way the students were paired up. At the police station, the deputy tells Max that the suspect entered the premises at his request, which Milton doesn't find possible. Max claims that he gave Michael his keys (which he then lost) and offers to work off any damages. After Max and Michael have left, the deputy hands Valenti copies of the two pages Michael printed off. Max, Isabel and Michael are sat outside school, discussing what's happened. Michael wants to borrow the keys to Max's jeep so he can drive to Marathon, Texas, where the geodesic dome is. Max tells him to wait, at which point Michael walks over. Max tells Isabel that he won't get far without a car. Maria collars Michael and tries to ask him the questions for their history assignment. He's not interested until he sees the keys to the Jetta in her hand and agrees to answer her questions in exchange for a lift. In the Crashdown, Isabel and Liz are sat at the counter. Liz is distracted by Kyle and Max, who are seated at a booth, and Isabel asks why she doesn't just take them some ketchup or something. Liz takes it over, and Kyle decides to skip to question 8 - "Have you ever been in love?" he asks Max in front of Liz. "No," comes the reply. Maria pulls up at a gas station, and tells Michael to stop making up his answers, which he denies. She says that if he wants to be like this then she'll make up the answers for him and asks him to help her unload a box. He refuses so she gets out of the car herself. While she's picking up the cash, Michael slides over to the driver's seat and starts the car. Realising what he's doing, Maria runs back and gets in as well. Michael tells her to get out but she tells him that wherever the car goes, she goes. "Fine," he tells her. Liz is back at the counter when her cell phone rings. It's Maria. Liz realises that she's with Michael, who twigs what Maria's upto when she announces that they're going south on 285. Seeing the phone, he throws it out of the window. Isabel asks Liz what's wrong, so she tells her that Maria and Michael are in a car. Isabel walks over to Max and tells him they have to go. Outside the Crashdown, she's explaining what's happened when Liz wants to know what's going on. He tells her she can't come with them but relents when Kyle asks if there's "trouble in paradise." In the car parked next to Max's jeep, an agent calls Topolsky and tells her that Max, Isabel and Liz have left in a hurry. She tells him to find out when they're going and types "Special Investigation Unit, Code Name: West Roswell High... Tension in the Ranks. Waiting for them to slip up. Will happen soon" into her laptop. In the jeep, Liz calls her mom and tells her that she's studying at Maria's. Isabel finds it amusing that she's lying. "Yeah, well, at least she knows what species I am," Liz tells her. In the Jetta, Michael and Maria are still arguing. Maria can't believe that Michael intends to drive all the way to Texas and tells him not to drive so fast. The police car behind them turns on its sirens and Maria tells him he's got 20 seconds to convince her not to say anything. Michael tells her that this is the first lead they've ever had. When the cop asks why he was speeding, Maria claims she's got a weak bladder condition, and he lets them off with a ticket. "You owe me big," Maria tells Michael. At home, Kyle calls round the Evanses, the Parkers and the DeLucas to no avail. His dad asks what's up and Kyle tells him that Max, Isabel and Liz took off from the Crashdown and have lied to their parents. Sheriff Valenti makes up an excuse that he's left something at the office and tells Kyle to stay out of it. Outside a store, Liz hands Isabel a drink, which Isabel knocks out of her hand. Liz explains that she was just trying to be nice and Isabel uses her powers to clean up her own outfit. Liz says that it's no surprise that Isabel always looks so perfect, adding that she's the "Elle McPherson of the sophomore class." "Well, I guess that answers question number 12: 'Who do you envy?'" Isabel replies. Liz asks who Isabel envies - "no one," she replies. Liz tells her that she's not trying to take Max away from her, which Isabel says she understands. Liz then asks if they found something in Marathon would Isabel take Max away from her? Isabel uses her powers to clean up Liz's sweater. Max emerges from the store as a guy waiting to use the phone is arguing with the one making a call. Max recognises the one using the phone as the guy parked next to him at the Crashdown and as he hurries over to the jeep he uses his powers to let down the tyres on his car. Maria's car is spluttering and Michael is forced to pull over. She tells him to use his "secret powers", but he tells her that he's not very good at using them. He gets out, struggles to open the hood and tries to use his powers to fix it, which only results in blowing the engine. Michael declares that he's going to take the back seat, at which Maria points out that he's kidnapped her, blown up her car and now expects her to spend the night in the car with him. Michael replies that it's not exactly his fantasy evening either, but after setting off an inflatable alien in one of the boxes Maria was delivering, he spots a motel and announces he's off to get some sleep. In the jeep, Liz suggests that they call their parents since it's getting late. Isabel agrees with her but Max tells her that no one can know about this. Liz says she's worried about Maria, Isabel is worried about Michael but Max thinks they're too close to finding something to risk it. Liz's phone rings. It's Kyle, who offers to drop her books off at Maria's. Liz says that she'll see him at school tomorrow instead. After she's ending the call, Kyle turns onto 285, heading south. Valenti is on the radio asking the highway patrol about the jeep. There's nothing on the computer about that, but there is a citation for a Michael Guerin, driving a car registered to an Amy DeLuca. Valenti asks where they were headed, tracing the route directly to Marathon. Michael and Maria enter the motel room. Maria says that she's cold, hungry, in a motel with a guy she barely knows and just wants to go home. Michael offers to get something from the vending machines outside, telling her to lock the door. A traffic report announces that a truck has jack-knifed on the highway. A dismayed Isabel thinks that Michael and Maria will have already made it through. Max tells her they'll just have to get some rest and continue when the road's open again. Isabel is alarmed at the prospect of spending the night in the jeep with Max and Liz. In the motel room, Maria discovers that Michael gets hungry just like humans and asks what other urges he gets. He walks up to her and then tells her "not if you're the last woman on Earth." "Ditto," Maria replies and then presses on with the assignment. Michael disproves her scepticism about James Joyce's Ulysses being his favourite book and then she asks him a personal question, since she didn't turn him into the cop. Michael tells her that it's important for him to find out where he's from because there has to be something better out there for him than Roswell, New Mexico. Maria tells a story she used to make up as a kid that ends with her thinking that there had to be somewhere better out there for her than Roswell, New Mexico. She says that she's tired and Michael admits that it has been a long day. Indicating the bed, he adds that he doesn't suppose they can share. "Not if you were the last alien on Earth," Maria replies. Liz and Max are alone in the jeep. Liz tries to apologise for Kyle and for her "stupid, boring life" getting them into trouble. Max assures her that nothing about her is stupid and that it feels as if his life didn't start until he told her the truth. Liz asks him whether agreeing not to feel a certain way about each other is still a good idea. Max reaches towards her face but then uses his power to fix a tear in the roof, telling Liz he just wanted to keep her warm. Isabel returns with an update on the road block before spotting Maria's car pulled over by the motel. The three of them are stood outside Maria and Michael's motel room. Liz says they'll knock, but Isabel uses her powers to pull the chain back. The door opening wakes Maria, who has been sleeping on the bed, and she falls onto Michael, who has been sleeping on the floor. Liz says that they thought Maria might be in trouble and when Michael makes it look like something was going on between them, she starts hitting him. Michael tells Max that he couldn't just hang around waiting for him and Isabel any longer. They might like it in Roswell but one day someone will find out about them. Kyle walks in and wants to know wants Michael to finish what he was saying. Michael tells him to get out and then throws him across the room. Kyle wants to know what's going on and tells Liz he wants her to come back with him. Liz tells Kyle that he doesn't belong there and that she's not his girlfriend any longer. After Kyle leaves, Max tells Liz and Maria that he'll take them home, but Liz tells him that if they don't know everything that's going on how can them protect themselves? Max tells them about breaking into Valenti's office and the vision Michael got from the key. Max drives the group to the geodesic dome. Michael tries to unlock the door with the key, but it doesn't work so Max uses his powers instead. Max suggests that it might open something inside the dome, which it looks like no one has been inside for ages. Isabel suggests Michael tries holding the key again, but he doesn't see anything. However, after Maria suggests he tries again, he has a vision of another room. Pulling the stones set in a wall, Michael finds a hidden lock, which the key fits. A door in the floor opens. The group explore the hidden room but then hear footsteps coming from above them. It is Valenti, but then he is hit from behind by an assailant, which is revealed to be Topolsky. To Be Continued... CONTINUITY Liz's favourite ice cream is vanilla. She appears to envy Isabel, who doesn't envy any one. Max doesn't watch a lot of TV. The best thing that's ever happened to him was "getting adopted, I guess." Michael claims that his favourite TV programme is THE VIEW, but then says later that it's WIN BEN STEIN'S MONEY. His favourite ice cream is pistachio and he is able to quote from page 655 of James Joyce's Ulysses. He also admits that he's not that good at using his powers. Kyle's favourite TV programme is AMERICA'S MOST WANTED, which he watches with his dad. The best thing that's happened to him was winning the statewide junior rifle competition. Maria's mom, Amy DeLuca, makes inflatable green aliens. The aliens' powers are shown to include letting down car tyres, clearing liquid from sweaters, fixing a tear in the jeep's roof, unlocking doors (Max's use of this is similar to Silver in the ATV series SAPPHIRE & STEEL) and accidentally blowing up a car engine. NOTES Apart from the various TV programmes mentioned in response to the questionnaire, Maria mentions BEWITCHED and I DREAM OF JEANNIE ("wiggle your nose, blink your eyes, do the Samantha-Jeannie-alien thing"). She thinks the motel room looks "like the porno version of ALADDIN" (how does she know?) How does Kyle know where Max, Isabel and Liz are going? COMMENTS Excellent. Max again seems to defer to Liz, but the pair also have some excellent moments in the episode - the scene where he avoids her question and fixes the tear in the jeep's roof and the look they share when Isabel realises that they might have to sleep in the jeep. And it's just so Liz that her favourite flavour of ice cream is vanilla. A different side of Isabel is shown when she knocks the drink out of Liz's hand and Liz asks whether Isabel would take Max anyway from her. She doesn't reply, but she does get the stains out of Liz's sweater, something which seems highly unlikely after Liz's "at least [my mom] knows what species I am" line earlier. MISSING showed that Michael trusts Liz and now it appears that Isabel does as well. Michael's "abduction" of Maria again shows his obsession with finding out more about the aliens' past, his feeling on his life in Roswell compared with Max and Isabel's and his lack of control over his powers. But we also learn new things - his reaction to her not giving him up to the traffic cop, telling her to lock the motel room door behind him, his quote from Ulysses (including the page number) and trying to get a vision from the key when she suggests he gives it another go. Maria has moved from finding Michael creepy to find that they've got something in common, as shown by his "subsitute a spaceship for a limo" line. Not only does she not tell the patrolman that he's kidnapped her but she also has faith in him and tells him to try the key again. Her falling off the bed is a little obvious but Michael and Liz's reactions and Isabel's "honey" line make up for this, and her use of his own words against him when he indicates that they share the bed is great. I still can't see what Liz ever saw in Kyle, whose delight at winding up Max is obvious. Even he seems to have realised at last that Liz hasn't stumbled into something that she needs him to rescue her from. Topolsky seems still seems a bit unconvincing. None of the kids have questioned what she's doing, and doesn't anyone see her with Mr. Somers? Her agents are also pretty bumbling, although her braining of Valenti at the climax of the episode does set things up for part two of the story. That aside, however, there is virtually nothing negative to say about 285 South. BACK TO THE TOP |
285
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