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Tess, Lies and Videotapes - (Opening Scene)
Valenti walks into the Crashdown to fill up this thermo. Liz, Max, Isabel and Michael are already there. In the process, he spooks them with his presence despite his attempt to be friendly. When he finally leaves, Michael freaks out, stressed perhaps by all the recent events, especially after they realize that Valenti has their orb, they are not sure of what to do. At this point, Max reminds Michael the whole incident with them losing the orb was Michael’s fault for taking it out to try and meet up with Toposky to begin with. Just as they are about to get into it another heated discussion, Tess pops into the Crashdown and right at the counter where they were hanging out. She asks them what they were talking about, but they all made up an innocent excuse to brush her off. Isabel asks Tess to join them which she promptly did. Seated next to Isabel, Max looks at Tess and suddenly, his mind flashes with images of Tess in that same desert where he had been earlier when they were trying to save Michael. When the flashes are over, he snaps out of it and realizes that he had been staring at Tess. Trying to get her out of his mind, Max follows Liz to the back and kisses her, but as they kiss, images of him kissing Tess keep coming up. After Liz leaves him to go back to work, he is left in the back room. As he walks over to the windowed door, he sees Tess and sees that she is smiling at him in a knowing manner.
(Theme Song Begins)
The next day in school, Isabel and Tess are walking to Isabel’s locker. Alex walks by down the hall and visibly perks up when he sees Isabel, cheerily greeting her. After he has gone, Tess teases her about Alex, asking Isabel if she is interested in Alex just as a friend or something more. Isabel tells her she doesn’t know. Isabel then turns the question to Tess who playfully say that she would be interested in a guy like Max, too bad he’s already taken. Isabel tells Tess that Max is “so taken” – and how all he talks about is how he and Liz are soul mates. To which Tess muses to herself that she’s not so sure.
During later that day, Max is in bio lab with Liz. When he makes eye contact with Tess he accidentally increases the flame of the Bunsen burner before him such that it piques the attention of the entire class. The bio teacher, unamused at this distraction, orders Max to be Tess’ lab partner for the day to help her catch up. As Max walks to the front of the room, everything happens in slow motion until he reaches the front of the room where he grabs her and pulls her onto the lab table before kissing her passionately. As Tess murmurs that Max is “on fire” repeatedly – he suddenly snaps back into reality and she’s telling him that he IS on fire, his sleeves having caught the flame of the Bunsen burner. Liz observes this fiasco from the back, her eyes darkened with concern, but still trusting.
Later, in the girl’s bathroom, Maria is indignant over Max catching on fire b/c she suspects it has something to do with the influence of the new girl, Tess. Liz confidently brushes it all off, saying that she completely trusts Max.
Meanwhile, Max is pouring out his confusion to a disinterested Michael who listens as Max explains how he have been daydreaming about Tess lately, daydreams that he can’t seem to control, which makes Tess suspicious. Michael thinks that Max is not focusing on the big picture, which is to try and get the orb back, but Max insists that he thinks something is amiss about Tess.
After school that day, at the Valenti’s, Kyle is watching a basketball game on TV when Valenti gets a call. When he gets off the phone, he immediately changes the TV channel, annoying Kyle who stalks off. The news he’s watching has to do with the psychiatric hospital where Toposky was supposedly being treated at. There has been a fire and six patients have died. Immediately, Valenti called the doctor who had appeared last time, claiming to look for her. When he reaches the doctor, the doctor claimed no recognition of Valenti and furthermore, have never been to the town of Roswell, New Mexico before. However, he did say that Toposky was one of the fatal injuries in the fire. Valenti hangs up shocked. He immediately heads to the UFO museum where Max is hanging up a sign that reads, “Trust No One” (ironic, no?). There, despite knowing that Max doesn’t trust him, Valenti reveals everything, the fact that Toposky had died in that fire in the news, the fact that she told him there was a secret FBI unit with an alien hunter named Pierce, the fact that they are all on some list which means they should stick together. Max still tries to play dumb but he is concerned about this latest development. As he tries to gain Max’s trust, he points out that they need to band together b/c they don’t know who’s watching them and when. – Just then, at Michael’s house, he is seen through the screen of a video camera that appears to be on top of his refrigerator as he approaches to get milk and to go back to the couch. It appears in fact, that someone has already planted a bug in his apartment and are in fact watching them.
The next day in school, Michael sneaks into the Administrator’s office where the student files are. There, he looks up Tess’ files, only to be interrupted by Maria who had followed him in. She asks him why he isn’t including the team on this investigative effort, but he claims he’s just doing Max a favor by checking out this girl. Glancing in her files, he locates her address. All the while Maria lectures him on developing trusts in a relationship, he puts the files back in and leaves.
After school, in the rain, Michael treks over to Tess’ house. There he rings the bell. When he doesn’t hear anyone, he looks through the window and sees that the house is empty. Shocked, he is about to leave, except a military vehicle has pulled up and a couple of suits, along with a soldier with an M16 approaching the house. Alarmed, he stands until they leave before dashing off to find Max and the gang.
Meanwhile at the Crashdown, Max and Liz are at a booth as Liz playfully but, half seriously try to feel out Max’s feelings for Tess by joking about how she no longer have a lab partner if Tess gets Max for the remainder of the year. Max snaps at her to stop bringing up Tess, suprising Liz with is unusual outburst. Suddenly, Michael arrives and pulls Max to the counter where Isabel is. There he tells them everything he saw, concluding that Tess indeed, is up to no good. At this point, Max brings up his encounter with Valenti, suggesting they may be in danger if what Toposky said were true. Michael is furious that Max is getting so chummy with Valenti and now his new girlfriend Tess. Just then, Liz walks by and heard that comment. Her expression closed and she rushes past the counter, not meeting Max’s eyes to go to the back. Max defends his position for talking with Valenti b/c he didn’t tell anything to Valenti anyway. Now Michael is not even sure which crisis is more important to worry about. Isabel remains defensive of her new friend, but when push comes to shove, and Max and Michael are resolutely distrustful of her origins and motives, Isabel agrees to find out more. Just then Valenti walks into the Crashdown. Talking the orb out of his pocket, he reluctantly put it on the counter. Max reaches out and takes possession of it. As he does, Valenti tells them quietly that sometimes, to gain another’s trust you need to prove you are trustworthy. He leaves parting with a comment to Max, “whenever you’re ready”. The table isn’t sure what to make of it.
The next day, Isabel goes to Tess’ house, it looks like people are moving furniture into the house. Tess greats Isabel enthusiastically and explains that the movers finally got here, so she and her dad won’t have to stay at a hotel anymore. Just then, we meet Tess’ father, a stern, balding, not very nice guy who greets Isabel. Taking the opportunity, Isabel asks Tess’ father what he does for a living. He tells her he is a consultant for the military. Michael’s account completely explained, Isabel seemed to be satisfied. When Tess’ father and Tess carried on with the move, Isabel tried to help by carrying a box of photos. Before she got very far however, Tess told Isabel in a sharp tone of voice to don’t touch the box. Taken back, Isabel quickly drops it. Seeing that her tone has alarmed Isabel, Tess smiled and said she didn’t want her guests doing heavy lifting. She then offered to go to the kitchen and get Isabel a drink. There, we see Tess’ father waiting, asking in an annoyed tone of voice what Isabel was doing there, to which Tess replied, she’s my friend, that’s why she’s there.
That night, Liz is closing down the diner when Max comes in. It has begun to rain again and he is wet. She lets him in, quiet, and uncertain. Max explains to Liz that she is the only one who means anything to him, that in his heart she is the only person there. After touching her with his poetic declarations, he kisses her gently but when they hug, Liz remains uncertain.
Having straigtened things out with Liz, Max proceeds to walk back home, but on his way, Tess leaps out of a car that is obviously damaged. She claims to be stuck in a jam and asks Max for help, but Max, in a half-desperate, half-agonized manner, accused her of setting this entire thing up. As he slowly approaches her, he tells her that he’s with Liz but even as he tells her how he’s already with Liz and even as she affirms what he’s saying, he draws closer until almost unwillingly, they kissed. Across the street, Liz sees everything from behind the door of the Crashdown, her expression, shattered.
Running over to Michael’s house after that incident, Max confesses everything to Michael. Michael is extremely angry that no only has Max lost his focus, but now, he has cheated on Liz. He bitterly tells Max that he can’t believe he once considered Max to be solid as a rock, someone he trusts more than he trusts himself. But now, it’s like Max is a completely different person. A scuffle ensues and in the midst of their fight, they knock against the fridge and Max sees the camera. They pick it up with horror.
At the Crashdown, the trio (Max, Michael and Isabel) are looking at it to see what it is. Michael thinks it’s Valenti, but Max tells him that it’s too expensive. Michael then concludes that it’s Tess and her military father. Isabel rushes to Tess’ defense, telling them that her story checked out. However, when pressed for anything odd that stood out, she reluctantly recounted the story of the photo incident. Immediately, Michael is distrustful – with Max not far behind. At that moment, Liz enters to go to work. When she sees Max, her face shuts off all emotions and she brushes past his table. Seeing her apparent lack of greeting, Max is immediately concerned and followed her to the back. When Isabel asked Michael what’s up with those two, Michael tells her that Max has more problem than Valenti and the FBI put together. In the back, Max and Liz have an argument – with more or less Liz doing all the accusing and Max claiming he’s completely innocent. However, when he confessed to having visions while he was kissing Tess, Liz is completely hurt and she runs up to her room. There, she cries her heart out in the balcony until Maria comes and Liz tells Maria what happened. Maria is completely mad at Max, but tells Liz she will be on Liz’s side no matter what. Liz confesses what while what her eyes tell her is that Max is cheating on here, what her heart tells her is just the opposite, and Maria notes that Liz have always followed her heart. The two hug while Liz tries to sort out what is going on, determine to get to the root of the matter.
Downstairs, Michael is cooking up burgers while Alex is finishing up with repairing the little camera device. They plan to plant it in Tess’ house to find out what she and her dad are really up to. Maria interrupts them to ask them how they plan to accomplish this (after she berated Michael for deviating from the couple-sharing rule she had established earlier). When they couldn’t come up with a good idea, they asked her if she had any – we then see Liz ringing on Tess’ doorbell. She enters the house on the pretense of talking things out with Tess about Max. When Tess go to make the tea, she sets the camera beneath a statue in their house. And then seeing the box Isabel referred to, she opens it and sees all pictures of Max, taken while he is unaware. Behind her, the crew, who are watching from their hideout, sees Tess’ father approaching from behind. But Liz can’t. So when he says hi, she is startled out of her wits (she had just finished putting the lid back on the box) and swings to hit the statue out of the stand and it smashes onto the floor. The camera crackles and the crew doesn’t see anymore. Terrified, they plan on a rescue mission. Meanwhile, Liz is dealing with Tess’ father who acts as if nothing is amiss and even invites Liz to stay for dinner. She agrees, but first asks to make a phone call to her mom. However, instead of calling her mom, she calls Max who picked up. Speaking in coded terms, she conveyed the idea that she was in danger and Max tells her he’ll be right over before rushing off.
By now, four of the gang (Alex, Isabel, Michael and Maria) are gathered outside the window of Tess’ house while they see Liz eating inside. She is being interrogated in a friendly manner by Tess’ father. When he sees Liz repeatedly looking at the spilled mess caused by the broken statue, he moves to clean it up. Afraid that he may discover the camera, Liz tried to offer and clean up but he snaps at her to leave the job to him, taking her back by his sharp temper. Just then the door rings and it’s Max, who’s there on pretense to see Tess. He manages to get out with Liz in the end but when they leave, Tess and her father smiled at each other.
As the gang gathers outside the street, Liz tells them about the photo and they all went back to the hideout. Unknowingly, Valenti had been taking pictures of them all along.
Back at the hideout, they are all watching listlessly at the camera which Liz had managed to hide in a bowl of marbles when Tess’ dad answered the door for Max that night. We see Tess moving around in the background arranging flowers. Nothing interesting. Max is telling Liz he is thankful for her believing in him enough to put herself in danger like that. Still angry, Liz tells him she went on a lot of faith but that no matter what, he did kiss Tess and she’s not sure there’s anything that can explain that away. He looks saddened by this turn in their relationship. Suddenly, the camera reveals something of interest to them all. Tess takes the trash can where her dad had swept up the broken statue and pours it onto the piano top. With a swirl of her hand, she reconstructs the statue. The entire gang is shocked at this turn of events…could there be another alien in their midst?
*the end *
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