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10/20 - Monsters - (Opening Scene)
Maria is driving down the highway, singing aloud to the radio. She drives by Max and Isabel's jeep and sees Isabel on the side of the road. It appears as if Isabel's jeep had broken down and is in the process of being towed. Maria looks a bit nervous at seeing Isabel but she offers Isabel a ride home anyway. Isabel looks annoyed and mildly irritated with everything. In Maria's car, Isabel complains about the lack of air conditioning. Placing her hand on the air conditioning vent, she somehow makes the air conditioning works. This freaks Maria out who insists that Isabel stop what she's doing. Isabel stops, but she thinks Maria is over reacting. Isabel then looks over at the sound system and comments that Maria's old car has really bad sound quality. She moves to change that too. This also freaks Maria out who almost swerves off the side of the road as she cries out for Isabel to stop using her extraterrestrial powers in her car. Isabel then looks over at Maria's car keys, pointedly looking at the alien car key accessory item. Maria notices and embarrassingly confesses that her mom makes these things. Isabel says that her mother does stupid things too. There is a small pause and Maria ventures to ask Isabel if her mom "knows". Isabel replies, "What? That she does stupid things?". Maria says, no, that they know she and Max are aliens. Isabel got annoyed and asks if Maria meant that she and Max are hideous aliens who sneak into people's bedrooms at night conducting tortuous experiments on them. This really freaks Maria out and this time, she lost control of the car and ends up bumping into Sheriff's Valenti's vehicle. The two looks understandably dismayed at this sudden and unfortuitous turn of events.
(Theme Song Begins)
The guidance counsellor is at the front of the class, playing a slide that shows the stars as she begins a long speech about the future of the students in the room and how she's going to help them determine what they will chose to do for the rest of their lives. Max sneaks a look over at Liz in between, a look that was noticed by Kyle who looks displeased but does nothing. Isabel and Maria are listening as Maria muses about the futility of this session since most of the students in the class will end up assuming terrible jobs in the town's cheese factory anyway. Liz says nothing. The guidance counsellor sums up her little speech with the news that all of the students will be required to meet with her for interview assessments. Maria and Liz then leaves class and Maria is telling Liz how much Isabel is freaking her out. Liz is just concerned with the fact that Valenti wasn't suspicious. But Maria is focused on her fear of Isabel. Liz promises Maria she will talk to Max to get him to talk with Isabel but Maria walks away, unconvinced.
Over the next couple of scenes, we see a whole parade of students being interviewed each offering various answers to what their hopes and dreams will be, and what they think they can realistically expect to accomplish in ten years. Some want to be rock stars, Liz wants to be a molecular biologists. The counsellor notes that Liz is a very organized individual who always have a plan, to which Liz replies, why wouldn't that be the case since it's good to be prepared. This gives us some insight into her character. When asked what she think she'll be realistically in ten years, she says the same exact thing, as opposed to other students who were interviewed, who chose very low-standard jobs for what they think they can realistically achieve. Maria asks a slew of questions that are along the lines of "why bother", "this is so lame", Kyle believes himself to be a star football player in the NFL and Isabel believes she will be a "supermodel". Alex responds to every question with another question. One of the questions the guidance counsellor asks in a picture that she places in front of the student, is where they believe they fall in the picture. Kyle picks himself as being on top of the jungle gym, indicating his belief in his own superiority. The sequence of meetings ends with Max identifying himself as the child hiding behind the tree watching others. This immediately perks the interest of the guidance counsellor who urges Max to try to get out from behind the tree. She confesses that she used to be 'behind the tree' herself, but realized that life was passing her by and she was just a passenger, not actively altering the outcome in any way so she made an effort and got out. Max listens, and he seems interested. He asks her how she got out of the tree and she said she did it by talking to a boy in college she was interested in. Max nods, the bell rings and he gets up and leaves.
The next scene shows him standing on the corner of the hallway, obviously, nervous. He quickly looks around the corner to the adjacent hallway and it's Liz talking to a group of girls. As Liz walks away from the group (down the hall in his direction), Max walks towards her by rounding the corner and as he almost approaches her, he greets her. Liz is a little surprised to see him there but greets him readily in return. There is a moment of awkward pausing and they walk together as Max is obviously trying to find something to say but not succeeding and Liz begins talking to Max about being worried about Maria and Isabel. She asks Max if he can talk with Isabel and Max promises to do so. Liz is about to leave but she pauses and asked if Max had wanted to say something earlier when they had bumped into each other, but Max said, no, he didn't. So Liz walks off and Max looks behind her (probably kicking himself too!).
It's lunchtime and Max, Isabel and Michael are sitting outside eating as Isabel and Max talked, with Max asking Isabel to make an effort not to freak Maria out too much. Isabel retorts that she's trying to instil some fear into Maria b/c she thinks Maria is prone to 'talking'. Max insists he trusts her, but Isabel is clearly doubtful of what he bases his trust on. Michael suggested they kill her. When Max and Isabel looks at him, he said dryly that he was joking. All three of them are watching Maria from afar. She had just greeted a group of friends when she trips and falls flat on her behind. Looking around discretely to see if anyone is watching, she scrambles to pick up her books. Isabel notes that she cannot talk with someone as irrational as Maria while Mike surmises (what we are all thinking, watching her in this scene), that she seems a bit weird. Max insists that Isabel and Maria find something in common to talk about, even if she just orders some fries. Isabel rolls her eyes and sigh.
We are then at the Crashdown Café as Maria frets continually to Liz about her fear of the extraterrestrial. Liz is noticeably unconcerned and not at all worried. Then she spots Isabel outside sitting by herself in a booth. Maria tries to get around serving her but Liz insists that she makes an effort, if only for her. Maria reluctantly goes out to the customer area and walks up to Isabel. Isabel is clearly there against her own will as she looks noticeably uncomfortable as well. They try to make some small talk unsuccessfully and it doesn't work so Isabel ends up ordering fries (as Max suggested). Then Valenti walks in and he walks up to the counter where Maria is and ordered a cola. Everyone is visibly nervous (Isabel, who watches discreetly from her booth and Maria who has to serve him) As she finishes with getting him the coke, she slipped out, "Is there anything else I can tell you sheriff" instead of "Is there anything else I can get you". She fumbles and is obviously very distraught. Liz comes up, quickly assesses the situation and covers everything up. Valenti, upon seeing Liz, leaves. But everyone is shaken.
Later that morning, Max walks into the café and Maria is in the midst of serving several customers. She tells Max that is he is looking for Liz that she isn't there, and if she is, Maria would kill her. She gives change over to a tourist with three kids as the tourist asks Max if the aliens they talk about in the Museum are really real and other questions along those veins. Max replies that he doesn't know really b/c he's never been there before. The women leaves and Max asks if Maria is alright. Maria insists she is fine. Max asks that if she's fine, then why did she just short-changed that tourist ten dollars. Maria is frantic as she runs outside, only to see that the tourist has entered the UFO museum with her kids. Not being able to leave her post, Max offers to take the money to the lady and he walks into the museum. He is in the back of a crowd in a tour of the museum. The man is giving a lot of facts about the infamous Roswell crash. Max suddenly calls out, well, what about the siting in 1959? The guide is obviously flustered, and excited. He demands to know who among the tourist just said that. Max remains silent. The man then continues with his tour and leads the crowd into a dark room to watch a film. Max follows, he spots the tourist and returns her money. The museum curator grabs him by the arm and demands to know what Max knows about that incident in '59. Max plays close to the vest and asks what the curator knows. The curator tells Max that he might have something Max is interested in an instructs Max to come back the following day.
That night, Max is looking up at the stars and wondering if they have another set of dad and mom waiting for them to come home in his room with Isabel there. Isabel admits that she does think about that too but sometimes when she thinks about the possibility of being able to go 'home', she is afraid. Max tells Isabel that he feels like they are too cautious sometimes about their identity and in the end, sometimes, he feels they should be more proactive about trying to uncover their identity. Isabel asks him if he is thinking this way b/c of the key that Michael found or if it's b/c of Liz. Max confesses he doesn't know. Isabel then informs Max that she plans on walking into Maria's dream to find out what she's up against. Max is worried but he can't stop her.
We see Isabel flipping through the high school year book and stops at Maria's picture. She runs her finger across and it ripples slightly. Isabel then lays her head on the bed and closes her eyes. In Maria's bedroom, we see Maria convulses just the slightest bit and we are in her dream. She is at the restaurant standing besides a remote/cold Liz complaining about the mess at the restaurants while Liz emotionlessly agrees. Then she screams upon seeing two alien version of what is Isabel and Max (in her perceived version of their, 'true form'- grayish, ugly, disgusting). She screams and asks Liz if she's seeing what Maria is seeing. Liz looks at Maria incomprehensibly and said there was nothing wrong. She then see an emotionless Valenti sitting in the restaurant and urge him to help her. But he's not doing anything. Backing against the counter, she sees Isabel sitting on the stool watching her with amusement. Maria asks Isabel what she is doing there and Isabel says she's just visiting, not altering the dream, just seeing what Maria is really thinking. She nods her head over to Michael (sitting in the diner, not as an alien, in a tux) and asks what that's all about. Maria defensively states that it helps her feel better when she envisions him like that as opposed to….Isabel prods her to finish her though. Maria then looks behind and the done-up Michael has reverted to the alien/monsters that she had envisioned Max and Isabel to be. His tenacles wraps around her neck and feet and Maria wakes up, having fallen off the bed and completely scared out of her wits.
The next morning, we are back in school with Max having yet another session with the guidance counsellor. She asks Max a lot of questions in relation to his status as an adopted child and whether he thinks or have any memory about what has happened to him prior. He keeps asking why she asks so much about his past and what that has to do with his future. She tells him that sometimes, for certain people, before they can move on with the future, they must figure out their past. Max listens. After school, he walks back to the museum again speaks with the curator. The curator shows Max a picture of himself as a child back in '59 with a shadow besides him of what he claims to have been the alien. Max looks at it, but he doesn't appear at all impressed or excited. The curator surmises that he believes Max is 'hooked' just by looking at his eyes and offers Max a job at the museum for minimum wage - and access to his archives of alien findings. Max is visibly interested in the access to the archives and takes the job in hopes of learning more about his past.
The scene moves to the crashdown café where Maria is cleaning up after a customer and Isabel is sitting by the counter, pretending to read. Just as Maria was about the put the dishes into her tray, Isabel makes a crack about "some people being pigs", which is the same line that Maria had used in her dream. Maria is shocked and she sees Valenti sitting there in the exact table that she had seen him sat at in her dream that Isabel walked into. She freaks out majorly but Valenti is clearly interested in her fear, playing on it by telling her he is there to "protect" her from anything. And he told her to come to his office tomorrow afternoon "to talk". Maria is shaken, but Isabel, who overheard, is as well.
The next scene opens up with Max and Liz in lab together for their science class (looks like chemistry). The two are lab partners and Liz is taking notes while Max is attempting to conduct the experiment, which involves mixing several items and heating them together as the teacher talks about fusion and its theory. Max asks Liz if she can help him with his cumbesome experiment, so Liz stops taking notes and helps him out. This involves Liz getting very close to Max since she's trying to maneuver a bottle that he is holding and because she's so petite, it almost looks like he has his arms around her (It also appears here that Max enjoys the close contact). There is an exchange of embarrassed smiles here. When she finishes helping Max, Liz reverts to writing in her notebook. Max looks at her and subtly knocks over her other notebook. When Liz realizes that the notebook has fallen, she bends under the lab table to retrieve it. Max then bends down with her, in an appearance of helping her pick it up. When the two are down here, Max tells Liz that he is worried about Maria. Liz assures Max that Maria is completely trustworthy, because she is Liz's best friend. Max asks Liz if she's sure. Liz affirms. Max says, that's good b/c he wants to make sure that Maria will be okay at the Valenti meeting tomorrow. Liz says she believes Maria will do fine, but she will talk to Maria anyway. Max says that it just seems that Maria isn't…before he finishes, Liz says, yes, she realizes that on the outside, Maria can seem a bit odd, but deep down…she's…. -- as Liz gropes for the right descriptor, Max fills in helpfully, "..calm?" To which Liz admits is not the case for Maria but that she still feels Maria is trustworthy. She promises to Max that Maria will not say anything. Max says okay and he smiles at her, she smiles back. (Though this conversation may seem like it's a serious one, the way it was portrayed gives one the sense that Max is more into Liz as she is speaking than he is into the possibility of being betrayed, he seems to want to be more assured than anything. Perhaps this is b/c the way the scene is acted, Max is smiling at Liz throughout the scene as Liz earnestly tries to assure Max that she and Maria won't betray him and his cohorts)
After class, Liz approaches Maria to go over what she will tell Valenti. Maria tells Liz that she's not so sure that she can withhold the truth from Valenti, or that she would want to. She then walks off leaving for her appointment with Valenti while Liz is shocked as to whether or not Maria can be trusted after all.
Maria drives to pick up her car at the repair shop. As she sits on a folding chair outside, she spots Isabel and her adopted mother driving in so Isabel can pick up her and Max's jeep. She watches from afar as Isabel and her mother hugged and laughed before Isabel left the car to pick up the Jeep. Witnessing this moment of closeness between Isabel and her adoptive mom gives Maria second thoughts as to whether her and Max are as dangerous as she had thought them to be.
We are shown the school again where Liz, Max and Mike are sitting in the hallway's lounge as Liz reluctantly tells them that she's no longer so certain that Maria can keep the secret. Michael is fidgety and obviously upset, saying that he knew she can't be trusted. Max is calmer. Liz apologizes to Max who tells her not to worry about it, that he understands she wanted to tell someone b/c she was afraid and wanted to share it with someone, that it was just natural. She asks him why he ever told her that he was an alien. He smiles at her and told her that it was just natural. She then asks him about what he had meant earlier that day in the hallway when he muttered something about the tree. He tells her that it was advice someone gave him, to stop hiding behind the tree. She asked him if it worked, and he looks at her and said that he thinks it just did. Michael continues to pace restlessly in the background throughout.
The scene moves to Valenti's office where Maria is being prepped by Valenti with sad sympathy stories about how his dad was ridiculed by the law enforcement community and lost his family as a result of his beliefs in the existence of aliens. He then asks her if she was being silent out of fear and promises to protect her. Maria is so scared that she is tearing but in the end, just when it seemed like she was about the break down and reveal the truth about Isabel, she said that she thinks Isabel is a special girl b/c she has such a loving family and she looks right at the Sheriff saying that she doesn't think anyone would ever want to tear that apart. Valenti realizes that Maria won't break, lets her go. As Maria drives back to school, she sees Isabel standing in the middle of the highway, the Jeep was busted again and Isabel looks at Maria and determines aloud that Maria didn't tell. Maria gave Isabel a ride home, the two appears to respect each other and Maria isn't afraid of Isabel anymore. Back at school, the bell has rung. Max is pacing now with Mike but Liz is sitting on the lounge chair reading a text. The three all look up as they see Maria and Isabel approaching them through the crowd of student going between classes. The five got together in a circle, without anyone having to say anything, all of them knew that Maria hasn't told. Mike walks off with relief, and Max puts his arms around Isabel and they walk off. Liz looks after the departing Max and Isabel, then walks off with Maria, putting her arms around her best friend - who appears to be trust worthy after all. In a voice over, Liz muses that prior to this all happening, life was a straight line, now there are all these uncertainties, these intersections and sometimes, she isn't sure how to deal with them, creating a new experience for her.
the end
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