ROSWELL
Season 1, Episode 12: Into the Woods
At the crashdown, Liz's sniffling cold contrasts with Maria's spirited attitude ("this is the first day of the rest of our lives"). While Liz takes Maria's alternative medicine advice, Maria shows Liz her fake-pierced belly button! Suddenly, Max's boss excitedly busts into the Crashdown asking for Max. When Max finally shows up, Max's boss tells him about a sighting! Meanwhile, Valenti is questioning one of the witnesses.
The school scene: while Maria is sporting her new "aqua bra," Alex asks Isabelle to a movie. Afterward, Isabelle meets Max and Michael in the eraser room. Max suggests they go to the crashsite in Frasier woods, as part of the father-son/daughter camping trip there this weekend. Coincidentally, the rest of the gang is going too... except for Michael, whose father (and I use the term loosely) is a jerk!
That night, Michael is at his house/trailer, and having problems with his father when River Dog appears. "It was real," River Dog confirms the sighting (he has seen one before, remember?), then leaves.
The next day, Liz begs Maria to come to the camping trip with her, and when she refuses, Liz offers to pay her! (Maria decides to go.)
At Valenti's office, Kyle is waiting for his dad. Because of the whole sighting/crashsite incident, Valenti is determined not to let anyone find the site first. Kyle is obviously hurt when Valenti tells him that he can't make it to the camping trip.
At the Crashdown, Michael discusses River Dog with Max and Isabelle. Apparently, Michael believes that River Dog is their father, because he knows so much about them.
When the camping weekend finally comes, Valenti decides to come with Kyle as well as work on finding out about the crashsite. Valenti, I assume, also wants to keep an eye on Max and Isabelle. The scene is pretty hilarious, since the gang is all together, their fathers tagging along this time. Max, Isabelle, Kyle, Liz, Maria, and Alex all set camp close to each other, coincidetally. ^_~
While Kyle is telling alien stories, Max and a few other fathers are playing poker, and Isabelle and Alex sit together watching the stars.
While the kids are at the campsite, River Dog wakes Michael up. Michael follows him to a spot near the campsite. During their walk, Michael confronts River Dog about being their father. River Dog denies it clearly, and Michael tries to hide his disappointment.
Late that night, after everyone has gone to sleep, Liz sees Max and Isabelle sneaking out. She and Maria follow them quietly, until they are discovered. Max and Isabelle tell them to go back, but Liz does not want to be left out anymore. "You can't let go of him can you?" Maria asks, when she sees that Liz wants to go with them. "I don't want to," is her response. As the four of them move on, Valenti watches them from behind a tree.
After they have walked for a little while, the group begins to hear dogs barking. They begin running, when Liz thinks of an idea. She and Maria stay behind to distract the police and search dogs, as Max and Isabelle move on.
As Valenti follows Max and Isabelle, Kyle taps him on the shoulder. Valenit is startled, then tells his son to leave, but before he does, Kyle tells him that now he feels like they have switched places, that the way Valenti felt about father is how Kyle feels about Valenti now.
When Max and Isabelle bump into Michael and River Dog, they are surprised at first, but then realize that it must be the place they were looking for. When they see a spiral-shape made in the earth, they put their hands over the pattern. It glows luminously, and they suddenly know that Nesaro has arrived. Valenti steps out of the bushes then, and makes his way to see what they were looking at. Before he can, though, Michael steps in front of him, and Max erases the mark with his hand.
"We've been lost for hours, thank you for finding us," Max tells him, almost smiling because they both know it's not true. As they all leave, Valenti is left standing alone and frustrated.
Finally, the episode closes with Valenti visiting his father in an elderly home. All the while, we're made to think Valenti Sr. was dead, but he was just out of the picture. Valenti seems to have remembered him, ever since what Kyle said. "Maybe you were right... maybe you were right all along... I'm sorry," Valenti tells his father. His never-ending mission is not without a purpose now.
***In this episode, we see Valenti's personality a little more clearly. He's not a two-dimensional villain; his father's alien-hunting disrupted his own childhood, to the point where he hated his father. But now that Valenti is sheriff and he is starting to believe in aliens, his own quest begins, and he takes the place his father took years earlier.
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