Strange Bedfellows

by Kate Ancel copyright April 25, 2000

Writer Thania St. John and director Jonathan Frakes presented an episode that explored fate versus destiny. The alien teens are faced, for perhaps the first time, with the prospect of a future planned for them instead of a future they are allowed to choose for themselves. They are made aware in no uncertain terms that being alien may mean living a life that has been predestined for them instead of enjoying the free will their human counterparts enjoy.

Random Thoughts:

I thought it was very telling that Isabel's first dream started out with Alex. It reinforced the notion that he's the one she would choose to be with, as did the urgency with which she attacked him in the janitor's closet.

We see yet again that Max's alien connections scare Liz, even more than the other two humans. She seems to approach the search for their roots as some kind of fascinating science project, but when faced with any evidence that Max is not a normal boy, it really puts her out of her comfort zone. Maria may have had a higher freak factor initially, but she really has accepted the notion that Michael is another life form better than Liz has. Well, except when it comes to romance and table manners.

Max is starting to wonder if he, Isabel and Michael really are family. Maybe that's why he's so afraid of finding Nacedo. Finding Nacedo means having to make a choice between his alien and his human heritages. He's not so sure that, in choosing his alien heritage, he won't lose everything that is dear to him, including the two he has always considered his family. The idea of Nacedo has already caused him to lose the Michael he's always known and he doesn't know how to deal with the person Michael has become in his quest for answers. By attempting to deal with him the way he always has, he's just driving the wedge between them even deeper. Answers about themselves threaten everything Max holds dear and because he doesn't understand it, he can't control it. As he tells Michael, the goal is to stay in control; it always has been.

Max needs to come to grips with the fact that Michael is not the scared little boy in need of a role model anymore. And even if he were, he's past the point of accepting Max in that role. He needs to acknowledge the fact that Michael has worthwhile contributions to make in their quest and stop disparaging him or he really is going to lose him.

How come Max has visions, but Michael has hallucinations?

I found myself wondering how Tess seems to know all about their past and where to find things, when the other three do not. There is still so much the kids don't know about her and I hope they are cautious about accepting what she has to say at face value. If she really does have powers of mind control, there isn't any way to be sure that what seem like memories aren't actually mind manipulations. It seems to me that if she really is what she claims to be, there isn't be any point to the mind games. She obviously knows the other three are aliens or she wouldn't be giving them clues and teasers. The fact that she won't come right out and give them the answers makes me suspect that there is still something more up her sleeve.

Mr. Harding continues to be spooky. I'm not sure what he hoped to accomplish by turning the camera into the sheriff, or what role he plays in the whole scheme of things.

I think it odd that during a heat wave, kids can make out in every hallway and behind every library stack without attracting much attention, but when Michael kisses Maria in the middle of the hallway, all of a sudden they are a circus attraction.

Isabel looked like she was on the verge of cracking up when Michael and Maria discovered them in the janitor's closet.

Speaking of the janitor's closet, haven't the school officials learned anything yet? Someone needs to introduce them to the concept of keys. They know that the janitor's closet and the eraser room are hotbeds of heavy petting, and yet locking the doors doesn't seem to have occurred to them.

I thought Michael accepted the news of Isabel's pregnancy with amazing calm. Isabel looked properly unsettled, but he just accepted the news as if he'd been waiting his whole life for just such a destiny to be fulfilled.

• Do these kids not have parents? It never ceases to amaze me how much freedom they have to come and go as they please and how little they have to deal with parental consequences.
• It bothers me how often scenes are just left hanging. A prime example of this is when Tess asks Liz why everyone is following her. Liz never answers and we aren't given any clue as to how this confrontation played out.
• How dense can Alex and Maria be not to pick up on the serious undercurrents of tension between Michael and Isabel, especially in the janitor’s closet when proclaiming their staked claims?
• I thought Maria's response to Michael's sudden need to talk about their relationship was entirely too glib. For someone who has been trying for weeks to get him to talk about their relationship and take it seriously, she sure managed to be awfully sarcastic.
• Set inconsistency of the week: In the scene where Maria is standing behind the counter at the Crashdown talking to Max and Liz, the wall behind her starts out as a glass case filled with desserts. When Kyle walks in and the camera pans back to Maria, the wall behind her is two shelves of glasses on a blue wall.
• I was incredibly glad to see Kyle, but I thought he and Liz had gotten past the whole bitterness issue and settled their differences. Looks like he didn't spend enough time with Sally Jessy while he was MIA.
• Isabel gets pregnant from a dream encounter with Michael. Please. Did they really have to add an alien baby to the whole situation? And does this mean that Tess could have gotten pregnant from her dream encounter with Max in the science lab?
• Max and Michael really need to sit down and talk through their hostility for each other. It's getting completely out of hand. Now more than ever, they need to join forces and work together instead of at odds with each other. Keeping secrets and cutting each other down all the time is counter-productive.

• I loved Katherine Heigl in this episode. I thought she did a great job conveying the fear and confusion the whole situation is instilling in Isabel. Her safe, little world is being turned upside down and it's obvious that she's frightened by the changes. It's equally obvious that she fears the influence Tess has on her. She played the confusion and guilt over her dreams about Michael very well. I must admit, I laughed out loud at her little Mary Sunshine routine in the administration office, too.
• I liked the interaction between Liz and Max in this episode better than I have for awhile. The tenderness and caring were no less apparent, but the gooeyness factor was removed. I could go back to enjoying it without worrying when my next dentist's appointment is scheduled. Max's little kiss on Liz's forehead in the hallway before she followed Tess into the bathroom was perfect.
• I liked that they addressed the fact that Isabel has felt compelled to befriend Tess. As I mentioned in the last two reviews, her ready acceptance of her seemed out of character to me. Katherine played the scene in Max's bedroom when she's telling him about Tess' power over her beautifully.
• It was a nice touch to have each of the aliens seek to re-connect with their human love interests after experiencing the erotic dreams/visions. I thought it reinforced how important the humans are to them and highlighted the difference between where their hearts are leading them versus where their alien destiny would take them.
• I loved how tender, loving, and downright happy Michael was during all the dream sequences, both with Isabel and with the baby.
• How cute that Liz made special note of Tess' grades when they were looking over her transcript. That seemed very in character to me.
• I liked that the book that Tess retrieved was in the public library, proving that Michael had been right in his calculations.
• Heart-melt moment: Alex was so incredibly sweet when he tucked Isabel into bed and kissed her on the forehead.
• Kyle!! Welcome back from the land of the lost. We've missed you.
• It was nice that we finally got to see what happened when the aliens broke out of the pods, although this version of events differs from how Max told Liz it happened. In the original version, Max and Isabel encountered Michael for the first time in the desert. I guess we're supposed to chalk that up to the fact that he didn't fully remember events when he first told Liz.
• I was glad to see that they didn't just let the events of the last episode just drop. While I was glad that Liz realized Max was being coerced into actions against his will, she didn't entirely let him off the hook for it either. It seemed very normal and in character for her to ask him what it had been like to kiss Tess. And while she was ready to forgive him, she wasn't entirely ready to forget it, judging by the lengths to which she went to make sure it didn't happen again.
• This show does a great job keeping the viewers wondering about motivations and agendas. I found myself rethinking my opinion about Tess. I still don't trust her, but I'm now open to the possibility that she's acting from honorable intentions, even if her agenda is at cross purposes with the humans.

• Michael: "You just want to deny who we really are?"
  Max: "I want us to stay who we really are."
  
• Maria: "Operation Never-Leave-Max-Alone-for-an-Instant. That way one of us is always around in case she works the voodoo on you again."
  
• Max: "I don't need a baby-sitter."
  Maria: "No, you're right. You need a bodyguard at all times."
• Max: "We'll go watch her on the monitor."
  Valenti: "Isn't that against the law, Mr. Evans? I wish you'd stop doing that."
• Michael: "Why are you so scared to be an alien?"
  Max: "Why are you so scared to be human?"
• Max: "The goal is to stay in control. It always has been."
• Michael: "I've been thinking…"
  Maria: "Great. That usually involves me having to get my car towed."
• Isabel: "You know how I said I wanted to take things slow?"
  Alex: "The word glacial comes to mind."
  Isabel: "Maybe it's time to melt the ice."
• Maria: "It must be something in the water."
• Kyle: "What a knockout, huh? Can't beat a blonde. [looks at Liz] Oh, sorry."
• Liz: "Just the way she treats guys - she just leads them on and then drops them cold."
  Kyle: "Yeah, I guess it takes one to know one."
• Kyle: "What is this, a jealousy thing?"
  Liz: "No…"
  Kyle: "Oh, so it's just a everyone-deserves-to-be-happy-except-Kyle thing."
• Liz: "Just don't be alone with her, OK? She could be using you."
  Kyle: "That's exactly what I had in mind."
• Tess: "There's just this one book I need for history class."
  Kyle: "Well, what say we start speaking the most ancient language known to man?"

I give this episode 4.75 UFOs out of 5.