I found this episode to be truly heartbreaking, as Liz Parker, in order to ultimately save Max Evans, and the world, from impending disaster, was forced to sacrifice her future happiness with the young man that she loves with all her heart. To me, mere words are inadequate to describe the heartbreaking agony that we saw Liz Parker go through as she was warned by the future Max Evans that finding love and happiness with him would precipitate events of catastrophic proportions not only for them personally, but for the entire world, so she was forced to break the present Max Evan’s heart through a series of lies and deceptions to change the course of history, and in doing so, she broke her own heart, in an episode that deeply touched me and saddened me as no other episode of Roswell ever has.

As I watched the cataclysmic opening scene, I thought it was jarring, and sad, to see the future Max and Liz facing the inevitable conclusion that they can’t be together, because their being together would literally lead to the end of the world, and thus, Liz encouraged Max to begin the journey to go back to the past, and undo their history, and change the dire fate that awaited them all.

I thought it was amusing to see Liz, Alex, and Maria to go to a fortune teller to learn about their future, and I especially got a kick out of seeing Alex decry the fact that he would never share a "carnal relationship" with Isabel. I was touched at Liz’s sheer elation when the fortune teller revealed to her that the "leader" she loved would choose love, and that they would be happy together, and it moved me to see Liz’s innocent bliss upon receiving this heartening news, which fulfilled every dream of happiness she had known concerning the true love of her life.

As we came to see though, all this joy was soon swept away, however, as the future Max Evans appeared to a clearly shocked Liz, and he foretold an ominous future for all of them, and he made it his mission to deny himself, and Liz, their own chance for happiness, forcing her to make Max fall out of love with her. I thought it was bittersweet watching the present day Max sweetly serenade Liz, complete with a bouquet of white roses, in an effort to woo her back to him, and it was so poignant to see Liz react to this, with a mixture of sheer love and joy on her face for the boy she loved, and fear and apprehension towards the man that boy would become. I also was deeply disappointed that Max’s wondrous surprise was ruined by his future self, and that a magical moment between these two "star crossed lovers" was lost forever.

I really got a kick out of the sexual repartee between Kyle and Tess, and their double entendre references to "trimming the lamp" were hilarious. I also thought it was interesting to see Michael try to get to the bottom of the truth about the alluring Courtney, but it was heartbreaking to have to see Maria witness their encounter, and interpret things the wrong way, and run off with a broken heart. I felt terrible for Maria as she related what happened to Alex, who, as always, proved himself to be a true friend to Maria, even to the point of risking his own life to avenge the wrong he felt that Maria had suffered at Michael’s hands. As we soon learned though, Courtney turned out to be a "skin," boding further trouble for them all.

I was both moved and saddened to see the future Max tell Liz of their life together, and how they had eloped, and how happy they were, but they simply couldn’t be together. It broke my heart to see Liz have to lie to the present day Max in an effort to get him to stop loving here, to the point where she told him that she wasn’t ready to die for him, and finally, to the point where she devised a ruse to make him think she was sleeping with Kyle, and the look on both Max’s face and Liz’s face was excruciating when he saw Liz in bed with Kyle. Poor Liz was so torn between the love she had for Max, and her duty to save the world from an ominous fate, and I thought that Shirri Appleby did a tremendous job in portraying Liz’s anguish, as she told the future Max, "Don’t you realize what you are to me, and what you’re always going to be? You’re the love of my life, everyone else is going to be second best. They’ll never be another you." The final scene completed this tale of heartbreak, as we saw Liz begin to dance with the future Max, the present and future love of her life, and end up dancing alone, devastated and heartbroken.

Overall, I enjoyed this episode, although I was deeply saddened at it’s outcome, and I hope that some day, Max Evans and Liz Parker find their way back to one another.

Jerry D.

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