|
|||
Opening narrative: (Maria is at the chalkboard, like last time. "PROM" is still written there. She erases it.) MARIA: I told you -- Prom sucks. Take Liz, for example. She totally thought the prom would be the perfect opportunity to rekindle things with Max. (Flash from the prom: Liz sees Max kissing Tess, and leaves.) Nope. And Kyle. He thought he'd finally get closer to Tess. As in, "a lot closer" until he, ah, realized that his feelings for Tess were a little more sibling than sex-kitten. (We see Kyle not kissing Tess, just standing beside her.) Strike two. But, there is a silver lining to this gray cloud of prom disasters -- Alex.
He came back from Sweden a new man, and Isabel finally noticed. (We see Isabel
eagerly kiss Alex.) And I think, with a little help from Liz and myself, those
two crazy kids might actually find true love. (Alex is sitting on his bed, guitar across his lap, fingers drumming on the soundboard. He is on the phone.) ALEX: ...Yeah, it was a great night for me too. ISABEL: (over the phone) Yeah? So what are you doing tonight? ALEX: Tonight? (looks at Maria and Liz sitting nearby. They are signaling "No!") ISABEL: Why? ALEX: I have a, ah, (girls whisper "Study, study") I'm studying. ISABEL: Alex. An A is the best you can get. ALEX: Yeah, I know. But I gotta, I've got a monstrous final in, ah, (girls grab the nearest book and hold it up) Robert Frost? (No, no!) English. Eng... English -- I've got a killer final, Mr. Broski's really puttin' the screws to us. ISABEL: (playfully) Well, if you'd rather stay and study, not come out and play with me... (Alex grits his teeth, girls whisper "Stay strong!" and make a big show of arm muscles.) ALEX: I don't want to, but I have to. (girls exchange looks of triumph and glee) ISABEL: Well, if you change your mind, I'll be at the Crashdown, probably until closing. So, .... ALEX: OK, well... I'll see you later. ISABEL: OK. (hangs up) (Alex sinks back onto the bed. Maria and Liz move next to him.) MARIA: I'm so proud of you! ALEX: This blows. MARIA: Well, at least you have the upper hand. LIZ: Yeah, you've got her chasing you. Who'd have thought that? MARIA: Not me. ALEX: She's thinking about me. Even now, she's on her bed, and she's thinking about me. MARIA: OK. So, are we done with this Isabel thing? All right. LIZ: Maria, let's go to work. MARIA: OK. LIZ: Come on. (to Alex) Alex, you be strong, OK? MARIA: Strong, strong, strong. LIZ: (playfully) Just be strong, OK? Goodbye. (girls start heading out) ALEX: (to himself, still lying down) Strong. Str.... Yeah. (As the girls reach the door of the house, a delivery kid arrives outside.) KID: Hey, is this Whitman? LIZ: Oh, yeah. Hey Alex, your food's here. MARIA: (to kid) Here, come in. (Liz waves, she and Maria leave.) ALEX: (approaching the kid, who is waiting just inside the door) Ah, it's about time. KID: Sorry, man, I got turned around on Cherry Drive. ALEX: Yeah. (Takes the bag, hands over a credit card.) KID: Thanks. ALEX: (reaching in) Hey, this isn't even warm. KID: Aw, yeah. Sorry. You better nuke it. ALEX: I'm, I'm...I'm so sick of this. I'm.... Always the same thing, always cold. Always the same thing -- I'm just so sick of everything. KID: (not indifferent, just perplexed) Here, could you sign here? Please? ALEX: (while signing) Why does life have to be so wrong? Why does everything have to be a lie? KID: I dunno, dude. (takes the credit slip and leaves) (Valenti, driving his pickup truck, arrives at an accident scene. Flares, wrecker, ambulance. Hanson is there.) VALENTI: Hey, Hanson. Whatcha got? HANSON: Pretty bad. A sedan doing about 70 did a head-on with a semi. VALENTI: Fatalities? HANSON: Yeah, one. VALENTI: Anyone I know? (Hanson has no words, only a mournful look. Valenti goes to see.) (A short scream is heard from Maria as falling plates shatter at her feet. We are at the Crashdown cafe.) MARIA: Great. (heads to the back room) (Max and Michael are at a table.) Max: You are so full of it. MICHAEL: I just call it like I see it. Max: You can't compare The Matrix to Crouching Tiger. MICHAEL: Crapping Tiger is a chick flick with kung-fu. Max: First of all, Crappi... Crouching Tiger is actually about something. Love. Honor. Trust. MICHAEL: Matrix is about something. Illusion, reality, gunfire. Max: You simply can't prefer Keanu Reeves to Michelle Yeoh. You can't.... I won't let you. (Liz is at a table by herself, doing some accounting. Isabel and Tess are in a booth, joking with Kyle over some pictures.) (Back room. Maria, dumping the broken dishes, is startled to find that she is not alone -- Valenti is in the back doorway. He enters slowly, looking ominous.) MARIA: (apprehensively) What? (Front room again.) MARIA: (still in back, out of sight, screams) No! (Michael rises hastily. Maria bursts in, runs to Liz for a hug, and just clings there. Valenti enters, all other eyes on him.) VALENTI: There's been an accident. Alex is dead. [opening credits] (Outdoors, behind City Hall. Valenti and the teens stand watching a nearby parking lot behind the morgue. Coroner's van arrives, two attendants get out, Valenti hustles them into the building. Max approaches the rear of the van....) ISABEL: He'll need to use his power, to open the doors. (Max enters the van, shuts doors, opens the body bag.) ...He'll take a deep breath, put his hand on his chest, and bring him back to life. (Max reaches in.) (Maria rests her face on Liz's shoulder. Liz puts up an arm, but keeps watching straight ahead.) ...and Alex will sit up suddenly, and Max will jump back, and the whole van will shake a little. (van remains motionless...) ...the whole...the whole van will shake, and they'll come running back here with big goofy grins on their faces, and we'll have to come up with some kind of cover story for Hanson and everybody.... (Max alone exits the van, somberly returns to the group.) ISABEL: Max? (Valenti rejoins the group, with a questioning look at Max. The answer sinks in.) VALENTI: I think you should all go home now. MARIA: (sees attendants transferring the body) Oh my God! MICHAEL: Come on, I'll take you home. (They leave.) (Max looks helplessly at his hand, now covered with blood. Isabel looks hard at him, then turns away sharply.) TESS: Max. Go after her. MAX: Liz, -- LIZ: (sharply) Yeah. Go after her, Max. (He goes. Valenti draws Kyle and Tess to leave. They seem to hope for Liz to
come with them, but she remains unmoving.) (Dawn. Valenti's house. Kyle's alarm rings, though he was not sleeping anyway. He rolls off the sofa and starts doing pushups. Valenti enters.) KYLE: Hey, dad. VALENTI: Mornin'. (sits down) Not a very happy day, is it. KYLE: (small shake of the head, "No." He's back on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket.) VALENTI: Listen. Ah, this may not seem like very much right now, but there's something I'd like you to know. Alex died *yesterday*. He didn't die today. And I don't want you remembering it as if it happened today. All right? (pause) VALENTI: (pats the blanket) Happy birthday, son. (Kyle presses his father's hand with his own.) (Crashdown cafe. Isabel sits in a booth. Behind her, Alex approaches.) ALEX: Psst. ISABEL: (jumps up) Oh, Alex! Oh, Alex! Oh my God, I thought you were dead. ALEX: Aw no, no. Listen, that was, that was just a big misunderstanding. Everything's fine, right? Sit down, sit down. (They sit.) ALEX: So, how're you doin'? ISABEL: Fine. Fine, now. ALEX: Good. So, have you made any decision about college yet? ISABEL: Yeah, I think I'm gonna stay. Graduate with Max and you guys. ALEX: Good. Good, because, I'd miss you if you were gone. ISABEL: Yeah, I would miss you too. I just, I just don't want to be away from you any more. ALEX: No, ah, no worries about that -- I'm not goin' anywhere. Except band practice. See, I'm runnin' late, and the guys are waitin' for me, so I gotta jet. But I'm gonna see you tonight, right? ISABEL: Yeah. Yeah. (They kiss.) ALEX: OK. (emphatically) I will see you later. DIANE EVANS: (in Isabel's bedroom) Isabel. Isabel, wake up, honey. ISABEL: Oh my God, it was just a dream. It was just a dream. DIANE: Oh, sweetheart. Ohh. (Maria's house: Amy, Maria, and Michael.) MICHAEL: (answering the phone) DeLuca residence. SEAN: Michael? What, are you snakin' breakfast now? Don't you have to be at school or somethin'? MICHAEL: Sean, shut up, OK? Alex was killed last night. SEAN: What? How? MICHAEL: Car accident. SEAN: Uhh. Geez. How's Maria? MICHAEL: Pretty torn up. Same with your aunt. SEAN: Look. I, ah, I got this court thing in Albuquerque -- they're tellin' me I gotta stay a couple more days. So, could you -- you know, look after my family? MICHAEL: I'll take care of 'em. SEAN: Thanks. Later.... NANCY PARKER: (answering the phone) Sean? MAX: No, Max. NANCY: Sorry, Max. I thought you were Sean. I just... I just got off the phone with him. This is horrible -- I, ah, I can't even believe it. MAX: Me neither. NANCY: How are you doing? I know... you were so close to him. MAX: Not as close as Liz. How is she? NANCY: She's not doing so... so good. I, ah, I think she's in denial. MAX: Can I talk to her? NANCY: She's not here, she's out. She went out -- I don't even know where she went. I think she just needs a little bit of space right now. MAX: Right. Um, can you just tell her that I called? Thanks. (During this last exchange, we see Liz alone in an auto junkyard. She finds
Alex's car still on the wrecker, under a tarp. Leaning in through the driver's
window, she surveys the grim scene. Eventually she spots something lodged between
the seat and the door. It's the picture of Alex and Leanna -- except that Alex's
face has been cut away.) (Hospital. Hanson and Valenti are questioning the truck driver.) DRIVER: Last thing I remember was hittin' my brakes, and tryin' to turn away but-- VALENTI: You turn to the left or the right? DRIVER: Right. He was comin' at me from the left. HANSON: Skid marks say he turned to the right. DRIVER: 'Course they do. Why would I lie about -- VALENTI: How many beers did you have at the Bison Pub? DRIVER: I had *one* beer. Three hours before I got on the road. VALENTI: You said you were going 65. DRIVER: I said, I was goin' 55. And I don't like the sound of these questions. HANSON: Just doing our job. DRIVER: That's bull. You tryin' to pin this on me -- when the truth is, that
boy deliberately swerved into my lane for no reason. (Isabel and her mom in their kitchen.) DIANE EVANS: Nobody knew where he was going. ISABEL: But he *wanted* to stay home! If I hadn't called him, and put the idea in his head, he would never have gotten in the car! He would have never gotten in the car!! DIANE: Isabel, it was an accident. Honey, it's tragic, and it's painful, and it's something that none of us are ever gonna forget. But it's *not* your fault. ISABEL: I can't stop it. I can't stop thinking that the people I love and care about, they end up hurt or dead. DIANE: Oh, honey. I wish -- I wish I had some kind of special powers or something to make all of this go away for you. ISABEL: Special powers don't help. (pause: Mom gives an odd look, then a sigh.) ISABEL: I have to get out of here. DIANE: Where do you want to go? ISABEL: Mom, there's something I need to tell you..... (School hallway. Memorial display in front of Alex's locker.) MARIA: Liz. LIZ: (hugging her) Hey. How you doing? MARIA: Not good. LIZ: Just try and get through the day, OK? Just keep moving forward, keep breathing. MARIA: OK. How 'bout you? How are you? LIZ: (emphatically) I'm fine. MARIA: Come on, it's me. You don't have to put up a front. LIZ: (shows the picture she found) Look at this. MICHAEL: Isn't that -- LIZ: Yeah, it's Alex and Leanna in Sweden. I found it in the wreck. MARIA: Oh my God! Oh my God! (Michael steps in hastily to help support her.) MICHAEL: It's all right. Hey, it's all right. MARIA: Oh my God! LIZ: Look. Look at the way it's been cut up. Someone cut off -- MARIA: I'm gonna be sick! I can't believe you went there!! LIZ: Maria! This means something. Why is Alex's head missing? MARIA: Stop it! Stop it!! MICHAEL: Shhh -- it's OK. LIZ: (turning away) It means something. (A room at the school. Valenti is questioning the food-delivery kid, who is apparently one of the students there.) KID: I don't know -- he just got really depressed. It was weird, you know? I mean, I deliver a lot of cold food -- and usually people just get pissed off. You know? They don't act like it's the end of the world. VALENTI: Is that how he acted, like it was the end of the world? KID: Yeah. VALENTI: He say anything specific you remember? KID: Life was wrong. Everything about life is a lie. Why does it have to be that way? Stuff like that. VALENTI: OK. Thanks, Jerry. HANSON: Talked to his teachers. (hands over a file) None of them saw anything unusual in his behavior at the time. But, looking back they saw some warning signs: moody, sometimes confident, even cocky; other times sullen, quiet, unfocused. VALENTI: Sounds like every teenager I ever met. HANSON: Listen, I...know you don't want to talk about this theory. VALENTI: Don't go there. HANSON: Jim, there's a pattern here. VALENTI: (firmly) No, there's not. HANSON: (ponders for a moment) I hope you're right. (School athletic field. A memorial for Alex is growing, as people bring flowers and such, light candles, sign a placard. Some gaze silently from the bleachers. Behind the bleachers, Max explains to Tess.) MAX: There was so much...blood. I wasn't prepared for that. TESS: You had to try. MAX: I didn't want to touch him. And then his skin was so cold. (starts to cry, hides his face) (Isabel, Michael, and Maria walk up; Max turns away until he can wipe some tears.) MICHAEL: School's brought in the official grief counselor. She's got all our names, so -- be on the lookout. MARIA: (pointing towards the field) Do you *see* these people? Who *are* they?! They don't even know Alex. They weren't even his friend. And they're sitting there praying and crying and putting on this show as if they gave a damn about Alex while he was alive? God, it makes me so angry! (Kyle has walked up.) KYLE: Hey. (slowly) Mr. Whitman called the house this morning, and asked if me and you and you (indicates Michael and Max) would be pallbearers tomorrow. MICHAEL: Right. MAX: Sure. (On the field, the delivery kid, Jerry, is telling his story to a rapt circle of listeners.) JERRY: So, finally I left. He was losing it and you could totally see it in his eyes. I mean, he was on his way out of this life. LIZ: (sharply) Is that a fact? JERRY: Ohh.... (The circle dissipates quickly.) LIZ: I'd like to ask you some questions if you have the time. (By her tone,
he'd better.) (back to the group behind the bleachers.) ISABEL: I have something to tell all of you. I know this is a bad time, but...umm, I'm graduating early. I'm leaving in June to start college in the fall in San Francisco. MAX: When did all this happen? ISABEL: I've been thinking about it for awhile. I talked to Mom this morning and she's fine with it. MAX: Look, Isabel, this isn't the time to be making snap judgments about things. ISABEL: This is my life, Max. MAX: No one is disputing that. MARIA: Do we have to talk about this right now? MICHAEL: Maria's right -- this isn't a decision that we have to make today. ISABEL: This isn't a decision *we* have to make at all, it's *my* decision.
I've made it. I'm leaving Roswell. (back to Liz questioning Jerry.) LIZ: And then what did he say? JERRY: I don't know. I mean, "Life isn't right" or "Life is wrong" -- something like that. LIZ: Yeah, and then what did you say? JERRY: Well, I said "Whatever, dude." LIZ: "Whatever, dude"? That's your reaction to a man who is devastated and on his way our of this life? Isn't that how you described him to your fan club? JERRY: Look, I wasn't....I mean, uh, I'm sorry I sounded like that. LIZ: Yeah. If you remember anything else, *anything*, my parents own the Crashdown,
you can usually find me there. (Valenti's house. Liz shows him the photo she found.) LIZ: I know that this photo means something. I know it. VALENTI: Yeah. LIZ: What? VALENTI: Well, I don't really know. LIZ: What? Don't give me that! You are onto something -- this is a clue, isn't it? VALENTI: Maybe. We're a long way from -- LIZ: You. You have a theory about this, don't you? VALENTI: Liz... (starts trying to lead her towards the door) Liz, this has been a very, very difficult day, and I think maybe the best thing for you now -- LIZ: No! VALENTI: -- would be to go on home and try to get some -- LIZ: No, I do *not* need another grief counselor -- I want some answers! I *know* what happened to Alex was not an accident. I know it with every fiber in my being and I am gonna find out the truth, so cut the crap and tell me what the photo means to you. VALENTI: OK.... You're not gonna like what I'm about to say. LIZ: Tell me. VALENTI: It's beginning to look more and more likely that Alex may have deliberately turned his car into the oncoming traffic. LIZ: Wha...Wh...Why would he do that? VALENTI: (shakes his head sadly) The last couple of weeks, people have noticed changes in Alex's behavior. Moodiness, lack of focus. His grades started to slip. LIZ: Oh, *please*! VALENTI: Liz, I interviewed the truck driver, I...I went to the accident scene, I saw the school reports. LIZ: You are saying that Alex killed himself over bad grades?! VALENTI: We may never know exactly why Alex did what he did. But... Look at this (picks up the photo) -- this is part of the puzzle, isn't it. I mean, look at it! He deliberately defaced his own image. This.... Believe me, it...it tears me up to even have to say this -- LIZ: (snatches the photo from him) Thank you for your time. (Walks away from the house. Soon, she has to throw up.) (Max's house. Liz knocks outside his bedroom window, he opens it.) LIZ: I don't want to be alone. Can...can I stay here tonight? MAX: Sure. (Liz climbs in.) (later -- apparently Liz has been explaining) LIZ: (pacing) Yes, I know. That is what I said. MAX: Alex would never do something like that. LIZ: No, of course not! It's ridiculous. And...you know what's gonna happen -- Hanson is gonna go and he's going to put that in his report and it's going to be in the newspaper for every single person to read. All of his friends, his family. MAX: (gets up) No. LIZ: "Alex Whitman's death was declared a suicide yesterday by the Roswell Sheriff's Department"! MAX: We won't let that happen. I'll...I'll talk to Valenti. He's just jumping to conclusions. LIZ: Just the fact that his parents have to go through this, this nightmare. They do not need to think that their son...(sits down, hides her face) MAX: (sits next to her) Liz, I'll handle it. LIZ: Thank you. MAX: Hungry? LIZ: (nods) ...was embarrassing. MAX: No, that's all right. When's the last time you ate? LIZ: Um...aah, yesterday, I think. MAX: How does frozen macaroni and cheese sound? (DeLuca house. Michael brings a drink for Amy.) AMY: Oh, no more tea. Thank you, Michael. MICHAEL: It's not tea. Hot buttered rum -- help you sleep. My foster dad taught me to mix drinks before I could ride a bike. He called it job training. If all else fails I could always tend bar. AMY: Oh, what a charming man. Ah, is Maria still asleep? MICHAEL: Yeah, she keeps kickin' off the covers though. AMY: Oh, she always does that. You know, I think this is the most time you've ever spent in my house. MICHAEL: Yeah, I...I could leave if you want. Just, it's nice to be around people. AMY: No, no. That's not what I meant at all. Ah, what I'm trying to say is that you've really been great for my family. And it's a wonderful thing to see my daughter loved. And I would like to see a lot more of that. And, as far as I'm concerned, you'll always be welcome in this house. MICHAEL: Thank you. AMY: Welcome on the couch. MICHAEL: Right. AMY: Yeah. (takes a sip of the rum) (Crashdown cafe, Isabel and Alex.) ISABEL: You're not really here, are you? ALEX: No. You're talking in your sleep. ISABEL: God, I wish I could really talk to you, Alex. ALEX: I'm the next best thing. What do you want to say? ISABEL: That I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. ALEX: Me too. ISABEL: I never should have called you. ALEX: I called you, remember? ISABEL: I never should've brought you into any of this. ALEX: Any of what? ISABEL: Me. My life. ALEX: You think being with you had something to do with what happened? ISABEL: Yes, I do. I don't know how, but...God, if you hadn't been involved with me.... ALEX: Hey, if I was really here, I'd tell you you're full of crap. You know that. ISABEL: Yeah, but it wouldn't make me feel any better. ALEX: I better go. ISABEL: Why? ALEX: I'm not making things any better for you. ISABEL: No, please. Please don't go. ALEX: I'm already gone. This is just a dream, that you'll eventually wake up from. ISABEL: Will see you again? ALEX: That depends on you. But I have a feeling, I wouldn't want me to be here. (They kiss.) 'Bye, Isabel. (Alex walks to the door.) ISABEL: I love you, Alex. ALEX: I think we both know, I loved you too. (He goes out. Isabel rolls over in her bed, crying.) (Evans kitchen. Max and Liz are finishing the macaroni and cheese.) MAX: Remember the time he electrified Mr. Hoffman's desk? LIZ: Yeah. You know, he almost got suspended for that. MAX: Never happen. The teachers loved him. That guy could get away with anything At the prom, I overheard Mr. Hoffman telling Seńora Villa the whole chair thing. Thought it was a riot. LIZ: Yeah, about the prom -- I saw you kiss Tess. (pause) It's OK -- you're moving on. MAX: Liz. LIZ: No. We've discussed this. You're moving on and I am moving on, and that's a decision we've made. I just wanted you to know that I saw you and that I'm OK with it, OK? MAX: OK. LIZ: OK. Thank you very much for the macaroni and cheese, and, um, thank you for listening. (walks to the door) Just always be my friend. Will you do that, Max? MAX: You know I will. (Alex's funeral. Among the pallbearers are Max, Michael, Kyle, and Valenti. Maria sings Amazing Grace. Afterwards, Max speaks urgently with Valenti. Liz, riding away in her father's car, sees just the beginning of this.) VALENTI: ...If this is about what I said to Liz the other night, I don't have any apologies to make. MAX: How can you say that to us? How can you even think -- VALENTI: This is difficult for everybody, Max. MAX: (points right in Valenti's face) Alex Whitman did not kill himself, OK? It didn't happen. And you'd better not let Hanson or anyone else put that in some file. (Valenti grabs a sheaf of papers from inside his truck, holds them out.) VALENTI: Here. MAX: What's that? VALENTI: It's everything we've discovered about Alex Whitman over the last two days. Read it, Max. (Max takes the file. Valenti waits while Max reads.) (Alex's house, where everyone is gathering after the funeral) KYLE: (to Isabel) So, Frisco, huh? ISABEL: Yeah. KYLE: I think it's great. ISABEL: Yeah. TESS: (to Michael) What about the chicken? MICHAEL: Maria hates barbecue. There's gotta be something here she'll eat. (Liz seeks out Mr. Whitman, finds him outdoors.) LIZ: Hi, Mr. Whitman. MR. WHITMAN: Liz, how are you? LIZ: OK. MR. WHITMAN: Well, I...ah, hope you know how much Alex loved you and Maria. He just thought the world of you two. LIZ: Thank you. Can I ask you a favor? MR. WHITMAN: Anything. LIZ: Can I go sit in his room for awhile? MR. WHITMAN: I...ah, I haven't been able to bring myself to go in there just yet. But, sure, go ahead. LIZ: (hugs him) Thank you. (Liz sits on Alex's bed, holding his bass guitar. As if seeking inspiration, she plays a few notes: each of the four open strings in turn, then each of them again.) LIZ: I really need your help. I know something's wrong. I know what they're saying about you isn't true. But I don't know where to go from here. I really wish you could...give me some advice, point me in a direction. (Liz surveys the room, notices the Robert Frost book. A page is marked with some tickets. The marked page has the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.") LIZ: (reading) (Next, Liz inspects the tickets.) LIZ: (whispers) Thank you. (Max and Valenti arrive at Alex's house.) TESS: (grabs Max by the arm) Come on. MAX: What's up? TESS: I don't know, but Liz says it's urgent. (the teens gather in Alex's room) LIZ: (standing) Everything I'm about to say is gonna come as a shock to most of you, but something's happened, and you need to know what's going on. Valenti and Hanson are about to declare Alex's death a suicide. ISABEL: What? LIZ: No, it's not true, OK? It's not true. MARIA: How could they say that? Of course it's not true. MAX: Well...I'm not so sure. LIZ: What?! Max, come on -- we talked about this. You said -- MAX: I know, but I've read the file. Valenti showed -- LIZ: Oh -- Valenti showed you the file. MAX: I don't want to believe it either, but I saw. The evidence is pretty convincing. MICHAEL: I can't believe it's suicide. LIZ: It wasn't a suicide and I can prove it. (shows the tickets) Five minutes ago I found these here, in Alex's room. They are concert tickets to Beth Orton. Alex bought them on the day he died, probably for him and Isabel. The concert is tonight. Don't you get it? You don't buy concert tickets on the day you kill yourself. You don't make plans for the future when you are not planning on having a future. MARIA: She's right, there's no way. There's no way. TESS: I don't know. You know, a couple of concert tickets? It's pretty slim evidence. MARIA: You don't know what the hell you're talking about, OK? MICHAEL: Hey. Hey. There's nothing to gain with this argument, one way or another. We know Alex. We know what kind of guy he is, and we know he'd never kill himself. MARIA: (whispers) Exactly. MICHAEL: So, as far as all the people in this room are concerned, it was an accident, nothin' more. LIZ: It wasn't an accident. He was murdered. KYLE: Murdered? MAX: Would you listen to yourself? Who could possibly want to murder Alex? LIZ: I don't know yet. Maybe, somebody with a grudge against him...or, maybe an alien. MAX: (stands up) That is not what happened here. LIZ: Would you just think about it for a minute? If there is anything any of us should have learned over the last year and a half, it's that nothing is ever what it seems. ISABEL: (stands up) What is that? That's not evidence! That's not proof we had anything to do with this! TESS: (stands up) Keep your voices down, for God's sake! LIZ: You cannot deny the fact that a key member of this conspiracy just died under very suspicious circumstances. KYLE: (stands up) I'm with Liz. There's somethin' not right about this. MAX: It was a traffic accident. There's nothing otherworldly about that. MICHAEL: What possible reason would an alien have to kill Alex? LIZ: Isabel, for one. We know that there's an alien named Kivar who wants to bring Isabel back to your world. ISABEL: No! LIZ: If Kivar discovered that you and Alex were-- ISABEL: No! No! You're just making this up! MAX: (facing Liz squarely) You don't know what the hell you're talking about! You don't know anything about Kivar, or our world. LIZ: You don't want to think that Alex was killed by an alien because that would mean *you* are responsible. (tense pause) MAX: Let's go. (Max leaves, Isabel and Tess follow, then Michael.) LIZ: I know what I know. And I am gonna find out the truth. I owe that to my friend. (Liz leaves. Only Kyle and Maria remain.) KYLE: Well. I guess it's us versus them. (Thunder. Rainy night. In the Crashdown, Liz sits alone, looking at pictures of Alex. Remembering the hard times and the good times they'd been through, she breaks into tears. Someone knocks on the front door -- it's Jerry. She lets him in.) JERRY: I thought about what you said. You know -- if I remembered anything? Look -- (shows something from his pocket) I got his credit card receipt. The company kicked it back 'cause of the way he signed it. LIZ: (reads the signature line: instead of a name it's a string of binary digits) JERRY: Does that mean anything to you? LIZ: It means I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.... |
|||