02x05 - I'll Stand By You

[bunniefuu]

Previously on Roswell, New Mexico...

Max's heart is never b*ating again.

He d*ed of a massive heart att*ck.

The organ is shredded.

KYLE: Liz thinks we could do a heart transplant.

ALEX: She wants to use Noah's heart?

MICHAEL: The pod keeps us in stasis by regenerating our cells at the same rate they degrade.

This current will speed up the regeneration so Max will actually improve in there.

(electricity sparking)

YOUNG MAX: He's out here.

Don't you feel it?

I feel like you owe me both those grape sodas you brought.

There he is.

Leave me alone.

Get out of here.

Y-You don't remember us?

I remember you.

I don't know you.

I-I've been looking for you.

We didn't know your name.

Michael Guerin.

After nobody adopted me for a year, they just stuck me with the name of that trucker who found us.

But all you got to know about me is I want to be left the hell alone!

That's why I'm all the way out here, because I want to be alone!

Okay.

W-We'll leave you alone, okay?

If that's what you want.

(exhales)

But if you change your mind, there's this diner, the Crashdown.

I'll be there every day.

Okay?

In case you want a burger or something.

Hey!

I didn't ask for that!

I didn't ask you for anything!

The hell is this?

When I'm finished, it's going to be a rebuilt classic.

Relax, Sanders.

I'm just fixing it up for a buddy who's on his way home.

You're meant to be working on Riley's tractor.

Riley picked up the tractor this morning.

Money's in the till.

You're doing this as a favor?

I'm repaying an old debt.

Don't pay more than you collect, kid.

Passing credit back and forth is a good way to get stuck with somebody forever.

♪ Just living on a Sunday morning...

♪ LIZ: Papi is finally asleep.

(laughs softly)

Clutching his rosary but asleep.

I can't believe we're all under the same roof.

We're a family again.

Yeah.

I've been thinking.

I think you should move into Max's place.

You can, you can get it ready for his return, and do the whole domestic bliss...

thing.

I'm so sorry.

Who are you and what happened to "how could you" forgive the bastion of white male privilege?" ♪ Here and now...

♪ (gasps)

(whispers): You want your own room.

I need...

I deserve my own room, Liz.

Oh, and Max is getting stronger in there, but it is still going to be months before we can actually attempt this surgery.

I should be here.

What if your dreams come back?

I have not had any freaky dreams in weeks.

Okay, Max is probably off haunting Isobel, now that they're strong enough for their...

psychic twincest weirdness.

(static crackling)

How long has that been happening?

Um, I don't know.

It's an old boom box.

Rosa, have electrical appliances been malfunctioning around you?

I really thought it was just a side effect of the handprint.

If-if being in the pod introduced a new protein into your system, it could have altered your DNA, too.

You could be developing abilities.

Liz.

Look, the handprint is changing.

It's smaller.

It's fading.

Tell me this is a good thing.

I don't think so.

MICHAEL: The pod's got a charge.

It's like a, it's like a battery, powering the preservation process.

This one's gone dead.

Did the generator blow the electromagnetic threshold?

I think a surge came from the pod itself.

But that pod has lasted almost a century.

It shouldn't glitch out.

Okay, well, then, this one did.

All right, stop.

It doesn't matter why the pod is broken.

It just is.

So how long does Max have?

My theory is that being tethered to Rosa through the mark is what kept Max from going brain-dead, and in turn the stasis process is what kept the mark from fading.

So he could be gone by tonight.

Okay, well, we have three more pods.

So let's just put him into another pod.

ROSA: No.

He's just gonna do it again.

I haven't told you everything.

I didn't want to scare you, I didn't want to be the one that took the hope away.

Talk now, Rosa.

Right now.

I was seeing Max in my nightmares months before I told you about it, and he was begging me to stop you.

He said that he was in a lot of pain in there.

That's Noah's pod.

Noah told us it was broken.

It wasn't keeping him in stasis, he could feel time passing.

None of us thought of that.

We've been doing everything we can to make Max stronger.

He pulled his own plug.

(knocking on door)

You've been avoiding me.

Well, I learned you and all of our friends have been lying to me about aliens and murders and resurrection, so, haven't been feeling particularly social.

That being said, I fell for your ex, so I've decided, even though I'm still not speaking to them, you and I are even?

That's fair.

(laughs softly)

What's up?

Can't remember the password.

And you want me to use my NSA intelligence cryptology training to hack into your laptop?

(chuckles)

How does any straight man survive you?

(laughs)

They don't.

How did you get here so fast?

You called, I broke the speed limit.

What else is new?

You ran a scan on Noah's heart?

It's still too weak to transplant.

We can't do anything to save Max for at least eight weeks.

Right.

I knew that.

Of course.

Do you think it's true that he's been in pain?

Rosa's story keeps changing.

I...

I wrote a paper for a bioethics class on patients in vegetative states who feel pain.

Sometimes it's all they feel.

That can't be it.

Our experiment was working.

This is not over.

No, you didn't fail.

I mean, that heart was beyond repair, and now it's healing.

In a few months, i-it'll be viable again.

That's insane.

You are the smartest person I know, but your genius pales compared to your compassion.

And that's what we're up against now.

We can't outsmart our own humanity.

Okay, so what am I supposed to?

Sit around and wait for him to fade away?

I think you're supposed to use this time to find a way to say goodbye that gives you the best chance at living through it.

Decision's gonna fall on you.

I know, it's not fair.

But Max is your person.

(whispers): Wow.

There it is.

There what is?

(chuckles)

You know, our whole lives, you've kept your distance.

And you've always insisted that you're an outsider.

And I never got that, because for me and Max, you were family.

You always were.

On the worst day, you get to say, "Nope, no", person," pretend like he hasn't been ours all along.

I see that now.

You got me.

My abandonment issues have all been a long con in case your half-resurrected brother decides to short-circuit his stasis pod.

What are we gonna do, Isobel?

I was pregnant when Noah d*ed.

I had, um, I had a touch choice to make.

And I did it by imagining that Max was there.

Not just the platitudes and... but the really tough questions.

I'd have been there.

I know.

But it was a decision that I had to make on my own.

I mean, it was, it was terrifying, but I knew what was right for me.

So I think you're wrong about this decision.

What happens to Max is not my choice.

It's not yours.

It doesn't matter how much we love him.

If Rosa's right, then Max has already made his own decision, to end his suffering.

(sniffles)

Max is gonna die today.

Yeah.

I think he is.

♪ ♪ Is the handprint still there?

It's smaller, but, yeah, it's, it's still there.

L-Liz, I'm really, really sorry that I never told you what Max was asking me to do.

I...

I dreamed about you all the time after you d*ed.

It hurt at first, waking up and remembering you were still gone.

But then, eventually, I started to hope I'd dream of you.

They felt like little visits.

I never dream of Max.

I mean, he can reach out to you, he can feel Isobel, I don't even get a dream.

You really wouldn't want to see him messed up the way he is in my nightmares.

It was that bad?

Did he ever talk about me?

He loved you so much.

Are you kidding?

I'm here because he loved you.

I don't know how I'm gonna live with letting him go.

I never even told him I love him, too.

How come you're not mad at me?

For Michael?

(sighs)

The mess between us will never be your fault.

And plus, you didn't know my history with him until after you hooked up.

That's my fault.

I should have told you.

No, when I found out, I should have stopped.

Yeah, okay, you should have, but you couldn't.

How could I be mad at you for falling for Michael Guerin?

It's the easiest thing in the world.

(scoffs)

Yeah, until it's not.

Don't write him off yet, okay?

He keeps secrets because of how much he loves Max and Isobel, not because of how much he loves you.

You told me once that you would stay in Roswell forever if the guy from the museum would just keep kissing you, but you did leave.

What happened?

That summer, Guerin stopped being that guy.

♪ Well, this heart of mine ♪ ♪ Has been hardened like a stone...

♪ Ah!

(groans)

I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

It's okay, I'm fine.

I'm fine.

That is not healing right.

You need to get it looked at.

I'm fine.

I just forgot about it for a second.

Because for a second I forgot about everything except you.

(chuckles)

♪ Well, I heard the news...

♪ I can't be your medicine.

What?

You've changed since my dad found us that night.

You're starting fights with jocks.

I know that you broke into the drugstore last week.

Now you're not going to UNM?

That's a money thing.

You got a scholarship.

Look, I like doing this with you, but not if it's just so that you can forget about something else, like how you and Max haven't hung out at all this summer.

Are you in love with Max?

Are you serious?

Hey.

You can tell me, okay?

You guys were close, like, really close.

Not like that.

It's more than that, and it's-it's, it's less than that.

We were friends when we were kids, but now Max reminds me of a bunch of stuff that I'd rather forget.

The only thing that we have in common anymore is Isobel.

And before you ask, yeah...

I'm totally in love with Isobel.

(chuckles)

I want to be with you, but not if you're wasting your life.

You know?

♪ Well, baby, love don't live here.

♪ (clears throat)

I begged him to get it together, then he got busted for stealing hubcaps, something like that.

He was pushing you away.

He does that.

He hurts people to see if they let him go.

Made out with Lindsey right in front of me.

Yeah, well, I didn't need much pushing.

He had become this walking bar fight, and I just could not deal.

Hey.

You grew up in an abusive home.

It makes sense that you didn't want to be around all that anger.

Yeah, and then the irony of enlisting to escape v*olence.

He was locked up the day that I left.

I didn't get to say goodbye.

Last year, a b*llet tore my heart open, and you put it back together.

So...

when your heart needed repair, I believed I could fix it, too.

(sighs)

I can't...

No, no.

(door opens)

(laughing): Oh, my God.

Biology club.

Max hated science.

He was in that club for four years just to watch your sister chew on the end of her pencil.

I was just grabbing the last of my stuff.

I'm gonna head out soon.

No, no, I'm here for you.

I need to talk to Max.

What?

I need to make sure that it's him in your dreams, and not just some freaky drug addict nightmare that you're having, no offense.

Okay, you know you can't just say "no offense" after you say something offensive.

Okay.

Right now there's no time for my stunning personality.

That handprint on your chest gives you direct access to Max's brain waves.

I need to use that channel to get through to him, so if I mind-meld you, and then you find Max, the three of us can have a three-way.

Conference call.

Look, I only see him when I'm asleep.

Like I said, no time.

Ooh, I'll beg forgiveness later.

(high-pitched ringing)

You hit me with a thesaurus?

(thunder rumbling)

Easy, girl.

I know how to choke a bitch.

Stop it.

Quit it.

Isobel!

Do all of your nightmares look like this?

I mean, they were all creepy and dark, but...

not like this.

Not broken.

Max!

(thunder rumbling)

Max!

(distorted music playing)

I think the music is coming from that way.

Come on.

(engine not turning over)

(sighs)

Come on.

♪ ♪ We shouldn't come here anymore.

I want to check on Mr.

Ortecho.

In case something bad happens to him?

I think we should tell Isobel I did it.

It's not fair that she thinks it was you.

She'd never believe you.

If you take credit for a triple m*rder, the person who knows you best is gonna ask questions.

I'm the hothead, you are the hero.

It's always been that way.

Just embrace it.

Yeah, well, someone has to clean up your messes.

You stole the hubcaps off Kyle Valenti's graduation present.

Both his parents are cops.

Do you want to end up in jail tonight?

Is that it?

Where'd you get the bail money?

Huh?

Tutoring?

(mocking laugh)

I'm gonna pay you back Friday.

I got a gig lined up at Foster ranch for the summer.

Yeah, I know.

How?

Dad said they were hiring.

I didn't want the job, but I know you love the place.

I didn't ask for that, Max.

I never asked for you.

(screaming)

Michael!

Hey!

You okay?

No!

I can't commiserate with you right now.

I don't want to sit around and-and...

Feeling feelings?

Yeah, me neither, okay?

We're doing the transplant tonight.

Noah's heart might only keep Max alive a few minutes.

You're gonna put him through surgery for that?

He can either fade away in a cave, trapped in his own hell, or he can spend his last moments knowing how loved he was.

You and Valenti, you need me for the surgery?

No, but you should be there when he wakes up.

Pretty sure Max has heard enough out of me for one lifetime.

When I got back to town, I asked Max why you and your brilliant mind hadn't changed the world yet.

He said you didn't care about the world enough to bother changing it.

He believed you could.

Good luck getting his car up and running.

(distorted music playing)

Hello?

ROSA: This is the Crashdown, at least what's left of it in his mind.

(music stops)

Max!

You're okay.

I could feel something was wrong with you.

Everything felt...

Cold.

I know.

(thunder rumbles)

You can't be here.

It's finally ending.

I-I can feel it.

But I don't know what-what happens if you're in my head when I die.

So it's true?

You want this?

I could feel my connection to the outside world getting stronger, so I-I snapped.

I couldn't take it anymore.

I released a surge.

You have to let me go, Iz.

Are you in?

Did I just commit a felony?

It's my mom's computer.

Her nurse said that for the two weeks before she went missing, when she wasn't trying to escape, she was talking to someone online.

They let her have Internet?

Well, she's a patient, not an inmate.

She uses her computer to watch Netflix and stuff.

I don't know.

I just want to see this browser history.

Somebody cleared her search history.

Excuse me.

(both chuckle)

No.

You...

It's okay.

My mom was the last one to use this computer.

If she deleted it, she obviously didn't want anyone to know what she was doing online.

You know that if somebody clears their search history, they are hiding something.

I thought she wasn't telling me her password because she couldn't remember it.

If she didn't want me to see something, then, hey.

All the more reason to see it.

I'm not investigating my mom.

I just want to know who might have taken her, but she's a victim.

I'm not gonna inv*de her privacy over it.

She has a right to her secrets.

(phone buzzes)

It's Valenti.

I got to go.

I like Kyle, but he was terrible to you for so long.

How have you forgiven him?

Kyle and I aren't friends.

I'm doing this because it's my responsibility.

I'm doing this for Liz.

You know, something I learned in the last ten years is, sometimes showing up is the most important thing.

Can't stay mad forever.

People have a right to their secrets.

(scoffs)

I can't take it anymore.

(thunder rumbling)

Okay.

I am so sorry.

(shushes)

I just want to memorize this.

(whispers): Okay.

Okay.

I need you to tell Liz something.

You can tell her yourself.

She and Kyle are prepping for surgery.

They're gonna use the faulty heart.

She just wants to talk to you before you die.

No.

No.

You won't be suffering.

They're just gonna bring you back and then let you go.

No.

You have to stop this.

You cannot bring me back under any circumstances.

Max?

What is really going on?

I am dangerous.

Whatever Liz is bringing back is not me.

It's just some broken shell.

(cranking wrench)

(knocking on door)

I'm not doing the 21st birthday thing, Isobel.

I don't do mechanical bulls and I don't do Garth Brooks karaoke.

Well, that's a shame, because I came looking for my friend in the lowest of places.

I need help moving a body.

Tequila?

Yeah.

Tequila.

See, this is what happens when you don't show up.

Happy 21st birthday.

Very mature.

Somehow it's-it's my fault?

Of course this is my fault.

You know, you didn't just stand Max up tonight.

It's my birthday, too.

Well, I'm sorry.

I was very busy with all of my underachieving.

Hey.

Hey, you made it.

It's after midnight, and I had to tempt him with a felony to get him out of his trailer.

It doesn't count.

(slurring): The thing is, there has to be three.

Okay?

There's always three.

Until the very end.

I'll show you.

I'll-I'll sh...

This is crazy.

I got this, right...

MICHAEL: What's it mean?

What it means...

It means that you should be here.

You know?

Mm-hmm.

'Cause it's all broken without three.

So we'll figure it out.

You'll find your way back.

I'm good, thanks.

But I'll see you next time you bring me in for petty larceny.

(laughs)

(laughs)

I-I will.

Oh!

Good night, Deputy.

You know he did the whole police academy thing because of you, right?

He thinks you're gonna get into the kind of trouble you can't get out of if you don't know someone.

I can pick locks with my brain.

I don't need him.

Yeah, I think he got that.

(engine starts)

(thumping)

Purring like a kitten.

You don't do bad work once you pull your finger out of your nose.

Yeah, we both know I do the best work in the state.

Regardless of where my fingers are.

What was it?

There was too much tension between the alternator and the battery.

Had to reset the coils, figure out a new way for them to talk to each other.

I'm gonna need the rest of the day off.

Uh...

a family emergency.

Yeah, well, I got a ice skating date in hell with the tooth fairy.

I figured it all out.

See, there's a-an energy to suffering, there's an energy to death.

And when I heal people, I absorb that energy.

So, when I resurrected Rosa, I took in ten years of emptiness.

So if you resurrect me, you will be bringing back an infection.

Don't want...

I don't want to come back as a monster.

I don't want to hurt anyone that I care about.

That's what this is about?

Hurting, Max.

We don't work without you.

You will!

You will.

You are stronger now than when I d*ed.

All of you are.

You and Michael, Liz, you will survive this.

The three of you.

No, you need to stop them, Iz.

Now.

Okay.

I love you.

You, too.

I'm sorry this is happening.

(grunts)

Isobel is lying.

She is buying time.

You know she'll never let me go.

But you can feel the darkness, too, though, right?

That's why you don't like being in my head.

Because you know it's real.

I didn't want that to be true, but yes.

I know my sister and I know your sister, and they'll never give up.

So you have to be the one to stop the surgery.

Okay, or I will destroy everything that we love.

You have to stop them to save them.

Now go.

Please, Rosa, go.

(coughs)

(sighs)

What?

Hey!

Hello?

Oh, these bitch-ass aliens.

He was begging you to let him die?

Yeah.

And not to relieve his suffering, either, but because he's scared he's going to hurt us.

If-if Max survives at all, he is going to be weak.

When he saved Rosa, he absorbed all of that dark energy.

He's gonna have to expel it.

And-and he's afraid he's gonna k*ll someone when he does.

Yeah.

So we just need someone stronger than Max to take that hit.

Isobel...

Look, if he thinks that he needs to protect us, he obviously doesn't know how capable we are.

Bring him back, Liz.

I'll handle the rest.

("Keep You Safe" by Lindsey Ray playing)

Okay.

Everything's secured.

Hospital staff thinks that a highly-classified VIP patient's being treated.

They won't bother you.

And Michael?

Uh, we've been calling.

There's no answer.

Good luck.

♪ Ooh...

♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ I will light the path for ♪ ♪ You...

♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ I'll do ♪ ♪ All that I can ♪ ♪ Do ♪ ♪ To keep you safe ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ (grunts)

♪ I will light the path for ♪ ♪ You...

♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ I'll do all that I can ♪ ♪ Do...

♪ ♪ Ooh...

♪ You got this look in your eyes like you think I'm crazy.

This look?

I get this look every time I use my workplace to conduct an impossible emergency alien heart transplant, solo.

He's gonna die, Liz.

We're risking everything to do this, and maybe...

Maybe...

he lives long enough for you to get a minute with him before that heart gives out.

A minute is all I need.

♪ To...

keep you safe.

♪ You need a break?

A water?

You don't need to check on me.

There's a reason surgeons don't operate on loved ones.

Holding someone's future in your hands when you're personally invested is...

I'm okay, Kyle.

And there is nothing that's gonna happen here today that'll change how grateful I am to you.

I will never be able to repay you for everything that you've...

You never have to.

(sighs)

We're family.

♪ I see it in your eyes...

♪ (footfalls approaching)

(panting)

Oh, my God.

I didn't think you'd make it.

No, I'm here.

I get it now.

It's got to be the three of us.

What?

Where's the operating room?

♪ Never give up, don't give up now...

♪ MICHAEL: It inserts subdermally.

To monitor and nudge the pulse.

It keeps it steady and strong.

If it works, it'll buy us time.

Years or longer.

I thought you'd given up.

Yeah.

It's what I do.

Thing is, Max...

he doesn't.

He would never pull his plug to end his own suffering.

Unless he thought he was saving us from something.

And I'm a little sick of his heroic martyr crap.

It's a pain in the ass.

So you built an alien pacemaker in seven hours.

My genius increases when I'm pissed off.

Thank you.

♪ Never give up, don't give up now ♪ ♪ There's still hope in the darkest hour ♪ ♪ Never give up, don't give up now ♪ ♪ I'll take this pain for you ♪ ♪ I will pull you through ♪ ♪ I'll be with you till the end ♪ (monitor beeping steadily)

♪ With you till the end...

♪ We got it ticking.

Now we just need to keep it going.

♪ Through the fire and rain ♪ All right, time to attach the pacemaker.

♪ I will be your strength ♪ ♪ I'll be with you till the end ♪ ♪ With you till the end ♪ ♪ With you till the end...

♪ (alarm sounding)

He's crashing.

Ready the defibrillators.

♪ I'll be with you till the end...

♪ Rosa, what are you doing?

I'm sorry, but he begged me.

Wh-What?

(alarm blaring)

(monitor flatlining)

Charge.

Clear!

Shock!

Still flatlining.

No response at all.

Damn it.

More power.

Charge.

Clear.

Shock.

Still no response.

Let's go again.

Charge.

Clear.

Shock.

Max!

(both grunting)

You can't be here, Iz, you have to go.

No.

No, no, no.

I'm not gonna let you go alone, okay?

I'm never gonna let you go alone.

♪ They're spreading blankets on the beach...

♪ (crying): No, no, no.

♪ Yours was the first face that I saw ♪ ♪ I think I was blind before I met you.

♪ (monitor flatlining)

There's not enough power.

The defibrillator's cranked up as high as it will go.

It's not meant for a heart that's been dead for months.

(Liz gasps)

No.

No!

(sobbing)

I have to call it.

No.

Do it again.

Do it again!

Come on, one more time.

You have to.

Charge.

(power surges)

Clear.

Shock!

(monitor beeps steadily)

(monitor beeping steadily)

Uh, I, uh...

I just came to check on the pacemaker.

I'm gonna come back.

No, no, no.

Hey, hey, hey.

Stay.

Stay.

What were you gonna do if the pacemaker hadn't worked?

I..

would've kept him comfortable for as long as possible.

I would have told him I love him.

And if his heart stopped b*ating and there was nothing I could do...

I would've said goodbye.

But we don't have to live in that "what if" scenario anymore.

We saved him.

We're gonna keep him in the coma until he's strong enough to wake up.

And he will wake up.

Whatever happens next, we're gonna handle it.

Max is alive, Michael.

First thing I remember is the three of us.

We woke up terrified and lost but together.

And then all of a sudden I was alone.

And I got real good at being alone.

I'd given up on people entirely.

♪ Somewhere past tomorrow...

♪ And then you found me again.

♪ The life you live in dreams ♪ Hell of a hero move.

You showed up just in time.

♪ If you're ever broken ♪ ♪ There's always an open door ♪ ♪ A beacon toward the shore ♪ ♪ Sometimes it takes dark...

♪ When you are a kid who nobody loves, kindness is a currency.

♪ Sometimes you need fire...

♪ Friendship doesn't mean jack.

Family just lies and hurts and leaves.

I've only ever known love to be temporary.

♪ 'Cause the stars are on your side ♪ So, yeah, I push people away.

Every time someone threatens to care about me, I test their love until they have to leave.

♪ ♪ (truck door opens)

(truck door shuts)

♪ If you're holding breath...

♪ Connection is conditional.

Everybody eventually gives up on the guy who refuses to be rescued.

♪ Know you're bound for glory ♪ ♪ And that all is never lost ♪ ♪ No matter the cost...

♪ But y-you were the only one that I could never run off.

You never believed me when I tried to be something I wasn't.

♪ Sometimes you need fire ♪ ♪ To see you through the other side ♪ ♪ So get up off your knees ♪ ♪ Hope is still alive...

♪ So, this thing in your chest...

it might give your heart a pretty solid kick every once in a while.

Consider it payback.

It's my hero move, Max.

If you wake up, you consider us even, okay?

♪ ♪ If you wake up, we can be a family.

Where's Isobel?

She's getting ready.

Getting ready...

for what?

(shuddering)

(groans)

Welcome back.

You've been in a medically induced coma for 12 years.

Taylor Swift is president now, which, honestly, is for the best.

I begged you to understand.

Max, it's gonna be fine.

No.

I told you to let me go.

I can feel it inside me.

It's, it's symmetry.

Okay?

It's just energy for energy.

We can deal with that.

Fight it, Max.

This isn't you.

I don't want to hurt you.

I need to get out.

I need to get away from you, from everyone.

I can't let you do that.

(groans)

(groans)

(thunder rumbling)

(high-pitched ringing)

(thunder rumbling)

I made a promise that if you came back and you weren't Max, and you were actually gonna hurt people, that I would k*ll you.

I figure, hey, you got to play God.

Make life and death decisions all on your own.

(thunder rumbling)

Well, it's my turn now.

(thunder cracks)

We can be a matching set.