#110 The Balance – Primer

When Michael discovers Max has been withholding information from him about what he found at the cave, he becomes determined to find the answers he desires for himself. Max makes Michael promise not to do anything until he returns from his first official date with Liz.

Coming home from their date, Max and Liz discover Michael lying sick in bed. Max discovers that Michael went to the reservation and participated in a sweat with River Dog.

Max and Liz drive back to reservation where Eddie tells them River Dog is gone. Max and Liz decide to wait until River Dog returns, hoping he will tell them what’s wrong with Michael. As Liz and Max wait for River Dog, Max tells Liz about the first time he and Isabel saw Michael in the desert, just after emerging from their incubation pods. Max says he held out his hand for Michael to join them, but Michael ran off into the desert. Max and Isabel then didn’t see Michael again for three years.

Back in Roswell, Maria helps Isabel take care of Michael who has begun to hallucinate. Michael sees himself in the desert, surrounded by the symbols of the cave painting. Michael follows the symbols to a sepulcher, which contains himself inside.

Max and Liz soon find River Dog, who tells them to bring Michael to him at the cave. Once there, River Dog surrounds Michael’s body with stones the fourth alien, Nasedo gave him. River Dog tells them the stones are from their home planet. River Dog explains Nasedo went through a similar sickness, and was healed with the stones. Max, Liz, Maria, Isabel and Alex must all hold the stones to restore Michael’s balance. Liz, scared by all of the events of the past few days, hesitates at participating. Max painfully understands, but leads the rest of them through the process in order to save Michael’s life. Michael awakens and points to the symbols of the cave painting, explaining it’s a map.

Once home, Liz mulls over her lack of nerve at the cave. Max interrupts her, and the two discuss what happened. Max tells Liz that after they kissed for the first time, he forgot anything else existed. Max further explains that’s not the kind of world he can afford to live in, and gently floats the idea they should take a step back to examine what is going on in their lives. Liz realizes this means they need to stop seeing each other. Max and Liz share a goodbye kiss.

Jason Katims Commentary

“THE IDEA OF MICHAEL BEING SICK…WHAT DO THEY DO?”

Transcribed by Lena

A really interesting thing to me about The Balance was the idea of Michael being sick. It was just a very moving thing to me the idea that when you want to get sick and what do they do you can’t go to a doctor, you can go to a hospital it can’t tell anybody about it because
they’re holding secret and I think that that was the center of this story and it helps deserve ground us emotionally with the connection that all these people have and I always kind of thought of Max and Michael and Isabel as it’s a really, really strong family that even though Max and Isabel have human parents, who have adopted them and the real family is Max and and Michael and Isabel together. I thought that that was something that really came out when Michael gets sick you sort of see how much this is affecting people around them and also you start to see this family growing including Liz and Maria and now Alex is just found out the truth about them, suddenly seeing not only that they’re aliens but what a scary world he’s just entered. I thought that that was really effective and feeling what these people need to each other.