ROSWELL EPISODE #120 - THE WHITE ROOM
=================================================
(Episode begins where Max to the Max left off. Max is in an all white room with no windows and no doors. He hears a voice over the PA.)
PIERCE: Good morning, Max.
MAX: Where am I?
PIERCE: Someplace where no one can find you.
MAX: Why am I here?
PIERCE: That's what I want to try to find out.
MAX: You've made a mistake.
PIERCE: I don't think so. I know what you are, and now, you're going to tell me everything.
MAX: I'm Max Evans. I live at sixty-twenty-five Murray Lane. You can call my parents.
PIERCE: We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. What is the name of your home planet?
MAX: Earth.
PIERCE: All right. Hard way.
(A group of technicians run in and tie Max to a table.)
MAX: I'm Max Evans. Why are you doing this to me? Why?! Why? What...
(Credits.)
(In the kitchen of the Crashdown.)
MICHAEL: We should have never split up. I mean I never should have left him alone.
ISABEL: What are they doing to him? What if he's already dead?
LIZ: No, no, Isabel you can't even talk like that because, you know, Max is too smart to let something like that happen.
TESS: Pierce won't kill him. He wants to study him.
MICHAEL: How the hell do you know?
(Liz runs to the front of the restaurant as Maria and Alex come inside.)
MARIA: Oh my god, Liz. We were so worried.
LIZ: You guys, they took Max.
ALEX: Who? Who did?
LIZ: Pierce, you know the FBI Special Unit. They took him.
(Alex embraces Isabel, and Maria goes to Michael.)
LIZ: Wheres Nasedo?
TESS: I dont know.
MICHAEL: Hes supposed to be at our side. Where is he?
TESS: I told you, I dont know. Hes never left me alone like this before.
ISABEL: Then its up to us. We have to find Max.
ALEX: Wha what makes you think we can go up against alien hunters and win?
MICHAEL: What the hell choice do we have? Let him be a pincushion for Pierce? Let him die?
ALEX: No.
LIZ: We have to go to Valenti.
MICHAEL: What, and tell him everything?
ISABEL: Max was willing to do it to save Liz. Maybe now is the time to trust him.
TESS: What makes you think that Valenti is better equipped than we are?
MARIA: Hes the law. Hes got resources.
TESS: So do we. Stronger ones. Look, I know what can do. What about the two of you?
MICHAEL: What do you mean?
TESS: Your powers, Michael. Your gifts. You do have them, dont you?
MICHAEL: Were not too advanced.
ISABEL: We can do easy things, like change simple molecular structure, but we dont use them very often. What about you?
TESS: Being around Nasedo has taught me quite a few things.
ALEX: Wait, what about that dream thing that you can do?
TESS: What dream thing?
ISABEL: Sometimes I can go into peoples heads when theyre sleeping.
TESS: And you can all do that?
MICHAEL: No, just Isabel.
TESS: And you can communicate with him?
ISABEL: Subconsciously. Ive only done it a few times though.
LIZ: Look, if you do it to Max, maybe he can tell you where he is.
ISABEL: Ive never done it to anyone who was awake before. I dont know if I can get in.
(In the White room, Max wakes strapped to a table.)
PIERCE: (As he strips off his clean room gear.) You and I dont need procedure, now do we, Max?
(Max remembers where hes seen Pierce before.)
PIERCE as DEPUTY FISHER: Where are you going in such a hurry?
MAX: Nowhere, officer.
(In the present.)
MAX: Youre the deputy?
PIERCE: You have your tricks, I have mine.
MAX: Who do you think I am?
PIERCE: Thats what weve been trying to find out at the lab. You know, theres something very strange about your X-rays something that doesnt make sense. Theyre completely human: your bone structure, your organs, circulatory and pulmonary systems. Everything human. But. Heres where things get really strange. These are your blood cells. Completely not human. Still want me to call your parents? I told you Max; I know what you are, so now youre going to start answering my questions. Delta, Colorado, 1962, Agent Lewis, the first head of this Special Unit was found dead. His internal organs had reached a temperature of 180 degrees Fahrenheit. A silver handprint was found on his chest. What do you know about that?
MAX: Nothing.
PIERCE: Union City, Tennessee, 1967 Agent del Bianco, his replacement. Ring a bell?
MAX: No.
PIERCE: All right. How about this: May second, 1999, Agent Daniel Summers, the man who brought me into this unit, the man whose job I now have, did you kill him, too? Or was it one of the others?
MAX: What others?
PIERCE: You know, I might not have been around in 1947, but I know all about the crash. About the four aliens they captured: two dead, two alive. Ive spent my entire career studying the documentation. Especially the three years of observation they made on the one held in captivity, right here in this room.
MAX: I thought you said there were four.
PIERCE: One of them escaped. Nasedo. Isnt that what you call him? (He brings out an orb.) Wheres the other one? What happens when you put them together?
MAX: I dont know.
(The technicians come back in. They drug Max.)
PIERCE: Shhh. Shhh.
(In Lizs room. Everyone is one the balcony except Alex and Isabel who are on the bed.)
ALEX: I remember when uhh, Michael almost died in here. He went somewhere in his in his mind and he he barely made it out.
ISABEL: I have to do this.
ALEX: Then Im going to stay with you. Umm, if Im holding on to you, maybe you wont get lost.
ISABEL: K. (They lay down. She is touching a picture of Max.) Let me in, Max, Let me in. (She is in the White room. The room is spinning from the drugs, and she is disoriented.) Max. Max? Oh god. Max, stop this. Stop this and help me.
MAX: I cant. They gave me something.
ISABEL: Ok. Ok. Ok. Max, look at me. Look only at me, look only at me. Where are you? Tell me where you are.
MAX: I dont know.
ISABEL: Help me, Max, how did you get here? Think harder.
MAX: I dont know.
ISABEL: Think harder. (She sees him being wheeled down a long corridor with an eagle emblem on the floor through a security door.) Who brought you here? (She sees Deputy Fisher.) Valentis deputy? Max
MAX: Look again.
ISABEL: Deputy Fisher is Agent Pierce?
MAX: You have to go now.
ISABEL: No. No, Im not leaving you.
MAX: You have to.
ISABEL: No. Why? No, no, stop, please. Im not leaving you, Im not (She wakes up from her dream walk.) MAX! MAX! Oh god! Oh my God! (Everyone runs in from the balcony.)
MICHAEL: What happened? What happened?
ISABEL: Michael, hes so scared. Hes so scared.
MICHAEL: Ok, Isabel, youve got to calm down. All right? You got to tell me what you saw. We got to help him.
ISABEL: Oh god. That deputy the deputy that stopped us last night, hes Pierce. Hes Pierce.
ALEX: Are you sure?
ISABEL: He told me. And hes drugging him. Hes hurting him.
LIZ: Where is he? Where where is
ISABEL: I dont know. I dont know where he is.
TESS: Think hard. He must have given you something. Think.
ISABEL: Ok, he did. He did. I think I know where Ive seen it before.
(At the UFO Convention Center.)
MARIA: Eagle Rock Military Base. This is where they were said to have secretly taken the aliens after the crash.
ISABEL: This is it. This is what Max showed me. This is the symbol on the hall floor on the base.
MARIA: It says that its been abandoned for years.
ISABEL: Thats where he is.
LIZ: Look; now we have no choice, ok, we have to go to Valenti.
MICHAEL: What are you crazy? After we just found out about Deputy Fisher? Valentis probably in on the whole thing.
LIZ: We cant go to a place like that on our own.
MICHAEL: No, you cant, but we can. Isabel, Tess and I can protect ourselves.
MARIA: With what? Your gifts?
MICHAEL: Why not?
MARIA: Because you dont know who to use them, thats why not. You could get killed, or worse.
LIZ: And you guys arent going there without me.
TESS: No. Look, you want the truth? Youre liabilities, all three of you. Weve got a better chance of saving Max without you, and thats what this is all about, right?
LIZ: Bring him back to me.
MICHAEL: I will.
TESS: Wed better hurry.
MARIA: You come back to me.
(The three aliens leave together.)
(They break into the military base, and sneak around the deserted corridors. They find the security door.)
ISABEL: I saw that. Max remembered it.
TESS: Hes in there.
MICHAEL: How do we get in? (An agent walks by.)
TESS: In here or theyll see us. Wait, they always patrol in air holes.
ISABEL: How did you know that? Nasedo?
TESS: When youve been hunted all your life, it gets easier to catch on.
(In the White room.)
PIERCE: Tell me about the crash, Max. What about the orb? The communicator. Wake him up. Wake him up. Tell me. Dont make me kill you. Max, tell me where it is. More! I am going to find out one way or another. See, this is getting us nowhere. I want everything flushed out of his system now. I want him completely coherent for the next phase.
(At the Crashdown.)
MARIA: Im sure theyve found him by now.
ALEX: Theyre probably on their way back.
LIZ: Yeah, I wish I could believe that one.
(Valenti sits down.)
SHERIFF: Ive been up all night trying to figure out what happened at that carnival. I mean, I know what I saw. Mirrors or no mirrors, there were two Max Evans standing right in front of me. And now one of them is in the hands of Agent Pierce and the Special Unit, and Im just hoping that it wasnt the one that we all care about. Liz, tell me. Let me help.
LIZ: We dont know any more than you do, Sheriff. Sorry.
SHERIFF: Well, if Pierce has reached the same conclusion that I have, Max is going to need a lot more help than any of you can give him. (He leaves.)
LIZ: You guys, what if hes right? I would never forgive myself if something actually happened to them that maybe we could have, like, prevented. I
MARIA: Ok, listen; lets give them until four oclock, all right? If theyre not back by then
LIZ: Right. Ok. Four oclock.
MARIA: Hes going to be fine.
LIZ: Yeah.
(Scene after scene where Max is being tortured with drugs, ice baths, isolation, electro-shock therapy, etc.)
(Somewhere on the base.)
ISABEL: Oh god, he wont let me in. I just keep seeing some blinding light. Thats not good. Hes in some kind of trauma.
MICHAEL: If you can get through the damn electric fence, why cant you short circuit the security system?
TESS: I told you, because theyre watching. The minute they see us, its all over.
ISABEL: So what are we supposed to do, just wait and let them kill him?
MICHAEL: Im going to take this thing down myself.
(He steps out of their hiding spot to see two guys wheeling a gurney with a dead body down the hall.)
ISABEL: Its him.
TESS: We dont know that. I would have felt it if something happened to him.
MICHAEL: Only one way to find out.
(They sneak down the hall after the body.)
(At the Crashdown, its 4:08.)
LIZ: Im not waiting any more. Im going to do what Max would do for me.
MARIA: Wait a minute. Are you sure its our responsibility to tell Valenti everything?
LIZ: Its our responsibility to keep them alive. You know, Max was ready to trust him, thats all I need to know.
ALEX: What are you going to say?
LIZ: Whatever I have to; to get him to help.
(In the Morgue at the base, the aliens pull back the sheet to reveal the agent that Nasedo killed and dumped on the side of the road yesterday, in Max to the Max.)
ISABEL: Oh my god. Michael, look.
TESS: What is that?
MICHAEL: Nasedo.
ISABEL: Thats how he kills.
TESS: I swear to you, Ive never
(Nasedo disguised as an agent walks in.)
NASEDO: Hey. You shouldnt be here. What are you doing here?
(Michael tries to use his powers to protect them, but Nasedo easily overcomes Michaels powers with his own, and sends Michael flying backwards.)
TESS: Its you. (Nasedo shape-shifts into Mr. Harding.) Dont ever leave me alone like that again.
NASEDO: I have four of you to watch now.
MICHAEL: Ive been looking for you for a long time.
NASEDO: Not as long as Ive been looking for you. Now youre about to get yourselves killed.
ISABEL: Were here for Max.
NASEDO: This isnt the local sheriff youre dealing with. You should have known better. None of you are equipped to be here. Ive got to get you out of here. (He shape-shifts back into an agent.)
(They leave the Morgue, but almost run into the agent he is impersonating.)
(In Sheriff Valentis office.)
SHERIFF: Liz Parker.
LIZ: Youre right Sheriff. I need your help. We all do. Your new deputy, Fisher; he isnt a deputy, Sheriff, and his name is not Fisher. Its Pierce from the FBI Special Unit. Hes the one who has Max.
SHERIFF: How do you know that?
LIZ: I cant tell you, Sheriff, but Max is in a lot of trouble. I think that they all are. Sheriff, please. Will you trust me? I can tell you where he is.
(Somewhere on the base. Nasedo is back in the guise of Mr. Harding.)
ISABEL: I dont think we belong with him.
MICHAEL: Hes Nasedo, what choice do we have?
ISABEL: We could go back up there ourselves.
MICHAEL: Four is stronger than two. We need them.
ISABEL: He could be working for Pierce. You know, we dont know anything for sure.
NASEDO: The most important part of the plan is timing. Set your watches: 5:47. This is your escape route: scan it.
MICHAEL: Scan it?
NASEDO: Into your brain. You cant? All right, you have two minutes to memorize it. I know this place intimately. Ive already escaped it once. Now, if Im going to save Max, I need help. We need to get through the security door.
ISABEL: I could do that. Ive gotten through doors before.
NASEDO: That isnt some deadbolt up there. That door is made up of depleted Uranium; a metal composed of heavy atoms, which we cant manipulate.
ISABEL: We cant.
NASEDO: You have many limitations.
MICHAEL: They know about them?
NASEDO: They know more about you than you do. Theyve been studying us for fifty years. The only way to gain entry is to get through the security scanner.
ISABEL: Well, how do we do that?
NASEDO: I can shape-shift into any of these agents: take their form, even their fingerprints. Thats why they added the X-ray scanner. My bone structure is far from human. I can change my appearance, but not whats on the inside. Your bone structure, on the other hand, is one hundred percent human.
MICHAEL: So youre different from me?
NASEDO: Biology lessons later. Come on. If Im going to get through that door, Im going to need one of you with me, and since the only female agent at the Special Unit is now dead, its you and me, Michael.
MICHAEL: I cant get through the scanner, either. I cant change my fingerprints.
NASEDO: Yes you can, you just dont know you can. Ill teach you. I just hope for Maxs sake that youre a quick study. Im going to need both of you, too.
(In the White room. Max wakes up unrestrained and semi-coherent. He attacks Pierce.)
PIERCE: Dont even try. Dont even try to use your abilities, Max. The serum we injected you with very effective in suppressing the neurotransmitters in your cerebral cortex. Experiments on the alien in the forties taught us that thats where most of your powers come from. Come on, sit down. Its all right. Thats not your real weakness, though, is it? You know, Ive been going about this the wrong way the whole time. Its not that youre part alien: its that youre part human. (Max is suddenly restrained in the chair, and Pierce puts a VR visor on Maxs head.) You have feelings. (An image of Michael is projected on the visor.) Emotions. (Max sees Isabel.) Friendship. (Maria and Alex appear.) Love. (Liz is last. An image of Liz dead with blood on her face is projected.)
MAX: No! NO!
PIERCE: Trick photography, Max.
MAX: NO! No!
PIERCE: Max, Max! Computer rigged. Virtual reality, Max. Its not real. Its not real. We didnt kill her. We didnt kill her. I just wanted to show you what can happen. What will happen.
MAX: Youre evil.
PIERCE: Im evil? Im risking my life to save my country, my planet from being colonized by alien life - by you. Tell me where the other one is.
MAX: The other what?
PIERCE: We found this in the crash. We have spent fifty years looking for the other one, and we know you have it. It took a little persuading, but Topolsky told us. Tell me where it is. Tell me. Ok. Im going to give you a choice, Max. You can either tell me where the other orb is, or you can tell me which one of your friends you want me to kill first. Hmm? And you have ten seconds. Maybe Ill start with Liz.
MAX: Ok, stop it! Stop! Ill tell you where it is, just dont hurt Liz.
PIERCE: Huh. You do have feelings. Just like us. Whatever you are, you better tell me the truth for Lizs sake.
(Back at the Morgue.)
NASEDO: Humans are weak which doesnt bother me and wasteful. Their brains are incredible machines they havent even begun to use. When you were engineered, you were given the capacity to do everything the human brain is capable of.
MICHAEL: You mean beside our powers?
NASEDO: Those are your powers, Michael. Everything you can do is human. You were just programmed to be several thousand years ahead of mankind, thats all. But from what I saw earlier, youve barely tapped into what youre capable of. You can do it, Michael. The only thing stopping you is yourself. (Michael tries to transfer the dead bodys fingerprint onto his own finger.) Try again.
(Somewhere on the base.)
TESS: Its going to be ok. Nasedo knows what to do.
ISABEL: Thank you.
TESS: Weve been in trouble before. We can deal with this.
ISABEL: Thats not what I mean. Thank you for helping us find Max.
TESS: We havent got him yet.
ISABEL: So, I dont understand. Im going to dream walk to give him the plan, but what are you going to do?
(An agent suddenly appears, and carries Tess away. Isabel goes to follow, when suddenly its over, and Tess is beside her.)
TESS: Its ok. Its ok.
ISABEL: Oh my god, what just happened?
TESS: I made you think something was happening right in front of you when it really wasnt.
ISABEL: Thats what you did to Max, isnt it? Thats why he had all those thought about you.
TESS: I can only keep it going for a little while. After you get Max to clear the room, Im going to go into Pierces head, distract him. Hopefully I can keep it going long enough so that Michael and Nasedo can get Max out of there.
(Back at the Morgue.)
MICHAEL: Damn it, I cant do this!
NASEDO: Yes you can. The only one stopping you is you.
MICHAEL: Will you quit saying that? That is not helping me.
NASEDO: Are you just going to let Max die?
MICHAEL: I am trying my best.
NASEDO: That is not your best, Michael; it is not your best.
MICHAEL: Well, give me a pointer, huh? Give me a hint. Give me something.
NASEDO: Its inside you. Your program.
MICHAEL: Hey, I didnt get the manual, ok? All this time Ive been alone. Where have you been? Where the hell have you been? Huh? Whyd you let this happen to us? To me?
NASEDO: Emotions are a weakness, Michael. Focus. Youve got until this guy gets to the door, then Im using his hand, and you know how Im going to get it. We are running out of time here.
MICHAEL: I did it. I did it. I think I did it.
(An agent enters the Morgue, Nasedo appears behind him.)
NASEDO: Agent.
AGENT: Who the hell are you, and what are you (Nasedo kills him.)
MICHAEL: No! I said I did it.
NASEDO: I heard you. I told you you could.
MICHAEL: You killed him. Whyd you do that?
NASEDO: I cant take a chance like what happened in the hallway before. There cant be two of me.
MICHAEL: How can you do this? How can you kill all these people? You dont care, do you?
NASEDO: Michael, if you want to survive, if you want to get back home, youve got to be willing to fight for that. You understand?
MICHAEL: Youre not who I thought youd be.
NASEDO: Neither are you. Its show time.
(Michael, suddenly clad in a suit, combs his hair while Nasedo shape-shifts into the newly killed agent.)
(In the White room.)
PIERCE: You finally told me the truth about where you hid it. Now make them work.
MAX: I cant.
PIERCE: Do it!
MAX: Im telling you the truth now, too.
PIERCE: Make them work. Make the orbs work.
MAX: I dont know how.
PIERCE: Lets begin. (A group of technicians enter the room with surgical equipment.) I can take you apart piece by piece, and make sure that you stay conscious enough to feel every second of it.
MAX: I cant tell you what I dont know. I cant tell you what I dont know.
PIERCE: Bring in the surgeons.
(At the security scanner. Michael is able to get through.)
AGENT: Matheson.
NASEDO: Afternoon, Agent.
AGENT: Fields. Youre the new agent, arent you?
MICHAEL: Yeah, good to meet you.
AGENT: You picked a hell of a time to show up. Welcome to the Unit.
MICHAEL: Thank you. (A group of surgeons exit a door and head down the hallway. Michael starts after them.)
NASEDO: Where are you going?
MICHAEL: Max is in there. We got to go get him.
NASEDO: It wont help Max if you get yourself killed. We have to do this the right way. Two minutes.
(Somewhere on the base.)
ISABEL: Ok, Im going to do it.
TESS: Two minutes.
ISABEL: What if it takes me longer to get into his head than it did last time?
TESS: We have to stick to the plan. Everything has to be done like Nasedo said to the second.
ISABEL: Ok, ok.
(In the White room.)
PIERCE: (Pointing to a guy with a scalpel.) This man will hurt you. (Pointing to a guy with a large green syringe.) This man will help you. Tell me what I need to know, and he will take the pain away.
MAX: Whos inhuman now?
PIERCE: Open him up.
(Isabel dream walks into the room.)
ISABEL: Max. Max, Max. Theres no time. You have to listen to me. Michael and Nasedo are coming to rescue you. Ok, Max? Max, do you hear me? Please, Max, please. You have to listen to me.
MAX: He wants me to make the orbs work.
ISABEL: Ok. Tell him anything. Get him alone. Get Pierce alone in this room. Tell him anything. (The dream walk ends just as the surgeon is making the first incision.)
MAX: Stop!
PIERCE: Stop.
MAX: Ill show you how they work, but only you.
PIERCE: Clear the room.
(Somewhere on the base.)
TESS: Did it work?
ISABEL: Yes. Pierce wants Max to show him how to work the orbs.
TESS: I dont know how they work.
ISABEL: Well, youve got to do something, and do it now.
(In the White room.)
PIERCE: Make them work.
MAX: It takes a little time.
PIERCE: Im bringing them back.
MAX: No, just wait.
PIERCE: You had your chance, Max. (Pierce sees the orbs begin to glow green.)
(On the other side of the observation glass.)
NASEDO: Timing is everything.
(He breaks the glass.)
MICHAEL: Its Nasedo, Maxwell, dont worry. (He puts the orbs in his pockets.) Are you all right?
MAX: I am now.
MICHAEL: All right. Lets go. (He has to all but carry Max.) Whoa.
NASEDO: Get out of here. You know the escape route.
MICHAEL: What are you doing, come on.
NASEDO: I have something to take care of.
MICHAEL: No! You are not leaving me again. Lets go!
NASEDO: There are only seconds left. Go! (Michael leaves just as Pierce comes out of his trance.) Are you all right, sir? You were in here a long time. We thought wed come check.
PIERCE: Wheres the prisoner?
(In the Morgue, two agents find the new dead body.)
(In the hallway outside the White room.)
AGENT: Fields?! What are you doing?
MICHAEL: Pierces orders. I got to get the prisoner out of here. They need help inside. Go. Now! (All agents run into observation room.)
(In the White room.)
NASEDO: Are you all right, sir?
AGENT: Sir, stand back. He is not Matheson. (They shoot Nasedo.)
PIERCE: NO! Go, lock it down.
(At the security gate, the door begins to open, but then alarms go off, and it begins to close. Michael is waiting for Nasedo, as Pierce comes running around the corner with his gun drawn. Sheriff Valenti suddenly appears.)
SHERIFF: Come on, come on. Come ON!
(He shoots Pierce in the shoulder as they make their escape.)
(With the alarm sounding, Pierce is unable to gain access through the security gate.)
(End of Episode.)