| Isabel takes Max, Michael,
and Tess back to the room where she found the Granolith. They stare at the huge, humming
alien object, and Tess wonders if it can hear them. Max decides they should come back
after school. Michael’s history teacher informs him that he’s already failing
his class after less than a month into the semester, and demands that he complete a report
about World War II by interviewing a WWII veteran. So a very reluctant Michael sits with
one very cranky Captain Hal Carver, and halfheartedly attempts to get his story. After
they cross-generationally snipe at each other, Carver finally begins to tell him the story
of the Roswell crash in 1947. So Michael imagines himself in Carver’s place, as
Carver recites his tale. In those days,
Carver was 21 and relegated to a desk job, thanks to a suspension he’d been given for
joyriding, when he received the call about the crash. He and Doty (who looks like Max, in
Michael’s imagination) are sent to the crash site to assist with the clean up of the
debris. There, he encounters a pushy Southern reporter named Betty (Maria) who is
investigating the crash. It is quickly apparent that there is a government cover-up in
progress, and Betty/Maria thinks maybe Carver/Michael can help her get her story.
Carver/Michael also has a girlfriend, the gorgeous
Rosemary (the gorgeous Isabel), who was widowed once and divorced twice, all before the
age of 25. He says that their relationship is one of simple pleasure, but it seems
Rosemary/Isabel has other "simple pleasures" on the side. She assumes a pair of
socks she finds are his, but Carver says they aren’t. Rosemary/Isabel is also sassy
and outspoken; when Carver/Michael asks her if she wants to hear about his day, she snaps
back, "Absolutely not." They start to engage in some 1947-style sexual healing,
when suddenly, they see someone spying on them outside of the window. Carver/Michael
chases him away, and he and Rosemary/Isabel go back to bed. Later, Carver/Michael comes
back to Rosemary/Isabel’s room, and discovers her with the 1947 model Sheriff Valenti
(Kyle). Rosemary/Isabel is very upset because the military police have been there, so
Carver/Michael storms into the office of Colonel James Cassidy (Valenti) to demand an
answer. Instead of giving him the answers he wants, Cassidy/Valenti threatens
Carver/Michael with permanent revocation of his flying duties if he doesn’t obey
orders and stop talking to Betty/Maria the reporter.
Carver/Michael witnesses the disappearance of a
nurse who was present at the autopsy of the alien from the crash, and conspires with
Betty/Maria to expose the cover-up, but her story never appears. She is supposedly killed
in an accident, but she leaves behind a key and a note for him. When Carver/Michael is
informed that he will take an honorable discharge, he goes back to the restricted area,
sees 2 sacks of 4 pods each, and begins taking pictures. Suddenly, he is confronted with
two glowing figures, but when he realizes they are only trying to protect their offspring,
he tells the beings to save them, and he leaves, chased by armed guards.
Back in the present, Carver tells Michael that
inside the pod were what looked like human fetuses. Michael confesses that he was one of
those saved, then uses his thumb to light Carver’s cigarette. They hug, and Michael
is so transformed by the experience that he takes Maria to see the Granolith, thanks her
for being there for him, and then tells her that according to Carver’s story,
somewhere there are four more aliens like them.
Judith Gerber |
