#rnm fanscription

[pastelwitchling]

FanScription - Caulfield

Let’s pretend, for a moment, that Caulfield was as important as it was made to seem. Let’s pretend they hadn’t introduced it in the same episode in which they destroyed it. Let’s pretend this building that held Michael’s mother and so many more aliens inside for decades didn’t appear only to be blown up a few minutes later.

Let’s pretend that Caulfield was given the amount of respect it deserved.

Imagine if Caulfield had first been brought up in 1x02.

What if Max, starting from the pilot, was already mindlessly writing about Caulfield? We know he loves writing, well what if it’s been something that’s often taken hold of him? Something he couldn’t help but do when he was remembering something from his forgotten past that has to do with where he and his siblings came from?

Imagine we always saw Max writing something in his journal, though we never understood what. Neither, evidently, did Max. He would just be jotting things down, and all of a sudden, it would be as if the words had taken control, and Max would wake from a kind of trance in which he looks down on his paper and sees random words put together that he doesn’t remember writing, and that seemingly make no sense.

This is not the first time Max has written this paragraph without realizing it. With a sigh, he tears this picture out and tosses it on a pile of other pieces of paper on which he’s written the exact same thing, older paragraphs written in crayon, some in marker, some in pen, to mark the passage of time. Of years spent with Max writing this paragraph, never understanding why, but unable to ever get rid of the paper, unable to explain the reasoning behind it even to himself.

It means something, he’d always think.

(The fact that Max always kept this paper signified that, despite telling his siblings that they ought not to worry about where they really came from, he himself has been curious and unable to forget or keep from wondering. This would’ve been meaningful because it shows a connection between Max and Michael in a time when they both -- Michael especially -- feel they have nothing at all in common, and therefore there’s no link between them.)

Moving on. Upon Liz’s return, because his feelings are on overdrive, and because all of their feelings are connected to their powers, Max’s dreams become clearer, more vivid. Max starts seeing tortured people, people he doesn’t know but feels a certain kinship with. And there’s a woman, beaten and bloody, asking for her son. She wants her son to hear her, to stay safe.

This woman is Nora, Michael’s mother. Max, of course, doesn’t know who she is, and begins to wonder whether or not it’s his own mother he sees.

Max tells Isobel of his visions, something he’d discussed with his siblings over the years, but as they’d never seemed to lead anywhere, nothing was ever done about them. This time, though, things are different. Max considers telling Michael what he’d seen, but as usual, he gets into an argument with his brother almost the minute he sets foot at the junkyard. Max realizes that Michael is too resentful already of the luck Max has had, and decides that mentioning that he may have seen his mother would tip the scales on his relationship with his brother for the worst. So he doesn’t say anything.

As the episodes go on, Max and Liz have their moments with the occasional scenes of Max jotting down that same paragraph, scenes that seemingly aren’t important. We also get far more Team Human moments (for another fanscription), much more of them working together.

In 1x09, instead of getting They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at the end, we have Jenna letting herself into Max’s house. He told her where the spare key was so she could leave behind sheriff reports to fill out and other documents. She can’t get hold of Max’s cellphone because there’s no reception where he is, and she comes by this time to leave him a note for when he gets back, as well as some Project Shepherd documents. She’s telling him that Jesse Manes has been keeping tabs on him and his siblings, and that he needed to get in touch with her as soon as possible.

Jenna’s about to leave, but then she catches sight of the bundle of torn paper, all scribbled with the same encrypted message that makes no sense. Something about it seems familiar, but she can’t figure out what. This turns out to be the same encrypted messages Jim had written about in his final few weeks, messages all about Caulfield. When Max gets back, Jenna is practically waiting for him. She’s holding a few of the papers and while Max greets her with a curious and wary, “Hey,” Jenna firmly responds with, “I think Alex Manes will know what to do with these.”

Max, feeling discouraged after his failed road trip, tries to wave Jenna off. He tells her he’s been writing that stuff since he was a kid, that it doesn’t mean anything. But Jenna tells him she thinks she’s seen it somewhere before. When Max asks her what she means, she explains about Project Shepherd and Alex Manes’s role in everything.

“Did you say, Alex Manes?” Max says, startled at the thought of this man, and the coincidental timing as he and his brother had talked about him not that long ago.

“He’ll know what this means,” Jenna says confidently, and Max wants to put his faith in his trusted friend.

He goes to see Alex who’s surprised and confused as to why Michael’s brother would come to him for help, and with a glance at Jenna, Max tells him everything he knows. Alex asks Max why he would trust him. Max merely says that it’s because of what Alex means to Michael.

Alex says he’ll try to decipher the message, but that he won’t go forward with anything until Max tells Michael about it all.

“One of us should be honest with him,” Alex says. (It’s supposed to be meaningful because it signifies just how much of a liar Alex feels like whenever he walks away from Michael, when in reality, it’s his own fear that forces him away. He feels like, with every cold word, he’s lying to Michael’s face, not doing what he wants to do more than anything, and just be with Michael. He doesn’t want to feel like Michael’s brother is lying to him, too. It’s a confession and shows the reality of Alex’s feelings and thoughts towards Michael without expressly saying them.)

So Max gathers his siblings at the bunker and tells them everything. Michael keeps glancing at Alex who is busy at the computer attempting to decipher the paragraph Max has given him.

The information then leads them to Caulfield, but this time, Team Human and the Pod Squad go. Together, they all disable the security (which there should’ve been a lot more of) and make their way inside.

(It’s ridiculous to me that in an entire facility filled with aliens, only one member of the Pod Squad was there. I -- what? Also, Noah is knocked out completely, so they just have Liz monitoring him with more yellow pollen, just in case. She knows how important this is to them, and it’s essential they all go, as they all have personal attachments to this mission.)

Similarly to the episode, they find their way inside, and there’s a moment when the Pod Squad look through the cells through which all its residents have come to their glass doors to witness these younger aliens. Max and Isobel don’t know who to go towards first (Max is wondering where the blonde woman from his dreams is), but Michael feels himself guided by an invisible force, pulling him along to Nora’s cell. They all discover very quickly that this woman is Michael’s mother, and not Max’s.

(It’s meant to be a sweet moment because Michael has had to live with the reality of Max being chosen over and over, Max with the luck, Max who’s the most beloved. But at the sight of his mother, he cries because all the years of losing to Max seem pointless in this moment.)

Same as the episode -- Michael attempts to break through the glass (this time despite his brother’s warning), and the alarms go off. Alex is with Flint while Jenna tries to get information on where Charlie is through a flash drive that Alex created that would allow her to access Caulfield’s databases, but Kyle runs back to tell him exactly what he’d told him in 1x12.

Kyle resolves to go get Jenna while Alex goes to get the Pod Squad. Alex gets to the cells to find Max unable to malfunction the circuits without quickening the countdown. Neither of Michael’s siblings can free any of the other aliens, nor can they convince Michael to leave; he won’t even look at them as he tries to free his mother.

Cue Alex, “you’re my family,” and “I don’t look away.” Michael realizes that Alex won’t go if he doesn’t. He has his final moment with his mother, and both Team Human and the Pod Squad make it out.

As Michael stares down the remains of Caulfield, Max and Isobel stand beside him, all gazing upon the ruins of their people, and the camera stills on the three of them, together, watching the destruction of all they never knew they’d needed. Max looks at his brother and sister and realizes; the time for pretending is over. They can’t go on anymore without knowing the truth about who they are.

This was my first fanscription, I don’t know how many more of these I’ll do. It depends on whether or not it’s received well, I suppose. I usually think of ways the show could’ve made more sense, how certain storylines could’ve flowed better. That’s always a big thing for me, so I’m glad I was able to share it this time. Let me know if you’d want to see more fanscriptions, and tell me what you thought of this one! Did you like my version of things, did you prefer the original, did you have your own ideas for this storyline? Whatever you have to say.

All right. It’s late, and I’m dying. I’m going to bed.

[pastelwitchling]

What would y’all think if I did a kind of FanScription for some of the Roswell New Mexico episodes?

For anyone wondering, FanScription is a segment created by Nostalgia Critic on YouTube in which they’ll take movies and retell them with an altered plot, altered details -- things that they believe would’ve made the movie good/better.

Ever since 1x09, I’ve been considering certain plotlines, not only ranting about them, but also seriously considering what would’ve been better, what differences could’ve been made to make the storyline more coherent. It’s not a fix-it fic, it’s a little more than that where it’s me just writing posts that basically have lines like, “How much cooler would it have been if...” or “Wouldn’t it have made a lot more sense if...”

I’m just wondering what y’all would think if I shared some of these changes with you? Would you like to see something like that, or do you not care? It would be by episode, maybe by storyline? So, it could be titled either 1x12 or just Caulfield, and if it is titled by a certain storyline, then the differences would focus more on that part of the story rather than the whole episode.

But yeah... just let me know....