[Opening Credits]
In history class the next day, the lecture is on secrets: how everyone has them and the job of a historian is to uncover them. The teacher pairs the class up for a "get to know you" exercise in which they answer a series of personal questions and then report back to the class the next day. Liz and Isabel, Max and Kyle, and Maria and Michael are paired up for the assignment (Maria lodging a protest because Michael is not present in class... the teacher tells her to look at it as a field assignment and track him down.)
After class, Max and Kyle make plans to meet at the Crashdown after school as Liz looks on. Kyle leaves and Liz and Max begin a conversation that is interrupted because Max has a message waiting for him in the office. As he heads for the office, we overhear a conversation between Ms. Topolski and the history teacher in which we learn that she initiated the assignment and gave suggestions as to who got paired up with whom.
Max shows up at the Sheriff's station, where his boss is waiting for him, visibly shaken. Michael claims he was picking up some information as a favor for Max. Max covers for Michael, asks his boss not to press charges, and offers to work off the cost of any damages incurred. Max's boss looks incredulous, but agrees. Max asks Michael not to do him any more "favors" and this interchange is overheard by Sheriff Valenti, who secretly keeps copies of the printouts that Michael had on him.
Michael, Max, and Isabel discuss the information Michael found, which gives them the location of the dome: Marathon, TX. Michael asks to borrow the Jeep to go check it out, but the Evans don't think it's a good idea. Michael stalks off, upset. Max tells Isabel that Michael can't get very far without a car.
Maria pulls up in her car, looking for Michael, so she can complete her class assignment. He is not interested in answering questions until he realizes she has her car with her, so he offers to cooperate in return for a ride.
Max and Kyle are at the Crashdown, working on the assignment; Liz and Isabel are across the room doing the same. Liz keeps the guys under a watchful eye, until Isabel impatiently tells her to bring them a bottle of ketchup or something. She does, only to have Kyle put Max on the spot by skipping a few questions in order to ask "Have you ever been in love?" Max, after a very long pause, says "No." Liz looks disappointed.
Maria, who is running an errand for her mother, gets out of the car. Michael switches to the driver's side and starts up the car. Maria realizes he is "borrowing" the car, and hops in at the last minute, saying wherever the car goes, she goes. They take off down highway 285 South...
Liz receives a phone call from Maria, who has dialed her cell phone without Michael realizing it, and in the guise of ditzily talking to Michael manages to convey to Liz that she is 1) nervous, 2) alone in a car with Michael, and 3) headed south on 285. Isabel, who overhears Liz's side of the conversation, walks across the room and grabs Max, and they take off. Liz follows, saying if Maria's involved, she's going too. Max refuses until Kyle makes a jibe about "trouble in paradise;" he changes his mind and helps Liz into the car. As they pull away from the Crashdown, we see an MIB call in a report to Ms. Topolski, who tells him to find out where they're going. She then sends an encrypted e-mail that reads: "Special Investigations Unit, Code Name: West Roswell High. Tension in the ranks. Waiting for them to slip up. Will happen soon."
Liz calls her mom from the Jeep and tells her that she's staying with Maria overnight to study for a test.
Michael and Maria are arguing. She asks him what's so important in Texas; he accuses her of being too self-centered: this could be the most important day of his life and -- (sound of sirens) they get pulled over for speeding. Maria gives him 20 seconds to convince her not to turn him in for kidnapping. He shows her a picture of the dome and tells her that this may be the trio's only link to their past. She then proceeds to give the officer a sob story about having to pee really really bad. Michael gets a speeding ticket and they are on their way again, Maria telling Michael that he owes her big.
Kyle is on the phone with Maria's mom looking for Liz. He hangs up, frustrated. His dad walks in and admits to overhearing three phone calls: to the Evans, the Parkers, and the DeLucas. Kyle clues his dad in to the fact that Max, Liz, and Isabel took off in a hurry and lied to their parents about where they were going. Sheriff Valenti pumps him for details as to which direction they headed, but Kyle claims to be unaware. Kyle asks his dad what he knows about Max; his dad avoids the question.
Max, Liz, and Isabel are at a gas station, Max is inside. Liz gets a drink for herself and Isabel, but Isabel turns around too fast and manages to spill the drinks over both of them. She cleans herself up with her powers, but leaves Liz soaked. They have a conversation in which it is revealed that Liz is slightly envious of Isabel. Liz finally faces the situation head on and tells Isabel that she is not going to take Max away from her; she asks Isabel if she would take him away from Liz if they found something in Marathon. Isabel doesn't answer, but she "cleans" up Liz's shirt. As Max is walking out of the gas station, he notices an MIB guy pretending to make a phone call; he flattens the guy's tires so he can't follow them.
Maria's car breaks down. She goads Michael into trying to use his powers to fix it and he humiliates himself by trying and failing. They argue/flirt some more. Michael notices a hotel down the road, and they head over there.
Max, Liz, and Isabel are in the Jeep, arguing about whether to call their parents. Liz's cell phone rings. She answers, thinking it's her mother, but it's Kyle. He tells her he has her history book and wants to come by to return it; she tells him to bring it to school tomorrow. After Kyle hangs up, we see him heading off down 285 South.
Sheriff Valenti calls the highway patrol putting out an alert on the Jeep; he learns that Michael was pulled over for speeding in a car registered to Maria's mother, and determines which direction they were headed. He traces 285 South on the map, and checks the papers he obtained from Michael to verify that 285 leads to Marathon, TX. He heads off down 285 south.
Max, Liz, and Isabel hear a radio report about 285 south being shut down for a while due to an accident.
Maria and Michael argue/flirt in the hotel room. Maria finally pins Michael down to answer the questions for the assignment and in the process we discover that 1) Michael is extremely intelligent, and 2) Maria and Michael have something in common-- a lonely past and a longing for "something better than Roswell, NM." Her dreams centered around her father returning and whisking her away; his centered on a spaceship doing the same.
At the roadblock, Max and Liz share a moment in the Jeep while Isabel is talking with the police officer at the scene. We learn that both Max and Liz consider that day at the cafe to be when their lives really began. Liz pretty much lays out her feelings for Max and it seems that they might be about to get together... but he's just reaching across behind her to mend a tear in the Jeep's cover. : ) Isabel returns and tells them that the roadblock is going to be up for at least another hour, then spots Maria's car under the sign for the hotel.
Max, Iz, and Liz break into their hotel room (and a delightful little misunderstanding ensues, when Maria is startled and rolls off the bed onto Michael). Max starts to lecture Michael, who responds negatively, saying he's not waiting around for Max and Isabel anymore because they're too comfortable with their lives in Roswell. He reminds them that everything could change if they were found out... and Kyle interrupts, having just arrived at the hotel and followed them in. An altercation between Michael and Kyle breaks out, and Kyle gets thrown across the room [that superhuman strength popping up again]. Kyle attempts to force Liz to leave with him, Max intervenes, and Liz basically tells Kyle to grow up: she's not his girlfriend anymore, he doesn't belong here, and it's none of his business. Kyle leaves, miffed.
Liz then insists upon knowing everything that's going on: she and Maria are part of the secret now, and if they don't know everything they can't protect themselves or help the others. Michael resists, but is reminded by Maria that he wouldn't have gotten away with stealing anyone else's car. A visibly subdued and frightened Isabel asks what they want to know. Liz says everything; Iz replies that they would then be accomplices; Liz says go for it. Max explains about the break-in at the sheriff's office, the key, and the vision; Maria connects the dots between the dome in the vision and the dome in Marathon. Liz asks if they are expecting to find answers about their past in Marathon; when they reply in the affirmative, she asks what they are waiting for-- let's go to Marathon.
They arrive at the dome the next morning, but the key doesn't unlock it. Max opens the door, saying maybe the key unlocks something inside. They search but find nothing. Michael tries for a vision with the key again and fails. At Maria's insistence, he tries again and gets a vision of a secret room. They start searching and find a keyhole hidden in the wall; the key fits; the door to the secret room opens in the middle of the floor.
As they are downstairs searching the secret room, which appears to have been a personal library/office/den of some sort, they hear someone enter upstairs and stare up in horror. We see that it's Sheriff Valenti, who is then knocked out by Ms. Topolski.
And then we see: TO BE CONTINUED
