[Opening Credits]
The gang return home, with Max, Isabel, and Liz in the Jeep and Maria and Michael in her car [which Max must have fixed, since neither Isabel nor Michael have demonstrated the ability to do so]. Maria and Michael are still flirting.
At home, Isabel thumbs through a photo album and removes a picture. She then goes to Max's room and asks him if he remembers a beach vacation when they both drew the same symbol in the sand, though neither of them had ever seen it before. She then has Max close his eyes and draw the symbol again, from memory. It is the symbol in the picture-- and on the pendant that she removed from Atherton's house. They are then interrupted by their mother, who reminds them that it is time for school. After Mrs. Evans leaves, Isabel comments to Max that she hates lying to their mother.
At school, Liz and Maria are discussing Michael when Liz notices Kyle and excuses herself. She asks Kyle if she can talk to him in private. She pulls him into the janitor's closet and attempts to ensure that Kyle doesn't discuss the events of the previous evening with anyone. Kyle says he won't tell anyone... for now, but is planning on doing so as soon as he can find something on Max that will destroy him.
Topolski is reporting to her boss, Agent Stephens (who removed the files from Valenti's office), and gets a sound tongue-lashing for failing the night before. He tells her to find and recover any information the teens might have discovered.
Max's boss is giving a lecture in the UFO Center, when he is interrupted by Valenti, who questions him about Atherton. We learn that Atherton disappeared in 1959-- right as he was on the verge of an "amazing discovery." Valenti then returns to his office, removes a concealed copy of the picture of the corpse from 1959 and compares it to the picture of Atherton on the book jacket. They match.
After school, Max, Isabel and Michael are in the Jeep heading toward the Evans' house and discussing the papers. Michael haltingly asks if it should only be the three of them who go through the papers, since "that Maria girl" might want to help out. Max and Isabel are clearly amused at Michael's stammering. As the Jeep pulls up to the Evans' house, they see police swarming all around-- the house has been broken into. Michael slips off to the Crashdown to let Liz and Maria know and to wait there for Max and Isabel.
After speaking with their mother, Max and Isabel head directly to Max's room, where they have stored the papers they found at Atherton's. The box is gone. Valenti intrudes, asking if anything is missing and they tell him no. He obviously doesn't believe them and begins to press the issue until Mrs. Evans intervenes, asking why he is interrogating the victims. Valenti apologizes and leaves. Isabel then goes to her room, where Deputy Owen is writing up a report. He sees the pendant on her neck (which is the only thing from Atherton's house that they still have left) and mentions that he hasn't seen that symbol since he left the reservation just outside of town where he grew up.
Michael arrives at the Crashdown just ahead of Max and Isabel, having noticed he was being followed (by the same MIB guy from last episode.) The gang realizes that they are under surveillance, making it impossible for them to go to the reservation to check out the symbol on the pendant, which Michael also seems to recognize.
Sheriff Valenti pays a visit to Ms. Topolski at school, playing a cat-and-mouse game with her as he questions her about any of her "students" who might have broken into the Evans' house.
Liz shows up at the Evans', telling Max that she is going to the reservation to find some answers. Max tells her no, but she tells him she isn't asking for permission. She feels responsible for the fact that they are under suspicion, and says that if anything happened to them she wouldn't be able to live with herself. She just came by for the pendant, but she's going with or without it-- she'll draw the symbol if she has to. Max gives her the pendant, but tells her to call at the first hint of trouble. [Side note: nice little Liz and Max scene here.]
Liz goes to the reservation and pretends to be examining some jewelry. When the shop owner approaches, she pulls out the pendant and asks the woman if she's seen the symbol before. The woman hasn't, but an elderly Indian appears from out of nowhere and grabs the pendant. He looks at the symbol and then takes off. Liz asks the woman who he was, and she tells Liz to stay away from him. As Liz is leaving, the Indian appears again and asks to see the pendant. He wants to know where she got it and begins to interrogate her as to who else knows of the symbol and if she was followed. He then tells her that the symbol is dangerous, that it brings death.
At the Crashdown the next day, a young Indian named Eddie approaches Liz and tells her he has a "message from River Dog." He gives her a piece of stone, which turns out to be a chipped off piece of the pendant that fits perfectly. He tells her to meet him, alone, at the reservation at 10:00 that evening.
Max, Isabel and Michael are in the Jeep, aware that they are being followed. They pull up in front of the movie theater, where Max gets out to join Liz who is waiting for him out front. Isabel and Michael then take off in the Jeep, with Topolski hot on their trail. Liz and Max go through the theater and out the back door, where they meet Maria and take her car. Isabel and Michael, who have lost Topolski, join Maria at the Crashdown and all of them wait impatiently for Max and Liz's return. Meanwhile, Topolski is pulled over by Valenti-- for speeding, and running three red lights and two stop signs. Valenti says he can take her in overnight, or they can sit down and talk.
Liz and Max arrive at the reservation. Eddie at first refuses to get involved since Liz didn't come alone, but they convince him to include Max, too. Eddie tells them that they are going to have to pass a test and they start walking out into the woods.
Michael, Maria and Isabel are at the Crashdown, still nervously waiting. Maria finally asks the tabasco sauce question [Michael and Isabel are eating chocolate cake covered in tabasco sauce]. She is told that it is a "little dietary quirk"-- the trio likes things extremely sweet mixed with extremely spicy. Maria and Michael continue their flirting and Isabel leaves in disgust.
Eddie leaves Max and Liz in the middle of the woods and walks off. They notice a cave off to their side and enter. It is very dark, and Liz screams as she is grabbed by someone they cannot see. Max then holds the pendant in his hands and it starts glowing until it lights the cave; River Dog releases Liz and tells Max that he has passed the test.
Valenti and Topolski are sitting at a bar. He reveals that he knows she's with the FBI and threatens to tell her superiors that she has blown her cover. She offers a compromise-- let's share information. He agrees to think about it.
River Dog tells Max that he once knew someone like Max, although he didn't know where the man came from or why he was there. The man befriended River Dog and the rest of the Indians; however the only people he trusted were River Dog... and James Atherton, to whom he gave the pendant. Max asks if River Dog knows where the man is now; River Dog replies that he hasn't seen him in forty years. They ask what happened to Atherton; River Dog tells them that he saw the man kill him. Max suggests that possibly the man was defending himself; River Dog says that he was too far away to see exactly what had happened. Liz asks when this all took place-- it was November 1959. River Dog then tells them that he has one more thing to show them.
Maria and Michael are arguing in the Crashdown. Maria is seriously freaking out with nerves; Michael can't stand her nervousness. She asks him to just try to help her calm down -- and he kisses her "to calm you down."
River Dog shows Liz and Max some drawings on the cave wall and tells them that the man was afraid that "they" were going to kill him and that "they" were getting close. River Dog explains that the man knew that Max would come and he left the drawings as a message, asking River Dog to only reveal them to someone who had first passed the test. Max says the drawings look familiar, but it is like he can't quite remember what they mean; they speculate that it could be a kind of written language. River Dog tells them that he has now fulfilled his promise to the man, and that they should leave. As they do so, River Dog warns Liz: "You are not one of them. Make sure he deserves your trust."
