Nick is shooting baskets in his driveway when Cade walks up and introduces himself as "Ross Banks" of the Paranoid Times. Nick is initially skeptical, especially since Cade doesn't look like a "webhead."

When Cade asks Nick how he's sure Michelle was shot, he tells Cade to come back at 7 p.m. Nick is then called in to supper.

Cade surveys the neighborhood and spots a curtain moving next door to Michelle's house. When he knocks on the door, however, the old woman inside refuses to talk to him.

While the Pattersons eat a tense supper, Nick's mother Joanne asks him if he's going to enter the state science fair this year. When Nick says no, his father Ron tells her to leave him alone about it.

Cade checks in with Eddie, reporting that he's had no luck canvassing the neighbors and he's not convinced Nick really saw anything.

When Cade returns to the Patterson house, Nick rushes to the door to let him in. He doesn't want Cade to meet his parents, and untruthfully tells Cade that his mom and dad know Cade's here.

In Nick's room, Cade admires Nick's telescope. It's a prize from last year's science fair, but Nick claims he's bored by science now.

He directs Cade's attention across the street, where Michelle is undressing. Nick's quite sure there are no bullet marks on her.

Cade's still skeptical, which angers Nick. Although his parents and the cops don't believe him, he was convinced Cade Foster, the alien hunter of the Paranoid Times, would. He tells "Ross Banks" that "I wish they'd sent him instead of you."

Cade thinks about it, and decides he believes Nick. He asks for more information on the murder, and Nick tells him Sam Delaney was just an out-of-work TV repairman, nobody a woman like Michelle would be interested in.

They're interrupted when Nick's mom walks in. Joanne is disturbed that Nick is alone in his bedroom with a man he met on the Internet, and Cade quickly starts apologizing.

Later that night, a man named Barry knocks on Michelle's door. She quickly hustles him in, and he explains that his bowling league just finished and he can't stay away from her for another minute.

Michelle forgives him, but tells him to come only if he's expected and not to use the front door. "Now what have you got for me?" she asks.

Barry has a large chopping knife, and Michelle wants him to use it on his wife. Barry's reluctant, but Michelle tells him to go home and do the job so they can be together.

Nick's parents explain to him that while "Ross Banks" may be a fine fellow, they're concerned he didn't ask permission to have him over. They argue over how to handle Nick until the boy suggests they handle their own problems first.

The next day, Cade again tries to talk to Mrs. Gimmel, the old woman next door to Michelle. He has no more success than before, but runs into Joanne Patterson as he leaves.

Joanne apologizes for the previous evening's awkwardness, especially now that such a prestigious journal as the Paranoid Times has vouched for "Ross."

She also confesses that she hasn't done a good job of parenting lately, but she doesn't know what to do. Cade suggests that "All you can do is love him."

Cade then goes upstairs to see Nick, remarking that his mother seems cool. Nick disagrees.

Nick's watching Michelle again, but as Cade takes a look, Ron Patterson appears in her window. Cade quickly distracts Nick into explaining his computer setup.

Eddie's had a chance to check on Michelle, and has learned she's a nurse who arrived from Idaho three months ago. Meanwhile, Cade is worried that Nick will be hurt by learning his father's involved with Michelle.

Ron, Joanne, and Nick have another uncomfortable dinner. When Nick continues to claim Michelle is an alien, Ron grows surprisingly angry, a reaction that makes Joanne suspicious.

When Cade wanders through the neighborhood the next day, he notices the postman delivering a package to Michelle. Then he meets Nick, who "can't stand it" inside this morning.

Nick wants to know all about the alien hunter, and Cade tells him a little bit about his "friend's" past. Cade lost his parents early and regrets it, though Nick has trouble imagining this.

Barry is holding a barbeque today, and Nick invites Cade to come along.

At the barbeque, Ron asks Barry where his wife Liz is. Barry claims she's visiting her mother.

Michelle enters and greets Barry, who thinks it's not safe for her to be coming around. She drifts away to flirt with another neighborhood man, Warren.

Barry goes to Warren and applies his BBQ tongs to a sensitive area. When Barry tells Warren to stay away from Michelle, Warren replies that he's been sleeping with her all week.

Barry punches Warren, who falls into the pool. Joanne notices Ron and Michelle having a tete-a-tete in a corner.

Later that evening, Joanne confronts Ron, who can't meet her eyes when she asks if he's slept with Michelle. She storms out as Nick watches from the hall.

Cade sneaks into Michelle's house through the skylight. He finds the package Michelle received, which contains a perfume bottle.

Then he checks the closet, where everything looks normal -- except for a plaid bowling bag. When he checks the bag, he finds that it's Barry's -- and inside is the head of Barry's wife Liz!

Michelle is downstairs reading, and is surprised to hear a knock at the door. It's a cop, who tells her Mrs. Gimmel saw a man climbing Michelle's trellis.

Cade hears them talking and hides. As the cop looks around, Michelle sprays herself with perfume, then seduces him and takes him downstairs.

Nick sees this all through his telescope. He also sees Cade and figures out that "Ross Banks" is really the alien hunter himself.

Meeting Cade downstairs, he begs to be allowed to help catch the alien. Cade tries to warn him off, telling him "this ain't no comic book," but Nick insists he knows what they're up against.

He describes Michelle spraying herself with perfume -- a detail that prompts Cade to show him the perfume he stole from the house. Normally, Cade would bring the perfume to Eddie for analysis, but Nick persuades Cade to let him use his basement science kit on the sample.

When Cade checks in with Nick the next day, the teen has learned that the perfume is a love potion, loaded with synthetic pheromones. Nick believes this means his father isn't responsible for his actions.

Responsible or not, Ron Patterson is across the street, telling Michelle he has to get back to work. He's sad, because the affair has destroyed his family, but he's ready to leave with Michelle now.

Michelle says she isn't willing to share him with anyone, though. She's got a gun for Ron, and she wants him to kill Nick and Joanne with it.

Cade brings Eddie up to date, though Eddie's annoyed that Nick analyzed the chemicals. "That's my job," he says.

Eddie's also found a relevant quatrain from Nostradamus. It suggests that the Gua are developing a new way of destroying the fabric of society, starting with the family.

When Nick asks Cade what the next move is, Cade tells him it's to stop Michelle from destroying the neighborhood. They begin looking through Nick's chemicals for weapons.

Ron enters the house, calling out for Nick. Suspicious, Cade tells Nick to stay in his basement lab and goes up to meet Ron, bringing the bottle from Michelle's house with him.

He finds Ron sitting in the living room with the gun. Ron aims the gun at Cade and tells him to leave, saying that he needs to have a "private talk" with Nick.

Cade shows Ron the bottle and tries to tell him about the pheromones. Disobeying orders, Nick comes out and adds his corroboration.

When Ron asks why he should believe Cade, Nick replies, "I don't want you to believe him. I want you to believe me. Please, Dad, put the gun down."

Convinced, Ron slowly lowers the gun. "She wanted me to kill you," he says.

"I still do, my love," Michelle says. She's come to provide encouragement to Ron.

Michelle turns her attention on Cade, fascinating him while she takes back her perfume. Then she orders Ron to kill both Cade and Nick.

With an massive effort of will, Ron refuses and drops the guns. "Maybe you need some inspiration," Michelle says, and sprays herself with perfume.

Her skin immediately begins burning -- Cade has swapped the perfume for hydrochloric acid from Nick's lab. Furious, she attacks Cade, who cries "Shoot her!"

As Ron moans that he can't, Joanne steps in. "I can," she says, picking up the gun and shooting Michelle, who screams and dissolves.

As Joanne and Ron wonder what they just saw, Cade tells them, "Nick wasn't lying to you. Your son saw an alien -- and now you have too."

After Joanne is brought up to date, Ron asks what to do next. Cade asks them to tell everyone who Michelle really was -- "it's the only way to expose them."

"Nobody's ever going to believe that," Ron says.

"I know," Cade replies.

Nick asks his mother why she came back, and she tells him, "In eighteen years [of marriage] I've never run away from a fight. I'm not about to start now."

As Cade walks down the driveway, he cuts a deal with his parents: he'll enter the science fair if they'll get counseling. Cade tells him to stick with them -- "they're good people" -- but Nick knows that now.

"So am I going to read all bout this in your journals?" he asks.

"You can count on it," Cade says.

As he parts from Nick, Cade hears a voice calling out to him. Old Mrs. Gimmel is peering out from the garage, beckoning him over.

When he goes to her, she tells him she's decided to trust him. She then reveals everything to him: the husbands, the perfume, even the fact that Michelle is some kind of extraterrestrial.

"You've just got to keep your eyes open," she tells the bemused alien hunter. "You know what I mean."