Cut to two hours earlier.

Isabel walks into a surprise party at the Crashdown Cafe -- she thought was coming there to get a book back from Alex. Luckily, she's wearing a fancy red dress.

In the back, Courtney waves her hand over a tray full of glasses, causing them to fill with soda. She offers a glass to Isabel.

Although Mr. Evans is stuck in Minneapolis on business, Mom managed to make it. She's impressed that Max planned the whole thing in only three days, but wonders why Isabel is so dressed up since this is a surprise.

As if on cue, geologist Grant Sorenson walks in, roses in hand. He's sorry that he's late and seems to have no idea that there was a party planned. He understands that purple Sterling roses are Isabel's favorite.

Mom Evans uses the topic of birthdays to fish for how old the geologist may be. Too old for her daughter?

Mom and Max both say they need to have "a little talk" with Isabel, but she's busy having another psychic flash, this time of screeching car brakes. She drops her soda glass.

The sinister Courtney cleans up the soda, saying, "This is your night."

Liz is still at work at Congresswoman Whittaker's office, trying to finish up some reports before going to Isabel's party. She's not working very hard -- in fact, she's dancing around to a CD she found on the desk.

Whittaker enters and seems surprised, then goes to lock a cabinet behind the desk, palming the key afterward. She then invites herself to the party in order to meet Liz's parents and mingle with some constituents.

After her boss goes to freshen up, Liz pops open the locked drawer with a letter opener. The drawer is filled with CDs, one of which Liz listens to on headphones.

It is a recording of a conversation about Max Liz had with Maria back in September. Liz switches this CD into the case of the one she was "borrowing."

Max waits outside the phone at the Crashdown while Isabel calls Sorensen to apologize for his frosty reception.

Max tells her not to do this again -- it's just too dangerous to let Sorenson in on their secret.

"Excuse me," she exclaims. "Are you forbidding me?" She notes that Liz knows about their alien nature, ignoring Max's protests that "that was different."

They bicker until she flashes to a red neon sign that reads "RED'S."

Maria comes into the back room, looking serious. A policeman is there to see Isabel.

That's no policeman; it's Alex in a costume. He plays some music and begins to dance for Isabel, bumping and grinding the whole way.

As Alex wiggles his butt provocatively, Mrs. Evans moves to the edge of the dance floor. Seeing her, Alex stops and compliments her on the party.

In the kitchen, Courtney is impressed with the cake that Michael has made, his first. She seems pleasantly surprised at the addition of Tabasco.

Lewdly licking frosting from her fingertips, she asks him, "So what's a chick got to do to get a cake out of a guy like you?"

Maria enters and Michael quickly asks Courtney to frost the cake, but the cat fight commences anyway.

Alex wanders in, complaining of his humiliation. He didn't know there would be parents there and spent $150 renting the cop suit.

More importantly, he rhetorically asks, "do you have any idea how it feels to walk around all day with a thong up your ass?"

Both girls reply in the affirmative.

Kyle complains to a group of guys that Tess is taking over his house. He doesn't seem to mind seeing her lingerie in the bathroom, but is not too keen on her dominating the TV and computer.

When Isabel asks where Tess is, he says that she's at Jensen's buying a present. He then goes on with his diatribe: "You know, if some chick's yelling at me about keeping the toilet seat up, she better at least be doing me."

For the second time this evening, it's the worst possible time for Mom Evans to walk by, so she does. Kyle stammers, "Doing me. . . a favor" as she introduces herself.

Max pulls Michael aside. Although Michael is not pleased that Max is looking for someone to clean up his mess, he goes over to remind Isabel that her brother is their leader.

Isabel flashes again, this time seeing Tess in an accident. As all her friends sing "Happy Birthday", she "sees" a bruised Tess working her way through the crowd, calling out for help.

In the back, Isabel confides in Max and Michael. Tess is in danger. Courtney wanders through, but Michael sends her out to fill ketchup bottles.

Max wants to investigate Sorenson.

Liz and Maria enter the room to announce their new problem: Whittaker has not only been taping their "Czechoslovakian" conversations, she's arrived at the party.

Courtney returns, and Maria tells her to fill ketchup bottles again. Since those are done, Maria sends Courtney to fill all the sugar containers.

Max decides to check out Sorenson with Sheriff Valenti while Michael goes to investigate Whittaker's office. Isabel wants to go help Tess, but Max refuses -- according to him, she should stay put and enjoy the party he's planned for her.

Shortly thereafter, Whittaker introduces herself to Isabel. The moment is a strained one. Mom Evans says hello and then tells Isabel it's time to open the presents.

The first present is a toy alien. Isabel is shocked, looks around the room and asks who gave it to her. Nobody answers.

Before she can open a gift from her father, she has the clearest flash of all: Tess injured in a car accident.

Liz must stay behind to cover.

At Valenti's house, Max and the sheriff search Tess's belongings. Her phone book is particularly pitiful: just the three aliens.

Max admits to the sheriff that he and Tess have some history, prompting Valenti to speculate that she "wanted to jump your bones, huh?"

Tess's cell phone memory indicates that the last person to call her was none other than Grant Sorenson.

Meanwhile, Michael opens files in Whittaker's darkened office. Finding photos of Courtney, he pockets one, then flees out the back when the congresswoman returns.

Meanwhile, Maria has taken Isabel to Fred's Diner. The neon in the "F" has burned out -- "RED'S". They find the car, but no Tess.

Seeing a piece of skin which disintegrates, Isabel says Tess didn't take an ambulance, "she was taken."

Maria's cell phone isn't working so Isabel points to tracks leading from the roadside which go off into "nowhere." The two follow in the Jetta, eventually coming to the Chavez County Electric Power Facility.

Isabel can feel Tess inside, then sends Maria back to town to get Michael. Maria will not leave without giving Isabel a flashlight.

On her way in, the chic Isabel tears her dress. She kicks off her high-heeled shoes.

Sheriff Valenti and Max enter Sorenson's motel room. When a figure appears in the doorway, Valenti pulls his gun, but it's only the geologist -- understandably upset to find the two in his room.

The sheriff asks about Tess. Sorenson claims that he called Tess to find an appropriate birthday gift for her friend Isabel. Since he mentions Jensen's, where Kyle said she was, Max believes the story.

Valenti apologizes for drawing his weapon. It's just procedure.

"Procedure?" Sorenson asks. "You break into my room and stick a gun in my face?" He says Valenti should be out looking for Tess, not harassing innocent people.

Sorenson tells them to get out of his room unless they have a warrant.

Behind the Crashdown, Michael asks Courtney who she is. He pulls out the picture from Whittaker's office and asks her to explain. Courtney tells him off.

Michael grabs her. Is she working for Whittaker? Spying on them?

Courtney explains that she had been sleeping with the congresswoman's stepson. When he was caught on drug charges, Courtney took the blame and spent two years in prison. She was never to see him again.

Whittaker must be checking up on Courtney. Michael seems relieved. Courtney slaps him and calls him a jerk.

Maria pulls up and yells for Michael to join her. Isabel is in trouble.

Isabel makes her way into the plant. She can hear Tess crying hysterically.

At the Crashdown, Liz explains to Mrs. Evans that Isabel left after she spilled punch on her dress. Mom seems to understand since she knows how Isabel likes to look just right.

Back in the plant, we approach the scene which began the show. Isabel brings Tess into a room which can be locked. Someone uses powers to open the door. It is Congresswoman Whittaker.

Whittaker admits her mistake. She could not recognize which alien hybrid was which, and she really wanted Isabel, not Tess.

"Where's the granolith?" the congresswoman asks.

Other aliens have been searching for this granolith. It seems connected to the Skins' ability to stay on Earth, something they do not have the proper DNA for. According to Whittaker, the Skins can only stay for 50 years at a time.

Whittaker assumes our teens are hiding it, "the royalty they tried to save by sending you here."

She admits to killing Nasedo to save Isabel from the other aliens.

Whittaker, amazed that Isabel cannot remember, offers a history lesson.

On her home planet, Isabel was called Belandra and was even more beautiful than she is now. She had a great love, only to betray her own brother and her race.

"You sacrificed him," Whittaker says. "You sacrificed everyone, even yourself. And history, my dear, always repeats itself."

Somehow Whittaker's people were involved.

Isabel pushes herself and Tess through a window, running away. Whittaker follows from a distance.

Outside, Isabel sets Tess down among the transformers. Whittaker pulls out a cable and approaches. Max and the others arrive, but they are too far away to help.

Sparks shoot from the cable, and Whittaker aims these at Isabel, who uses her own powers to deflect the sparks back to Whittaker. An explosion results.

Skin falls from the sky like feathers or ash. Whittaker is gone.

Valenti carries Tess back to his car. Max and the others ask Isabel what happened.

Hugging her, Max admits that he was wrong to doubt her instincts. It seems that nobody knew what Isabel was capable of, herself included. Max tells her, "No one can come between us."

Isabel tells the others about the granolith, but withholds the Belandra story.

Michael offers to talk with Isabel since he knows what it is like to kill someone. She would rather be alone.

Isabel is back at the pod chamber. She addresses her real mother, wondering when her real birthday is, as opposed to the date they celebrate here.

Although this is the only place Isabel has ever seen her mother, the memory of the woman's face is fading.

It is Isabel's birthday, and they should be together. How could their mother leave them after revealing their destiny?

She throws a rock at a pod and the light changes. The rock opened a space through the back of the pod.

Isabel crawls through and finds a door. Behind it, a dark cone is suspended from a glowing hemisphere. Light swirls around the large device.

Isabel realizes she has found the granolith.