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Aunt Bea would have a fit

Looking around, Loni asks, "Ain’t quite Mayberry, is it?"

Tess asks why the other quartet's protector would lead them to live here. Why not be born somewhere else? Live someplace else?

Loni can’t understand why Tess returns to this "shapeshifter" again and again. It seems that this four had no protector.

Max wants to know about the summit, but Rath and Loni play coy with details. In fact,

Loni seems more interested in Max's sex life with Tess.

Rath and Loni kiss passionately. Tess and Max look on, obviously uncomfortable.

However, one thing is clear. Max needs to meet the Emissary to prove that he’s really the king.

Those left behind

Isabel is concerned that she hasn’t heard from Max. It’s been two days (their parents think he’s gone camping to avoid Thanksgiving with them) and he didn't even say goodbye.

Michael implies that Max left because of Liz. After he and Isabel are gone, Maria tells Liz that she heard a vicious rumor at school: it seems she's had sex with Kyle.

Liz says this is true in order to protect the scheme she recently engineered to get Max to break up with her.

Maria can’t believe that Liz didn’t tell her best friend. Liz claims that she was embarrassed -- upset about Max, Kyle was there, one thing led to another and then she didn’t want to talk about it.

Behind the Crashdown, Liz finds Ava, the duplicate Tess, trying to sleep . . . in the alley.

Not the Sisko, but bald nevertheless

Later, Rath and Max approach a well-dressed man -- the Emissary -- sitting at a desk in an underground room.

Max sits across from him. After some hoodoo, the Emissary projects an image: lights which swirl and then form the V-shaped constellation. The star at the bottom glows red.

The Emissary smiles.

He returns to the desk and offers a paper to Max: "Sign here, Your Highness." Max signs, and the Emissary leaves.

Puzzled, Max looks at the paper and asks why the Emissary has a time card.

Rath explains that the actual Emissary is still at home on his planet, but was only using a hapless human as a vessel. The human will have no memory and think he was abducted.

Fountainside confessions

Liz calls Maria in the wee hours to set up a face-to-face talk at "the place by the thing we went that time with what’s her name."

Said location is apparently a fountain. There, Liz tells the story of Future Max’s visit to Roswell and how she arranged for Max to see her with Kyle in order to get him to break up with her.

Maria is relieved to hear the truth and that aliens were involved. Each apologizes for acting strangely.

Finally, Maria asks, "Still a virgin?" Liz says yes. Maria is, too. They do a happy virgin dance.

Later, Maria goes to the UFO Center with Brody’s sandwich. She’s there even though Brody didn’t call -- but he’s not there.

We see a bewildered Brody wandering around New York.

Aliens in the hood

Rath explains to Max that the V-shaped constellation is the Royal Seal, the five worlds that make up their star system. The bottom one is home.

Max has that image in his brain, identifying him.

The other worlds will also be sending representatives to the summit -- via possession since that is the easiest way to get there.

Rath reveals the stakes when he tells the others that the summit could be their ticket home. Tess and Max are both surprised.

However, this requires Max to cut a deal for their people, bringing peace to their world. Rath explains that Kavar is desperate to deal and will even allow the Royal Four to return home if it means peace.

Max wants to know if Michael and Isabel can return, too, but it seems that they can’t -- no one is expecting more than four royals.

Loni fishes for information about the granolith, but Max lies, remembering Liz’s advice from last week, and claims he’s never heard of it.

~

Zan to the Max

Liz rushes downstairs to find Ava having a screaming flashback to Zan’s death. She blames herself.

Once she's calmed down, she and Liz talk about their respective Maxes. Zan was stubborn. Ava couldn’t get through to him, like he had put up a wall there. He needed everything to be just right.

Liz observes that Ava must have loved him a lot. She did, but she wonders if Zan ever really loved her. It was like he was waiting for someone else.

Ava asks about how Max revealed himself, prompting Liz to reminisce about the series pilot. It was right over there, she says, that Max brought her back.

At the sound of this, Ava gets tense.

A blue Thanksgiving without him

From a street corner, Max calls Isabel. She’s relieved to hear from him at last.

Nonchalantly, he asks about Thanksgiving, only to learn that Mrs. Evans and Isabel cried all day.

He needs to know immediately how Isabel -- and Michael -- would feel about going to their real home. He also lets the "self-indulgent little boy" conversation from last episode slip, revealing to Isabel that Loni impersonated her.

After Max gets off the phone, Isabel and Michael question Ava, then Liz tries a different tack: Max is in danger, so Ava must help. Liz loves Max just like Ava loved Zan. What are the duplicates hiding?

Ava tells Liz about how Loni and Rath killed Zan and will probably kill Max when he’s done his job.

Off to see the summit

On the way to the meeting, Max asserts his authority. He’s in charge. Tess is to be treated with respect and called by name.

Loni pulls him aside. She’s proud of him. He’s the brother she never knew.

Inside, Brody stands with the others alongside a conference table. Max is surprised to see him there.

Brody identifies himself as Laryk. He introduces the others: Kathana, Siro, and Banar. Each represents a world, just as Max represents his.

Nicholas enters. Kavar also speaks for his world, and Nicholas speaks for Kavar. He sits at the head of the table, opposite Max.

Seeing Tess, Nicholas says, "Nice to see your genocidal girlfriend again. Killed anyone today?"

Tess replies, "Day’s not over."

Back in Roswell, the others think of a way to warn Max. Liz wants Isabel to mindwalk to him as she did in the white room, but it’s too far and Max isn't drugged this time, which makes it harder.

Terms of negotiation

Laryk emphasizes that they are all here for reconciliation. Banar wants to end 50 years of suffering and mutual invasions.

Nicholas outlines Kavar’s plan. He is prepared to abdicate and allow the Royal Four to return, but only on three conditions.

First, Max will only reign as a figurehead. Kavar will still hold the power.

Second, Max will tell his followers to stop fighting and support the new government.

Finally, Max will return with the granolith. This last surprises the others, who seemed to think that the granolith was still back home.

Max confirms that he knows where it is.

He asks for time to make up his mind. Laryk can only offer Max 20 minutes -- possession of these bodies requires great energy.

~

Private consultations

Max and Tess share suspicions. Neither trusts Nicholas, Rath or Loni.

Tess asks why Max initially lied about the granolith, so he says he was following Liz’s advice. Now he isn't sure what to do.

Tess says, "Whatever you do, I’m sure it’ll be the right choice. I’m sure of it."

He questions her loyalty, since he’s done nothing to deserve it. Tess explains that she knows that he was a great man in that other life, as well as being a great king and husband.

Elsewhere, Nicholas and Loni talk. Unless Nicholas gets the granolith, she won't be going home, but she, remembering what it was like to be Velandra, says she'll do whatever it takes.

"Besides," she says, "he wants to go home, give Mommy a kiss, and be fitted for his crown."

Nicholas explains Kavar’s real plan: if Max returns, he will be executed. If he doesn’t return, Kavar still wants Max dead.

Loni says that she can arrange this, but asks what she would get. Nicholas offers her passage home, but only for herself. She accepts.

Life. It’s bigger

Isabel tries in vain to reach Max, so Ava offers another possibility: Liz can help. When he brought her back from the dead, he changed her. The human girl is different now.

Outside the summit, Loni confronts Max about lying to her when millions of lives are at stake.

Back in Roswell, Isabel wants Liz to take her hand. Liz hesitates.

Isabel says, "I know my brother, and I know that if there’s one voice he will hear, no matter where he is, no matter what’s he’s doing, I know that it’s yours."

Liz reaches out.

Your final answer

Max tells everyone his answer is no. He will not give up the granolith entrusted to him.

Nicholas calls on the others to witness. Max has rejected the offer and a chance for peace. What follows is his fault.

Kathana tells Max that he has just made a lot of enemies.

Laryk, a friend of Max's in the other life, is the last to leave. Their families were close, and the two practically grew up together, sharing all the milestone days.

Now Laryk is watching the turmoil start again. History is repeating itself.

Shades of Zan

On the street, Rath challenges Max. We’ve seen this before: it’s the death of Zan getting ready to happen again.

Isabel and Liz concentrate, and Liz is on the street in New York, watching Max approach with the others.

Rath pulls Tess back, covering her mouth, and Loni reaches up with her powers and pulls a platform down.

Max stares at Liz, whom he can see but not hear. She raises her own hands, warning him. Silently, he walks toward her.

It's enough. The falling platform misses Max. He looks around, but Liz, Loni, Rath and Tess are gone. He knows he has to rescue Tess, so he begins to run.

He finally finds her in a pool of light in an abandoned building. Loni and Rath tried to get inside her head, but she instinctively fought them off.

She's ready to go home -- to Roswell -- now. Max holds her.

No place like. . .

Once Max and Tess are back home, Isabel asks why Max refused the deal. He says he was ready to take it, but he couldn't leave without his friend and sister.

Regardless of the person she was, Isabel, Velandra, Max loves her, and that's what’s important.

Ava is ready to leave town, but Liz gives her a hug before she goes.

Brody sits in the Crashdown and asks Maria why he was abducted again. She tells him, "Maybe. . .you’re special."

He smiles at this, watching her go as she gets his favorite sandwich.

From the kitchen window, Maria looks back at him and smiles.

One last thing

Max thanks Liz for saving his life. They’re even now, she says.

He would like them to start over, since he misses her and wants her back his life, as a friend.

Max wants to know one thing, though: "Did you sleep with Kyle?"

Liz stares at him, dumbfounded. She can give no answer. Max turns away and leaves.

She looks ready to cry.