2.05 Boo

Okay, so this is the one episode of the entire show that I refuse to recap in full, because I really, really can't stand it. In the interests of continuity, however, I will offer a brief summary of the bits that really happen, sandwiching the lengthy dream-sequence.

There are two issues going on in Max's head going into this episode. The first is how screwed up things are with her and Logan, with the need for physical distance between them translating into emotional distance, each of them drifting away from the other and toward someone else who appears to have more to offer in the here-and-now. The other is, of course, the fact that Max is responsible for the release of possibly hundreds of transgenics into a world that is slowly becoming aware of their existence and is scared of them. That although Max can pass as human, many of her fellow transgenics look to the average passer-by like monsters, thus creating a divide that, as things stand, can never be bridged.

So, the episode opens with Logan working on a case with Asha, for which he does not need the help that Max tentatively offers. He also blows off her half-hearted mention of the Halloween party at Crash that night. Max is reaching out, trying to meet him halfway, but Logan is so absorbed in what he's doing – shutting her out because it's all too hard to deal with – that he barely even notices.

Wandering into work later that day, Max bends Original Cindy's ears about this, while Cindy again proves herself to be the best best friend anyone could hope for, supplying sympathy and sass in all the right places. Sketchy, meanwhile, is getting more and more interested in the mutant story, which is now circulating widely in the 'alternative press'.

Rafer shows up at Jam Pony to tell Max about/ask her to that same party at Crash she'd tried to get Logan interested in. They agree to maybe see one another there, all non-committal, neither really sure where this is going. Max then debriefs with Cindy while out on a run – because Max actually shows signs of doing some work in this episode, amazingly enough – and Cindy approves of this attempt to move on from the train-wreck of her relationship with Logan.

Joshua, meanwhile, is watching the Halloween-costumed public through his window, delighted, but set apart. Always set apart. A knock on the door takes him by surprise, and he answers it, because he's still such an innocent, hasn't yet learned to really be cautious or afraid of the people out there who interest him so much. He finds a group of trick-or-treating children on the porch. The blonde moppet among them screams shrilly and long, and Joshua yells in reaction.

Titles.

Max and Cindy show up with groceries for Joshua, just as Moppet reveals that she wasn't scared at all – just wanted to give a scare. Max gives the kids money to go away, and they take off, congratulating Joshua on his costume. Oh, and this is the episode where Joshua picks up his 'tricks and treats' expression. Joshua assembles new vocabulary – the kind Alec referred to once as 'common verbal usage' – throughout the season, wanting so badly to learn how to be one of the people he sees, but always incapable of achieving it.

This is the first time Cindy has seen Joshua's place, and she is tactful and diplomatic, as usual. Max tells Joshua that they can't stay long, as they are going out tonight. Every time she tells Joshua she can't stay, every time she flits in and out, dashing back to her life in the outside world, he gets the same look of resigned disappointment in his eyes, trying not to let it show. Every time. His freedom is turning into just another cage, with Max a loving, well-meaning jailor. She is taking care of him, wants what's best for him, but she wants to be the one who decides what's best, fitting him around the rest of her life almost like an afterthought at times. She considers him her responsibility first and foremost, and it shows; Joshua wants to be her friend, not her pet.

This time, though, Joshua doesn't just accept the brush-off, but argues back. The children thought his dog-like appearance was a costume, because it's Halloween, and that means something. One night only: a get-out-of-jail-free pass. He wants to go out into the world, to be with 'outside people', just this once.

But Max won't hear of it. She has such a black-and-white worldview, can be very inflexible. Overprotective. She doesn't want Joshua to end up in a cage, or dead, and so won't even hear of his going outside, not prepared to take any risks at all – not with his life and not with her own cover. But she also won't stay with him, won't give up any part of her own quest for normality for the sake of his loneliness. She has enormous issues of her own that she projects onto him.

Seeing his one opportunity of going outside vanishing, Joshua bleakly points out that for this one night outside people look like him, that this one night it would be safe to go out. Cindy takes his side. But Max refuses to bend. Joshua is crushed, but agrees to stay inside.

Later, Max painstakingly boils water for a bath. Cindy is still trying to talk her into taking Joshua out, for this one night only, instead of leaving him all alone at home. But Max just cannot see any way for Joshua to mix with her human friends – they and he are two completely different worlds for her, worlds that cannot mix. Much as she loves Joshua, he belongs to the world she has spent her life trying to get away from, rather than the world she wants to accept her as one of its own. This episode is about Max's issues with transgenics, rather than the outside world's issues with transgenics. "He's better off where he is," she argues. "Nobody can ask any questions or make any judgements."

"Judgements about who? Him or you?" Cindy hits the nail right on the head.

Max just wants to be normal, and, as much as she loves him, Joshua isn't normal, which is why he can't be a part of her nice normal Halloween. He has to exist as an appendix to her life, rather than as a part of it. This is Max reverting to type, looking out for number one, because all these enormous issues that surround her just lately are overwhelming her. And Joshua is the one who pays the price, deprived of the company he craves so deeply.

"Whatever 'normal' means," Cindy points out. Cindy rocks.

Max falls asleep in the bath, and has a ridiculous dream that I refuse to recap in any way. Basically, the rest of the episode from here on in, with the exception of just two scenes, is one long ludicrously surreal dream sequence. This dream basically revolves around Max's deep-seated issues regarding what could happen if her two worlds came together, transgenics and humans mixing – the fact that she can pass as human, but being seen associating with an obvious mutant would blow her cover. This is the real reason she won't take Joshua out, even on this one night his appearance would not be questioned; she is protecting herself as much as him, if not more so.

So, in this dream, Max is asking herself just where and how deep her loyalties truly lie, and just how far and long can she deny who she really is, wondering if her allegiances will end up being torn? She is afraid that she will have to betray her fellow transgenics in order to protect herself, is asking herself would she be able to do it, and does not like the answer she gets. Also thrown in there for good measure are her insecurities about Logan and Asha, which are pushing her toward Rafer.

Even in Max's head, Cindy is the voice of reason, pointing out, still within the dream, that the worst part of the events of the dream was Max denying who she really is and denying the people that she really loves. So, in effect, this is Max's subconscious telling her that denying herself and her people is the worst thing she could possibly do, no matter what happens. If they are going down, she has to go down with them.

End dream sequence, thankfully.

Cindy wakes Max up, and beleaguered viewers sigh with relief. Cindy tells Max that Rafer has come to pick her up for the party, but, having worked a few issues out in her dream, or at least having made a start at realising what's important, Max decides to blow him off and skip the party. She goes to see Joshua instead and gives him a big speech about how the two of them aren't like other people – whether it shows on the surface or not – and nothing can change that. "Some people might even call us freaks. Which is why we've got to stick together."

She takes Joshua out, even if it is just for one night. So for this one special night only, Joshua gets to walk among the people of the world without any screaming or running, and he is thrilled.


Reviewed October 2007

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