1. Summary
I think AlienMom's message is authentic but old -- things
have changed since her emissaries reached Earth, as a result of the crash
and hostile action (which may be related). There are two adult aliens who
have been main characters in the story so far on Earth, and they are adversaries.
(This is partly why the Nasedo thread seems so confused.) One of these is
loyal to Mom and genuinely cares about the podsters, so I'll call him Guardian
Nasedo (GN). I think this one is TicTac. (I also
think he either is River Dog or is associated with him. And I suspect he
put in an appearance as Doug Shellow, who, when he was with Liz, acted like
a bodyguard, always checking around.) The other adult alien is one of those
enemies Mom warned about, working to defeat her plan, so I'll call him Enemy
Nasedo (EN). I think this one is now Ed Harding. (I think he's the
one who killed Atherton, posing as GN whom Atherton trusted.) I think Harding
only pretends to care about the podsters, and will protect them only so
far as it fits his agenda.
Although on the home planet former Max was apparently killed, on Earth the
enemies seem to be trying not to kill Max but instead to subvert him. (Although
it may be just barely possible that Harding is not exactly fighting Mom's
plan but is just a colossal blunderer, maybe an out-of-control machine or
android.)
I think only three of those "duplicated essences mixed with human genetic
material" got incubated in pods; much earlier the material for the fourth
one was damaged beyond use, by accident or hostile action. (Below, I want
to show how I think the writers are telling us this. It's mostly in The
Convention.) Separately, GN and EN dealt with this crisis in two opposing
ways:
- 1) EN / Harding fabricated Tess. (And I
suspect him of eliminating that fourth pre- podster in order to make
room for her.) Her "essence" (if she's a person at all) has nothing
to do with the podsters -- Max was right about that. She is completely
Harding's creation -- likely a duplicate of his own "essence" or whatever
he has instead. The human material used for her was, I think, stolen
from Sheila Hubble. If a pod was used to incubate Tess, it may have
been nowhere near M/M/I's pods. I don't think Harding knew where those
were until after the genuine podsters were gone. (I suspect he didn't
know where on Earth they were until Michael burned that symbol on the
library lawn.)
Incidentally, I think Harding is a time traveler, so it is possible
that he didn't know where (or when) M/M/I were until that signal burned
on the library lawn, yet he can show up soon after with a teenager,
even one who says he has never left her alone before. It is possible
that he knew what Liz would look like, and targeted Sheila Hubble because
of the resemblance. If so, Tess turned out to have the opposite of the
appearance he wanted.
Harding has apparently brought up Tess to claim the role of former Max's
bride. I am guessing she doesn't know the claim is false. (She seems
not to have known that Harding had been killing people until Max told
her.)
2) GN salvaged the genuine "essence", and
somehow arranged to transfer this to a human. I think the writers have
told us, subtly but repeatedly, that Liz is the one who now has this
"essence." I don't know how it was done, except that Grandma Claudia
was obviously in on it. (Liz's parents don't seem to know about it.
Her mother seems genuinely baffled -- there's something about Liz that
Nancy Parker doesn't know how to relate to.)
How did GN gain Claudia's help with his emergency? I think it's true,
as Liz told the tourists, that Claudia saw the crash. I think GN met
her then or later, and gained her trust by healing her of some minor
impairment. Perhaps she was lame (as suggested by the name the writers
gave her). I think when Michael healed River Dog's ankle, or when Max
(after the crash festival) brushed away the tangle in Liz's hair, we
were seeing a symbolic re-enactment of this important event between
GN and Claudia. It may be that Claudia harbored the bride's essence
for a time. (As, in an old StarTrek movie, Dr. McCoy harbored Mr. Spock's
for awhile.) Her exceptional strength of character -- the ability to
bring in three illegal hunters single-handedly -- may be a clue to this.
I am not saying Liz is an alien. She wasn't in a pod, doesn't have M/M/I's
powers or unusual cells. I think Jeff and Nancy Parker are her birth parents;
biologically she's human. But in some unexplained way she has been given
the essence of former Max's bride (who seems to have been genuinely loved,
if the symbolism of BD is any guide). This does not necessarily make her
alien: maybe in this story essences are neither alien nor human, they just
are.
2. Message from Mom?
The message from AlienMom in Destiny -- was it true, or altered (maybe by
one of those visitors who stopped by the night the orb was found), or a
Tessavision? During the reruns, Mom's message appeared to be there from
the start, in a lot of small ways:
Former lives. Three sombreros are hung up on the
wall behind M/M/I at the outdoor cafe in the Pilot. (Along with a notice
about a missing dog.) The parking-lot boundary is a row of whited, half-buried
tires, like tombstones. Three of them, until the angle shifts, revealing
a fourth one farther away. In Balance, shadows precede M/M/I walking in
the desert in Michael's vision. In Crazy, there are cairns behind our friends
as they confer at Buckley Point. The town hospital is Roswell Memorial.
The Zipcode for Agent Stevens refers to Arlington VA (not Alexandria), site
of the well-known National Cemetery.
Leaders. In [these] picture[s] at school, there
are four portraits, presumably of former civic leaders. The scene (near
the end of Monsters) begins with Michael's face in one of the frames. (The
second from the right -- second in command?)
 
images
courtesy of Momo
In Max's room, a card on the wall says Capitan (a town west of Roswell), Spanish
for Captain. Max's nicknames include Maximilian, an emperor's name. Reference
is made to Lincoln and Gandhi, respected leaders who perished amid civil
strife. (At the crash festival, the still figure in the big white chair
with square armrests evokes Mr. Lincoln in his monument.) The date on Max's
blood sample matches the assassination of Julius Caesar.
Lives lost and restored. As Liz narrates that
Max has put a force on her, changing her whole life in an instant, the scene
is M/L fingering a skeleton. In LN, the orthodontists ("Here she is") view
Liz's teeth as if making a forensic identification; Isabel's friends describe
her work as "cleaning people's remains"; Max fixes the alien doll that looks
like a battle casualty; Liz refers to customers as attacking or invading.
In the pilot, the face of a statue vanishes and is restored. Another artwork
shows three figures rising. In MA, Liz asks if Max is an older person in
a 16-year-old's body. A sign at school says "Live with care / Life has no
spare." But from Grandma's hospital room, a sign points to the nursery.
Preserved "essences." These seem to be symbolized
by those blood samples at the hospital -- little vials marked with people's
names and dates. (I am waiting to see what it
may mean, that Max's got switched.) Also, by a faucet at the cafe is a sign
with a large water droplet -- a little like an alien face -- and the words
"Please Conserve."
Reconstituted people. Figure of AlienMom with
human child, just inside the cafe door. Four "clone girls" at the Convention.
Alien-in-a-box in Maria's car pops into shape when air pressure (concentrated
essence?) is added.
Trouble somewhere, help needed. Lots of references
to repairs. Orthodontists, for straightening things out. Emphasis on the
shoe-repair sign -- the shoe may symbolize oppression, some group "downtrodden,
trampled". Signs about auto repairs, and tow trucks, which get called from
a distance. One of them has a rocket on the roof, as Maria says to Isabel
"Going home?"
Temporary refuge. The bandroom symbolizes this
-- away from outside noise, a place to prepare for a performance somewhere
else. Parts for four players were on the music stands. Also, the motel on
285 S was called the Sultan's HideAway. At the sheriff's office was a poster
about three missing children.
Mom? When Maria, giving Isabel a ride, is embarrassed
about the alien bauble on the key ring, Isabel replies, "My mom does stupid
things too... don't all moms?" The song lyrics at the end of TH (pointed
out by LSS) are something like "some of us sink like a stone -- waiting
for mothers to come." When the orb is unearthed, in a cut scene Max picks
it up and says "Mom?"
These details seem to confirm that the Momogram is authentic, as far as
it goes. But I think it does not reflect what has happened since Mom's emissaries
reached Earth, and the picture has changed.
Mommogram message:
There is also the question of whether the Momogram is authentic, or a projection from Tess? It was hard to tell when Tess' projections left off and reality began. Was it pre-recorded like a video tape (in which case - is the home planet still in existence, or has it been destroyed by war or natural consequences?), or was it a direct communication with the home planet or a hidden spaceship (hidden by the V formation)?
Posted by rosfan 10-1-00:
To add something new: During the momogram vision, she refers to her son, his young bride, her daughter, daughter's betrothed and second in command. This led most of us to believe that alien mom was refering to 4 different people (thus that daughter's betrothed and the second in command are one and the same). But what if she was referring to 5 different people:
1) son/beloved leader
2) his young bride
3) daughter
4) daughter's betrothed
AND
5) second in command
I don't know, it is just a thought.
Posted by Jen2theMax 10-1-00
Several of us on this thread believe that the Destiny 'Momogram' was a sham. It may have been generated by Tess alone or in concert with Nacedo, who had just left the Pod Chamber in the guise of Pierce. There were a lot of secretive looks between Tess & Nacedo before and after he shapeshifted. Perhaps that's why Tess was so insistent that Michael should turn the jeep around and go to the pod chamber, "Everything depends on it!", Tess said. Also, why drive from the airfield in Hobson & drag Nacedo's 'body' uphill to the pod chamber? They could've 'brought him back' sooner & in a much more convenient place. Was it because of the 'momogram' plan?
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