SYMBOLISM OF NUMBERS|
Nemo 7-29-00 Science Fiction of Blind Date Thread On prior threads, I posted some evidence for the view that Liz, not Tess, represents one of those four personages who lived and died amid strife on the aliens' home planet. (Not that Liz is anything but human, not that she was ever in a pod etc., but just that somehow she has been given something of that fourth one's personality. So that it was natural for Max to love her and recognize her at first sight.) I would like to compare this idea with some of the symbols in the story. There is that set of cell-like figures with dots in them just left of the center fold of the paper: 
On the interpretation I have been considering, the four cells with a squarish
shape are the four lives originally meant to be somehow restored as
alien/humans. One cell is broken: I think this one is now lost. This was a
crisis to which each of the two Nasedos responded: Liz's nature reflects GN's
effort, apparently with Claudia's cooperation. ("She is like the basis of my
existence.") I think the triangular cell (added on the right) represents Liz:
a new intact cell in different form. (Is the V shape another Venus
reference?)
The unenclosed dot on the left could represent Tess; BN's creation, I think. Could the absence of an outline suggest that she's not corporeal, that her appearance is a delusion? That could account for her not showing up in the sheriff's telephotos, if her "deceiver" works only out to a certain range. (Well, she did once delude someone at the distance of Valenti's house, but maybe she exerts that effort only when she know it's necessary.) But setting aside conjectures about Tess, I think there are firmer grounds for viewing the rest of the figure as representing M/M/I and Liz. Consider some similar images in the pilot: Note the 4-drawer file cabinet in the Sheriff's office that he walks past to interview Liz. We see mainly the upper 3 drawers. Their squarish fronts, with small label holders in the middle, resemble that cell diagram. Added on top of the cabinet is a box with an oval handhole, serving as another drawer. 
Then look at the row of 3 pictures behind the sheriff. With those central
ovals, don't they look cell-like?
Then, when the sheriff plunks down Liz's book bag, it too is marked by an
oval. Something from Liz, in different form but with a common central
element, completes the four.
It amazes me how many of these 4 = 3 + 1 symbols there are in the pilot, starting with the candles on both sides of Liz in the very first scene. 
And
note that it is from out of the stars that the camera descends onto Liz here
on her balcony. So if something in her nature really does derive from beyond
the stars, they can say "We told you so."
As an illustration of what I mean by a 3 + 1 pattern, here's a scene from RD
(council meeting after the burglary):
See the 3 + 1 in the tree-like pattern to the left of Max's eyes? (And does
that figurine represent River Dog giving his blessing to the arrangement? My
wife has him pegged as GN, and her batting average is pretty good....)
Here's another favorite from RD: Just before this, we see 3 pictures next to Max's window, in an L-shaped layout with an empty corner. When Liz is framed by the window, that makes four. 
In the pilot, the band room is full of imagery. Four drums: three timpani,
one bass drum. Scale on the wall behind Liz is in four flats (which fall
naturally into two pairs!). We see Ab and Bb, then Eb etc. Where is the
fourth flat (Db)? Liz is in its place. [Can it be that all these things are
accidentals?]
Note added 5 Aug: The other half of a 4 vs. 3 comparison just sank in: In BD, when Maria joins the band, the pitch she calls for is E-flat. Now, the key of Eb has 3 flats. Whereas, when Liz was in the picture (above), the scale behind her was the Ab scale, having 4 flats, and she stood exactly in front of the fourth flat the whole time until she bolted from the room. (The notes were written just far enough apart to permit this -- a few inches either way would have uncovered the fourth flat or started to cover up one of the others or both. It's hard to imagine that a setup with so little leeway that still worked was unintentional.) [Edited by Nemo on 08-27-2000 at 09:14 PM] A band room is (ideally) a place where people can get away from the surrounding clamor in order to prepare to perform as a group; usually the time of testing, the performance, will be somewhere else. Sounds like Earth in AlienMom's plan. But when Max and Liz go there seeking sanctuary for a serious discussion, someone is already there, speaking of costumes (disguise) and playing on those 3 drums. Hmmm. The next bandroom scene begins with a focus on 4 chairs in a neat row amid others. (There is a 5th, but it's askew. Tess?) Liz pops up in front of one of these, 3 remain. We pan 4 stands laden with music: 4 roles to play to make up a larger whole, if the players so choose. After Alex enters, left of him in a backlighted display are 4 trophies grouped 1 and 3. On the wall behind Alex (see next) are 4 plaques, also arranged sort of 1 and 3. Also a fire extinguisher, which may symbolize the emergency facing GN when the original 4th came to harm. All this lends a new meaning to that exchange with M/M/I in the jeep "You mean there's more of us?" "One more." Then look in slo-mo after the Jetta passes a white building (marked with a sign PV / A, large A) with bushes in front. There are 2 tall bushes, a space, and 4 shorter ones grouped 1 + 3. Like 2 adult aliens (BN and GN?), then Liz + M/M/I. Here is Liz in the art room, questioning Max. The next closeup, just after she learns of the 3 aliens, includes just 3 of the faces on the wall behind her. I love it: Liz plus M/M/I make up the original four,  here already in the
pilot. But there is one more object in that closeup: a green thing with no
form that I can discern (can anyone make it out?), hanging low, casting that
long shadow you see here above/right of Liz's shoulder. A hint of Tess?
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