Michael and Maria: Couple History

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Michael Guerin. The loner, the outsider, the guy who in the first years of his life on earth learned a harsh lesson too many of us have to learn. Trust no one. The only one you can ever really count on is you. Don�t get too close. Don�t get attached. People will only disappoint you. Even with Max and Isabel, his closest friends and alien compadres, you could still sense a distance. A wall between himself and those around him.

And you could also see his vulnerability. His need to be loved. His fear of accepting that love from anyone because he might be rejected or have it thrown in his face. His denial of others helping hands because they looked like pity offerings and the only thing you have when you have no one is your pride. The ability to say hey, I may have nothing, but its made me strong. And you�re weak. You�re attached. Someone can hurt you. Someone can get into you and rip out your insides and annihilate you.

Michael was always the most human of the four aliens because of this. His fear wasn�t that if the world saw that he was an alien they�d cut him up or reject him. He was always afraid if someone saw how human he was they�d cut him up and reject him. He used his alien side, his obsession with finding that distant alien planet called home, was really his attempt to stay as distant and untouched by this world as possible. By using his alien side as a shield, he was able to stay ambivalent towards those around him.

Poor Michael. I don�t think he ever quite saw Maria coming. Someone as stubborn, if not more so than he was, who demanded all the things he was terrified of feeling. We got our first real glimpse of chemistry bubbling between them in the episode �285 South� in season one. I�m sure you all remember the porno version of Aladdin motel room. A few people probably even have the entire scene memorized�as for me, that particular section of tape has been replayed more than its fair share and now I only save it for the more special occasions.

Maria: All right, how about just one personal question? You know, since I didn't turn you in back there. Why is it so important to you to find out where you come from?
Michael: Because there's gotta be something better out there for me than Roswell, New Mexico.
Michael: You think that's funny.
Maria: No, no. It's just, um...when I was a kid, I used to stay up at night and, um, make up stories about my father...you know, and who he was and...what he was doing. And they all ended exactly the same way. He would come in a limo and pick me and my mom up and take us off to some exotic place where we'd live like royalty. Because, you know...I thought to myself...there's got to be something better out there for me than Roswell, New Mexico.
Michael: Substitute a spaceship for a limo, and you know what I mean.

And without Michael quite realizing it, a connection was formed. Maria in that brief moment made a connection Michael had been fighting to stay free of his entire life. From that moment on, no matter how much of a jerk Michael tried to be, he couldn�t completely push Maria away. And Maria, thank her stubborn heart, wouldn�t go away on her own.

Gradually over the course of the next two seasons Maria and Michael grew closer and closer. And as Michael and Maria grew closer, the less isolated Michael became. His need to push others away gradually faded. And with that came a realization.

Max: Michael. The idea that Alex might have died just because we're here... I can't bear it. All those times you would run off chasing some clue to find out where we come from. Why we're here. Where we belong. I always thought you were chasing something that wasn't out there, because in my heart, I believed that we belonged here, you know? That we were human. Lately, I've been thinking that you might have been right all along.
Michael: Lately, I've been thinking I might have been wrong all along.

In the last episode of season two, �The Departure� Michael�s final barrier came down. With the knowledge he would soon have to leave the woman he�d grown to love, who�d shown him how much better he could be, he could no longer keep himself distanced.

Michael: No, no you don't see me. You know when Max and Liz would kiss, and Liz would get the flashes? And when we would kiss you didn't. I know how much that hurt you.
Maria: That doesn't matter to me anymore Michael.
Michael: The reason you didn't get the flashes is because I didn't let you get them. I didn't let you see me. I've never let anyone see me before...because there are things inside of me that I don't want people to see. There's things inside of me that I'm not so proud of. But I've thought about it, and I want you to see me.

And just like that, Michael stopped being a loner and became a lot more like the rest of us. He became human, no matter what mixed DNA flowed through his veins. Maybe even more so than a lot of �real� humans I know.

Just look how far that boys come.

-Ivory