Max Evans
Birthday: March 15, 1983
Age: 17
Parents: Adoptive parents are Diane and Phillip Evans
Siblings: Isabel Evans
Powers: Include the ability to heal people from injuries, but not diseases, and manipulate molecular structure, and connect with people (get flashes or images of his or her life).
Character History: Max is an alien from the 1947 crash in Roswell, New Mexico. He, along with his sister Isabel, their friend Michael Guerin, and Tess Harding had been placed in incubation pods in the desert in a secret, hidden cave. In 1989 three of those pods "hatched" and Max, Isabel and Michael emerged, looking like normal human 6 year olds.
Max and Isabel were found by Diane and Phillip Evans as they wandered out in the desert alone. They were later adopted by the same couple, and were raised human, though they had powers that no one else knew about, until 3 years later when they met back up with Michael, whom they had been separated from in the desert.
Max had secretly been in love with Liz since he first saw her in the third grade on his first day of school. On September 18, 1999, he and his best friend Michael Guerin had gone to the Crashdown Cafe for lunch. Two customers got into an argument and one of them pulled out a gun. Liz Parker, whose parents own the Cafe, was shot. Max ignored Michael's protests and healed her, thus saving her life. He was later forced to tell Liz the truth: that he was an alien. He reversed the connection between them so that Liz could see he was still the same person he'd always been and that he wasn't someone to be afraid of. While it worked, he was now under suspicion from the town sheriff, Jim Valenti, who knew something had happened that day at the Cafe. With the help of Liz, her friend Maria DeLuca, Michael and Isabel, they were able to temporarily throw the sheriff off guard, but he vowed to find out the truth.
Max was beaten up by some friends of Liz's boyfriend, who happened to be the sheriff's son. They warned him to stay away from Liz. Michael and Isabel agreed that having further involvement with the two humans that knew their secret was a bad idea, and Max reluctantly agreed to stay away from her. The gesture didn't last long, as Liz's grandmother had a stroke and died, and Max offered her his shoulder to cry on.
The group of teens went to Marathon, Texas, and found the house of a dead ufologist who had tons of files and information locked away in a secret room. That information lead to a Native American, Riverdog, who lived on a reservation not far from Roswell. He informed Max and Liz that he had once known someone like Max, and that he was a killer. Riverdog showed them a message that the alien had left on a cave wall, but Max couldn't decipher it.
Max and Liz got into a car accident to avoid hitting a wild horse on the road. Max was knocked out and taken to the hospital where the doctors took his blood. Thanks to Alex Whitman (who didn't know the truth about who Max was at the time) who donated his blood as a replacement for Max's, Max was able to escape discovery.
Not long afterwards, he and Liz were unable to stay apart any longer and shared their first kiss on her rooftop under the stars. Unfortunately, Michael got sick from participating in a Native American ritual called the Sweat Lodge Ceremony. The group went to Riverdog for help, and he gave them each stones from their planet to heal him, saying that the other alien, whom he called Nasedo, had given them to him when he was a boy and that the stones would "restore his balance." He warned the group that it could put them at risk as well, and Liz, fearing for Max's health, hesitated. Michael was healed, but Max later went to Liz's and told her they needed to take a step back because they weren't meant to be together.
Max's mother, Diane Evans, was cooking dinner one night when Max was home, and spilled some oil onto the fire, causing a blaze of flames. Max used his powers to extinguish the flames and saved her life. He tried to convince her he'd just thrown water onto the fire. Sheriff Valenti showed up and later gave Max's mother a brochure on fire safety, and had highlighted the section on grease and oil fires which CANNOT be extinguished with water. Diane began asking Max questions, and Isabel began pressuring Max to tell their mom the truth, convinced that she would still love them. Michael, however, opposed telling her. Max was torn between wanting her to know and fearing for the group's safety. In the end he decided that they couldn't tell her.
Max kept pushing Liz away, but was hurt and jealous when she won a the blind date radio contest. He watched, devastated as she kissed the guy in front of the whole town. Kyle Valenti (Liz's ex-boyfriend and Max's arch-enemy) actually bonded over the experience. Kyle pressured him to take a drink of the alcohol he'd brought with him, and when Max finally relented and took a sip he immediately got drunk. He wound up drawing a heart with his and Liz's initials on Liz's roof using his powers and then brokeinto Liz's room with Kyle and calmly told her they were both completely hammered so she didn't get upset. Max and Liz fled the reporters that had been following her and her blind date around all night, and Max told her that he wanted to run away with her. Unfortunately, when the effects of the alcohol wore off, he didn't remember anything that had happened.
Eventually Max and Liz wound up back together and Liz began getting visions from Max when they kissed. She began seeing "flashes" of outer space and later, of the 1947 crash. She saw a vision of something buried out in the desert, and the two of them went out to see if they could figure out what it was. It turned out to be some kind of orb with an alien symbol on it.
Tess Harding showed up in town around this time and befriended Isabel and seemed to have an interest in Max.
Max began having visions of himself with Tess, and found himself unnaturally drawn to her. They kissed one night in the rain as a horrified Liz looked on. Max, distraught, went to Michael's apartment for help. During an argument, they found that a small camera had been planted in the apartment, and realized that someone was watching them.
It was later revealed that Tess was one of them. She'd been in the fourth pod that night in the desert and for some reason hadn't hatched out when Max, Michael and Isabel had. She'd been living with Nasedo all these years and trying to track down the three of them. She told him that in their previous life (on their planet), she had been his wife. Michael and Isabel had also been engaged. She told him that the two of them were destined to be together, but Max pushed her away, saying that he loved Liz.
Max was later abducted by a government agency of alien hunters headed by Agent Pierce. Pierce tortured Max, trying to get Max to show him what the alien orb did. Eventually, with the help of the entire group, plus Sheriff Valenti, who turned out to be on their side, he was rescued. He told Liz that he loved her and she returned the affection.
Max, Liz, Michael, Isabel, and Tess went to the pod chamber and used the healing stones on Nasedo, whom had been shot during Max's rescue. They healed him and he shape-shifted and took Pierce's place in the special unit.
The four aliens concentrated and used the orbs that they had found. The orbs conjured an image of Max and Isabel's real mother, who told them that Max was the leader of their planet, Michael was his second-in-command, Isabel was Michael's fiance, and that Tess was Max's wife. She told them that they had died on their world during the war, and their D.N.A. had been mixed with human D.N.A. and they'd been sent to earth to defeat their enemies there before they could return home and save the rest of their people.
Liz, who had been watching the entire situation unfold, kissed Max and told him goodbye. When he tried to argue, she told him that she wasn't his destiny, and she walked away from him. Max, devastated, watched as she left him behind.
Max and Liz in "The Balance." Their kiss "to remember."
Some of my Favorite Max Quotes:
"Well, I'm not from around here." -Max to Liz, "Pilot."
"Now my life is in your hands." -Max to Liz, "Pilot."
"It was you." -Max to Liz, "Pilot."
"...it feels like my life didn't even start until I told you the truth that day." -Max to Liz, "285 South."
"So we'll just take a step back...for awhile." -Max to Liz, "The Balance."
"...It's all just magic when I think about you." -Max to Liz, "Blind Date."
"What's so great about normal?" -Max to Liz, "Blind Date."
"The main thing is....I didn't just see what you saw. I felt...what you felt...when you saw me. And I never thought anyone could really...ever feel that way about me." -Max to Liz, "Sexual Healing."
"You were what kept me alive. The thought of you. The way your eyes look into mine. Your smile. The touch of your skin. Your lips. Knowing you has made me human. Whether I die tomorrow or fifty years from now, my destiny is the same. It's you. I want to be with you, Liz. I love you." -Max to Liz, "Destiny."
"You mean everything to me." -Max to Liz, "Destiny."
The character of Max Evans is played by the talented Jason Behr.