Co-Stars: Ho Oyster Chow (Jezek); Alejo Mo-Sun (Raahm); Joe Pingue (Saahm); Christopher Redman (Rick); Sean Bell (Mechanic/Gas Jockey); Richard Fagan (Jagar); Daniel Levesque (Peron); Markus Parilo (Haag)

Originally Aired: 03-June-2002; Written by: Charles Heit; Directed by: Isabelle Fox

Synopsis: Cole has not only figured out a way to zap all of the remaining prisoners into his containment vessel all at the same time by remote (using the same basic technology he had Mel use to advise him of the aliens’ locations at the Complex in "Back into the Breach"), but also a way to reopen the wormhole so that he can return home.

While this is called a clip show, it’s actually a good deal more than that. The writers managed to keep one on the edge of the seat throughout, thinking the opposite of what it all seemed. There are some wonderful moments with Cole and Mel looking into each other’s eyes and several laughs that shouldn't be missed.

Outside of all those shown in the many clips and Jezek, the alien Cole Collects during the first few minutes in the introductory teaser scene, Adrian and Amy are the only actors to appear in this episode.

———————————————————————

The teaser begins in a large warehouse complex where Cole has just flattened Jezek, his Nodulian (?) quarry. But instead of taking out his Collector, he removes a gizmo from his jacket pocket.

Jezek: "Hey, what the hell is that?"

Cole: "Just a little test..."

Jezek: "Test!? What do I look like to you? Some kind of lab rat!?!"

Cole: "Looks to me like torture was part of your field." He presses the gizmo against Jezek’s neck and checks the reading. "Hmm..."

Jezek: "Aren’t you supposed to extract my lifeforce?"

Cole: "Ah! Glad you reminded me..."

[Note: As in several other episodes, the only way the name of this alien is known is through the guest cast].

———————————————————————

Mel, anxious: "Cole? Is everything all right? I mean, you’ve just seemed really distracted the past couple of weeks..."

He doesn’t answer her, just stares at his computer screen.

Mel: "Cole?"

Cole: "I did it, Mel. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to, but I did it."

Mel: "Did what?"

Cole, still staring at his computer screen with a strangely melancholy and troubled look on his face: "I’ve been able to find a way to ... capture all the remaining lifeforces all at once ... My time here is almost at an end."

———————————————————————

This first scene, and all subsequent ones until the tag, are an unbroken continuation.

Mel, shocked, trying to digest that information: "I don’t understand ... How is that ... possible?"

Cole: "Well, you remember when you guided me through the government facility a few weeks ago? It got me thinking ... If I can boost the energy here ... and then tie it into a satellite, I can Collect all the remaining alien lifeforces and download them into the containment vessel all at once ... I did a test on a fugitive before I took his lifeforce and it seems that it’s possible..." He starts setting up. "Can you give me that other circuit board there?"

Mel: "Sure ... This one?"

Cole: "Yes."

Mel: "Wait a minute, Cole. You’re Cirronian. I’m ... part ... Cirronian. What about us?"

[Note the expression on Mel’s face and how she pauses between the words ‘I’m’, ‘part’ and ‘Cirronian’. She’s clearly having a hard time of it].

Cole, as he works: "I can adjust it to avoid this location."

Mel: "Good ... So, how do you get them back to Sar-Top?"

Cole: "Well, I’ve been monitoring the Earth’s energy patterns over the past few months ... It seems there’s a small window when I can reactivate the wormhole ... The magnetic fields only line up this way every 100 years ... The only problem is, the wormhole opens in about 20 minutes and I’m not sure how long it’s going to stay that way."

Mel, as the computer starts beeping: "What’s going on? ... What is it?"

Cole, checking the screen: "One of the lifeforces I Collected is contaminated..."

Mel: "Contaminated? Contaminated with what?"

Cole: "I’m not sure ... But unless I can identify the source, it may collapse the wormhole when I go back..."

And thus force him to abort the entire thing. He must find the source of that contamination and fast.

Mel: "Can the system tell you which one it is?"

Cole: "No. I’m going to have to identify them one by one. And that might take some time."

Mel: "But you just said that you don’t know how long the wormhole’s going to stay open!"

Cole: "I know ... I’m going to need some wires, Mel ... Maybe we can narrow them down. The contamination could be a defect in the Human process or ... the fugitive himself..."

He and Mel start going through the possibilities and numerous clips are shown from earlier shows.

Mel, thinking: "Okay ... Something that would make one particular fugitive stand out from the rest ... Tevv had that virus!"

(Flashback from "The Plague," the scene in Mel’s bedroom where Cole is telling Mel about Tevv).

Cole: "Maybe it reacted with the Human body he was occupying..."

Mel: "Maybe ... Would it be faster if we checked his blood?"

Cole: "I don’t have any left."

Mel: "Well, I thought we got a pretty good sample..."

(Another flashback from "The Plague," showing Cole’s fight with Tevv in the motel room with Mel then extracting the blood sample).

Cole: "We did. But we used it all up to create the antidote for the virus he was carrying ... All right ... Where are we? ... There..." He checks his computer readouts. "It’s not him ... All right ... Um ... Zin’s bodyguard."

Mel: "Mederan."

Cole: "Yeah. Taking over a dog’s body could cause some problems..."

(Flashback from "The Beast" of Mederan killing Councilman Prestin in his SUV).

Mel: "Yeah, the dog’s body was having some adverse side effects..."

(A continuation of that flashback scene from "The Beast," of Cole’s fight with Mederan in the garage and then his Collection).

Cole, checking his computer readouts: "Negative ... Okay. Rudy ... His host’s body was a schizophrenic..."

Mel, agreeing: "Yeah. His brain chemistry was completely off ... Not to mention all the drugs they were pumping him up with..."

(A brief flashback from "The Dark Road Home" of Rudy/Yhir taking his medication, then a longer one of Cole questioning the sleepy and drugged-out Rudy/Yhir about the meaning of the triangle Key).

Mel: "His body was probably still full of the drugs when you took his lifeforce."

Cole: "I’m not so sure ... I think he was off the drugs even before he attacked me..."

(A third "Dark Road Home" flashback with Rudy/Yhir attacking Cole with the hypodermic of thorazin).

Cole, checking: "Negative."

Mel: "Okay. Let’s keep going..."

Cole: "Um ... Remel ... Zin put his lifeforce into Wes Tarver’s body and that was after I took Krace’s from the same Human host..."

Mel: "Right. And that was a new process for Zin. He’d never transferred a lifeforce to another body before..."

(Flashback from "Back into the Breach" when Zin transferred Remel’s lifeforce into Wes Tarver’s body).

Mel: "Is it him?"

Cole: "I’m not sure ... There’s something not right here..."

Cole realizes that he has a short circuit or a loose connection. As he starts to fix it, he’s zapped with a massive electrical discharge which blows him clear across the room.

Mel: "Cole!!! Oh my God!" She rushes to him. "What happened!?! ... Cole? Are you all right? ... Cole?"

Cole, on his hands and knees, groggy: "Who’s Cole?"

Now Cole doesn’t know who, what or where he is. There are several giggles as Mel tries to convince him of who really he is and what he’s been doing on Earth, all the while watching the time. The way Cole looks at her as she’s trying to talk him through some of the things they’ve been through together and the things that have happened to help him regain his memory ... One can almost hear his thought: ‘This chick is completely insane!’...

Mel, gently: "Cole ... Do you know who I am?"

Cole, struggling to think: "No."

Mel: "Oh my God! ... Okay! This is just a temporary hitch! ... Do you remember anything about who you are?"

Cole, hesitantly: "Umm ... I’m not from here."

Mel, excited: "Yes! Right! That’s good! ... That’s good! And ... and your name is Cole ... Well, no, actually ... Your name isn’t Cole ... That’s the name of the underwear ... Your real name is Daggon."

Cole: "Daggon!"

Mel: "Well, you went with Cole after you created your image from the billboard."

Cole: "I did what?!"

(Flashback from the "Pilot" of Daggon running through the woods, coming to Highway 88 and seeing the Cole Underwear billboard, and then resolving his image from the model on it).

Mel: "And you’re from another planet ... You know, in the Migar ... Solar System ... A planet called Cirron ... You were a prison guard, at a prison called Sar-Top ... Does this make any sense to you?"

All the while Mel’s been telling him this, he’s been recoiling from her.

Cole, jumping to his feet: "So ... I’m from another planet..."

Mel: "Yeah."

Cole: "And who are you?"

Mel: "I’m Mel. I ... helped you ... I gave you a ride when you first got here."

(Flashback again to the "Pilot," of Mel picking him up by the side of the road).

Cole: "What am I doing here?"

Mel, with a sigh: "Well, there was a jailbreak at your prison. And 218 escapees came down through the same wormhole as you did."

Cole: "A ... a ... what!?!" He twirls a finger in the air. "A worm - worm!?..."

(Another "Pilot" flashback of Daggon coming down the powerlines and transmission tower).

Mel: "Right. And you came after Rhee ... Remember? He was the first one to escape."

Cole, puzzled: "Rhee..."

Mel: "And ... And we chased him ... And you ... you were able to capture him."

(Still another "Pilot" flashback, their car chase in pursuit of Rhee, then Cole’s fight with him).

Cole, doubtful: "How exactly did I do that?"

Mel: "With your Collector."

Cole: "My what!?"

Mel: "Your ... Collector." She rolls her eyes. "It’s an extraction device that ... It’s ... it’s..."

Mel, with a sigh: "Never mind! It’s how you catch them. And then you ... you store them in here."

Cole, becoming increasingly unsettled by all her ‘strange’ talk, indicates the room: "And ... what is all this?"

Mel: "Well you ... built all this ... Well, except for the microwaves ... But you did your own modifications on those."

(Yet another flashback to the "Pilot," of Cole taking the Watchfire’s microwave and telling Mel and Jess that he needs it "to read thermal patterns").

Cole, indicating the room as be backs up: "Oh! And I ... hunt these ... convicts with this..."

Mel: "Right."

Cole nervously laughs and backs up toward the door, where he discovers an Orsian collar on a table.

Cole, picking up the collar: "Something about this..."

Mel: "Do you remember?"

Cole: "No, but ... What is it?"

Mel: "It’s how Orsians communicate."

Cole: "Orsians?"

Mel: "Yeah. They’re like twins ... from ... like ... the planet ... Orsus."

Cole, handing her the collar: "Okay, then."

By this point Cole has had it. He stalks out of the War Room, probably thinking to leave, and strides pass the bathroom ... Then walks back to the bathroom and peeks around the doorjamb ... Memory has stirred.

Cole, walking into the bathroom, murmuring: "Bathtub..."

Mel, who has followed him to the bathroom: "Yes! That’s where you explained everything to me!"

(Flashback to the bathtub scene of "Roswell" where Mel is trying to shave Cole and he’s babbling away about Orsians; then he stands up and steps out of the bathtub, stark naked and at least partially aroused. Mel chokes out "Wow!" then instructs him that he has to rub himself with the towel).

Cole: "I remember something about this..."

Mel: "Do you? That’s good! ... That’s very, very good!"

Cole, thoughtfully: "I got out of the bathtub without any clothes on..."

Mel, wryly: "You had to remember that one..."

One of the computers then starts beeping. Mel groans and dashes back into the War Room, a stammering Cole following. She doesn’t know what to do, but he does and automatically types in a command, then becomes even further confused because he doesn’t know how he knew to do that.

Cole, questioning what he’s seeing about the countdown of time on-screen: "What does that mean?"

Mel: "Trust me ... It’s not good."

Frustrated, he again leaves the War Room, Mel following after.

Mel: "Basically, your mission is almost complete, but your ticket home goes away in about two hours."

Still not knowing what she’s talking about, Cole groans and starts to stammer.

Mel: "Wait a second!"

She runs back into the War Room, bringing out her grandmother’s triangle Key.

Mel, handing him the Key: "Does this mean anything to you? Anything at all? ... Try to remember!"

(Flashback to "What Lies Beneath," with Cole explaining the story of the Stra’da-Brac to Mel and Nestov. Note that Mel’s dialog here has an additional line that isn’t in the original televised episode:

Nestov: "Sorry, Cole. You’re way off on this one. It’s just a myth.

Cole, handing her back the Key: "No."

He continues walking into the living room, Mel following.

Mel, sighing with frustration: "So you don’t remember fighting Zin?"

Cole: "Zin?"

Mel: "Yeah. He was the leader of all the fugitives."

(Flashback to the "Pilot" where Cole confronted Zin and Zin stopped Mel’s heart with a Vardian power pulse).

Mel: "And that’s when you started Tracking Zin and the rest of the fugitives ... But Zin had a much bigger plan."

As she’s explaining to him about Zin, Cole envisions the two of them dancing.

(Brief flashback to Mel and Cole dancing at the end of "To Catch a Desserian").

Mel, sitting down on the arm of the sofa: "There was this weapon that his people built a long time ago..."

Cole: "Were we ... involved?"

Mel: "Huh?"

Cole: "You and me?"

Mel: "No!" She makes a dismissive noise. "We have a problem to solve here!"

Cole: "Are you sure?"

Mel: "I’m positive! I’m not the one who lost my memory!"

Cole: "Yeah, but I remember us dancing..."

Mel: "We did dance once."

Cole: "So, we were involved!"

Mel: "No! ... You asked me to teach you to dance and I did ... Remember?"

Cole, mumbling: "I don’t remember it like that."

Mel: "No, I did! I did!"

Cole: "You did?"

Mel: "Yeah ... But we really don’t have time for this right now..."

Cole, frustrated: "Yeah, but I’m - I’m trying to remember! You know!?! You asked me to remember and I’m trying to remember! You’re telling me about Zin and - and fighting and - and triangles and..."

Mel, soothingly: "I know ... Remembering is good. Remembering is what we’re going after."

Cole: "Okay."

Mel: "Okay."

Cole: "Are you sure there is nothing between us?"

Mel: "I’m ... positive! ... Unless you’re thinking about the time ... we had to pretend we were married..."

(Flashback to the hotel check-in scene in the teaser of "Love, Cirronian Style").

Cole: "Sex seminar ... Did we..."

Mel: "No! Well, no ... I would remember that ... No! No! We didn’t!"

Cole: "I’m sorry! I’m sorry! ... I - I just ... you know ... I just ... have this ... this feeling ... It’s like ... an attraction to you..."

Mel, melting: "Really?"

Cole: "Yeah..."

Mel, recovering herself: "Oh ... Well, that’s probably because I’m ... part ... Cirronian."

[Note again Mel’s facial expression here and how she pauses between the words ‘I’m’, ‘part’ and ‘Cirronian’. The entire concept and its implications are too much for her to digest].

Cole: "Oh ... So we never kissed, then?"

Mel: "Well, we did kiss ... Once."

Cole, starting to remember it: "We were at a dance..."

Mel, adding: "At the weekend retreat..."

Cole, moving toward her: "Yeah. And - and you came toward me and I held you like this and ... and we were very ... close..." They’re in each other’s arms, their lips but inches apart, and Mel closes her eyes in anticipation.

(A lingering flashback of their heart-stopping kiss from "Love, Cirronian Style," shown ‘reverse-framed’ from the original televised version. A pity there was no repeat performance!).

Cole, blinking, suddenly backing away from her: "Oh!"

Mel: "What’s wrong?"

Cole is disoriented as memory returns in a rapid-fire flood of visual images creating a montage of past episodes which actually only take a few moments of time in this episode.

Cole: "I remember everything."

Mel: "Really? You do?"

Cole: "Yes."

Mel: "Oh! Thank God!"

Warning computer beeps coming from the War Room then bring them both hurrying back in there.

Cole, looking at the screen, mutters: "Oh, no ... Not this again..."

Mel, also looking at the screen and seeing the available time: "We only have an hour left!"

This time Cole manages to manipulate the wires to repair the short circuit/loose connection without getting himself zapped and they then return to work, trying to figure out which of the Collected aliens is throwing the screws to possibly missing the wormhole.

Mel: "Did it work?"

Cole, getting up from under his desk: "I’m not sure ..." He takes his seat and checks the computer screen. "Yes! ... And the bad news is ... It isn’t Remel." Mel shakes her head in frustration as he thinks aloud. "Oh! What about Krace? ... Krace ..." He considers. "No ... I doubt if his artificial hyperspeed device would have contaminated his lifeforce but..."

[Note: At the end of "Breach" Cole concealed the existence of the Hyperspeed Simulator from Mel. Now it’s clear that he must have told her about it at a later date, probably when he was more ready to share his experiences there with her and he felt that she could handle it without becoming too upset].

(Flashback to "Breach," the scene where Krace rescues Cole from the frigid room).

Mel: "Wait a minute ... Didn’t you Collect his lifeforce when his Human body was dying?"

(Another flashback to "Breach," the scene where Cole reluctantly Collects Krace).

Cole: "Yeah ... Maybe I Collected some of his Human energies as well ... I’ll give it a shot..."

Mel, sighing as she sees the on-screen results: "Negative again! ... Okay ... Think ... think ... think ... think ... Who else took over a body..." She snaps her fingers. "A teenager!"

Cole: "What? Teenagers?"

Mel: "Yeah! None of the fugitives were kids themselves, right?"

Cole: "Right."

Mel: "So, maybe when they took over the bodies their systems screwed up ... I mean, raging hormones and everything..."

Cole: "There was the Nodulian in Jordan Baylor’s body ... He was experimenting on transferring lifeforces ... Maybe he did some tests on himself and created a virus..."

(Flashback to Sirez in the warehouse/laboratory watching Peron attempting to transfer the lifeforce of an alien named Reylex into Rick’s body in "Children of the Night").

Cole, shaking his head as the results come on-screen: "It’s not him."

Mel: "It’s too bad you don’t have Lontoria in there ... I mean, the body of a female Human teenager ... It must have had some kind of affect on her lifeforce..."

Cole: "Wait a minute, now ... We might be on to something ... Yeah, that might be the key ... Females."

Mel: "Females?"

Cole: "Yeah." He shrugs. "I mean, you have to admit, Earth women are unique."

Mel, agreeing: "You have a point."

Cole: "Perhaps the high level of estrogen caused the lifeforce to be contaminated..."

Mel: "Right! Look at Rhee!"

Cole: "Exactly!"

Mel: "That body certainly seemed to have some kind of strange hormonal reaction or ... something..."

(Flashback of the opening teaser scene from the "Pilot" with Rhee playing with the gas nozzle and meeting his first Human victim, the mechanic/gas jockey).

Cole, viewing the results: "It’s not her ... Wait a minute ... What if it was on the other end of the spectrum? Think of Zareth ... She was a beautiful woman, she had no ill effects ... Well-adjusted ... And she blended in very easily and didn’t have any problem using her Desserian abilities against me..."

(Flashback of Cole’s fight scene with Zareth in the Chicago Art Museum’s vault in "To Catch a Desserian").

Cole, checking his readouts: "And it’s ... not her."

Mel, watching the clock: "Cole ... We’re running out of time ... Hyperspeed is the only way you’re going to get to the wormhole entrance now..."

Cole: "Well, there’s ... there’s only one other Earth woman that’s been taken over by one of the fugitives and that’s Kate Phillips..."

(Flashback to "Love, Cirronian Style" of Kate Phillips/Vedra killing Ed Spaulding, the over-sexed pervert who "likes to play," in the hallway of the Lodestone Inn).

Cole, seeing the results come up negative on his computer screen and thinking aloud: "She was an Orsian ... And Orsians are symbiotically linked in pairs..."

Mel: "Like Raahm and Saahm!"

Cole: "Exactly!"

(Flashback to "Roswell," where Saahm is stuffing his face with donuts while telepathically arguing with his brother, Raahm, about his weight).

Cole: "Now, I took both their lifeforces, as I did the Valik sisters ... But when we were in London ... I took Jagar’s lifeforce ... but I didn’t take his brother, Haag..."

(Two brief flashbacks from "Fever of the Hunt, Part II," the first where Cole defeats and Collects Jagar, then where Haag has him incapacitated on the ground after being shot with liquid nitrogen pellets).

Mel, following his reasoning: "And so maybe ... having only one of a set of Orsians in there ... is causing some kind of energy imbalance?"

Cole: "Exactly!" He checks the results of his computer analysis. "That’s it! It’s Jagar!"

Mel: "Great!"

Cole and Mel then quickly start to pull everything together for the remote Collection and he tells her to turn on the power grid.

Mel, worried: "You can’t just take him out and leave him behind."

Cole: "Once, ah, the satellite thing has been activated, it’ll take Haag’s lifeforce, too. That’ll take care of the energy imbalance ... Okay ... let’s do this..." He points out all the little blue dots shown on a U.S. map on his computer screen (and there are a lot of them) and tells her, "Each dot represents a fugitive."

[Note: Isn’t Cole’s map incomplete and/or useless? It only shows escaped prisoners in the continental United States. He’s already met some of Zin’s lackeys in England ("Fever of the Hunt") who weren’t part of the initial prison escape, who weren’t prisoners at all, and it was hinted in that episode that Zin’s organization was much wider than Chicago and the U.S. So, does this new Collection process grab them as well? Or are they going to be left behind?].

Mel: "Wow!"

Cole: "After the identification stage, the Collection will begin."

Mel: "And all those lifeforces can fit into the containment vessel?"

Cole: "Yeah. I designed it to hold them all..."

Mel: "It’s working!"

Cole, muttering to himself as the dots begin to vanish from the computer screen and the little silver ball cells in the containment vessel begin glowing red: "Come on..."

[Note that Cole doesn’t seem at all bothered by the fact that individuals in all 48 connected states will suddenly drop dead. No doubt there will be witnesses to some incidents, which will lead to an investigation once a pattern is established. Of course, he's never been too bothered with leaving bodies around. Likely, he thought he wouldn’t be around to deal with it. Still, he had to leave a bunch of dead bodies around even if he hunted down the fugitives one at a time. He also doesn’t seem to be disturbed that he’s zapping Nestov off of Earth. It had seemed that he’d reached some kind of arrangement with him].

Suddenly, the map is clear and all the blue dots are gone. The red glow in the containment vessel fades.

Mel: "And that’s it? You’ve got them all?"

Cole: "Yes, they’re all here."

Mel: "So ... Mission accomplished ... It must feel pretty good."

Cole: "Yes, it does feel pretty good..."

For a few moments they awkwardly face each other, then he turns and holds out his hand, shrinking the containment vessel into a cube and absorbing it into his molecules.

[Note: In the "Pilot," Zin told Cole that "218 have come." It was never clear, however, whether that number included both himself and Rhee, let alone Haag and the other non-escapee aliens in London. Cole says that "They’re all here." But what all? What about Zin? Is he or isn’t he still in the Vault? "I can adjust it to avoid this location" does not necessarily mean underground to their location. And, since buildings don’t seem to be a barrier insofar as Collecting the lifeforces is concerned, one can speculate that he was also Collected.

And what about Lontoria, whose Cirronian energies would supposedly take years to regenerate and be too low at that time to even register? What about those non-prisoners who were around like Haag and his London force? What about those aliens who were killed, such as the unnamed Enixian who was stabbed to death in the lab in "Cloud Nine"; the Nodulian, Curtis, whom Tanner killed in the teaser of "Double Down"; Sheriff Dawson, the Enixian presumably killed by Zin in "The Miracle" with an energy gun blast; and Rigna, the Cirronian Zin killed in the teaser of "What Lies Beneath"? Were they lost? How were they accounted for? Can 218 be taken as an accurate figure?].

Mel and Cole’s good-bye scene just tears one’s heart out ... And although Mel’s eyes are very weepy, she manages to hold it together and doesn’t break down and cry.

Mel, with false brightness: "Well, you better get going before the wormhole closes."

She abruptly turns and walks out of the War Room.

Cole, slowly following: "Yes ... I’d ... better."

His jubilation at Collecting all the fugitives is obviously evaporating. He can now go home and resume his life, return to the Migar System, return to Sar-Top, return to Cirron...

He stops and turns back a moment to forlornly survey his room from the doorway.

Mel stands in the hall by the apartment door, arms folded, head bowed, trying to get a hold of herself, determined not to break, determined not to cry. She’d known from the very beginning that this day would come.

Cole, quietly, as he comes to stand beside her: "I have to do this."

Mel, quickly affirming, trying to sound upbeat: "I know you do."

Cole, pausing at the door: "Come with me?"

Mel: "How?"

Cole: "Travel through the wormhole. You’re part Cirronian. There’s so much for you to learn there."

Mel, more than a little fearful: "I’m tempted, Cole ... Really ... Really ... But I think ... But I think a part of me needs to stay here."

Cole, nodding: "I understand."

Mel: "Maybe ... I can come and visit you sometime..."

Cole: "That would be nice ... If I can find a way to reopen the wormhole."

Mel: "It’s not like it’s a flight to Newark."

Cole: "No, it’s not..." He turns to her, his voice breaking. "Mel..."

Mel, eyes brimming, barely above a whisper: "Don’t ... Don’t say good bye ... Please?"

She closes her eyes at his touch as, for the last time, he reaches over and gently caresses her throat, gazing at her lovingly. Then he goes into hyperspeed and is gone. And she’s left standing there alone. Heart-rending.

———————————————————————

In the tag scene, Mel comes through the door on her return home from somewhere, looking very sad, depressed and dejected. As she’s hanging up her purse – but before she removes her coat – she hears movement coming from the living room and cautiously moves down the hall to investigate, finding Cole sitting on her sofa busily working on her stereo speaker.

Mel, disbelieving: "Cole?"

Cole: "Hello, Mel."

Mel: "What are you doing here?"

Cole: "Fixing the speaker. That buzzing noise bothers me."

Mel, with a short bark of laughter, sitting down opposite him: "No, I mean ... I thought you were going home."

Cole, explaining, a trifle nervously: "I did. When I got there I realized that it wasn’t ... As soon as I got to Sar-Top, I started thinking about my future ... With my family gone ... My life as a prison guard on a cold satellite planet ... I realized that’s not what I wanted my life to be ... I was thinking of you..." He looks over at her almost shyly, as if he’s not quite certain how she might react to his decision. "And thanks to a small miscalculation, the wormhole stayed open longer than I thought." He gets up to reconnect the speaker with her stereo. "Just made it in time, too. The wormhole closes in another couple of minutes."

[So he returned to Earth and came back to her. How could he not? He said it himself in "The Dark Road Home": home is wherever Mel is].

Mel, giddy, following him over to the stereo system: "Well, there’s no one to catch anymore. You’re going to have to find something to do."

Cole: "I was thinking about that ... What would you think if I opened up an electrical repair shop?"

Mel laughs and nods: "I think that would be perfect!"

Mel, just remembering: "I have something for you!" She hurries to her bedroom.

Cole takes up a station leaning against the wall in the nook by the entry to his War Room.

Mel, coming out of her bedroom carrying a big long box: "Cole?"

Cole, playfully, from behind her: "Boo!"

Mel, startled: "Ahhh!" She laughs. "Here. I was waiting for a special occasion to give this to you ... But then the time never seemed to be right."

Cole, having taken out a very nice telescope and tripod from the box: "Wow. It’s beautiful."

Mel, as he examines it: "It’s a telescope."

Cole: "Yes. Yes it is ... Thank you."

Having set up the telescope at one of the living room windows, Cole is looking through the eyepiece.

Mel: "I just thought in case you got homesick ... Then again, it’s probably too far..."

Cole, assuring her: "Oh, I can make some adjustments."

Mel, fondly smiling at him: "I’m sure you can."

Cole: "Do you want to see where Cirron is?"

Mel: "I’d love to!"

Cole, relinquishing the eyepiece to her: "Stand here ... Can you see the Big Dipper?"

Mel: "Where?"

Cole: "Look at the North Star and draw a line down to the left."

Mel: "Right."

Cole: "No, left."

Mel, broadly smiling: "I got it."

Cole: "Okay ... Well, look at the star to the bottom right of the Dipper."

Mel: "Okay."

Cole: "If you travel out from there, say ... 50 light years..."

Mel: "50 light years! Is that all?"

Cole: "Give or take a few million miles."

Mel: "Of course..."

Cole: "Well, if you draw a graduating angle ... which would be to your left ... you would eventually come to the Migar System ... Cirron is the center of one of those planets ... The largest one ... It’s beautiful, Mel ... Maybe one day ... I can show it to you..."

He puts his arm around her shoulder.

While Mel and Cole are celebrating, talking and viewing the stars, the camera pans back down the hall to the War Room and the computers. The wormhole still hasn’t closed. A continental United States map pops up on the central computer screen showing multiplying blue dots – which represent alien lifeforces – reappearing...

************************

So, what seemed like an episode designed to bring it all to an end instead opened a huge door to another season ... Did something happen to release the fugitives from their confinement? Is Zin among them? Or is this an entirely new crop of bad guys?

Alas! No second season to find out.

And no movie.

———————————————————————

Blooper – Joanie Laurer’s name is misspelled "Laurier" in the post-title guest credits.