Max Evans

Fictional character summary

In a previous existence, Max was Zan, king of the planet Antar. After Zan's death, his people used his DNA and the DNA of human donors to create two sets of alien/human hybrids or clones of him and the rest of the Royal Four of Antar. These include Isabel Evans (Vilandra, Zan's sister), Michael Guerin (Rath, Vilandra's betrothed husband and Zan's second-in command), and Tess Harding (Ava, Zan's bride). The clones were sent to Earth to hide them from their enemies especially Kivar who killed Zan & co back on Antar.

The craft carrying Max, Isabel, Michael, and Tess crashes in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. In the series, the U.S. Army finds the alien pods and takes them to a base for study. The four are saved by an Air Force pilot and stashed in a new ship hidden in a rock formation. About 40 years pass before the clones emerge in 1989. Max, Isabel, and Michael leave the pod together, looking like human children about 6 years old. The three characters are blank slates with no memories of life on Antar, nor of the fourth hybrid, Tess (who is separately rescued by an Antarian with an agenda). Max and Isabel are found together by a couple of lawyers, the Evans, who adopt the two and make a loving and stable home for them. Michael hides when this happens and is later discovered and placed with an abusive foster father.

Characteristics

Max appears to be shy and introverted, though this is not his true disposition. Being a hybrid often forces him to hide his true self. Because he must conceal his true identity, Max is a complex character, very timid at times, yet passionate and carefree at others. Even before he knew that he was the clone of the king of Antar, Max emerged as the de facto leader among his friends.

Portrayed as the deep thinker of the group, Max sometimes is nevertheless shown spurred to bold action by his protective nature. This sometimes manifests as a character flaw, as his protective nature leads him to make conservative choices. However, fitting into the archetypal leader role, he always takes responsibility for his actions and choices, and is never beyond offering apologies to those he hurts. Max also stands out in the group because of his unique healing powers.

Powers and abilities

Max is capable of molecular manipulation and telekinesis, just like the rest of the hybrids, although he is not as well-practiced with either of these abilities as the others. His unique power is healing through physical contact, most notably used to save Liz Parker from a bullet wound in the first episode and a group of children with cancer in the second season. From the second season on, he is also able to produce a force field (visually resembling a thin wall of green gel) that can protect himself and others. Tess assisted him in developing this ability.

In the first season, he is also able to project the soul of Liz's grandmother (while she is in a coma) in order to give her the chance to say goodbye. However, this power is not used again in the show, and the character does not acknowledge this ability nor does the viewer understand if it is a different power or a variation of his other existing powers. It appears that when he heals certain people - or at least the people he's emotionally close to - they start to develop alien powers, as he healed Liz Parker and she later developed powers; it is also hinted that Kyle Valenti will develop them. It is possible that his healing ability sets off some sort of genetic chain reaction that enables those he's healed to access more of their brains' evolutionary potential – it was established that the "alien" powers he and the others possess are in fact abilities inherent in the human brain.

Relationship with Liz Parker

An important premise of Max's character (and the show itself) is that he's been in love with Liz Parker since the first time he saw her at school when he was just six years old (shortly after emerging from the pod). He keeps himself distanced from Liz, primarily because of his concerns about being an alien and her being a human.

This secret ends in the pilot episode when she gets shot at the Crashdown Cafe and he saves her life, risking everything for her and starting the lead plot of the show.

Max intensely loves Liz, sometimes he cares about her even more than he cares about his fellow alien-human hybrids or even himself. He shares a deep, mysterious connection with her that never finds a rational explanation. It is with her involuntary help that he starts to find more clues about his origins. Also, Liz is able to feel whether Max is in danger or hurt (season three) and they save each other's lives more than once. For this powerful connection between them and their deep and natural affinity and compatibility they're considered soulmates by both the characters of the story and the creators of the series.

"The Max-Liz connection works so well, as is so popular with "Roswell"'s fans, because, in Moore's opinion, "It's very romantic in the classic sense of the word. Max is a young man from another planet, with secrets. He saved her life in the first episode, and they became soulmates across time and space. It's a classic set-up. Beyond that, the appeal of their relationship has a great deal to do with the chemistry between Shiri Appleby and Jason Behr."

The relationship with Liz Parker is considered a very important aspect of the show and this character.

"Heart and Soul of Roswell, I think that Jason (Katims) would share this opinion, has always been the relationship between Max and Liz. That's where the plot begins. He saved her life and he exposes himself at the same time. The love between those two characters is fundamental to the show's success."

Due to the nature of their relationship and the difference between an alien boy and a human girl Max and Liz relationship is considered another modern example of forbidden lovers with many references to Romeo and Juliet through the series by both the characters and the writers/producers.

Fictional biography

Season one

Viewers first see Max watching Liz work as a waitress while eating at the Crashdown Café, which belongs to Liz's parents. Fellow waitress Maria De Luca is the one who points out Max's infatuation to Liz. Liz then witnesses an argument between two customers and is accidentally shot. Max rushes to her side and heals the wound simply by placing his hand over it, bringing her back to life. Liz later discovers a silver hand print on her stomach, a mystery she becomes determined to solve. During a biology class experiment, Liz sneaks a sample of Max's saliva and examines it under a microscope, discovering that Max's cells look nothing like human cells. She confronts Max, who then admits that he, his sister Isabel and their friend Michael are aliens from the planet Antar, whose spaceship crashed at Roswell in 1947. By telling her, Max breaks the ultimate taboo that he, Isabel, and Michael have kept their whole lives. Liz becomes the first human to know the secret of the "Pod Squad". Overwhelmed by the secret, she asks Max why he'd risked everything to heal her. Max replies, "Because it was you." This sets the tone for the series: Max will break any rule (including his own) for Liz.

In order to gain her trust, Max creates a connection with her so she can see into his soul. Liz experiences all his inner feelings, especially the love Max has for her. After seeing Max's true character, Liz makes the decision to protect Max and his friends. Liz also begins to feel very drawn to Max in return, despite her current relationship with the sheriff's son Kyle Valenti. Liz confides in Maria about Max and the others, a transgression Max forgives. As the season progresses, Max and Liz's relationship and their struggles with his secret take center stage.

Liz later begs Max to use his healing powers to help save her aged grandmother, Claudia. Max reveals that he can not stop a natural death, but does help her have a final conversation with Claudia. Her grandmother's insights give Liz the clarity needed to break up with Kyle and pursue a relationship with Max.

The hybrids' search for answers about their own existence is a recurring theme of the show. Max comes to the conclusion that there is a fourth alien on Earth after he gets a job at the local UFO center. There he discovers that the silver hand print that Max had left on Liz had been spotted on a number of murder victims in the 1950s. During a Roswell crash convention, Max is nearly killed by an alien hunter named Hubble. Hubble is intent on revenge because an alien killed his wife and unborn child. Sheriff Jim Valenti saves Max's life.

Season two

The second season of the series finds Max as "reluctant king". The others now awkwardly defer to him, except for Michael who still acts out and does things his own way. At the beginning of season two, Max's relationship with Liz is awkward. He still loves her and declares to her that he will keep fighting for her and will never give up on them. His role as the leader also proves to be an obstacle as he finds out about power he never knew he had and the responsibility that comes with that power. But he is rocked when Nasedo is murdered and before dying, he proclaims that one of their worst enemies has arrived in Roswell: the skins.

Worried by this, he and the gang agree to sit tight. They target Liz's new boss, Congresswoman Whitaker, who had a relationship with Special Agent Pierce, and do some reconnaissance on her. It is later revealed that the Congresswoman was in fact a Skin.

It is around this time that Max tries to resurrect his relationship with Liz, but she rejects his advances. He only gives up on her when he catches Liz in bed with Kyle Valenti, believing that they had been together. The truth is that it's all a setup created by Liz when the future version of Max comes back from the future saying that she had to make his present self stop loving her because their love will be the cause of the end of the world. Future Max and Future Liz sacrificed their love in order to make Tess stay in Roswell (in their timeline, she left after Max and Liz cemented their relationship), because she is obsessed with Max and would stay only if Max gives her a chance.

However, for most of season two, Max and Tess are only friends. He tries to be friends with Liz, though he never stops loving her even though he does not know the truth about Kyle. Things change, however when their friend Alex dies and his friendship with Liz is compromised by her research for Alex's alien killer that Max cannot accept. He then has his first personal crisis about who he really is and loses his balance. When Tess starts helping him to remember his past, Max is confused about himself. He starts acting out of character, causing his friends dislike him, especially Liz and Isabel.

Due to Tess' influence, he starts to think that maybe he is too blind to accept the truth. A truth that his life is not real and Tess is correct. When he realizes that he has really lost everything, especially Liz, he sleeps with Tess. She is the only one with him and seems to know answers that he is unable to find. Though the two of them are essentially strangers to each other, he does, however try and feel something for her, in line with his destiny. The day after their night together, he realizes his mistake and is unable to love her no matter whether his previous self (Zan) had feelings for her or not. It is now too late for him when Tess tells him of her pregnancy with his son and that she wants to keep the baby no matter what. Max takes responsibility, staying with her even though he's not happy.

Season three

Desperate to bring his son to Earth, Max digs through Tess's belongings and discovers evidence leading him to a secret government facility in possession of the reconstructed ship that brought him and the others to Roswell. The ship is located underneath a convenience store in Utah. Having rekindled his relationship with Liz, the two of them devise a robbery, Liz holding up the store with a gun, while Max goes underneath the store to locate the ship. When there, he runs out of time trying to figure out how to work it, before they are captured by the police. Although the charges against Max and Liz are dismissed due to deft legal work by his father, the latter demands to know his reasons for robbing the store, and Max, not wanting to get his father mixed up in the alien affairs, leaves the house to stay with Michael. Subsequently, Liz's parents forbid her to see Max again, and the two of them are forced to carry on their relationship in secret.

Max continues the search for his son. He discovers that there was a second alien protector sent in the ship with them who abandoned his responsibilities for a life as a Hollywood producer and currently goes by the name Cal Langley. Langley, who tried to interfere with Max's search for his son, killed an actor who played a role in the episode "Busted" in order to obstruct Max and Liz's plan and ultimately resulted in their arrest. When Max realizes this, Langley threatens his life again, attempting to force him to return home to Roswell.

Langley's reasons are rooted in his desire to be human, even though he lacks human DNA and cannot even feel or be hurt by fire. Therefore, he fears Max, who can make him alien again, but cannot kill him because he was made to protect him. After discovering that his protector is genetically programmed to obey his direct orders, Max forces Langley to help him find the ship again and use it in order to leave Earth. Langley advises that the ship is too damaged to work. Ultimately, when the ship is finally located, it doesn't work and does not leave the hangar. After the accident, Max takes Langley to his home to help him because he feels guilty for what had happened. Langley tells him that even though he is genetically Max's protector, he will always hate him.

After Max's apologies, Langley finally understands that the boy is just desperate and wants to save his baby, but doesn't know what to do. He then tells Max about things that would have been lost if the ship had really worked. Max finally understands and devastatingly realizes that he almost lost everything, especially Liz, whom he had promised to come back to as soon as he could. Kal's first and last advice to Max is "The more you embrace our alien side... The more you're gonna lose"

Jason Behr about his character

When Jason Behr first read the script he realized that Max wasn't one of those jerks he played before:

"When I first read the script I immediately understood what they were going for - the mystery, the suspense, the relationships, the unrequited love story. I related to Max's search for the truth about himself, about life, about his place in this world, which I think everybody goes through."

Jason was drawn to the story as soon as he read the script and he explained why:

"I think it was everything. The script was rich with metaphor and irony that kept it a little light, but it was also very honest about relationship and about emotion, and just -- it was one of those things that had a bunch of different elements and a good story. It was very hard to say no to something like that. Themes like teen alienation and the search for self and your place in the world, I think that everybody can kind of associate with.

Regarding Max's personality Behr found enjoyable the fact that his character actually has undergone a true evolution throughout the show:

"I think he's evolved in several ways,' says Behr. 'In the beginning, he was the conscience of the groupthe thinker, the one who, before taking any action, thought of the different consequences of what they decided to do. Given their situation, every move they make is imperative to their survival and secret. So he was like the rockthe conscience, the one who tried to get everyone to do the right thing. I think he learned over the course of this year that he can't always take positions and always tell people what the right or wrong thing to do is. He has learned not to be as controlling as he was before, and allow people to make mistakes on their own and learn from them. The only problem with that is he's still kind of struggling with that attitude, because some of the mistakes other people might make could have serious consequences for everyone. Michael, for instance, wants so badly to find a way home, but to the other characters Roswell is home. He'll do whatever it takes and whatever it costs to do this. It's very hard for Max to get through to him and make Michael understand what he's doing could be dangerous for everyone involved. Yet everyone on the show has choices they have to make, but at what cost? So it's a real delicate thing where Max is still learning."

Reception

Although in the original story Max Evans was supposed to be a blond guy with incredible blue eyes Jason Behr, who is dark-haired and mysterious instead, got the role however and he was the first choice between many other actors that could have played the role.

According to one of the confirmed rumors about the actors that could have played Max's role, Heath Ledger was one of them but Fox went with Jason instead. David Nutter explained why Behr won the part:

"Jason is one of the most naturally gifted actors I've ever worked with. We talked a lot about this character during the show's easily stages. Even in the audition process we talked about him and he totally got the guy. He understood Max's humility, he understood that that was Max's strength. There's also a wonderful calmness, maturity and wisdom about the guy that i thought was very important. All three aliens needed to [convey a sense of] wisdom that was something other than what you would expect in a young person, and he was perfect at that"

Melinda Metz, the original books' writer stated more than once that she really liked the choice and she believed that Jason Behr was the right actor for Max and she herself never really saw the character like the model her book publisher gave to her for the physical description of Max.

"I though he was an amazing choice for Max. He really does have that intensity — just the way he looks at Liz —and you feel the longing. I always felt that Max was the cautious, responsible and a good person, but with all this bubbling underneath. I think he really conveys that, which is hard to do, because it's all internal."

Thanks to his portrayal of Max Evans Jason Behr also won an award in the "Standout Performance by a Young Actor" category at the Young Hollywood Awards in the year 2002. He also got nominated for two years consecutively (2000 and 2001) both at the Teen Choice Awards (in the category TV - Choice Actor) and at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA (Saturn Award).