Original subtitles

- MR. GONE NARRATES: Most of us inhabit at least

two worlds...the real world, where we're at the mercy of

circumstance, and the world within, the unconscious,

a safe place where we can escape.

The Maxx shifts between these worlds...against his will.

Here, homeless, he lives in a box in an alley.

The only one who really cares for him is Julie Winters,

a freelance social worker.

But in Pangaea, the other world, he rules the Outback

and is the protector of Julie, his Jungle Queen.

- There, he cares for her.

But he always ends up back in the real world.

And me, old Mr. Gone...

Only I can see that the secret which unites them

could destroy them.

I could be helpful.

Ah, screw it!

I think I'll have some fun with them, first.

- SARA NARRATES: I tried to see the whole dance episode

and losing Jimmy as a good experience for a writer to have.

I could sorta see his side of things, and I guess I was happy

that I didn't off him, even though, in that moment,

it was kinda cool to feel things my Dad must have felt.

But Dad isn't here.

He's gone.

And even though Mom is here, she isn't really, not for me,

anyway.

I guess in every food chain, someone has to be at the bottom.

I guess in everybody's life, there's a point where you're

stuck and can't turn back, a time when you have to make

that big decision.

So, I decided...

to go see a movie.

The movie was pretty weak.

It was about this woman who sleeps with this old, wrinkled

guy for money and then she feels bad about.

But not half as bad as her husband feels.

It was pretty silly.

- Excuse me?

- It was sexist.

- Geez, Maxx, it was just a movie.

Can't you ever relax?

We go to a movie and your knee is jerking so much, I can't

even hear.

- Not only did it semi-endorse prostitution, but did you catch

the bit about the ditzy secretary reading Faludi's

book "Backlash"?

- SARA NARRATES: It was Julie and the old bum from

the underpass, which meant this was all getting too weird.

- Oh, hi, Sara.

What are you doing?

- Nothin'.

Well, see you guys later.

SARA NARRATES: I was hoping to escape before Julie

remembered she was on a mission from God to save me.

- Say, kid...

- SARA NARRATES: Crap, it was too late.

- ...you wanna go to the aquarium?

- They've got squid.

- SARA NARRATES: Well, it would drive my Mom nuts if I ran off

for hours with Julie and her hobo boyfriend...

Okay, sure.

SARA NARRATES: ...which is why I did it, I guess.

- Okay, kids, next stop, the aquarium.

- JULIE: Huh?

- SARA NARRATES: It's the carjackers Jimmy

told me about.

Only this time, they're in spotted underwear.

- Freeze!

Suckers.

- Julie, wait.

Something's wrong.

- SARA NARRATES: Uh-oh.

I know that look in his eyes.

He's seeing things again.

Maybe he thinks those guys are little blue men or something.

Maybe he'll do something stupid...

- MAXX:

- SARA NARRATES: Like grab their gun or pull them into

the car or something.

- This is a lot different than the story Jimmy told me about

him fighting the carjackers.

That was cool.

This is ugly...people getting their hands crushed right before

my eyes, ripped from knees to sternum, their heads popping

like grapefruits.

It makes me feel sick, even if it does sort of make an exciting

climax to the story.

- Oh!

- SARA NARRATES: And then, when he died, he didn't even

look human at all.

Stop!

- Sara?

- Put the gun down, Sara.

- No, nothing makes sense, and if it does make sense,

then it's all gotta stop.

See?

I'm just like you, Daddy.

There's nobody in charge.

Adults run everything and nothing works.

I have no control.

And unlike you, Julie, I am sick of running from

myself.

I'm gonna do it.

SARA NARRATES: Okay.

Here's the point in the story where I throw the gun away

and I have this cathartic revelation that suicide's wrong,

that life's worth living, and everything's okay...you know,

all that crap.

And that's why this story doesn't work, 'cause I just

don't buy it.

- Nobody buys it.

That's not why you should go on.

- SARA: Why, then?

- MAXX: Because things will change, you'll change.

- SARA: But what about right now?

- Right now, you wait.

- SARA NARRATES: So...

that's my story.

I still go down to the underpass sometimes to talk to Maxx.

I thought once I decided not to kill myself, things would

be better.

But I still feel just as empty as ever.

- Pain lasts, kid.

It's how you know you're alive.

Sometimes, I think this whole growing up business is just

pain management.

You get that one out of a fortune cookie or something?

- Very funny.

Pain...Julie runs from hers.

Mine follows me through nightmares and you're wading

through yours.

- Waiting?

- No, wading.

- Oh.

- Nobody said it was easy, kid.

- I don't know if the Maxx ever really knew my Dad or not,

but he knew me enough to say that he did.

Maybe that counts for something.

God, that sounds awkward.

I'll never be a writer.

- My Dad says he's a monster, a psycho.

- Well, my Mom says he's a working class hero,

an avenger for the maximum justice.

That's why they call him "The Maxx."

I think he's a space alien.

His whole planet was killed off by space pirates and while

he was fighting them, he crashed on Earth.

- Nah, I bet he's an artificial being created in a secret

government experiment with plastic muscles and steel bones.

- Well, maybe.

But maybe he's just a normal Joe who got caught up in things,

who's in out of his depth.

- But then how come he's so big then and so tough?

- I suppose he was just a guy with a crappy job and no future

and one day he found a mask and when he slid it on,

it hit his brain like lightning.

- He woke up in a place that was sort of like Australia,

and sort of like the beginning of time, and he was a hero

there...with a costume and the strength of 20 men.

But when he came back to this world, he was trapped

in the mask and his whole life was gone.

- Well, I guess that coulda happened.

- But then how did he get his claws then if he wasn't a secret

government experiment?

He got them in that savage dreamland.

- He thrust his hands into boiling lava and when they came

out, they were changed, made invulnerable, stained, tempered

by the sulfurous rock.

- Hm, I like the alien story better.

I bet he lived in a vast secret headquarters with a gang of

wild young assistants and a funny Chinese cook

and a deadly training room and a scientific...

- You know that's not real enough.

All real heroes are tormented loners who live in the sewers

and eat stolen linguini.

And every night he arises from his own grave to fight crime

with his maxi-wig and maxi-cycle and maxi-belt.

- Sounds good, but I think he's just another homeless bum living

in dumpsters and drifting from shelter to shelter.

He can't hold down a job and he's got no real friends.

He can't even tell sometimes how much of the life he lives

is real and how much is the dreamland.

He tries to do good, but mostly he breaks things and screws up.

- Nah, that's too much of a downer, Mister.

I think he's got an overseer and he lives in a fortress

of shadows that...

Oh, geez, lookit, Ken.

It's Gerry, the crackhead.

- Oh, hiya, kids.

Got anything for old Ger?

- Uh, no, we don't have any money today, Gerry, honest.

- No, we're not gonna give in to you any more.

The Maxx wouldn't.

- I've got fists and I'm gonna kick your butt.

- What are you gonna do, kid, talk me to death?

- One...

- Maybe I've got a knife.

Maybe I know where you sleep at night.

- Two...

- I can kill you.

I can like kill your folks.

- Three...

- I can...

I...

- We did it!

- We scared him off. Woo!

- MOM: Kids, supper.

Get in here and wash your hands, you two, and stop hanging around

that old bum.

- Aw, Mom, we were just talking.

What's cookin'?

- Sloppy Joes and peanut butter shakes.

How's that sound?

- Excellent.

- Good.

And then I want you guys to do your homework.

- Aw, Mom, do we have to?

- Yes, you don't want to end up old and alone on the curb

somewhere, now do you?

- MAN: Safe home, dear friends, and come again, to behold the

mysteries of MTV's "Oddities."