**Please note: the following is highly biased. I am a Zack fan, and was greatly annoyed by Max for much of Dark Angel’s run. Disagree with me? Feel free to provide your own interpretation.**

Max is good at confusing what she wants for what it best for those around her. This tendency is quite visible when it comes to Logan and the virus which was designed to kill him should they touch. Max repeatedly distances herself from Logan, giving little thought to his feelings about their relationship. Logan himself points out that it is his life, and he deserves to have a say in how he lives it (_episode title?_). So too does Max put her own needs and desires above Joshua’s, all the while claiming that she is acting in his best interests. While continuously cautioning Joshua to remain inside and hidden, Max is still ready to brush him off: “You won’t have to be alone. I’ll come every day,” Max informs Joshua. He responds, “You come, then you go, then I’m alone. I’m tired of being alone, Max.” Max then threatens to leave Joshua to fend for himself, attempting to emotionally blackmail Joshua and keep him subservient (_She Ain’t Heavy;_ see also The Inimitable Pooh_Bah’s comments).

When things don’t go as Max wishes, she is ready to leave Seattle and her friends behind: “I can’t see Logan, and Joshua said he doesn’t need me anymore. Why am I staying here?” Once again, Max justifies her own actions by declaring that they are for the good of those who care for her. Max brushes aside Original Cindy’s protests (“I’m here, for one”) by saying that OC is likely to “get caught in the crossfire” should White find them--an odd statement from a woman who refused to leave her home when Lydecker was tight on her tail. As for Logan, “he’s better of without me in the picture,” and she won’t have to face the emotional fallout once Logan discovers that she ran away. Max herself reveals her underlying interest--that is, not having to “worry about anybody but myself.” (_She Ain’t Heavy_).

The one who suffered the most from Max’s self-interest was Zack. While Logan and Joshua have both suffered emotional discomfort due to Max’s actions, Zack’s life has been repeatedly and profoundly affected. Zack takes extreme action to ensure that Max remains free of Lydecker--for instance, killing Vogelsang (_411 on the DL_) and turning himself in for that crime when it was blamed on Max (“He always said that he’d rather die than go back to Manticore”). Despite Zack’s great insistence that Max should leave Seattle for her own safety, Max twists Zack’s sacrifice around so that she has a reason to stay there: “so, here I am back in this broken city and as long as I’m here he will always know where to find me” (_Blah Blah Woof Woof_).

This pattern reached an extreme in the second season when Zack was stripped of his very identity because it was most convenient to Max. After having shot himself in the head to provide a donor heart for the injured Max (_And Jesus Brought a Casserole_), Zack somehow survived and spent months being brainwashed by Renfro. Zack was to be used to kill Eyes Only, and when his programming kicked in, attempted to do exactly that (_Some Assembly Required_). While Max was willing to track down former Manticore scientists (_Proof of Purchase_, _Borrowed Time_) and steal objects (ex: a baseball, a film) worth thousands of dollars in order to cure the virus keeping her and Logan apart, Max doesn’t make the slightest attempt to find a cure for Zack. Rather, Max sends off Zack to work on a ranch as Adam Thompson. That way, she doesn’t have to deal with Zack’s messy emotions for her (as shown in _Blah Blah Woof Woof_ and _The Kidz are Aiight_).

Max justifies this ‘solution’ by saying that it is the “normal life [Zack] always wanted--the life he deserves to have” (_Some Assembly Required_). Zack had, indeed, expressed some desire for a ‘normal’ life: "A part of me wants the same things--friends. . . A place where I belong. . . Someone to care about. Even I have my moments of weakness" (_Blah Blah Woof Woof_). The words “moments of weakness” do not imply that a ‘normal life’ is something Zack dwells upon much. The context of that scene also made it quite clear that the person Zack cared about was Max. He was not admitting to a fond dream about a wife, two kids and a white picket fence, but rather, allowing Max a glimpse of his feelings towards her.

Much of Zack’s actions seem to stem from a strong military mindset and a sense of responsibility for his family. The viewers were not shown any heart-to-heart talks between Max and Zack about what he wanted from his life (beyond the fairly limited scene in _Blah Blah Woof Woof_ before Max ran off to save Logan’s life). Most of Max and Zack’s interactions occur during emergency situations (saving Brin, saving Tinga, escaping Lydecker, attacking Manticore). How does Max know what Zack has “always wanted”? The viewers met a man determined to do whatever was necessary to protect his family from harm. While Zack could be brusque and seemingly hard--as shown both by his blaming Brin for her own capture in _Cold Comfort_ and for his lack of sensitivity towards Tinga in _Hit a Sista Back_--he still cared deeply for his brothers and sisters. Zack explains that "the night we all escaped you put your lives in my hands. I've been looking out for you ever since. Every one of you" (_411 on the DL_). Despite his frustration with his rebellious unit members, Zack continuously comes through for them in the end. “We're together. Right now, that's all that matters,” he tells a distraught Brin (_Cold Comfort_). One wonders if Zack had pictured a ‘normal life’ completely lacking those people he most cares about.

“Sometimes,” Max muses, “you have to make sacrifices to protect the ones you love” (_Some Assembly Required_). That is quite the comforting idea for Max, although it is decidedly incorrect. Rather than protecting Zack, she has in actuality stripped him of all of his defenses. By this point, Max is already well aware that White and his agency are out to exterminate all of Manticore’s transgenics. While Seattle is an absolute hotbed of transgenics, White would be rather inept should he not widen his search. Lydecker reached out all across the United States in his search for the ‘09 escapees (witness the rush to leave various locations when compromised during _The Kidz are Aiight_).

Eyes Only had broken the news of transgenics to the general population--and we saw in _The Kidz are Aiight_ that his cable hacks reached San Francisco, Portland and L.A. Furthermore, articles about transgenics were appearing in the tabloids by this point--and these were not reassuring stories. If ‘Adam Thompson’ himself did not hear about transgenics and link them back to himself, others might very well do so. Unaware of what he was, Zack would have no need to have his barcode removed, or even to hide it. While it seems that it takes some deliberation to zoom in on a distant object (ex: the necklace in _Pollo Loco,_ the agent’s shoes in _Hit a Sista Back_), one would imagine that some abilities are always ‘active’. Would Zack instinctually curb those abilities, simply not realizing that he was in any way different from those around him? Would simply thinking of them as normal lead Adam inadvertently raise suspicion (“Don’t you see that?” “See what? There’s nothing there!”) If transgenics have to consciously monitor themselves, Zack could conceivably do some damage without intending to--say, breaking someone’s arm while arm-wrestling for just one example.

While Buddy and Mary at the ranch might be able to lie to Zack, unless the entire town is let in on the lie, someone is sure to cast doubt upon ‘Adam.’ Having supposedly worked on the ranch for three years, other ranch-hands should have some sort of relationship with Adam. People in town or at regular hangouts would have knowledge of Adam. If even the slightest bit of Zack’s paranoia survived the memory wipe, he is sure to begin questioning the rather shaky story he has been told. Zack’s personality, unless totally altered by his brainwashing and mind wipe, does not seem to suit the life Max and Logan set up for him. And while it was Max who initially triggered Zack’s memory, it seems rather egotistical to think that she is the only thing that might remind him of what he was. And who is to say that Adam will never catch an Eyes Only broadcast, thus triggering his programming once more?

Tucking Zack away on a ranch, while easy and comforting for Max, isn’t a long-term solution. Indeed, it may be quite dangerous for all those involved.