The Conversion

This is the best Outer Limits Episode ever. It is a morality tale as most episodes are. It is science fiction. It relies on two actors sitting at a restaurant table eating bean with bacon soup with a bare minimum of special effects. The writing is brilliant, and completely believable on a metaphorical, moral and quantum mechanical level. Usually such dialogue makes me cringe. This time it felt like the writer knew from first hand experience the quantum strangeness of existence. In a way it is like A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life, but without the cloying or Christian trappings.

Poor Henry is well aware this "angel" is probably just some fruitcake. The "angel" simply asserts things with dogmatic certainty, but never offering proof.

The writer teases you with bits of information. You become frustrated trying to piece all the tiny clues together to discover what this as all about. It is a very intelligent episode, not it the least corny.

How ironic that this episode, which is all about how your actions affect others, relies heavily on a song that stole its most recognizable melody!

The episode itself has long been one of my favorites, since I saw its first airing when I was a teenager. I always hoped to be like Lucas, trying to help people when I could. In reality, it isn't as easy as on a TV show, especially when we don't have Lucas's special ability (which I won't spoil for you here). I just saw it again for the first time since that first airing when I was in high school, and 30 years later the end still makes me cry.

The only reason it loses a star in its ratings is because it uses that song that committed the crime of copyright infringement, theft, stealing someone else's creative work. That doesn't fit with the message of this episode.

Disclaimer upfront: I was going to give this an 8, but the presence of Rebecca DeMornay automatically bumped it up. It still deserves the rating though!

My favourite episode so far, in large part because of the presence of Frank Whaley (who I've been a fan of since I first saw him in Career Opportunities) and Rebecca DeMornay (who I've always had a crush on because she's gorgeous AND because she's a damn good actor), but not only because of them. Speaking of the cast though, John Savage does a great job as the 'guardian angel'-styled stranger our lead character encounters.

It's a really good "It's A Wonderful Life" type of story which aims to remind the viewer that everything we do can have implications for people we've never met. Every decision we make, every action we take, can send unseen ripples out through the world and eventually impact dozens upon dozens of people we have never met, and likely will never meet.

The episode also handily avoids being seen as overly preachy and religion-focused by not actually telling us exactly who this stranger is and where he comes from.

This is a truly memorable offering from the first season of the series. It's about a man who has rotted in prison, being made the fall guy in a blue-collar caper. While he girds his loins but meets a beautiful blonde (Rebecca de Mornay) who tries to settle him down. He has several opportunities to avoid avenging himself, but follows through with a cold-blooded attack during a Christmas party. He is himself shot, hijacks a car, and heads off to the hinterlands. Bleeding from his wound, he goes to a local bar and asks for a drink. He is given soup and drink by a kind bartender/owner. While he sits in his misery, a man about the same age begins to talk to him in a friendly way. Our hero is annoyed and tries to rid himself of the "pest." However, this guy knows a lot about the murderer and his actions and begins the process of trying to talk the guy down. As the two interact, it becomes obvious that the young convict has been somehow chosen and has been given a chance at reclamation. What transpires is a wonderful bit of television with a neat twist. This is one of the better episodes in this series.

A young businessman involved in financial manipulation ends up in prison, while his accomplices go unpunished and turn their back on him. After release from prison, he decides to retaliate, but things go wrong and he ends up seriously wounded and guilty of triple murder. On the run, a complete stranger approaches him and offers him a chance for redemption and a new beginning. The episode is very atmospheric and deals with the inner struggle of the individual between good and evil, selfishness and selflessness, instinct and self-control, material and spiritual. Although its mostly two men talking at the restaurant table, this is the best episode of the series so far, and it's unlikely they'll surpass it.

7,5/10