theouterlimits

A traumatized single mother tries to keep elements of her past—including an alien abduction—from her daughter.

Opening narration

"They say you are the sum of your experiences, but what happens when an event from your past prevents you from defining your future?"

Plot

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Single mother Laura Sinclair (Nora Dunn) is a woman with a past. But not the kind one usually thinks of or, in fact, anyone will believe. Seventeen years ago, Laura was abducted by aliens, but no one would accept her story as true. Now she is confronted with the horror of those memories again when a tabloid runs a piece on alien abductions and she is prominently featured.

The article and her recurring nightmares threaten to distance her from her moody teenaged daughter, Tammy (Katharine Isabelle). But Tammy's new English teacher, Marcus Fellows (Andrew Airlie) seems to have quite a positive effect on her. Laura seeks him out and discovers that she is also drawn to this relaxed, attentive man who seems strangely familiar to her.

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As her flashbacks continue, Laura begins to suspect that she and Marcus have a shared past. She confronts him after seeing his face in flashes of her abduction memories, and he admits that he was on the spaceship as well. During Tammy's birthday party, Marcus leaves with Tammy. Laura investigates Tammy's journal and discovers that Marcus has given Tammy his personal address and phone number. When Laura investigates the apartment, she finds strange technology that looks like what she experienced during her abduction.

Laura then finds Marcus and Tammy at the docks where Marcus kept his boat. Tammy attempts to spark a romantic relationship, but Marcus tells Tammy the truth about his part in the abduction and she begins to leave. He gives her a necklace that begins to frighten her as Marcus tells her he can offer her a better life. Laura arrives and Tammy goes to her. Marcus uses a strange green energy to control Laura and choke her, but Tammy stops him as she experiences a partial transformation of her hand. Laura then uses an alien knife from Marcus's apartment to stab and kill Marcus, causing him to revert to alien form and then melt.

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Tammy realizes she always suspected she was different, and now she knows she is part-alien, conceived during Laura's abduction. Laura assures her she is still beautiful and they walk away together.

Closing narration

"Fear can be a powerful and driving emotion but it is no match for the love between mother and child."

Notes

Cast

Season 1 "Sandkings" • "Valerie 23" • "Blood Brothers" • "The Second Soul" • "White Light Fever" • "The Choice" • "Virtual Future" • "Living Hell" • "Corner of the Eye" • "Under the Bed" • "Dark Matters" • "The Conversion" • "Quality of Mercy" • "The New Breed" • "The Voyage Home" • "Caught in the Act" • "The Message" • "I, Robot" • "If These Walls Could Talk" • "Birthright" • "The Voice of Reason"
Season 2 "A Stitch in Time" • "Resurrection" • "Unnatural Selection" • "I Hear You Calling" • "Mind Over Matter" • "Beyond the Veil" • "First Anniversary" • "Straight and Narrow" • "Trial by Fire" • "Worlds Apart" • "The Refuge" • "Inconstant Moon" • "From Within" • "The Heist" • "Afterlife" • "The Deprogrammers" • "Paradise" • "The Light Brigade" • "Falling Star" • "Out of Body" • "Vanishing Act" • "The Sentence"
Season 3 "Bits of Love" • "Second Thoughts" • "Re-generation" • "Last Supper" • "Stream of Consciousness" • "Dark Rain" • "The Camp" • "Heart's Desire" • "Tempests" • "The Awakening" • "New Lease" • "Double Helix" • "Dead Man's Switch" • "Music of the Spheres" • "The Revelations of 'Becka Paulson" • "Bodies of Evidence" • "Feasibility Study" • "A Special Edition"
Season 4 "Criminal Nature" • "The Hunt" • "Hearts and Minds" • "In Another Life" • "In the Zone" • "Relativity Theory" • "Josh" • "Rite of Passage" • "Glyphic" • "Identity Crisis" • "The Vaccine" • "Fear Itself" • "The Joining" • "To Tell the Truth" • "Mary 25" • "Final Exam" • "Lithia" • "Monster" • "Sarcophagus" • "Nightmare" • "Promised Land" • "The Balance of Nature" • "The Origin of Species" • "Phobos Rising" • "Black Box" • "In Our Own Image"
Season 5 "Alien Radio" • "Donor" • "Small Friends" • "The Grell" • "The Other Side" • "Joyride" • "The Human Operators" • "Blank Slate" • "What Will the Neighbors Think?" • "The Shroud" • "Ripper" • "Tribunal" • "Summit" • "Descent" • "The Haven" • "Déjà Vu" • "The Inheritors" • "Essence of Life" • "Stranded" • "Fathers & Sons" • "Starcrossed" • "Better Luck Next Time"
Season 6 "Judgment Day" • "The Gun" • "Skin Deep" • "Manifest Destiny" • "Breaking Point" • "The Beholder" • "Seeds of Destruction" • "Simon Says" • "Stasis" • "Down to Earth" • "The Inner Child" • "Glitch" • "Decompression" • "Abaddon" • "The Grid" • "Revival" • "Gettysburg" • "Something About Harry" • "Zig Zag" • "Nest" • "Final Appeal"
Season 7 "Family Values" • "Patient Zero" • "A New Life" • "The Surrogate" • "The Vessel" • "Mona Lisa" • "Replica" • "Think Like a Dinosaur" • "Alien Shop" • "Worlds Within" • "In the Blood" • "Flower Child" • "Free Spirit" • "Mindreacher" • "Time to Time" • "Abduction" • "Rule of Law" • "Lion's Den" • "The Tipping Point" • "Dark Child" • "The Human Factor" • "Human Trials"