Dr. Renee Stuyvesant and her protégé Dr. Vance Ridout have perfected the full-body transplant in which a patient's entire disease-riddled body is replaced and Renee has convinced the hospital board to allow her to perform the first such procedure on Dr. Peter Halstead.
Opening narration
| "In an age of medical miracles, who shall live and who shall die may be less a matter of chance... than a matter of choice." |
Plot
Halstead is a fitting choice for the body transplant since he originated the procedure before being stricken with terminal cancer. However, his rare blood and tissue types make a match unlikely.
Renee, who has secretly loved Halstead for years, solves that problem by murdering Timothy Laird, a perfect donor, as he emerges from the flower store.
The transplant is a success and the vision of millions in fees dance in Renee and Vince's heads. But Peter is having visions of his own involving a woman, a little girl and a killing outside the flower store. Mysteriously drawn to Laird's old neighborhood, he learns that the people he's been seeing are Deirdre, Laird's widow, and his daughter, Kylie and that he has apparently inherited Laird's love for them. Deirdre recoils when Peter eventually confesses that he inhabits her late husband's body. But that's nothing compared to how Renee responds when Peter reveals that he's had flashes of what Timothy Laird saw just before he was killed. Renee's obsession with Peter leads her to threaten to kill Laird's widow, but Peter stops her, leading to Renee getting shot and dying at the hospital.
Later, Peter and Deirdre are in a relationship and raising her daughter together, but Renee watches them from afar, showing a scar on her neck from having her own head transplanted to a new body as well.
Closing narration
| "Our inexorable march toward death defines our lives, giving meaning to our every waking moment. But how will it change us when our fate is taken out of God’s hands... and placed in our own?" |
Notes
- The Laird house set was reused as the Morton house set in the next episode "Small Friends". In both episodes, the owners of the house are held hostage.
- Archive footage of this episode was later used in the clip show "Final Appeal".
Cast
- Robert Hays as Dr. Peter Halstead
- Wendel Meldrum as Dr. Renee Stuyvescent
- Tom Cavanagh as Dr. Vance Ridout
- Lorraine Landry as Deirdre Laird
- Chantal Conlin as Kylie Laird
- Rice Honeywell as Timothy Laird
- BJ Harrison as Administrator
- Kimberly Unger as Reporter #1
- Verne Prior as Reporter #2
- Ross Douglas as Andy Morgan
- Kevin Conway as the Control Voice (voice)