theouterlimits

A sanitarium for schizophrenics is plagued by a series of bizarre killings.

Opening narration

"Heartfelt regret can sometimes serve as compensation for past misdeeds. But what happens when dark secrets resurface unexpectedly to claim their due?"

Plot

Dr. Rachel Harris (Dina Meyer) is a psychiatrist who participated in mysterious research involving nearly dead people before the project was suddenly shut down due to lack of funding. The subjects who remained alive, if comatose, were euthanized.

Free spirits 2

Years later, Rachel works at a facility for schizophrenic patients, alongside Dr. David Strickland (Colin Ferguson) and Dr. Kate Thornton (Barbara Tyson). One night, a man arrives at their doorstep after having committed murder. He suffers from hypothermia and is injured. Before dying, the man calls out Rachel by name just as a nearby patient who is usually calm and afraid has a violent outburst.

Rachel reminisces about her past just as the power goes down. One of the facility's employees, Carl (Ron Selmour), informs Rachel of the dead man's recent killings and goes to investigate the power. Rachel checks in on patients, including Sarah (Xantha Radley) who begins repeating a prayer that causes Rachel to flash back to memories of dealing with a test subject many years before. As the evening goes on, both patients and facility employees continue to act strangely and erratically, eventually leading to the murder of numerous people, many of whom taunt Rachel before they end up dead.

Free spirits

It turns out the carnage is the handiwork of a restless, body-hopping spirit, the consciousness of a man whom Rachel had been forced to kill during the botched military experiment four years earlier. But even with this knowledge, Rachel has no way of knowing into whose body the malevolent spirit will leap next -- nor what the deadly entity ultimately has in mind for her.

In the end, the spirit is simply seeking revenge by torturing Rachel and making her feel the same suffering he has felt. He reveals that he has been possessing Rachel all along, using her body to murder people and then bringing in the police so she is sent to prison for further suffering.

Closing narration

"If we are unwilling to heed our conscience, our worst moral judgments will inevitably come back to haunt us."

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"