Fear Itself (The Outer Limits)

Infobox Television episode
Title = Fear Itself
Series = The Outer Limits


Caption =
Season = 4
Episode = 12
Airdate = April 10, 1998
Production = ?
Writer = Sam Egan
Director = James Head
Photographer =
Guests = Benjamin Ratner, Lorena Gale, Jeffrey DeMunn, Tanya Allen, Arye Grossstars= Kevin Conway
Episode list = List of "The Outer Limits" episodes
Prev = The Vaccine
Next = The Joining

" Fear Itself " is an episode of "The Outer Limits" television show. It was first broadcast on April 10th, of 1998, during the fourth season.

Opening Narration

:"Experience teaches that of all the emotions, fear stands alone in its power to move us or to capture us in its grip... forever."

Plot

For as long as he can remember, Bernard Selden (Ayre Gross) hasbeen haunted by a paralyzing fear. It started when he was six, when he seta fire that killed his four-year-old sister and today, at 27, the fear clings tohim like a blanket. But, Dr. Adam Pike (Jeffrey Demunn) has hope for acure. He has diagnosed Bernard's condition and believes that if he canisolate the part of the brain responsible for fear, the amygdala, he cancure him. The series of injections and radiation designed to build a layerof calcium around the amygdala produces stunning results: Bernard's fearrecedes. He even starts a relationship with his neighbor Lisa (TanyaAllen). But there are side effects. Now, Bernard can use his brain to makeothers feel the kind of crippling fear he used to feel. He is still a prisoner ofthe past, haunted by images of Mr. Wilkes (Alex Diakun), the owner of thefoster home where Bernard's sister died. It is a terrible risk, but Bernardknows that if he is to be truly cured, he must go back to the day when thefear began and discover the truth. The truth being that he didn't kill his sister, Mr. Wilkes did.

Closing Narration

:"In a world of terrors there is nothing more fearsome than the unknown. Especially when what is unknown... is ourselves."