The Beholder (The Outer Limits)

Infobox Television episode
Title = The Beholder
Series = The Outer Limits


Caption =
Season = 6
Episode = 6
Airdate = 25 February, 2000
Production =
Writer = Sam Egan
Director = Jeff Woolnough
Photographer =
Guests = Mackenzie Astin Rebecca JenkinsClaire Rankin
Episode list = List of "The Outer Limits" episodes
Prev = Breaking Point
Next = Seeds of Destruction

"The Beholder" is an episode from the sixth season of The Outer Limits. It originally aired on 25 February 2000.

Opening narrative

"It is said that what we behold with our eyes is merely the surface of reality. But if we could see beneath that façade, what would lie within?"

Synopsis

The episode begins as Patrick, a blind humanities professor, volunteers to undergo a medical operation that will allow to see for the first time since childhood. Soon after the operation he begins to see a ghostly woman in the hospital. After he returns home she reveals herself to be an alien named Kyra who has been stranded on earth and wishes to go home. Patrick's aide Louise is told by the doctors that the drug that cured his blindness was manufactured in space and can also enhance his senses. Mike Warden, a scientist from British Intelligence working for the NSA has been using the drug iridium, used in treating stroke vicitms in order to see Kyra. The next day Kyra meets Patrick in the woods and gives him an electric shock which allows him to hear and feel her as well. After a few weeks (wherein they make love) Louise is told by Mike and Patrick's doctor that they wish to investigate Kyra's origins and possibly send her home. Patrick and Kyra know she will be in danger if the doctor's are allowed near her.In a lab Patrick acts as an intermediary between the scientists and Kyra. It is revealed that Kyra is a pacifist alien from a neutron star out of our reach. The scientists trap her in magnetic field causing her great pain. Despite some of the scientists and Patrick's pleas to stop Mike asks to continue the experiment. Knowing that they will never help her Patrick fakes Kyra's death and unplugs the magnetic field, releasing her. Patrick is given the last iridium on earth and goes to the woods to destroy it. Kyra appears and tries to stop him as it would mean he will never see again but Patrick proceeds and is soon caught by Mike and the police. At the end Patrick is seen giving a lecture, blind again. Kyra visible only to the episode's viewers, touches his cheek softly.

Closing narrative

"Of all the gifts his maker has bestowed on man none is more precious than his ability to love another."

ee also

List of The Outer Limits episodes