Forgotten TV: The Outer Limits - 'A Stitch in Time'

 Is this truly the best Episode of The Outer Limits?

This is the highest rated Episode on IMDB, with a User Rating of 8.4.

The Plot involves, as you might guess, Time Travel and a touch of casualty looping.

Let's have already gone into...

This is Season 2, Episode 1.

In the Cold Open, a woman confronts a man at his home and demands to verify his identity.
When she does, she pulls out a gun and shoots him!

This is Amanda Plummer, last seen here killing her new Husband on Tales from the Crypt.

We also follow an FBI Agent named Jamie who is celebrating (sort of) the upcoming execution of a killer who she put away.
Sadly, she put him away AFTER her best friend was killed by him.

She's working on a strange case involving 17 men killed by the same gun...across 30 years!

We soon find out the truth about what is going on.

Plummer can time travel via sort of logical nonsense and covers her tracks, wiping her clues from the crime scene in the beginning.

Afterwards, the killer on Death Row lays out *exactly* what he did before his first kill (to the day!) and she uses that info to kill him first!

This act undoes Jamie's friend's death, of course.

The strain is getting too much for her, since she retains memories of the past timeline AND the new one.  Imagine that, but 17 times over!

Jamie figures out that she is up to something and confronts her, whereupon Plummer reveals her time machine.
She's going to finally go back and save for herself from a creepy kidnapper.

Jamie can't stop her, so she follows her.

In 1976, Plummer manages to save herself and let Jamie kill the guy before he does anything terrible.

However, she can't save her CURRENT self (time travel is confusing) and her older body is left in the past.

Please ignore that Plot Point as we see that this undoes ALL of Plummer's killings (her motivation to do them taken away) and Jamie's friend is dead again.

She is sad and confronts a happier Plummer, who apparently lets her use the Machine to kill the bad guy yet again!

The End.

A really strong premise that nearly gets the focus it deserves.

This one is good- no question.
The only issue here for me is that the focus is rarely on the actual killings done by Plummer.  Seeing her do more than 2 would have been nice.

That said, there would be less time for Jamie and her Plot, so...alright.

It would also have been a fun wrinkle to actually begin with Jamie meeting with the happier Plummer and being greeted by her line 'I know you.  You're the one that saved me.'
Tell everything else in order and you have a weird, but interesting hook IMHO.

The strongest parts are where it really touches upon the difference between Justice and Vengeance, Correlation vs Causation and Do 17 wrongs make a right?

I've seen far worse Time Travel tales.
Interestingly, the Writer- Steven Barnes- wrote 3 Episodes of the Show and one was the 4th lowest rated one.  Here he is with the 1st Rated one now. 

Speaking of other Episodes, this one got a Sequel...4 Seasons later?!?

Next time, we jump to Season 5 for a tale involving Nazis.  It's sad how topical that subject is in 2026.  See you then...