Forgotten TV: The Outer Limits- 'Quality of Mercy'

 A famous Episode of this Revival gets its due.

Time to explore...

In 'Quality of Mercy,' we get the cruelest of all Bottle Episodes.

A Space Soldier (Robert Patrick) is captured and thrown in a cell with a woman Prisoner.

They're both held by some powerful Aliens that are trying to destroy humanity.

He feels for her after he learns that she's being experimented on.
They are trying to turn her into one of them!

He knows that he has to expedite their escape!

He can get into the vents, but getting anywhere else is another matter!

Meanwhile, the poor lady gets more and more deformed by the experiments.

Can he save her?!?

His attempts continue to fail, ending with him getting a wounded leg and losing one of his hands to an alien!

She asks him to kill her, but he can't bring himself to do that.

Instead, he gives her hope- all that he can, at least.

He tells her about an Earth Fleet hiding and preparing to attack the alien home world.  She thanks him for this.

The Guard enters and this time she doesn't fight him.

She reveals that they have been transforming her- turning her BACK into one of them.
He just gave away Earth intel that they needed!

Whoops!

The End.

Wow.  That one was something!

It's a great example of how you can do so much with so little.

We get two people in a Cell.
We get weird little puppet creatures.
We get one big alien in a suit.

That's it.

In spite of that, they milk so much emotion, drama and intrigue out of things.
It's a master class in minimalist execution.

The twist is contentious as some people go 'I figured it out right away.'
If you did, more power to you.  You still got to enjoy the Episode.

It's a must-see for fans of the Show- no question.

Now why did they pose for this?

Next time, we jump to Season 2 and a Time Jump is part of the Plot.  What happens when you're gone?  See you then...