Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections:
Outer Limits:
Season Five:
Blank Slate
Hope Wilson knows there's something different about the bruised and breathless man who stumbles into the homeless shelter she runs with her mentor, Jack Parsons. He looks like a junkie, but his hands are soft and his fingernails manicured. Tom Cooper doesn't know who he is, where he is, and why two well-dressed men, Vincent and Cole, are chasing him. He only knows that the small metal case that he defends so fiercely contains five vials that hold all his memories, reduced to crystal form, as well as a specially designed injector that can delete or restore those memories. With Hope's help, he uses the injector to restore his memories in an attempt to piece together his identity. But there are unforeseen consequences to this. With each injection of memories, Tom's personality becomes slightly darker. As he injects one crystal and then the next, Tom recovers his unhappy childhood and adolescence, his time in medical school and, to Hope's dismay, his memories of his marriage to his high school sweetheart, Paula. With the injection of the fourth crystal, Tom remembers some terrible things. First, that Paula is dead, killed at the hands of a random rapist and murderer. Secondly, that he was the doctor who developed the process to delete and restore memories, which explains why the government agents are so eager to recapture him. And thirdly, that the government has been testing his device on homeless people without their consent. Horrified at how his invention has been abused and fearful that the last crystal will change him so much he will lose the new love he has found with Hope, Tom destroys the fifth crystal along with the knowledge it contains, vowing to start life anew with Hope. But with the government hot on his tail, that choice may not be his to make.
By Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Tuesday, February 13, 2024 - 5:23 am: