THE OUTER LIMITS "Black Box"

Season Four, Episode 25, air date 11th December, 1998

A summary by Helen Chavez

Cast: Ron Perlman (Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Grace), Maria Del Mar (Jennifer Rigny), Chris Mulkey (Mike), Michael David Simms (Ed), Belinda Metz (Karen), Peter DeLuise (Cop), Julie Patzwald (Cammi)

Plot Summary

Brandon Grace (Ron Perlman) is a man on the edge. Haunted by the memories of his wounding in a covert military operation he is trying to hang on to his sales job while his mind continues to live in the past, reliving over and over again the moment that almost cost him his life.

But it is when he meets Jennifer Rigny (Maria del Mar) that he begins to realise all is not what it seems. Purporting to be a client she seems to become fascinated by Brandon, turning up unexpectedly at a bar, or in the park. He is fixated on seeing his daughter Cammi (Julie Patzwald) again, almost as though the meeting would make the demons in his mind disappear, and Jennifer attempts to get him to talk about his time in the military, especially the incident in which he was badly wounded.

He doesn't understand her fascination with the subject, and becomes even more paranoid when men in helmets and military camouflage uniforms seem to be watching him. But no one else appears to see them …

Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Grace (Ron Perlman)

Opening Control Voice: It is said that conduct on the battlefield is the ultimate measure of a man. But often the enemy we are most afraid to face is much closer ... to home.

Brandon Grace is losing grip on reality. His friend Mike - one of his original military Special Ops team, the Aries Group, has found him a job with his company selling real estate, but Brandon is rapidly becoming unable to function under the increasing pressure, the only thing occupying his mind - apart from the nightmares of his wounding - being a reunion with his long-estranged daughter Cammi.

Mike attempts to talk him around, telling him he's under pressure from his boss and if he needs any help, Brandon has only to ask. But Brandon only retreats further into himself, Mike's gentle pushing and cajoling causing him nothing but more mental discomfort. Brandon, his suit crumpled and his jaw unshaven, is a withdrawn ghost of a man, but he turns on Mike, his face fixed with anger.

"I don't need any help!"

His meeting with his boss Ed (Michael David Simms) also doesn't bode well for Brandon's rapidly deteriorating mental set, as Ed reiterates Mike's thoughts - that if Brandon needs help, he can get it. But Brandon isn't listening. He is terrified to see a figure in camouflage uniform, faceless and anonymous in the army issue helmet, murder Ed in front of his eyes with an automatic rifle, the blood spattering Brandon's face. His yell of fear sends him lurching into reality … and discovers a confused and startled Ed looking at him in shock, and completely unharmed.

His chest hurting, his mind in a whirl of confusion, Brandon stumbles from the office, Mike in pursuit, and Brandon finds himself in the park, crippled with the pain in his chest and obviously almost at the end of his tether. Mike tries to draw him out of himself, but all Brandon can focus on is the letter he sent to Cammi … the letter that was returned unopened. When Mike tries to talk to him and tell him not to blow his chance at a decent job, Brandon can't take it. He rants at his friend, grabs back the letter Mike has pried out of his hand, and storms off.

Repairing to the nearest bar, who should turn up but Jennifer Rigny. She appears to be kind and understanding, her guesses about Brandon's military background and the reason for his stress uncannily accurate. Her brother was a pilot, she says, he too had a bad combat experience. She is convincingly gentle, and tries to get Brandon to talk about the incident, telling him that only by talking about it will he begin to recover … physically and mentally. But Brandon becomes increasingly uncomfortable as he begins to remember … the vision of a figure in helmet and combat gear aiming a rifle at him, the punch of the bullet as it hits him squarely in the chest, the agony and disbelief as the figure takes something from one of his pockets

… He snaps back into the present with a start, and to Jennifer it appears he is about to fall to pieces before her eyes, pain and terror rife on his tired face. Without a word he gets up and leaves, taking the stairs out of the bar two at a time in his haste.

But the situation rapidly goes from bad to worse as Brandon visits his ex-wife Karen, asking her, pleading with her to let him talk to Cammi. Bitter but not unsympathetic, she tells him bluntly that even if she let him try to see his daughter, Cammi didn't want to see him ever again. Brandon is becoming more desperate. He has a vague feeling something isn't right, that there is something dreadfully wrong with him.

"I need to see her before it's too late!" He pleads desperately, but Karen will do nothing. She leaves him standing on the sidewalk, his helplessness eating him alive. But as he watches her retreating back, he sees a car speed along the road, accelerating, aiming for Karen as it mounts the sidewalk and mows her down. Brandon is dumbfounded and horrified, and as he cradles his dead wife's body in his arms he is appalled to see the car stop for a moment, the driver ensconced in helmet and camouflage gear …

Now under the scrutiny of a suspicious police detective, Brandon is distraught and confused. The ever-present Jennifer appears as though from nowhere as Mike tells Brandon he didn't really love Karen, and Brandon almost loses his grip on his temper, shoving Mike out of the way, his distress bubbling out of him. Jennifer joins him for a walk through the park, and once more her conversation leads back to the mission that almost killed him. Now he is becoming wary of her.

"Why do you keep asking me this?? Didn't I tell you before, I'm not interested in this!!"

Jennifer watches him intensely.

"What are you interested in, Brandon?"

There is, for Brandon Grace, only one answer - his daughter, Cammi.

Jennifer finally admits she is a psychotherapist, telling Brandon he is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, and that the V.A. hospital had been concerned about him as he had not kept up with his visits. She tells him that he is shutting out the memories of the disastrous mission, and that the figure he keeps seeing could be one of his team … it could be the traitor within that shot him.

But like a zealot with only one aim in life, Brandon seeks out the contact with Cammi that he feels is the only answer to his pain, and visits her home once more, drawn there like a moth to a candle. The visions of his wounding are coming more frequently now, and it is obvious that the mysterious figure of the soldier is one of his team, and the memories are coming strong and fast in Brandon's mind. Startled by the detective, Brandon is horrified to see the figure outside the window, lobbing a grenade through the glass and he leaps on it, shielding the policeman from the blast with his own body - only to discover there is nothing there. Is his mind so desperate for peace and oblivion that it is inventing imaginary scenarios as an escape? But Brandon's mental state is indicative to the now highly disturbed policeman that Brandon is somehow involved with his ex-wife's death - and promptly arrests him.

After two hours of interrogation, they let him go, and Brandon leaves the station, only to find, as always, the ever-present Jennifer Rigny. Now Brandon is perplexed and deeply unhappy. He knows now Jennifer is not what she appears to be, and his paranoia takes over.

"Who the hell are you lady?? What do you want from me??"

On his return to his office, he is confronted by Mike and Ed. He is told he is unstable, he needs help, and Ed fires him. Brandon's strung-out temper finally snaps. He lashes out at the two men, but his mind begins to seriously confuse him now, and he is horrified to discover he thinks he can see a cable implanted in his skull. The walls waver and blend into something completely unfamiliar, reality and imagination blurring and twisting until he has no perception of either.

In a secret experimental military base, Jennifer Rigny bends over the unconscious body of Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Grace, the big soldier still dressed in combat gear, his chest bloody under heavy field dressings, his head surrounded by a strange halo of electronic equipment. Brandon Grace is dying. The secret Aries Team of which he is the leader has been betrayed by one of its own, and Brandon Grace has paid the ultimate price. But he carries the identity of the traitor in his memory, and Jennifer Rigny, a member of military intelligence, has been ordered to enter Brandon's mind and try to discover that identity. His life as a salesman and the death of his ex-wife is all a figment of a dying man's imagination - a man tortured by the memory of how he neglected his daughter. He needs to make his peace with her before he goes, and Jennifer finally sees a way to achieve this.

Brandon, now only minutes away from dying, finally remembers fully how he was shot by a member of his own team, remembers pulling off the man's helmet … and discovers the identity of his killer. It is his best friend Mike.

But Jennifer has not let Brandon down. As the memory of the trauma of his wounding fades, Brandon finds himself back in the park, on a quiet, still day. He sees a figure waiting for him … a figure he knows must be Cammi. Hesitant and unsure, he tells her who he is - and how much he loves her. He gathers her in his arms, holds her close, and is content.

In the spartan surroundings of a military base Cammi Grace awakens from her sojourn in her father's mind, and Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Grace slips quietly into oblivion, his daughter's final words carried with him …

"I love you too, Daddy …"

Closing Control Voice: Wars can be won or lost but in the battle waged inside a man's soul, only love can heal the wounds.