Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers!
If you have not seen this episode and do not want to know how things turn out ahead of time, please do not read the following comments.
Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers!
Sometimes, repeated viewing of a masterpiece really does lead to new insights (or at least allows an observation or two to finally sink in). Granted, when I first saw this episode, circa age seven, there may have been several details and themes that went right over my head. After all, no matter how obviously Sally Kellerman portrayed the unrepentantly guilt ridden wife, how was I to recognize Lady Macbeth's "spot" in Judith Bellero's hand before having read or seen Macbeth?
A recent revisit to this episode had me backing up the DVD several times to verify what I thought I was hearing or seeing with the result that the more overtly Christian themes of this morality play finally hit home.
Some for instances:
A being (of light?) from a realm of light that is above our universe (and other universes, as it turns out) descends to Earth. (Hmmm, that sounded a bit familiar even when I was seven.)
Mrs. Dame, exquisitely enigmatically played by Chita Rivera, always barefoot, exudes human earthiness even to the point of being murderous, repeatedly so. (To her credit, Mrs. Dame does seem to be a bit surprised, maybe somewhat horrified, when she sees what she has done to Bellero, Sr.)
Mrs. Dame receives salvation because she is willing to ask for it and accept it for the freely offered gift that it is, even though she knows she has no claim to it. "I expected it to kill me. But, it looked into my eyes, and I heard myself say, 'Can you help?' And it said, 'Can I not?'"
The traveler's fluid/blood breaks down the barrier, and provides salvation (okay, this part was pretty obvious to a church-going seven year old), if the guilty will be willing to accept it.
Like Judas, the self-willed Mrs. Bellero somehow believes she is the best, or at least most appropriate, master of her fate. Such an attitude easily leads her to initially regard her actions as, if not good and right, at least necessary. Her claim to be willing to face the executioner shows she is unwilling to seek any but a human means of escape for what is really her self-condemned soul, which, as the episode ends, is no longer imprisoned by an invisible shield, but by her inability to comprehend and accept mercy, forgiveness, and that "ingredient" which she lacked, love. Just like those ambitious angels mentioned by the Control Voice.
Great episode.
The Outer Limits team really knew a winning combination: The Man Who Was Never Born, another classic episode, also featured Martin Landau and the same Dominic Frontiere music cues.
If you have not seen this episode and do not want to know how things turn out ahead of time, please do not read the following comments.
Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers!
Sometimes, repeated viewing of a masterpiece really does lead to new insights (or at least allows an observation or two to finally sink in). Granted, when I first saw this episode, circa age seven, there may have been several details and themes that went right over my head. After all, no matter how obviously Sally Kellerman portrayed the unrepentantly guilt ridden wife, how was I to recognize Lady Macbeth's "spot" in Judith Bellero's hand before having read or seen Macbeth?
A recent revisit to this episode had me backing up the DVD several times to verify what I thought I was hearing or seeing with the result that the more overtly Christian themes of this morality play finally hit home.
Some for instances:
A being (of light?) from a realm of light that is above our universe (and other universes, as it turns out) descends to Earth. (Hmmm, that sounded a bit familiar even when I was seven.)
Mrs. Dame, exquisitely enigmatically played by Chita Rivera, always barefoot, exudes human earthiness even to the point of being murderous, repeatedly so. (To her credit, Mrs. Dame does seem to be a bit surprised, maybe somewhat horrified, when she sees what she has done to Bellero, Sr.)
Mrs. Dame receives salvation because she is willing to ask for it and accept it for the freely offered gift that it is, even though she knows she has no claim to it. "I expected it to kill me. But, it looked into my eyes, and I heard myself say, 'Can you help?' And it said, 'Can I not?'"
The traveler's fluid/blood breaks down the barrier, and provides salvation (okay, this part was pretty obvious to a church-going seven year old), if the guilty will be willing to accept it.
Like Judas, the self-willed Mrs. Bellero somehow believes she is the best, or at least most appropriate, master of her fate. Such an attitude easily leads her to initially regard her actions as, if not good and right, at least necessary. Her claim to be willing to face the executioner shows she is unwilling to seek any but a human means of escape for what is really her self-condemned soul, which, as the episode ends, is no longer imprisoned by an invisible shield, but by her inability to comprehend and accept mercy, forgiveness, and that "ingredient" which she lacked, love. Just like those ambitious angels mentioned by the Control Voice.
Great episode.
The Outer Limits team really knew a winning combination: The Man Who Was Never Born, another classic episode, also featured Martin Landau and the same Dominic Frontiere music cues.