The Outer Limits' best episode ever..."Quality of Mercy"
us...@somewhere.com
My all time favorite episode from The Outer Limits was "Quality of Mercy", story written by Brad Wright. I was so lucky I was able to tape the episode when my local affiliate showed it for
the last time 2 years ago. I've watched this episode over and over again. (When I get the tape of James Cameron's Titanic...it'll finally have some company<g>.) QOM (Quality of Mercy) has
such a wide range of rich meanings that can only be plumbed through repeated viewings. The acting was superb. Robert Patrick (T-1000 from Terminator 2:Judgement Day) was terrific. But the
character "Bree" by actress Nikki De Boer was a star turn. Her performance floored me. And her chilling line at the end..."You dno't understand, John. They're not changing me....they're
changing me back."
But I'd like to point out in this posting (my opinion, of course)...that if we take the words spoken by Nikki De Boer's character too literally...that all she really was just the enemy in
human form...we're missing the deeper point and probably the darker aspect of the episode. In fact...if you look at the episode over and over...you might come to an even more chilling
conclusion...that Bree WASN'T an alien. In fact I think the argument can be made that she's human and therefore betrays John. There are too many clues in the episode after repeated
viewings that come through that makes it all the more improbable to believe that Bree was an alien in human disguise. (Sure...if you want to take the ending literally...that she was simply
an alien in disguise tricking John Skokes into revealing their war plans..you can. But I think you're missing the more chilling truth.)
The clue IMO...comes in the very beginning when the voiceover from the narrator says..."We become what we despise..and despise what we become." If you keep that line in mind when you watch
the episode...you begin to see what's going on. What are the clues I have to support my theory that Bree was really human? Well, the overall general sense of her personality suggested to
me that she was an anti war protestor. When she describes how she was drafted by the UNDF...(I'm assuming that's an acronym for United Nations Defense Forces?!) she shows her disgust at
the prospect of continual fighting, as if it's useless to continue the fighting. (I know you must already have objections...but hear me out) This is the clue I sense that Bree is an anti
war protester...someone who might have been willing to switch sides in order to end the fighting. Think about that one. There are cases of soldiers defecting to the "enemy" because they
were disgusted with the war, had a change in social/political beliefs, etc.
Then there was the interesting question she asks John Skokes about whether or not he had ever been tortured. This was an interesting question because it gave me the hint that maybe Bree
was tortured herself...either psychologically/physically and that she realized that fighting the enemy on such a basic level wasn't worth it. There are cases ranging from World War II to
the Gulf War of soldiers "giving" up because of either they were afraid of being killed, or simply lost the will to fight. This is yet another example I've picked up from repeated viewings
which strongly suggested to me that Bree was human who switched sides because she was tired of it all. Then came the fascinating dialogue between John and Bree over fighting the enemy
through "hate" and "love". Throughout the episode..John Skokes was motivated by a hatred of the enemy and reveals to Bree that it's only hate that keeps him alive. Bree turns on him at
this point and urges John to open his heart to love...saying that love is the more important quality to have. (You have to admit...if Bree was only just an alien in human disguise..then
this argument on her part was a brilliant ploy. But I'm not buying that for one minute. No enemy could possibly be that sophisticated to offer such an argument. I doubt even the Viet
Cong interrogators could have thought up something like that.) In case you're wondering...I'm NOT a veteran of ANY war. I'm simply a civilian.
Then came Bree's remark about "mercy" from which the title of the episode is based. I think her remark about "mercy" was crucial because if you buy the idea that she was only an alien out
to trick John...then her statement about mercy doesn't make any sense. Why? Because if Bree was simply the alien...then how could she have known about such a quality as mercy? Her remark
about mercy suggests to me that Bree was teaching the aliens about human qualities...such as mercy. This might explain their willingness to let her "trick" John into revealing military
secrets rather than torture him to death. Being "merciful" can be more effective in obtaining secrets than simply brute force. And that sets up the tragic conflict in "Quality of Mercy."
Love vs Duty. John Skokes starts out the episode hating the enemy which was his "duty" but ends up betraying his people because he opened his heart to "love". If you've been following my
theory about Bree...then her motivations are different. She betrays her people because she can't bring herself to hate. She betrays out of "love" because she hates her "duty" to fight the
enemy.
Now I'm going to end this essay on the lingering matter surrounding the episode. This has to be.."If your theory about Bree is right...then why did she say what she did at the end of the
episode?" Well, I was thinking about that. And in my opinion...the writers and producers probably realized this episode would retain its haunting power more forcefully if its secrets
weren't revealed so obviously. By ending the episode the way it did lets people decide for themselves if what she was saying was the truth and allows people like me to argue that there was
more to the episode than just an alien in human disguise out to trick the enemy. For example...if Bree had said at the end..."You don't understand John...they're not changing me. They're
LETTING me change." would have ripped the veil over the mysterious quality behind the episode and made us realize that she was the traitor. By ending the episode with her saying..."You
don't understand John...they're not changing me. They're changing me back." forces us to examine what really happened. And that makes us more curious as to what really happened in the
story. That happened to me and it was only after repeated viewings that my chilling theory came into focus. Repeated viewings after that confirmed my suspicions. "Quality of Mercy" was a
brilliantly crafted episode and in my personal opinion...the best episode on television that's ever been shown. From me...that's high praise...since I've always regarded "Inner Light" from
Start Trek:TNG as the best episode from any category until I saw The Outer Limits' "Quality of Mercy."
Anybody have any thoughts on this?
StoOdin101
>Anybody have any thoughts on this?
>
I thought the sequel, THE LIGHT BRIGADE, was better. I could see the ending
coming in QOM, but the finish of TLB took me completely off guard, and
represented New OL at its most nihilistic. Don't know if I can buy the idea
that Bree was a human being, though i think there may have once BEEN a human
Bree that the aliens patterned their counterfeit after. "Quality of Mercy" is
a quote from Shakespeare, incidentally, and practically every drama from
Bonanza to Star Trek has used the quote as a title.
>From me...that's high praise...since I've always regarded "Inner Light" from
>Start Trek:TNG as the best episode from any category until I saw The Outer
>Limits' "Quality of Mercy."
Best SF episode ever belongs neither to Star Trek, nor OL, but to the
much-maligned New Twilight Zone of the 80s. Steven Barnes' adaptation of
Silverberg's TO SEE THE INVISIBLE MAN is, IMHO, the best SF tv ever. Of course,
it was really an Outer Limits episode in disguise....it certainly wasn't Old TZ
material.
"...there is, as they say, a special science against gunshots --- ballistics.
But against the RADIO scientific thought seems to be blind." --- Mikhail
Zoshchenko, _The Anti-Noise Campaign_
us...@unknown.com
I think my idea surrounding the episode is better. By leaving it as it is...that Bree was simply an alien posing as a "real" Bree makes for poor drama. I think my theory is a better one.
Bree was in my opinion...the REAL traitor more so than John Skokes. Just remember what the voiceover said at the beginning...of course it can be taken different ways...but with my theory
in mind...it makes more sense..."We become what we despise...and we despise what we become." Dark and foreboding. No...I think the theory I've generated makes for better discussion than
leaving "Quality of Mercy" as it is. It was the last line that jarred me...not because I didn't expect it to end that way...but because I was expecting the writers to tell us exactly what
I was suspecting since the beginning..that Bree was human and betrayed humanity to end her torment in being involved with the losing side.
On 30 Jun 1998 00:54:47 GMT, stood...@aol.com (StoOdin101) wrote:
>>Anybody have any thoughts on this?
>>
>
>I thought the sequel, THE LIGHT BRIGADE, was better. I could see the ending
>coming in QOM, but the finish of TLB took me completely off guard, and
>represented New OL at its most nihilistic. Don't know if I can buy the idea
>that Bree was a human being, though i think there may have once BEEN a human
>Bree that the aliens patterned their counterfeit after. "Quality of Mercy" is
>a quote from Shakespeare, incidentally, and practically every drama from
>Bonanza to Star Trek has used the quote as a title.
>
> >From me...that's high praise...since I've always regarded "Inner Light" from
>>Start Trek:TNG as the best episode from any category until I saw The Outer
>>Limits' "Quality of Mercy."
>
clarence...@gmail.com
christian...@gmail.com
axels...@gmail.com
v3...@comcast.net
In The Light Brigade, the chief engineer talks about how the UNDF had a group of starships about 30 or so that engaged a single enemy ship and were all taken out. Wil Wheaton's character replies and says "I was told they were attacked by a superior force" to which he is told by the chief engineer "They were". That one enemy ship was more powerful than the thirty of our ships. Also in Quality of Mercy when Skokes is crawling through the air ducts you can hear other prisoners screaming and being tortured. So much world building is done in just these two episodes, I've tried to find and read more about these episodes but haven't really found much other than this thread that was made over 20 years ago.
Are there any books that are similar to these episodes? Humans fighting a losing war against a vastly superior enemy force
Eric Pircher
> "Quality of Mercy" was a
> brilliantly crafted episode and in my personal opinion...the best episode on television that's ever been shown. From me...that's high praise...since I've always regarded "Inner Light" from
> Start Trek:TNG as the best episode from any category until I saw The Outer Limits' "Quality of Mercy."
> Anybody have any thoughts on this?