Sgt Linden Styles (Clancy Brown) is wheeled in on a gurney. Oh, thank God, he’s going to get some much needed medical care! Oh wait, there’s a priest and guards, he’s going to be executed for murder. Happy ending either way.
He assures the priest his soul is safe because he is innocent of the murders he was charged with. The doctor gives him a lethal injection, and at 12:11 pronounces him dead. But only mostly dead — even before the credits, he wakes up. A government agent offers him a choice — try a new experimental procedure vital to national security, or get injected with the real juice.
The agent upgrades the security clearance of Style’s doctor, Kersaw. He then shows her the remains of an alien captured a year ago and stored in a . . . hey that’s the same exact yellow cryo unit as was used last week in The Heist. I understand re-using props, but let’s space it out, people! She is ordered to merge the alien DNA with that of Styles.
The next morning, Kersaw begins giving Styles a series of injections. They are to be so painful that he is strapped down. Soon he begins growing scaly and scabrous. This guy was treated better by the Dharma Initiative.
As he further transforms into an alien, he uses his increased strength to escape from the facility where he was being held. Little does he know that this was part of the plan — a test to see if the military can capture such an alien.
The army uses Kersaw to lure Styles into an ambush. Before they can fire on Styles, they are disabled by a high-pitched noise which is followed by the appearance of aliens looking much like him.
After they disappear, taking Styles with them, Kersaw tells the agent that just as the Army was testing Styles — the aliens were testing the humans. They made the alien bodies available to see what humans would do with them.
A good episode with great performances by Clancy Brown and Alan Rachins as the agent. Unfortunately, Dr. Kersaw was a little weak — her lapel-grabbing revelation at the end is fairly laughable. And the general was grossly miscast.
The biggest stars of the episode are the make-up and the great set including the pod where Styles was kept. And, of course, the ubiquitous cryo unit which I Iook forward to seeing next week.
Post-Post:
- Might as well get some use out of these Canadian discs. French title: Injection Fatale.
- Clancy Brown was in the Dharma Initiative and Alan Rachins was in Dharma and Greg. Coincidence?
I guess all you need to do to have your body become alien is inject alien DNA. I don’t think this works biologically.
Enjoyed this episode. Viewed it along the plot line of the original OL episode of ‘ The Architects Of Fear’ with Robert Clup as the monster. Clancy Brown, an Ohio boy like me, was great as the monster.
I really wish they’d given a proper ending. What does failing the test mean? Consequences? The episode would have been better if the writer had added a subtle clue just before the credits rolled — a fade out to white implying a nuclear explosion, maybe a cough as a killer disease is released, or something fitting the plot of the episode like a suspended death sentence for humanity is reactivated (maybe that’s why the army was studying the alien body in the first place).