The Outer Limits (1995) s06e07 Episode Script
Seeds of Destruction
1 Hell's teeth, Oh, bless you, Allergies, That's right, allergies, Eddie, why don't you start feeding the doggies? Okay, ,,feed the doggies, Get the food and feed the doggies, Sal, what's the matter? It's, it's Carrie, They found a tumor on her liver, I'm so sorry, And, um, the air conditioning is broken, but I made a call, and Mr, Rivers is here, He found something he wants to show you, Fully developed Fifth Limb emanating from tumorous growth, Third incident of animal tumors in and around cornfield in the past three months, Unidentified skeletal anomaly, Once again, everything consistent with Rampant ACCELERATED cell growth, Check incidence of feline teratoma, ( wailing ) ( gunshot ) ( control voice ) There is nothing wrong with your television, Do not attempt to adjust the picture, We are now controlling the transmission, We control the horizontal and the vertical, We can deluge you with a thousand channels or expand One single image to crystal clarity and beyond, We can shape your vision to anything our imagination can conceive, For the next hour, we will control all that you see and hear, ( ) You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the deepest inner mind to The outer limits, Who we are and what we will become are determined by our actions, But are those actions planting the seeds of our salvation or destruction? ( radio ) , ,,no let up in sight, Today's weather brought to you by Macroseed, working hand in hand with farmers today for a better, positive tomorrow, Over to you, Harold, Neighbor called it in this morning, This is how we found him, Hey, Bob, Hey, Linda, Careful, May I? Yeah, Let the coroner's Office know we're ready to transport, Hey, Linda, He's got lumps on his face, Here, I know, Oh, I thought I could handle that, All I'm saying is, maybe Eddie would be better off in a special facility Where they can take care of him, I don't want that, Linda, Carol and Fred were talking about a home before They got killed, Eddie's my nephew, Rex, He's family I have to take care of him, Maybe we could get some help, It might take some of the pressure off, We can't afford it, We turned our lives upside down to come here and help him, I was lucky to get a job at macroseed, I'll never make as much as a lawyer in private practice here, I know, We'll figure something out, Yeah, Hey, none of that, You'll catch something, I already have, Don't forget about the church rummage sale, Did Gaye rope you into it again this year? Oh, didn't you hear? Gaye's in the hospital up in springfield, Tumor, Just, uh, ,, had a pain in her side and the next thing you know, ,, wham, Oh, I'm so sorry, It's benign, but at her age it's, ,, Yeah, So I'm doing the rummage sale this year, So you all really better be there, We'll be there, doc, Hey, Eddie, Hi, I'll save the heavy lifting for you, Okay, ( woman groaning ) ( Rex groaning ) As soon as I get the results, I'll call you, It came on so sudden, It's worrisome, and unusual, But these bone growths are usually self-Limiting, They only go so far, then they stop, Then we'll look at our options, Thank you, Dr, Wells, Meanwhile, Matt, I want to put some dressing on this, ( moaning ) ( Matt ) Wow, Yeah, Does it hurt? Not really, Maybe I should kiss it and make it bigger, Yeah, @ Ah! My back! What? Ahh! Oh, my god! Help! Oh, my god! Tara, I'll go get help, Tara, Tara! Help! Hey, Sal, You want to eat in or out? In, We could break in the back seat of my new car, Stop, What's the matter? Think your husband will catch us? Reminds you of the storeroom in chemistry, doesn't it? Except we're not 17 anymore, Mm-Hmm, you're right, Now we know more, Sally will be back soon, Then maybe we should accelerate this process, Did you hear about Matt Hooper? Yeah, And Carrie Lattimore has a teratoma on her liver, Yeah, ,,why are we talking about this? Because you work at macroseed, You think it's from the corn? Why not? Because we tested it, that's why, All right, well, take a look at this cat, Fibrous sarcoma is rare in cats, Maybe 1 in 10,000 get it, This is the third animal with Massive tumors that's come across my table recently, They've all been found in the cornfields, And look at this It's more like a teratoma, Different cells randomly growing abnormal tissues together, It's weird that this is happening right now, don't you think? And old man Rivers' tumors, they were the same thing, They're all accelerated growth just like the tx-40, Okay, you got me, I'm actually an alien, We mutated the corn to meet our special nutritional needs, It's unfortunate that you earthlings, you know, can't handle it, I'm serious, Couldn't it happen? I'll tell you what the biochemists tell me, okay? And you can trust me, 'cause, well, I'm a lawyer, Harold, ,, yes, the corn has been genetically altered, and, yes, tx-40 was designed for accelerated growth, but it cannot cross to humans or cats or other plants, But it's all so sudden, Linda, stuff like this unfortunately happens every day, Now, ,, how about a little acceleration of our own? Harold, Just a little? Hmm? ( phone ringing ) ( phone ringing ) ( Harold groaning ) what? I have to go, Olly olly oxen free! What do you want? It fell off its nest, Get that out of here! You come in here again, you'll wish you hadn't been born, ( mattress creaking, woman moaning ) ( truck Horn blasting ) ( thunder crashing ) "And so Donald went back to his cave, ,," Hi, Hi, "All the other dinosaurs cheered "And said that Donald was the bravest dinosaur in the whole wide jungle," Called your office today to see if you wanted to go to lunch, I must have been in the bathroom, Yeah, I guess so, ( Eddie ) Read Donald, Okay, Eddie, Read Donald, Sure, "Donald's great big day," "Donald was a dinosaur, "He wasn't as big "As Albert the allosaur, but he was much taller than Peter the protoceratops," All I'm saying is, don't you want to have kids? I don't want to have one until this thing gets sorted out, That's ridiculous, You're overreacting, Something is happening, Rex, One day old man Rivers is fine, and the next he, ,, He looks like a monster and blows his head off, We have to move before something happens to us, Back to kansas city? Anywhere, The longer I wait to have a baby the greater the chance of birth defects, Look at Eddie, Linda, He'll never be like other kids, He'll never have a chance, Maybe it's best to put Eddie in a home with other kids like him, Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, Eddie! Eddie! Eddie! Eddie! Eddie! Eddie! Eddie! Eddie! Eddie! ( sneezing ) Eddie, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, I don't want to go away, You're not going to go away, You'll be with us always, Mommy and daddy went away, That's True, but you're not going to go, We love you too much to let you go, You're stuck with us, Buddy, Oh, ,, and Mr, Fuzzy turtle? Yes, of course, Do you want to go to the game tonight? And pancakes? And pancakes! Computer Model indicates MUTATING CELLS increase exponentially under ideal conditions, Rex? Eddie? ( door slamming ) ( rustling ) ( crashing ) Eddie? What's the matter? Eddie? Oh, my god, Oh, my God, It hurts, It's okay, it's okay, Everything's going to be okay, Shh, shh, shh, I can't see too good, I'm going to fix that, okay? I'm gonna fix that, Where's Rex? He's, ,, he's at the game, You walked home alone? I got lost at the game and I couldn't find him, so I came home, It's okay, it's okay, It's okay, It's okay, Doc, I've got to talk to you, Linda, I have patients waiting, You know where I was all night? Springfield, with Eddie, He's got lumps like old man rivers, Oh, my God, Don't you see what's happening, doc? Carrie Lattimore, old man rivers, Gaye Herman, Tara Acton, Matt Hooper, Eddie They all have tumors that just suddenly appeared, It's obviously something that was introduced to the environment, What else could it be but the tx-40? Linda, some people get these things no matter what, Not this quickly, You probably don't remember this, but after you left for college in the big city, Hobson was a dying town, Macroseed saved it, They paid top dollar Better than top dollar to rent these fields, Tx-40 is safe, So before We go kicking up a ruckus, let's get some facts first, okay? Tx-40 is hurting people, doc, How come we don't have it? We breathe the same air, Now think about the people that you mentioned, Some of them live close to the cornfields, others live far away, Upwind, downwind, sidewind whatever, There isn't any pattern, ergo, it's not happening, Or maybe we're missing something, How long have I known you? As long as I can remember, Pretty long time, right? So I'm going to presume that I know you pretty well, I know what you're doing, but you don't have to, What am I doing? Proving that you're better than your mama, This isn't about her, It's about people getting sick, I need to see the research on tx-40, I can't show you that, That's proprietary information, We're talking about Eddie, I know, I helped drive him to springfield, remember? I have to know, Hey, want to grab some lunch? No thanks, Gotta get this done, Boss of mine, Maybe we should talk, You could have got Rex fired today, you know, If it hadn't been me who saw him, he'd be toast, You're right, But that's not the only reason you called us both in here, No, I also want to impress upon you the importance of what you're doing, or nearly doing, Tx-40 is safe, Linda, Bad P, R, Will kill it just as dead as if it was causing these things, I know, That's why you got to be careful about what you say, You can't take back bad publicity, That's what I said, Macroseed has been very good to all of us, And we want to keep it that way, So that's why I'm going to let you see this, I already cleared it with the big boys, So please, read it before you do anything else, I think it'll put your mind at ease, It's the data on tx-40, pure and unadulterated, And you can draw your own conclusions, Thank you, Thanks, Harold, No problem, Linda, here, There are two main ways to genetically alter plants, One is to shoot plant cells with a particle gun, They use microscopic pellets coated with the dna they want to add, The other way to insert the appropriate new Genes is to use a bacterium, Agro-Bacterium tumafascens, which is first altered Itself and then it inserts the new genes into the target plant, So what happened? All their crossover tests were performed on corn that was altered through radiation, But after the Tests someone decided that bacteria was to be used instead, It was probably somebody in accounting who figured that it would be cheaper, All I can say is, bacteria is a living thing, It mutates on its own, You can't control it completely, Do you know what tumafascens means? Tumor-Inducing, Now, according to this, they're supposed to remove the tumor-Inducing part before they use the bacteria, But like I said, it's a living thing, It might have found a way to sneak around it, God, doc, what have they done? How could you do this? Do what? You do tests one way and Ignore doing them again after making major Changes and switching to bacteria to alter it? Linda, it wasn't Bacteria that changes on its own, We don't use bacteria anymore, What? We didn't want to take the chance, If you read the rest of the document you'd see we phased that out, Wasn't worth the money we'd save, Cooler heads prevailed, It's all right there, I'm sorry, Apology accepted, Don't, Don't, Why not? Because I don't want to, All right, No means No, I could smell his aftershave, No, it's just my perfume, Think I wouldn't find out? Sally saw Harold leaving your Office two days ago at lunchtime, That's why you didn't answer my call, You were screwing him, Weren't you? God, you stink of him! I called your office tonight, You didn't answer, I was with doc wells, Fine, Let's call him right now! Then I went to talk to Harold about the tx-40, Oh, that's why his aftershave's all over you, Why do you do this? What are you trying to do? Beat your mom? "I slept with More guys than she did," No, Then why do you do it? We love each other That's why we got married, What happened? Rex, ,, no, No, Stay away from me, I'm sorry, No, ,,Yeah, we're fine, Fortunately, we did the right thing, Absolutely, it would have been very bad, but facts don't lie, Yeah, we did good, Score one for our side, I'll let you know if anything else happens, Okay, right, ,,Bye, Hey, man, Harold, what happened? Rex, Thanks for the warning, I didn't know that No, you never do, You're always thinking about yourself, No one else, That's not True, Really? Well, do you ever think about me? You ever think about us? You ever lie in bed at night and dream about us being together? Having kids, having a family, ,, taking vacations, huh? Doing stupid things and laughing about them? Do you? Sometimes, Sometimes, That's really encouraging, Linda, What? Do you think you were just another notch on the bed post? No, Is that what you tell youself so that you're off the hook? "Harold doesn't care so I don't care either"? I don't say that, Then what do you say, 'cause, ,, I'm not psychic over here, That I'm married, Well, you don't have to be, I know, Maybe we've been looking on the wrong side of the equation, What do you mean? When they tested the tx-40 with human dna, where did they find that dna? Average white Males, middle-Aged guys, And that's the problem with a lot of drugs on the market, They're tested with Average white males, Not women or kids or whatever, And what they've found is There are big differences in how the drugs react among the groups, So maybe the people who are affected aren't average, Exactly, Maybe they just have a predisposition to those things and tx-40 triggers it, That's why we haven't all been affected, Yes! Or maybe it's something completely different, The best thing is to look for patterns, What's everybody got in Common? Well, what about hormones? Growth hormones, Carrie could have been going through a growth spurt, And Matt and Tara, ,,and Eddie are in their prime high-Level hormone years, Raging hormones, Yes, Of course, that doesn't explain old man Rivers, Yeah, There's the rub again, Yeah, there's the rub, ( flies buzzing ) son of a bitch, You wanted proof? Here it is, Carrie Lattimore has a teratoma on her liver, Eddie has lumps on his head, Matt, Tara all of them are suffering from UNCONTROLLED accelerated cell growth, And the tx-40 is causing it, Anyone with an above-Average levels of human growth hormone is susceptible, Kids in growth spurts, old men taking supplements, You name it, I think she's right, Harold, Unbelievable, I should call the board, We'll have to check this out, Can't, uh, ,, Yeah, we'll have to check this out, Good work, Thank you, ( phone ringing ) Yeah, Yeah, Rex? Rex, Linda, Harold Zimmer here, Our lab just finished running the first round of tests, We used some blood from Matt Hooper, Doesn't seem to be any interaction with the tx-40, We're going to keep checking, but, well, we'll let you know, ( beep ) Linda, doc wells, I called the lab up in springfield to do a test on a blood sample from Mr, Rivers, They said the tx-40 didn't have any interaction, so if it's not the corn triggering it, I don't know what it is, ( beep ) ( Harold ) it cannot cross to humans, Oh, my God, ( busy signal ) Oh, come on, doc, get off the phone, Rex, I'm on my way to doc wells' house, Don't worry, but I think you should meet me there, ( sneezing ) ( Horn honking ) Doc? Doc, it's Linda Andrews, It's not the corn, It's the milkweed, The corn dna is transferred to the milkweed, Hello, Linda, So surprised, Are you going to shoot me? Maybe, Let's go, You always were determined, Lin, That's why you were the captain of the cheerleaders, You weren't the best, but you were determined, You didn't get there first, but you always got there, So I'm right, Yeah, unfortunately, Our lab confirmed it this afternoon, It's the pollen from the milkweed, You can't cover this up, Yes, I can I have to, See, we can't afford bad publicity, remember? We can't let some freak crossover mutation wipe out years of research and planning, We'll just get rid of the milkweed, No problem, You can't get rid of all the milkweed in the country, Even if you could, how could you guarantee that tx-40 wouldn't cross to something else? Good old doc, huh? You're too quick for me, Don't do this, Harold, You know what your problem is? You're always searching for a crusade, Searching for something to fill up what's missing inside, Make you important, Me, Rex, Eddie, your work, We're all just trying to fill the void, Now you got your teeth into something really big, And you won't let go, But you have to, No, I don't, It's too late, Harold, Look, I could put in a good word for Rex, I'll transfer him to kansas city, get him a raise, You guys could start over again, and get the best help for Eddie, Eddie is going to die, and it's all because of people like you playing god, I'm sorry about that, But you could start over, Screw you, Well, I'm going to take that as a no, Or you could change your mind, You have in the past, You don't care about anybody, do you? Actually, doc, I care about the whole world, You know, when a disaster happens, doctors perform triage, Not everybody lives You know that, The process is designed to maximize the number of survivors, It's the same with medication, The fda certifies thousands of drugs knowing full well that a small but acceptable percentage of people will have a fatal reaction to them, Why? Because many, many more people will benefit, The cost is worth the benefit, Tx-40 is worth the cost, What'll it cost you if it doesn't roll out? A few million, The Miracle of stock options, You only care about yourself, It's a common disease these days, The only thing I can prescribe for it is a long, hard look in the mirror, It's a shame some people don't have the spine for it, Oh, I can, I can do it, doc, Yeah, 'cause, ,,I like what I see, More's the pity on you, Stop! Every great step demands sacrifice, Doc! Hey! Poor doc, He was trying to save me, He came in here distraught, You felt I was responsible for what happened to Eddie, and you couldn't accept that tx-40 wasn't guilty, He tried to stop you and you shot him, And I tried to wrestle the gun from you, It went off, killing you, but not before you shot me in the leg, Ah! I got your message, You all right? Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, It's okay, ( control voice ) Let us always remember As we sow, so shall we reap, Captioning performed by Western Captioning service ltd, Vancouver, B, C, 2000