Mary 25
| "Mary 25" | |
|---|---|
| The Outer Limits episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 15 |
| Directed by | James Head |
| Written by | Jonathan Glassner |
| Production code | 77 |
| Original air date | 29 May 1998 |
| Guest appearances | |
| Sofia Shinas as Mary 25 Michael Shanks as Melburn Ross Britt McKillip as Brook Bouton Tom Butler as Charlie Bouton Ian Robison as Grant Kildale Cynthia Geary as Teryl Bouton Matthew Prior as Brandon Bouton | |
"Mary 25" is an episode of The Outer Limits television series. It first aired on 29 May 1998, during the fourth season.
Introduction
Charlie Bouton's (Tom Butler) last robot design for the Innobotics Corporation — Valerie 23 — went berserk and attacked its owners. It almost put the company out of business. Now he and his colleague, Melburn Ross, have a new idea: Mary 25 the nanny robot. Naturally enough, his bosses are skeptical, that is until Charlie suggests testing the new robot with his own family.
Opening narration
Our children need protecting from much more than physical harm. Just as threatening to the fragile child are the dangers of the mind... and the dangers of the heart.
Plot
Mary 25 (Sofia Shinas) replaces the Bouton's household's current nanny. She is designed not to allow anyone to harm the children — including the children themselves. When they start fighting amongst themselves, Mary places them in separate rooms. Teryl (Cynthia Geary), the mother and Charlie's wife, wants Mary out of the house but Charlie says no since he has started using Mary as a sex toy when the others are asleep. It becomes clear that Charlie has been abusing Teryl, when the children ask Mary "why does daddy hurt mommy?"
It is then revealed that Teryl and Melburn (Michael Shanks) had a relationship once and Melburn still has feelings for Teryl by trying to protect her from Charlie. When he performs Mary's scheduled maintenance, he re-programs Mary so that she now considers that by hurting the mother, Charlie is hurting the children. One night when Charlie is beating Teryl, Mary comes in, strangles Charlie, and breaks his neck.
In the aftermath, the human nanny has been rehired and the spark is rekindled between Teryl and Melburn. In the episode's twist ending, Teryl's dark secret is discovered: The real Teryl that Melburn loved had been killed by Charlie during one of his violent beatings and so to cover up the murder she was replaced by Valerie 24, a successor to the defunct Valerie 23. She had used Mary to get rid of Charlie because she believed Melburn would love her. It also explains why Teryl did not remember her history with Melburn. The final scene shows the gynoid grinning in satisfaction with having arranged this "perfect" solution.
Closing narration
Let us hope that no technology will ever exist that can replace human warmth and compassion. For when such a technology does exist, will we cease to be human?
Trivia
- Mary 25 is named after Mary Poppins.
- "Mary 25" is a semi-sequel to "Valerie 23", and is the second in the 'Innobotics arc' (several episodes dealing with androids created by the Innobotics Corporation).