Mary 25

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Outer Limits episode
“Mary 25”
Episode no. Season 4
Episode 15
Guest star(s) Sophia 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
Writer(s) Jonathan Glassner
Director James Head
Production no. 77
Original airdate 29 May 1998
Episode chronology
← Previous Next →
To Tell the Truth Final Exam

"Mary 25" is an episode of The Outer Limits television series. It first aired on 29 May 1998, during the fourth season.

Contents

[edit] Introduction

Charlie Bouton's last robot design for Innobotics — 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.

[edit] 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."

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Mary 25 replaces the household's current nanny. She is designed not to allow anyone harm the children - including the children themselves. When they start fighting amongst themselves, Mary places them in separate rooms. Teryl, 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 had a relationship once and Melburn still has feelings for Teryl by trying to protect her from Charlie. He then re-programmes Mary so that she now considers that by hurting the mother, Charlie is hurting the children. So one night when Charlie is beating up Teryl, Mary comes in and begins to kill Charlie through strangulation, then breaks his neck.

In the aftermath, the first Nanny has been rehired and the spark is rekindled between Teryl and Melburn until Teryl's dark secret is discovered: the real Teryl that Melburn loved was killed by Charlie and was replaced by Valerie 24, the robot that was made after Valerie 23 but was shelved and she used Melburn to help her get rid of Charlie.

[edit] Trivia

[edit] 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?"

[edit] External links and references