Main cast: Bruce Davison (Dr McEnerney), Sonja Smits (Dr Anne Crain), William Hickey (Harlan Hawkes), Jerry Wasserman (Dr Silcase), and Michelle Beaudoin (Jessie Wells)
Director: Tibor Takacs
Yikes, what is happening to The Outer Limits? It started out pretty good, but the first season is starting to resemble a pretentious mess that insults the mind with its overly simplistic psychobabble. White Light Fever is the worst episode so far, apparently created just to tell me that white old billionaires are pieces of crap and money is the root of all evil. Or something.
Dr ‘Mac’ McEnergy has a very difficult client – the 102-year old Harlan Hawkes who needs a heart transplant urgently. The vulgar and demanding old coot already had one previously, so it’s clear that the man’s body will continue to fail no matter how many hearts one push into that fellow. However, Harlan doesn’t want to die, so he keeps throwing lots of money to ensure that he gets moved to the top of the heart transplant recipient list. The old man also has Mac hostage in the sense that his money is financing Mac’s research on a technology that can keep the heart going and hence make one essentially immortal for a far longer time than thought possible, and if the old man dies, bye bye research.
Mac faces a dilemma when his colleague Dr Anne Crain tells him that her brother’s fiancée needs a heart transplant ASAP too, and it is unethical for him to prioritize Harlan over an 18-year old. (Incidentally, Jessie is the oldest-looking 18-year old I’ve seen on TV in a while.) Hence, Mac is now traumatized. Oh, to move his benefactor or his colleague’s future sister-in-law to the top of the list? Mind you, whatever he chooses to do, he is still breaching the code of ethics by prioritizing people who are picked via his relationship to them rather than anything else, but hey, by this point I’ve given up on this series delivering social statements in a coherent, non-contradictory, and non-disingenuous manner.
As the episode muddles on, what seems like God tries to send lightning bolts down to kill Harlan or something, and Mac gets signs from God to do the right thing and save chicks over old men – even if doing so means depriving mankind from a device that can potentially save millions of lives down the road. In other words, feels over reals, and oh yes, Harlan gets sent to hell while Jessie goes to heaven because… she is young, I guess?
Whatever, I’ve wasted enough of my brain cells just recalling this utterly vapid and dumb episode, and I’d let to keep the rest alive for as long as possible. White Light Fever is an utter waste of time and an insult to my intelligence.
