The Others
an Episode Guide
by Russell Wodell
Last updated:
Thu, 25 Oct 2018 21:00
The Othersan Episode Guide
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| aired from: Feb 2000 to: Jun 2000 | 13 eps | NBC | 60 min | stereo | closed captioned |
regulars:
recurring characters:
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Production credits:
Delusional Films / NBC Studios / Dreamworks SKG
Created by John Brancato and Michael Ferris
Supervising Producer: Mick Garris
Executive Producers: John Brancato and Michael Ferris, James Wong and Glen Morgan
Produced by Sarah Caplan
Associate producer: Randy S Nelson
Executive story editor: Fred Golan
Story editor: Daniel Arkin
rc: Albert
College student Marian moves into the dormitory room where a young woman recently died and senses an alarming supernatural force as she reluctantly turns to the Others -- a small but diverse group of people dedicated to analyzing their extrasensory abilities -- who urge her to embrace her "fearsome talent." But she soon discovers that whatever gift of insight she possesses is both a blessing and a curse that puts her life in danger, forcing her to appeal to a famed medium, an empathic medical intern and a New Age "sensitive" among the Others.
b: 5 Feb 00 pc: _________ w: John Brancato & Michael Ferris d: Mick Garrisrc: Albert
While Elmer senses a dreadful dark force on the horizon, Satori tries to help the single mother whose young son has been missing for three years - and whose ethereal presence is suddenly felt by both women. Aware of the unknown power that opposes them, Elmer and the Others need Marian's supernatural gifts to counter the unseen evil that they believe is responsible for the boy's abduction.
b: 12 Feb 00 pc: _________ w: John Brancato & Michael Ferris d: Brian Trenchard-Smith NOTE: I missed this episode, and there seems little chance of its being re-run.rc: Albert
A vain and egotistical man decides on laser surgery to correct his eyesight, but after the first operation begins to see horrific apparitions which threaten his sanity. Meanwhile, Marian puzzles over Albert's enigmatic past until she unwittingly begins to share his nightly vision of the TET Offensive maneuver that cost his eyesight.
b: 19 Feb 00 pc: _________ w: Glen Morgan and James Wong d: William Malone NOTE: This is the best single episode of the series; if only all the scripts could have been this good. The metaphoric link of not wanting to see horrors combines the main plot and subplot to quite moving effect; the b&w combat footage is superb; and the special effects for Sandy's visions are remarkable (though a little over-the-top in the sushi restaurant) and genuinely terrifying.rc: Albert
Just as the Others board a plane to Sedona, Arizona for a psychic conference, they learn that an inquisitive Miles purposely booked them on the same flight path previously occupied by an aircraft that recently crashed, and the harrowing activities they witness are thought to be somehow linked to parts salvaged from the wreckage -- and recycled onto their jetliner. As the Others react to the sight of tormented faces pressed against the outside windows and through the cabin walls, Marian has a strange encounter with the captain of the doomed crew, who has an urgent message only Miles can decipher.
b: 26 Feb 00 pc: _________ w: Daniel Arkin d: Tobe Hooperrc: Albert
The group helps a woman grieving for her child and husband killed in a car accident--a process complicated when they discover that the husband is not yet dead.
b: 4 Mar 00 pc: _________ w: Glen Morgan & James Wong d: Bill Condon NOTE: This episode seems typical of this show: it is gorgeously shot, extremely well acted by the guest cast, and let down by a shaky script. Why doesn't anyone, particularly these powerful psychics, notice that the husband is still alive? More importantly, when the widow slams the coffin shut at the funeral, the coffin is clearly not that of a small child. That's cheating.rc: Albert
As an unsure Marian considers withdrawing from the Others, she moves into a new apartment that harbors a vague yet sinister force hiding in the wallpaper intent on scaring her enough to ignore her supernatural gift, but she is more concerned to learn that some of the Others appear to be stalking her. Meanwhile, Mark is tormented by the responsibility of his empathic abilities and can find relief only in the arms of Satori, but they are prevented from becoming physically intimate because proximity causes their environment to explode.
b: 11 Mar 00 pc: _________ w: Glen Morgan & James Wong d: Mick Garris NOTE: Logically this should be the second episode, since Marian does not yet fully trust the Others. There's an unpleasant undercurrent to the theme of a young woman terrorized in her bedroom, yet some of it is done with inventive subtlety, particularly the unexpected shot of the face in the wallpaper turning to watch Marian go by. I'm puzzled by the oddly explicit note of Christian myth: why does the demon have to be Lucifer holding out a wallpaper apple? Nothing else in the series suggests any particular religious system.Marian thinks joining a sorority will help her regain some normalcy in her life -- until she learns one of the sisters is under psychic attack. She befriends troubled college coed Jenny, who is plagued by chronic panic attacks of horrifying visions from her childhood that become more physically forceful and threaten her bewildered Theta sorority sisters. Marian recruits the help of the Others, who suspect that the Theta house is haunted based on a murder on the same grounds long ago, but wise old Elmer deduces that something evil from the young woman's painful past is intruding with harmful intent. This turns out to be her imprisoned father, shot by Jenny as a child when he murdered her mother and now bent on revenge.
b: 18 Mar 00 pc: _________ w: Fred Golan d: Tom McLoughlin NOTE: It is a mistake to schedule two successive episodes about young women being terrorized in haunted bedrooms, especially when this one is a quite powerful parable about sexual abuse. Although the unsympathetic reactions of Jenny's sorority sisters underline the "blame the victim" syndrome, I can't help noting that these college kids seem singularly clueless, not even noticing that locked doors open while Jenny is yards away, or that she is bone-dry when accused of trying to drown someone in a bathtub.rc: Albert
A restless Mark is disturbed by his continuing dreams where he falls in love with Mary Jane, a mysterious beautiful woman from 19th-century London who also sees Mark only in her dreams. Ignoring Elmer's stern advice to stop his dalliance or risk his own destruction, a sheepish Mark asks love struck Marian to help him channel through to his would-be lover. Then an Internet search by Miles reveals that Mary Jane Kelly was the last victim of Jack the Ripper.
b: 25 Mar 00 pc: _________ w: Mick Garris d: Mick Garris NOTE: I have to go with Marian on this one when she asks "What was the point?" after the Others are unable to save Mary Jane. Crossing "Peter Ibbetson" with Jack the Ripper has potential, but the script falls into doomed-love cliché rather than following up on its own suggestions. Given the parallel drawn between the Ripper (here, for no readily apparent reason, an American surgeon) and Mark the overworked ER intern, it would have made more sense -- and been far creepier -- if compassionate Mark had found himself channeling the serial killer. And couldn't we have at least have the intervention of the Others be the reason this was the Ripper's last murder?rc: Albert
On a stormy night, the seers are terrorized by the Rabisu, an "entrance demon" who invades Elmer's house and preys on their minds with the repeated question: "What do you want?"
b: 22 Apr 00 pc: _________ w: Glen Morgan and James Wong d: Thomas J. Wright NOTE: This is definitely the worst episode yet, with a visual style as flat and clichéd as the script (in the rare moments when it makes any sense). If, as Elmer takes pains to tell us, the "entrance demons" can come at any time, disguised as anything or anyone, why does this one pick a ridiculously dark and stormy night complete with creepy music and subjective camera work to clue Elmer in that Something Is Wrong? If only sea salt can keep Elmer safe, who does he possess one measly jar (okay, he gave another to Marian) instead of a basement full? How come the demon can imitate Marian's sister exactly? What happens to Albert and the tow truck driver when the demon replaces them? Why do we only find out what half the Others want?Elmer wrestles with his distant past as an American serviceman based in Britain during World War II whose special psychic gifts were employed even then to help doomed flyers "get to the other side" -- but there was one who refused to go, and his fate is now intertwined with that of a downed American pilot who is lost in the Iraqi desert. As time winds down before the pilot is captured, Elmer enlists the help of Marian to lock on to the pilot's position while the regretful old man confronts a spirit that might be lost forever -- and a very surprisingly other visitant.
b: 29 Apr 00 pc: _________ w: Glen Morgan & James Wong d: Bryan SpicerA phony, cash-poor psychic calling himself "Simeon Nye" is frightened when his disastrous visions of his clients' futures begin to come true, so he seeks help from his more serious competition -- Satori -- who agrees to aid the bewildered man when she discovers he also inexplicably functions as a medium to her long-dead father (through their agreed-upon code word "Kermit"). But Satori learns that the charlatan has unknowingly summoned an angry spirit -- the ghost of the real Simeon Nye -- and if she renders assistance in ridding him of it, she will lose the chance to satisfy her dream of communicating with her dad.
b: 6 May 00 pc: _________ w: Richard Whitley d: Sanford Bookstaver
NOTE: Again, part of this episode are splendid visually -- this time with an unexpectedly surreal note of David Lynch -- and the basic premise is fine; I particularly liked Satori's frustration that she can contact a client's dead dog but not her own father. But yet again the plot unravels illogically: why should the dead Simeon Nye torment Troy in this way, rather than just killing him? And if Nye is such a powerfully malevolent spirit, how come the Others can exorcise him so easily? More importantly, why have Nye at all? It would be much more interesting if Troy just discovered he really had psychic powers but was so terrified that he refused to use them....rc: Albert
In the season (and series) finale, Elmer is mysteriously brought back from the dead, and as he recovers, he again senses the presence of entrance demons -- specifically the beckoning and beautiful woman who stalks him from the other side -- and fears for the "Others" when each one gains something highly desirable. The old man warns his friends not to be deceived by the false reality when Miles is offered a prestigious professorship, Marian finds a kindred spirit roommate, and Satori and Mark find they can embrace each other without fear.
b: 13 May 00 pc: _________ w: Daniel Arkin d: Thomas J. Wright NOTE: I missed this final episode, but logically it should follow immediately after "The Ones That Lie in Wait."When three emergency room patients die mysteriously all at once under his care, Mark clashes with his father, a hospital board member, over his contention that he saw several tiny snake-like creatures in the equipment -- but neither is unaware of the sinister force present that coincides with the arrival of a sickly elderly woman. Elmer, Marian and the rest of the "Others" rush to help Mark after he is struck down by a phantom illness, and they discover that the missing link might be the geriatric female patient who is deathly fearful of "the Mora," fearsome monsters from Eastern European folklore. When they find talismanic fetishes under the beds of the deceased patients, the Others' suspicions focus on the Russian janitor, but he turns out to be attempting to ward off the evil. The old woman turns out to be a 110-year-old former ballet star who fled the Russian Revolution, leaving her infant son behind, and who is afraid to die until she learns what happened to her son; the Mora are, Elmer insists, merely projections of her will to go on living. When she confronts Marian in her apartment and is shown pictures of her great-granddaughter, also a ballerina, Katarina dies happily in her own bed -- even though, as Marian later learns, she never left the hospital.
b: 10 Jun 00 pc: _________ w: John Brancato & Michael Ferris d: Jake Paltrow NOTE: This episode was postponed from an earlier date, and so becomes the final outing for The Others. Unfortunately, it is all too obviously a re-tooled X-Files script, with Mark as Mulder and his father as Scully. On the plus side, there is one superb image -- the double exposure of Katarina defying Elmer -- and poor Warren gets his best line of the series, upon learning that the twisted ropes are fetishes: "People get off on these?"| Back to TOP of Page |
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