"The Labyrinth"

Episode 217
(aired the week of 4/13/1998)
Case # 30-9217

Log line: Traces of ectoplasm and a hair ornament are found on a city worker killed in an underground tunnel.

Synopsis: Two city maintenance workers - Ben Maxwell and Niko Andonovski - investigating a local blackout in an underground tunnel system experience a spectacular, unusual blast of light; then, only Andonovski emerges alive. Summoned to determined what killed Maxwell, the Office of Scientific Investigation and Research (O.S.I.R.)'s Case Manager Matt Praeger and Pathologist Dr. Claire Davison see the worker's body splattered with a gooey orange-brown substance and find a woman's hair elastic with yellow baubles lodged in his throat. Meanwhile, questioned by Senior Data Analyst Lindsay Donner, Andonovski swears he saw a half-man, half-bull creature slay his partner.

Deciding the maze-like subterranean tunnel system holds clues, Praeger runs into resistance from Tom Johnson, a resentful city supervisor miffed that the O.S.I.R. investigation has prolonged the blackout. Probing the labyrinth, Praeger, Donner and team Zoologist L.Q. Cooper split up. Donner happens upon Johnson lurking in a tunnel...and both are overcome by a strange, bright light barreling towards them. In its wake, Donner feels lucky to be alive and firmly rules out Johnson as a possible suspect - since she's sharing space with his lifeless body, which is mauled, suffocated and burned to death by the otherworldly light, while his throat is clogged by yet another yellow hair elastic.

Chief Science Analyst Peter Axon reports that the residue found on the bodies is a combination of blood and ectoplasm - the material left behind after cross-dimensional contact. Skeptical with these results, Praeger focuses instead on the tangible evidence. Dr. Anton Hendricks concludes that the retrieved blood sample is so rare that it can be traced to exactly one living person: a currently-jailed young drug addict named Karen Russel. Visiting Russel in prison, Donner and Security Coordinator Ray Donahue are curious to find she is wearing a hair elastic identical to the ones in the throats of the dead men.

Making a sweep of the tunnels, Praeger and Axon learn that the sighted Minotaur-like creature is, in fact, a homeless man named Jesse and some unlikely props. Jesse, however, claims the strange light responsible for the two murders is the restless spirit of a baby, which Axon and Praeger doubt - until, horrified, they're shown the corpse of a baby the vagrant found there. As the team awaits the infant's autopsy results, Axon and Donahue question Russel's boyfriend, Gary, who ultimately admits the infant died as a result of the couple's drug-addled parental neglect...by choking to death after one of Karen's hair elastics fell into his crib. At the prison, Russel further reveals that the couple hid the tiny, lifeless body in a storm drain.

Tying together the bizarre elements of their investigation, the O.S.I.R. begins to accept that the murderous light in the tunnel might be the spirit of Karen's baby in search of its mother. Now, the team must enlist the young woman to venture into the tunnels - and, in so doing, risk her own life - to put the malevolent spirit to rest.

Starring:
Matt Frewer - Case Manager Matt Praeger
Barclay Hope - Peter Axon
Nancy Anne Sakovich - Lindsay Donner
Colin Fox - Dr. Anton Hendricks
Dan Aykroyd - Host

Guest Stars:
Peter Blais - Zoologist L.Q. Cooper
Peter MacNeill - Security Coordinator Ray Donahue
Soo Garay - Dr. Claire Davison
Cameron Graham - Ben Maxwell
Gerry Medicino - Niko Andonovski
Roland Rothchild - Tom Johnson
Karyn Dwyer - Karen Russel
Gordon Michael Woolvet - Gary

Written by: Christiane Schull
Directed by: Ron Oliver