"Return"

Episode 308
(aired the week of 11/15/1998)
Case # 96-5789

Log line: The O.S.I.R. team must try to save a colleague's wife when she is thought to be possessed by a spirit.

Synopsis: Hendricks has spent the day at the OSIR lab, working on a secret project for Elsinger. When he returns home, he is greeted by his wife, Catherine, who has recently returned from a mysterious apportation device called the Arch, into which she vanished 12 years ago. Initially ecstatic about his wife's return, Hendricks has become increasingly suspicious that all is not what it seems. Specifically, the failure of his wife to remember anything about their deceased daughter, Nicole, has convinced him that she is not the Catherine he knew. He suspects she is an "Old One," one of the restless spirits that he encountered while he was in the Arch looking for Catherine and Nicole.

Davison joins Hendricks and his wife for dinner. Hendricks reveals his suspicions about Catherine to his colleague, who suggests that the woman's memory loss may be caused by Alzheimer's rather than a possessing spirit. At Hendricks' request, Davison has a private conversation with Catherine but finds no indication that she is possessed.

The next night, Hendricks races into the OSIR research facility, pursued by Davison. Before she can enter, Hendricks extracts a vial from the lab's display cabinet and releases a virus into the lab, setting off an automatic security system that seals the entrance. He feverishly begins working on Elsinger's secret project - contained in a coffin-sized chamber. Praeger and Axon arrive but can't convince Hendricks to tell them what he's doing. Meanwhile, Davison has determined that Hendricks has released the deadly ebola virus into the lab.

Axon devises a way to gain short-term access to the lab by convincing the computer-operated security system that the virus is not dangerous. Accompanied by Donner, Praeger and Davison rush into the room. While Donner whisks Hendricks out the door, they hurry to the chamber containing the secret project. Praeger frantically scrapes away the frost that covers the chamber window, then turns away, horrified. It is Catherine. She is dead, sealed inside the chamber and cryonically frozen. Suddenly, the lab door automatically locks again, this time trapping Praeger and Davison.

Hendricks informs Donner that Praeger and Davison are in no danger: The virus is inactive, released by him only to keep the others out of the lab. He also admits killing his wife. Earlier that day, he had confronted the spirit within Catherine, verbally renouncing the "old one" and causing his wife to experience some sort of seizure. He took her to the lab and put her in the cryonics chamber on the slim chance that he might be able to revive her. He provides his research notes for Donner to forward to Davison.

Back at the research lab, Davison and Praeger desperately try to save Catherine - and, in the process, stop their friend from facing murder charges. It remains to be seen whether, with the help of Hendricks' notes, they can successfully revive Catherine and, if so, whether Hendricks can ever accept her as the "real" Catherine.

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:
Catherine Blythe - Catherine Hendricks

Written by: James Nadler
Directed by: Bruce Pittman