At the Outer Limits

11.14.24

I hope people still remember THE OUTER LIMITS, that great science fiction thriller series with its mesmerizing opening.  “We control the horizontal, we control the vertical.”  

But today’s episodes take place at the limits of New York City in two different ways. They’re in liminal spaces, transitional spaces. And that’s always an amazing arena for exploring the unknown.

I think of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s incredible story “Wakefield,” in which he tells of a man who walks out of his house and to some level, out of civilization:

“Amid the seeming confusion of our mysterious world, individuals are so nicely adjusted to a system, and systems to one another and to a whole, that, by stepping aside for a moment, a man exposes himself to a fearful risk of losing his place forever.”

Episode 308 is set on Mau Mau Island, originally known as White Island – an empty niche of NYC which most people have never even heard of.  (Have you? Write to us through the link on this site and let us know!)

New York City has many islands in its makeup beyond the famous ones like Ellis and Ryker’s and Liberty.  We also make a mention this season of North Brother Island, for example. 

What happens in a space where no one ventures? If an agent of the Night Brigade falls on an island and no one hears it, does he still make a sound?

And then in Ep 309, we visit JFK Airport.  It’s a liminal space in a different way, a place where you leave the planet and let slip the surly bonds of earth.  This isn’t the first eerie episode about air travel that Agent Stoker has faced (remembering Ep 202, “Thanatology”), but like that episode, it’s tied to whether his heart can ever take wings.

What’s tying together all these locations in the Big Apple?  What plot could be pulling Agent Stoker to corners of the city that range from the intimate to the distant, from the populous to the barren?  Will he figure it out in time?  Will you?