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Television

The Visitor

"Going Home"
First aired:
December 5, 1997

A man walks down a hallway and enters a room. There are people in it. He sits down in the center of the room, facing a panel of questioners, sitting behind a table, and with his back to the observers. The questioners want to determine if he, Joe York, is fit to reenter society, after 8 years of psychiatric care. Joe tells them that his flashbacks have been eliminated, and he no longer believes that his wife's disappearance was due to an alien abduction.

Joe is released. Joe's wife's sister objects, however. She believes that Joe murdered his missing wife. It is Thanksgiving day. He steps into a cab, waiting out in front, and asks the cabbie, "take me as far away from here as possible." The cabbie, a man called Adam MacArthur, replies, "that's why I'm here."

The cab drives off, and Adam tells Joe that his shift is almost over, and he's like to buy Joe lunch. They get lunch in a diner, where they swap favorite Thanksgiving stories. Joe says his favorite was the only Thanksgiving he had shared with his wife, Betty. They went to the arboretum, since it was Betty's favorite place. Adam asks to hear more about Betty. Joe doesn't want to, because that was also the day she was abducted. Then Adam tells Joe that Betty had something very important to tell Joe that day. Joe lets Adam touch him, and Adam helps Joe remember precisely what happened during the abduction. Joe can't handle it, so he runs from the diner, and stops in the middle of a crossroads.

Adam follows him out, and tells him he knows what really happened that day, because he was abducted, too, and he'd seen Betty. Joe is still freaked out, and exclaims, "I don't know what to do!" Adam convinces Joe to come with him, so he can see more.

Meanwhile, FBI Assistant Director Grushaw tells off General Montgraf, for his subordinate, Vise's behavior at Ricanto Federal Prison, where he was caught on video, murdering a suspect. One Michael O'Ryan. He demanded that the NSA turn over the body. General Montgraf reminds Grushaw of his agent Van Patten's behavior: he allowed MacArthur to escape. Grushaw responded that Van Patten has been reassigned (to desk duty) while the matter is investigated.

Montgraf enters the autopsy room, where Vise and O'Ryan's body are. Grushaw is not permitted to enter, so he leaves. Montgraf tells Vise that he'd better be right, about O'Ryan really being an alien, or the Agency will be more than happy to hang him out to dry. Vise tells him to rest assured, the autopsy will prove it. Then he tells him that he's made contacts with Russian scientists, since they've had more recent experience with alien autopsies. Montgraf tells him that it's Vise's call on the matter.

Adam takes Joe back to the arboretum, where the abduction occurred. And asks him if he's ready to see more. Joe agrees, so Adam places his hand on Joe's head. Joe sees Betty. She is telling Adam to let Joe know that she loves and misses him, if they ever meet. Then she reveals that Joe has a son. Joe is happy, for probably the first time in eight years. Adam tells Joe that it is possible for him to go and be with them. Joe marvels that the "aliens ate my sister" stories are actually true. Adam replies that, "it's like believing in God, Joe. For most people that's blind faith. You've been chosen to see."

Joe asks why people were abducted. Adam tells him that they wanted to see if they could unlock the potential of the human mind, but stopped abducting and experimenting, when they determined that Humanity was on a course toward self-destruction. He said that the aliens were just waiting for it to happen. But, a group of abductees, including Betty helped him to escape, so that he could try to change Humanity's fate. But, Michael O'Ryan came back, too, to try to stop him. Adam told Joe that O'Ryan had been shot to death, and that's why Joe could join his family: Joe and O'Ryan's body would return to the colony, so that there would be no trace that O'Ryan had ever been to Earth.

Vise meets with his Russian contact at a fish dock. Van Patten is still at his desk, as the others leave for the night. Joe walks in and goes up to Van Patten and says, "I just saw this guy", and points to Adams picture on the FBI's 10 most wanted poster. Joe told him that the man was in the Deuce Bar, at the moment. Van Patten locks the door, and tells Joe to come with him, as he quickly leaves for the bar.

After they leave, Adam breaks into the office, and finds the tracking device that they took from him at the prison. Joe loses Van Patten and picks Adam up. They use the device to find O'Ryan's body. Later, Van Patten and the other agents return to find a mess and no device.

Joe and Adam arrive at the fish dock. They sneak into the cold storage, and find O'Ryan's body on ice, inside a large crate. Adam calls Van Patten on the phone and tells him that they have 20 minutes to get to the fish dock, before Vise started an autopsy on O'Ryan's body. The other agents go, but they must leave Van Patten behind.

Vise and the general, dressed in civilian clothing, bring their goons and go to get O'Ryan's crate. Joe and Adam hear them, and go hide. Vise has his men move the crate to a waiting Russian boat, which is sailing under a Canadian flag. The FBI agents arrive, and Wilcox puts his gun on Vise and demands that he open the crate. Vise replies, after some initial stalling, "O.K., welcome to my nightmare. Open the crate." The men open it to find a large tuna inside!

Meanwhile, a fish delivery truck makes it's escape. As Adam drives the purloined truck, he confesses to Joe, that only one body can return to the colony. And, he must put Joe's consciousness into O'Ryan's body. Joe tells him off. He asks what the point is in going, if he's not himself. Adam explains that he would be himself in every way that counts. And If O'Ryan's body doesn't return, then nothing else will matter. Joe can't handle it, so he runs off, as they pass the arboretum, again.

Adam decides that he must live in O'Ryan's body, himself, in order to protect Earth from the possibility that the aliens would find out about Adam's intervention (thereby interfering with the natural course of history, in their view), and actively destoy humanity, like O'Ryan had claimed would happen. So he prepares for this, by healing the bullet wounds in O'Ryan's chest, with his herbal concoction and his own life force. He writes [1.29 MB!] letters to his granddaughter Charlie, and son Jason, explaining that if they are faced with news of his death, it's really just his body. He writes that he will not be able to return to Earth in their lifetime.

Night falls, and he makes a circle of fire around the body, and the place for his own to go. He lights another fire in the center of the circle, and draws energy from the central blaze. Adam puts some of his herbal potion on his hand, and then places the hand on his bare chest, over his heart. It glows, and Adam screams in pain. Right then, Joe arrives and calls out, "wait!" Adam wants to know what Joe is doing there. Joe explains that Adam has taken away many of his fears, and made him believe in himself, again. And, he wants to go through with it.

Vise returns to Mill Lake, the site of the dome-shaped force field. He is very concerned that they find a way in, immediately. Van Patten is meeting the other FBI agents there, as well. Van Patten is talking with his partners on his cell phone, as he takes a back way in, avoiding the NSA check point. Suddenly, the front end of Van Patten's car is smashed in, and his airbag deploys.

Joe puts the potion on his own bared chest and cries out. Adam encourages him to be brave, and instructs him to light the leaves on fire. He does, and his breathing becomes labored. Adam helps him lay down in the right spot, opposite O'Ryan. Sparks fly from the circle of fire, and gather together and their energy enters Joe York's body. Then his own energy leaves his body, and in an arch of fire, enters the body of Michael O'Ryan. Joe, now in O'Ryan's former body, opens his eyes and struggles to fill his lungs with air. He coughs and breathes like he'd been drowning!

Van Patten calls his buddies back. He is yelling into the cellphone, "my car is totalled, and I'm in the middle of the goddamn woods!" It seems that his car had run into a wall that wasn't there.

Meanwhile, Joe and Adam arrive at the edge of the forcefield. Adam finds the lock, and uses the key he took from O'Ryan's body, to disable the forcefield. Adam gives Joe the key to the spacecraft. He and Joe run to the lake.

Adam and Joe arrive at the lake, as Vise discovers that the forcefield is down. "Get to the lake!" Vise commands. Adam tells Joe to use the key to raise the craft from the bottom. It rises into the air, and hovers over the lakeside. Joe and Adam say thank you to each other. Then, Adam says, "step into the light, Joe." Joe takes some tentative steps forward, and is drawn up, into the craft. The spacecraft rises into the air. When the Vise, General Montgraf and the soldiers see the craft rising up, and flying off, they all look upward, agape. Adam escapes.

Adam returns to the circle of fire, where he cremates Joe York's former body, along with his letters. As they burn, he looks upward, into the night sky, as well.