is an episode of ''
The Outer Limits '' television show (new series). It was first aired on
28 February ,
1997 , during the third season.
"Those who seek to predict the future... might first look to the past. The past is a mirror -- and those who ignore its sometimes dark reflection, are doomed to repeat it."
It is set in the north-west Pacific town of "Heart's Desire" sometime in the late 1800s. In the episode, a visitor from another world takes over the body of a human preacher. He gives four outlaws a special energy power, which they can use to destroy anything they wish as long as they "want it more than anything else."
The first outlaws to be given these powers are two brothers, Jake and Ben Miller. Jake wants to use them to rob people. Later in the episode, the visitor gives the powers to two friends, Frank and JD Kelton who use them to rival the brothers.
Several people are attacked by these four, each of whom is killed. After this, the visitor explains his reason for coming to earth, and giving them this power, to a woman who witnessed the violence.
She asked him, "All of these people, dead, for what?"
He then shows her that he is an alien, and tells her that he is scouting ahead to see if humans will ever be able to rival his civilization.
"The fate of a world isn't determined by its best examples, but by its worst. It takes a few to destroy the many, especially when even the best of you can be dragged down into the mire. Judging from your example, brother against brother, friend against friend, you people have such a potential for violence, sheer and varnished wickedness, I've got every confidence you'll destroy yourself before you build your first inter-stellar engine. We've got nothing to fear from you."
He then disappears.
"Will it be those seeking redemption who shall decide the future... or will those driven only by greed and envy shape our destiny? Even a hundred years later, the outcome is still very much in doubt."
