History Recap / TheOuterLimits1963S1E20TheBelleroShield

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/outer_limits_bellero_shield_humans_enhanced.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Mrs. Dame, Judith and Richard behold the alien. Note the statue of Bellerophon behind them.]]

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[[caption-width-right:350:A color publicity still of the alien inside its shield.]]

* DoesNotLikeShoes: The perpetually barefoot Mrs. Dame. The episode has several lengthy closeups of her bare feet.
** FeetFirstIntroduction: How we first see her.

* OutDamnedSpot: Visually referenced in the last shot of the alien's glowing blood on Judith's palm.

* ImportedAlienPhlebotinum: Judith wants everyone to think that Richard created the alien shield so she can profit from it. Her scheme doesn't work out well for anyone, least of all herself.

[[caption-width-right:350:Mrs. Dame, Judith and Richard behold the alien.]]

* DownerEnding: By the end, two characters have been murdered, and the surviving three are all worse off than they were at the beginning. Judith has lost her mind to guilt, Richard's lost a wife to insanity, and Mrs. Dame has lost an employer who she was very close with.
** What's more, unless it happened off-screen while trying to get Judith out of the force field, Richard and his father never get the chance to reconcile proper.

When scientist Richard Bellero Jr. (Creator/MartinLandau) accidentally brings an alien (John Hoyt) to Earth, his wife Judith (Sally Kellerman) kills it and passes its shield off as her husband's invention, with disastrous consequences.

'''Judith:''' [[NotSoDifferent No more active than your own, just more vibrant.]]

* WhamLine: Judith gives one to Richard, confessing that she killed the kindly alien in cold blood. While [[DramaticIrony we know what happened]] (and wouldn't put it past her), Richard is shocked that his own wife would kill his alien friend.

!!The Bellero Tropes:

* OhCrap: When Judith realises she can't turn off the shield.

* CharacterDevelopment: Richard Bellero. He goes from submissively trying to get his father's approval to standing up to his father and calling him out on his treatment all these years.

* Myth/NorseMythology: Judith refers to Bifrost--"the Trembling Way, a bridge between earth and heaven''--as a prelude to the speech about her life goal of becoming more rich and powerful than she is already. She comes to regard the alien's shield as a literal Bifrost becuse it can help her realize her ambitions.

When scientist Ricahrd Bellero Jr. (Creator/MartinLandau) accidentally brings an alien (John Hoyt) to Earth, his wife Judith (Sally Kellerman) kills it and passes its shield off as her husband's invention, with disastrous consequences.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Senior gives one to Judith, whom he's never gotten along with. It doesn't get through to her.
-->'''Judith:''' [Richard] wants your love! ''I'' want your empire.\\

* WhamLine: Judith gives one to Richard, confessing that she killed the kindly Alien in cold blood. While [[DramaticIrony we know what happened]] (and wouldn't put it past her), Richard is shocked that his own wife would kill his alien friend.

---> '''Richard:''' Don't you tell me "it's hopeless"! That's all you've ever given me, words of hopelessness! Don't you ever run out of them? Do you have a perpetual supply of words in that tomb of yours?!

* WhamLine: Judith gives one to Richard, confessing that she killed the kindly Alien in cold blood. While [[DramaticIrony we know what happened]] (and wouldn't put it past her, Richard is shocked that his own wife would kill his alien friend.

--> '''Richard:''' Don't you tell me "it's hopeless"! That's all you've ever given me, words of hopelessness! Don't you ever run out of them? Do you have a perpetual supply of words in that tomb of yours?!"

* DownerEnding: By the end, two characters have been murdered, and the surviving three are all worse off than they were at the beginning. Judith has lost her mind to guilt, Richard's lost a wife to insanity, and Mrs. Dame has lost her employer.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: When Richard's father soberly mentions he's dying and needs her help to earn Richard's forgiveness before he passes, Judith doesn't seem particularly happy or smug at hearing that her hated in-law is dying. Even Mrs. Dame tells Judith that it would be more honorable to give her enemy peace.

* {{Forgiveness}}: Judith begs to be freed, either from her prison in the shield or her guilt of killing the Alien. While he can't grant the latter, Richard grants her his forgiveness.

* CallingOutTheOldMan: Richard has his breaking point when his father is about to call Judith's situation hopeless. He's heard such words his whole life and here is where he puts his foot down.

* DownerEnding: By the end, two characters have been murdered, and the surviving three are all worse off than they were at the beginning. Judith has lost her mind to guilt, Richard's lost a wife to insanity, and Mrs. Dame has someone she was [[UndyingLoyalty loyal]] to.

-->'''Judith:''' [Richard] wants your love! I want your empire.\\