- The Control Voice: Events in our past seem to slip further away with time. But what happens when they circle back and meet us head on... in the present?
Frank and Carol Martin anxiously wait for their son Danny to visit from college, where Danny will introduce his girlfriend Jade. When the couple arrives, Frank is shocked because Jade looks exactly like a girl he had once loved over 20 years ago.
In a flashback, Frank was a Vietnam veteran who came home from the war traumatized. He became estranged from Carol and eventually got a job as a security guard at a military lab. Inside the lab was a woman who was strapped to a table repeatedly being cut open and screaming in pain. Horrified, he tried to rescue her. The lead scientist, Dr. Lawrence Sinclair, intercepted their escape attempt and claimed the woman isn't human, and their research on her will achieve miracles. Frank declared him a madman and fought him. Sinclair accidentally shot an oxygen tank that blew up the building. Frank and the woman barely escaped and assumed everyone else was killed. The woman introduced herself as Laura. While on the run, the two shared a romantic and sexual relationship. Eventually, the two went their separate ways, then Frank reconciled with Carol and had Danny.
As the family has dinner, Frank is incredibly nervous and can't stop staring at Jade. He speaks with her in private and voices his theory that she is his and Laura's daughter, and warns her this would make her Danny's half-sister. She corrects him because she is Laura. She was born in the Middle Ages and as a teenager, her village was wiped out by the Black Death. She discovered that not only had she survived, she stopped aging, she's immune to disease, and she rapidly heals from injuries. When Frank is skeptical, she pulls a textbook from his own shelf and shows him a portrait with her likeness on it that dates back to the 18th century (Mrs Richard Brinsley Sheridan by Thomas Gainsborough). She sadly admits that through the centuries, she's had many, many lovers, and she's tired of having to leave them behind before they discover her secret. She truly loves Danny and doesn't want to go through this again.
Sinclair has survived the lab explosion, and though he's elderly and scarred, he's still hellbent on recovering his test subject. His assistant has managed to track Jade down and gives him the Martin's address. Sinclair thanks him, then kills him because he has outlived his usefulness and so he doesn't have to share the spoils with him. As he drives to the Martin residence, he admires a cage full of lab mice and listens to old tape recordings of his experiments on Laura.
When the family goes to bed, Frank meets Jade again and says he'll believe her story if she proves she has the same birthmark Laura had. She lifts her shirt to show him the birthmark on her chest. Unfortunately, Danny walks in on them. Enraged, he punches his father in the face and yells at them for their supposed infidelity. Carol wakes up and Frank and Jade desperately try to explain it is not what they think. Frank pours his heart out to Carol, which softens her a bit, but for now, the two couples sleep apart.
Sinclair breaks into the house and hits Danny over the head before taking him hostage with a gun. With this threat, he rounds up the others. He ties up Danny and Carol and forces Frank to tie up Jade. Sinclair boasts that he's known for over 20 years about Jade's healing powers. While she was a prisoner, he injected a drop of her blood into each of his lab mice, and they are still alive and healthy (mice normally live for about 3 years). Now, he wants her blood, as he believes a larger dosage will make him immortal. He hands Frank a syringe and orders him to draw her blood. He refuses, even with him and his family threatened, but Jade calmly says it is okay and to do what he wants.
After Frank draws the blood, Sinclair grabs it and injects it into himself without hesitation. His body is wracked with convulsions and he drops his gun which Frank picks up, but Sinclair says he is too late as he reverts to a young man. He laughs and says he is invincible, but then his body continues to get younger, until he's reduced to a puddle of raw cells. Frank unties everyone. Carol admits Jade is different, but Danny is horrified and calls her a freak. Hurt, she leaves the room. Frank angrily lectures Danny that no matter what Jade is, she is a woman who deserves some happiness.
The next morning, Jade calls a taxi. As Frank and Carol wonder what will happen to her, Danny suddenly stops her from leaving and kisses her. Pleased, Frank and Carol decide everything will be all right and start kissing as well.
- The Control Voice: Before we allow ourselves to be consumed by our regrets, we should remember the mistakes we make in life are not so important as the lessons we draw from them.
Last Tropes:
- Been There, Shaped History: Jade has spent centuries taking lovers and turning them into great leaders or notable figures with her guidance and plans to do the same with Frank's son. She presents a painting with her as the model from the 17th century as proof of her immortality.
- The Black Death: Jade discovered that she was immortal at 20 years old when everyone else in her village in Spain died of the Black Death and she survived.
- Body Horror: Sinclair's regression is not a pretty sight, with body parts distorting and Tainted Veins erupting on his skin.
- Byronic Hero: Frank is one of these even down to the gritty black and white noir background. Despite being well-meaning, he's a traumatized Vietnam War veteran with a strained relationship with his wife and cheats on her with Laura, a random woman he rescued from a government lab. He keeps this a secret from her for 20 years which becomes harmful when the same returns and he believes her to be his daughter.
- Color-Coded Eyes: The immortal Laura/Jade's eyes are shown to be a very striking jade-green to signify that there's something unnatural about her.
- Damsel in Distress: Laura/Jade when she's being tortured/experimented on in a military lab until Frank rescues her there from it.
- Death by De-aging: The ultimate fate of Dr. Sinclair, due to underestimating Laura's immortality.
- Dying Vocal Change: Dr. Sinclair's regression extends to his voice, meaning that his last words are reduced to infantile screams as his increasingly-fetal body collapses in on itself.
- Flashback Effects: The flashbacks are shown in black and white.
- Healing Factor: An immortal woman who goes by the names "Laura" and "Jade" reveals that she was actually born in medieval Spain before her village was ravaged by the Black Death. She was the only one to survive, but hasn't aged or gotten sick since, and all her wounds recover soon enough. A government scientist takes samples of her blood to replicate the effect, but vastly underestimates its potency when he injects himself with it and de-ages into a puddle of cells.
- Identical Grandson: Frank is initially convinced that Jade must be Laura's daughter, since they look exactly alike. It turns out that she is Laura though.
- I'm Melting!: The ultimate fate of Dr. Sinclair; after regressing into a fetus, his body liquefies, leaving him as a puddle of cells on the floor.
- Immortality Begins at Twenty: Laura/Jade is an immortal woman who actually stopped aging at twenty. She explains that she was the last survivor of the Black Death sweeping through her village as a late teenager when she found out that she had a Healing Factor.
- Karmic Death: A Mad Scientist tortures immortal woman Laura/Jade while trying to figure out the secret to her immortality and eternal youth. Eventually, he injects himself with a syringe of her blood. It makes him younger... and younger... and younger until he's reduced to a puddle of raw cells.
- Love Father, Love Son: The immortal Laura/Jade falls in love with the soldier who saved her from government experiments, and 20 years later his then-adult son because he reminded her of his father. He eventually supports their relationship.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Lawrence Sinclair is pursuing the immortal Laura/Jane (who he previously tortured as part of a secret military experiment) to obtain more blood from her, believing it can make him immortal too.
- Mayfly–December Romance: Laura/Jade, an immortal 20-something woman who was born in The High Middle Ages, has Rescue Sex with the man who saved her from being experimented on. She unexpectedly returns 20 years later when she's involved with the man's son, forcing her to explain her condition.
- Merlin Sickness: In the episode, a scientist is tracking down an immortal woman (Laura/Jade) so that he could use her blood to reverse his aging. When he finally caught up with her, he vastly overestimated the required dosage, and ended up a damp stain on the rug.
- Not What It Looks Like: Immortal Jade lifts her shirt to show Frank her birthmark. Unfortunately, her boyfriend (Frank's son) walks in on them and takes it the wrong way.
- Phlebotinum Overdose: A scientist pursues an immortal woman to unlock the secret of eternal life. He injected a tiny bit of her blood into mice, which were still alive decades later. As his age had caught up with him, he decided to attempt the same on himself. He drew a little too much blood, however, causing him to de-age into a pre-fetal puddle of human tissue.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: Frank gives his son grief for calling Jade a freak after finding out she's an immortal whose been screwing around and walking the Earth since the Black Plague, saying she's a good person who deserves happiness for as long as his son can give it. Frank's son then changes his mind and returns to Jade to continue their relationship, with Frank and his wife Carol's approval. Frank completely ignores the fact his 20 year old son is clearly traumatized by the fact the same immortal woman had a love affair with his father, literally just viewed a man being de-aged into a pile of cells after injecting himself with Jade's superhuman blood implying a whole level of Body Horror from her blood alone, and ignoring the horrible ramifications of a Mayfly–December Romance that being with Jade entails.
The episode tries to make Frank look righteous for bashing his son for not wanting to stay hooked up with a woman that will most likely outlive and leave him like the rest of her various lovers. - Really 700 Years Old: Laura/Jade reveals that she was born in the 1300s-1400s during the era of the Black Plague, despite appearing to be about 30 at most.
- Shapeshifting Sound: Sinclair's grisly Death by De-aging is accompanied by a gruesome series of crunching sounds, alongside Sinclair's increasingly youthful screams.
- Strapped to an Operating Table: Frank Martin's flashbacks show Jade strapped to an operating table being experimented upon and tortured by Dr. Lawrence Sinclair to test the extent of her Healing Factor.
- Superhuman Transfusion: Dr. Sinclair is pursuing Laura/Jade so he can collect her unique blood and inject it into himself to both heal his own wounds and reverse his aging. He does manage to get hold of it but miscalculates the stuff's potency, eventually shriveling up into a pool of cells.
- Surprise Incest: Frank worries that Jade is his daughter, since he had sex with Laura, who he's sure has to be her mother due to their resemblance, around the time she would have been conceived. She's in a relationship with his son from another woman, so he's afraid the trope is in play. However, it turns out that Laura and Jade are really the same woman.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: An immortal could not hide nearly as well in modern society, especially when she has to register as a citizen in a country with advanced identification technology. Jade has filed herself as a citizen too many times under different names with the same face, which allowed the FBI to find her records and catch her, and it's implied she has to keep moving with a different name to avoid being found and caught again. She gets found out easily by Dr. Sinclair when she appears on television which only happened because she chose to get romantically involved with a highly televised football player despite wanting to stay hidden from authorities.
- They Would Cut You Up: Laura/Jade, an immortal woman, finds this out the hard way when she's discovered by the US government and experimented on. Thankfully, she's rescued by a military guard who can't stand to see it happen, but the scientist who conducted the experiment finds out years later she's still alive and wants to finish his work as he's convinced her blood will make him immortal too...
- Undead Tax Exemption: Averted. Laura/Jade was caught by the FBI when they found multiple false identities she used to conceal herself.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Laura/Jade doesn't age, is immune to all diseases and poisons, and also has an incredible Healing Factor. She grows tired of the endless cycle of having to leave her lovers behind after they find out she's immortal. When her boyfriend learns her secret, he's repulsed, until his father (one of her past lovers) lectures him on how she is a good person who deserves happiness, so stay and love her as long as possible.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Dr. Sinclair is hunting Laura/Jade, the immortal woman whom he wants to experiment on. When his assistant manages to find her, the scientist stabs him in the chest.
