War of the Worlds/So Shall Ye Reap

So Shall Ye Reap
Season 1, Episode 22
Airdate	May 1, 1989
Written by	Michael McCormack
Directed by	George Bloomfield
← 1x21 My Soul to Keep	1x23 → The Raising of Lazarus
War of the Worlds — Season One

So Shall Ye Reap is the twenty-second episode of the first season of War of the Worlds.

Jared Martin (Harrison Blackwood), Lynda Mason Green (Suzanne McCullough), Philip Akin (Norton Drake)

and Richard Chaves (Colonel Ironhorse)

Special Guest Stars: Jill Jacobson (Envoy), Dixie Seatle (Teri Novak), Jonathan Welsh (Jack Sawyer), Angelo Rizacos (Scientist)

Also Starring: Isabelle Mejias (Sherry), Carolyn Scott (Other Woman), Peter MacNeill (Director), Shelley-Lynn Owens (Streetwalker), Andrew Scorer (Alien Driver), Ilse Von Glatz (Advocate #1), Ric Sarabia (Advocate #2), Frank Pelligrino (Advocate #3)

Featuring: Charlene Richards (Megan), Charles Gray (Businessman), Allen Kosonic (Cop #1), Phil Jarrett (Cop #2), Reg Dreger (Sergeant), Gene Mack (Bartender), Vince Guerriero (Nasty Alien), Myron Senkus (Man), Benson Simmonds (Busboy), Charles Hayter (Bum), John Grima (Coroner)

Plot Overview

The Blackwood Project pose as DEA agents so they can infiltrate a Chicago police precinct when a string of bodies turn up in the city carrying a trace amount of radiation. These bodies are the result of trial-and-error experiments by the aliens to perfect a drug they hope can turn its users into violent killers.

Notes

Teaser Quote

"I'll do anything you want. Just give me more!"

Base Three

• Three operatives are in charge of gathering humans test subjects.

• The aliens seems to be gathering humans three at a time.

• The operation has been leaving behind dead bodies in the past three weeks.

The Number 23

• Jack's suite is on the 23rd floor

Locations

• Chicago, Illinois

Timeline

• Harrison tells Novak that the aliens revived "almost a year ago."

Trivia

The Show

• Even though they do not appear onscreen together here, Dixie Seatle and Jonathan Welsh were both stars of the show Adderly.

• Nudity is successfully slipped by the censors. During the teaser, the test subject is being shown the same images on a loop. When it speeds up, a new image is inserted, that being of a woman's bare breasts.

Behind the Scenes

• As of the filming of this episode, guest star Jill Jacobson was married to creator/executive producer Greg Strangis.

Allusions and References

• Upon finding out about the aliens, Novak comments that "not a one of them a little E.T." This is obviously based on the cute image of aliens from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, directed by Steven Spielberg who, incidentally, would later go on to depict malevolent aliens in the updated film adaptation of The War of the Worlds novel in 2005.

Memorable Moments

• Jack Sawyer, under the influence of the drug, coldly grab the streetwalker's head and near twists it off, breaking her neck.

• Everyone arrives in the prison, only to be greeted the ugly image of now drug-addled humans, lapping up all of the drug they can like zombies.

Goofs

• When the test subject in the teaser bleeds out his eyes, the blood is actually coming from the eye-frames of the device on his head.

• When Sherry and the other woman render Jack Sawyer unconscious, they are initially holding him up in front of them by his arms. But when it cuts to the next shot, he's between them with his arms draped over their shoulders.

• When the alien scientist electrocutes one of the test subjects with the remote, he can be heard talking, but his mouth is clearly not moving.

• When the one escaped test subject injects the drug into his ear, his left hand disappears from his ear. The other hand also changes position between shots.

• When the Envoy is being cornered by the escaped subjects, her left hand is close up in order to talk through the radio device, but in the next shot, it's inexplicably down to her side.

Quotes

• Harrison: What was that?

Suzanne: Norton's new toy for detecting listening devices.

Harrison: Do you really think they're going to waste their time bugging us?

Norton: Oh, it's the Boy Scout in me.

Harrison: Speaking of Boy Scouts...

Ironhorse: (walking into the room) Excuse me?

Harrison: It's not you, Colonel; it's the system.

• Director: Envoy, if I return to the caverns now, the Advocacy will execute me.

Envoy: Don't be so pessimistic, comrade. Perhaps they'll take pity on your miserable existence. Your feeble pleas may move them so much, you might be permitted the honour of taking your own life.

• Suzanne: Norton and I really can't do much more until we have free access to their complete lab workout.

Harrison: Unless...

Norton: Ah, the tone of voice, the incomplete sentence, the deep hidden meaning we've all been waiting for.

Harrison: Do you realise, oh, insightful one, that less enlightened individuals consider unauthorised access to police data banks highly unethical?

Ironhorse: Some might even consider it illegal.

Suzanne: Oh, and rude.

Norton: Oh, stop already. You've convinced me.

• Envoy: The humans freely choose pain.

Scientist: For drugs, they'll do anything.

• Suzanne: (looking over dead body) He must've seen something pretty awful before he went.

Coroner: Maybe we all do.

• Harrison: (to Novak) You don't look like somebody who asks questions unless they already know the answers.

• Novak: You know, you could've saved us all a whole lot of trouble if you had just told me from the start you were an anti-terrorist team.

Harrison: Well, we didn't think you'd believe us.

Novak: It is a pretty crazy story; wild-eyed story terrorists plotting to flood the city with some exotic drug.

Ironhorse: Any crazier than Iraqi soldiers bombing their their own people with poison gas?

Novak: Touche, Colonel.

• Envoy: Your poorly conceived field test has caused a serious problem. No wonder you scientists have been relegated to a lower class.