History Recap / TheOuterLimits1995S4E17Lithia

However, their elder who is named Hera rules that they can't turn away someone in need. They therefore accept him into their enclave. Mercer is agreeable, and begins doing his part of the work. Pela, one of the woman, is especially opposed to his presence, but grudgingly accepts the ruling.

Mercer is put back into the cryogenic pod, despite his protests that he meant only to help. As they put him in, Hera tearfully says farewell and calls him Jason. Mercer is shocked, asking how she knew his first name, and we see the locket in her hand displays his photo. He was her fiancee, all of those many years ago.

* AintTooProudToBeg: The episode ends with Major Mercer begging ''very loudly'' not to be shoved into a cryo-tube. He gets louder when he finds out the one sentencing him to this knows his name because she's his fiancee, whom he thought was long dead.

* {{Gendercide}}: This took place in the past of the episode, where the few surviving men were {{human popsicle}}s. The thawed soldier protagonist proceeded to raise merry hell in the all-female society that sprang up. However as ham-fisted and ill-advised as the man's attempts to change it were, the new society was [[CrapsaccharineWorld utopian only in appearance]] (i.e. what with the leadership's rampant favoritism in resource allotment and Big Brother-esque control on the information flow). It ended with him being "put down" (refrozen) and the leadership declaring that trying to make men return was ill-advised, and that all efforts to do so would be ceased which is implied was the real reason they thawed him (and the others before him)- they wanted the least suitable test candidates in the most potentially disruptive situation possible to give themselves PlausibleDeniability why they stopped as well as "proof" that men were the cause of all of society's previous ills, most probably to maintain their power. [[CruelTwistEnding Just to twist the knife further]], the old woman who put him down was his ''fiancee'', several decades older, and thoroughly convinced of man's evils by a mix of propaganda, his own actions and probably a lifetime of accumulated resentment over numerous issues.

* {{Gendercide}}: This took place in the past of the episode, where the few surviving men were {{human popsicle}}s. The thawed soldier protagonist proceeded to raise merry hell in the all-female society that sprang up. However as ham-fisted and ill-advised as the man's attempts to change it were, the new society was [[CrapsaccharineWorld utopian only in appearance]] (i.e. what with the leadership's rampant favoritism in resource allotment and Big Brother-esque control on the information flow). It ended with him being "put down" (refrozen) and the leadership declaring that trying to make men return was ill-advised, and that all efforts to do so would be ceased which is implied was the real reason they thawed him (and the others before him)-they wanted the least suitable test candidates in the most potentially disruptive situation possible to give themselves PlausibleDeniability why they stopped as well as "proof" that men were the cause of all of society's previous ills, most probably to maintain their power. [[CruelTwistEnding Just to twist the knife further]], the old woman who put him down was his ''fiancee'', several decades older, and thoroughly convinced of man's evils by a mix of propaganda, his own actions and probably a lifetime of accumulated resentment over numerous issues.

Mercer is put back into the cryogenic pod, despite his protest that he meant only to help. As they put him in, Hera tearfully says farewell and calls him Jason. Mercer is shocked, asking how she knew his first name, and we see the locket in her hand displays his photo. He was her fiancee, all of those many years ago.

* {{Gendercide}}: This took place in the past of the episode, where the few surviving men were {{human popsicle}}s. The thawed soldier protagonist proceeded to raise merry hell in the all-female society that sprang up, However as ham-fisted and ill-advised as the man's attempts to change it were, the new society was [[CrapsaccharineWorld utopian only in appearance]] (i.e. what with the leadership's rampant favoritism in resource allotment and Big Brother-esque control on the information flow). It ended with him being "put down" (refrozen) and the leadership declaring that trying to make men return was ill-advised, and that all efforts to do so would be ceased which is implied was the real reason they thawed him (and the others before him)-they wanted the least suitable test candidates in the most potentially disruptive situation possible to give themselves PlausibleDeniability why they stopped as well as "proof" that men were the cause of all of society's previous ills, most probably to maintain their power. [[CruelTwistEnding Just to twist the knife further]], the old woman who put him down was his ''fiancee'', several decades older, and thoroughly convinced of man's evils by a mix of propaganda, his own actions and probably a lifetime of accumulated resentment over numerous issues.

* AintTooProudToBeg: The episode ends with Major Mercer begging ''very loudly'' not to be shoved into a cryo-tube. [[spoiler: He gets louder when he finds out the one sentencing him to this knows his name because she's his fiancee, whom he thought was long dead.]]

* {{Gendercide}}: This took place in the past of the episode, where the few surviving men were {{human popsicle}}s. The thawed soldier protagonist proceeded to raise merry hell in the all-female society that sprang up, However as ham-fisted and ill-advised as the man's attempts to change it were, the new society was [[CrapsaccharineWorld utopian only in appearance]] (i.e. what with the leadership's rampant favoritism in resource allotment and Big Brother-esque control on the information flow). It ended with him being "put down" (refrozen) and the leadership declaring that trying to make men return was ill-advised, and that all efforts to do so would be ceased [[spoiler:which is implied was the real reason they thawed him (and the others before him)-they wanted the least suitable test candidates in the most potentially disruptive situation possible to give themselves PlausibleDeniability why they stopped as well as "proof" that men were the cause of all of society's previous ills, most probably to maintain their power]]. [[CruelTwistEnding Just to twist the knife further]], [[spoiler:the old woman who put him down was his ''fiancee'', several decades older, and thoroughly convinced of man's evils by a mix of propaganda, his own actions and probably a lifetime of accumulated resentment over numerous issues]].

* HumanPopsicle: Mercer is a soldier who voluntarily was put in experimental cryostasis, where he was then kept for the next forty years. He wakes up to find himself the last man on Earth. [[spoiler: It turns out that other men were put in cryostasis too, and eleven others also released.]]
* INeverToldYouMyName: This is part of the DownerEnding. [[spoiler: Set in the post-apocalyptic commune of the title - entirely populated by females due to a plague having killed all but a few cryogenically frozen men - a defrosted male is put back into freeze after his aggressive tendencies cause tragedy, and the leader of the commune (who says "Goodbye, Jason" as he's frozen, even though he never... you know) is his lost love.]]
* LadyLand: The episode takes place in the year 2055, where the world is now populated only by women. Almost all of the men were [[{{Gendercide}} killed years earlier]] in a war, and the plot starts with a male soldier who's suddenly awakened from [[HumanPopsicle cryogenic suspension]]. He adjusts to the society, but is [[FishOutOfTemporalWater unsettled]] by the fact that power must be churned manually through a mill when there's a power plant a relatively short distance away. His attempts to "solve" this problem escalate until someone gets killed, at which point he's frozen again after we get the CruelTwistEnding--[[spoiler:he's not the only man in storage-the leaders of this society found several and tried reintroducing them to the population, with disastrous results every time.]]
* LastOfHisKind: Major Mercer appears to be the last man left on Earth. [[spoiler: Eleven others were unthawed too, and an unspecified number were left in cryostasis though.]]

* DoubleStandard: It's hard to imagine a comparable anti-female message being in mainstream media, at the time or since.

* {{Gendercide}}: This took place in the past of the episode, where the few surviving men were {{human popsicle}}s. The thawed soldier protagonist proceeded to raise merry hell in the all-female society that sprang up, but it was also prevented from being a heavy-handed misandrist TakeThat by the fact that, as ham-fisted and ill-advised as the man's attempts to change it were, the new society was [[CrapsaccharineWorld utopian only in appearance]] (i.e. what with the leadership's rampant favoritism in resource allotment and Big Brother-esque control on the information flow). It ended with him being "put down" (refrozen) and the leadership declaring that trying to make men return was ill-advised, and that all efforts to do so would be ceased [[spoiler:which is implied was the real reason they thawed him (and the others before him)-they wanted the least suitable test candidates in the most potentially disruptive situation possible to give themselves PlausibleDeniability why they stopped as well as "proof" that men were the cause of all of society's previous ills, most probably to maintain their power]]. [[CruelTwistEnding Just to twist the knife further]], [[spoiler:the old woman who put him down was his ''fiancee'', several decades older, and thoroughly convinced of man's evils by a mix of propaganda, his own actions and probably a lifetime of accumulated resentment over numerous issues]].

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Played to its horrific extreme in the episode. It opens with a male soldier, seemingly the SoleSurvivor of the male gender, entering an all-female village, without warning or fanfare, and collapsing from exposure to the elements. Note that just moments before his arrival, the girls' teacher was sharing stories with a room full of small children that could ''easily'' fit with the most radical of Taliban doctrine if the genders were reversed. After the entire episode shows just how badly things could go in that kind of environment, [[spoiler: the ending goes and shows that there are other men, all in cryostasis, and the narrator basically proclaims that humanity doesn't really need the male gender, aside from being a GlorifiedSpermDonor. Of course, if the other men mentioned were re-introduced into society like he was, it's a small wonder the attempts were horrific failures.]]

* OneGenderRace: In the episode, the world is now an all-female post-apocalyptic society in which almost all males were wiped off the planet due to war and a virus. They decide to not reintroduce the remaining men into the population because every time they took one out of stasis, it caused conflict in the society because the men pushed limits that the elders were not comfortable with, like building generators or stealing from other towns. Sucks to be male.

* WomenAreWiser: Played straight and to extremes in the episode. A male soldier awakens in the near future from cryogenic hibernation to find that men have been completely wiped out by war and that only women remain, creating an Amazonian society. The women live in relative peace and harmony with each other, but the male soldier proceeds to make trouble, including getting several women killed while trying to steal items from other villages. It turns out that every male that they have unthawed [[ARealManIsAKiller has caused similar problems for the villagers]], and that the women no longer trust the male sex, meaning Mercer will be returned to cryostasis. The episode ends with an equally ham-fisted moral from the narrator: ''"The differences between men and women have been debated among philosophers since recorded history began. If indeed males are by their nature the aggressor, it is this quality that may one day be their undoing."'' Apparently the problems that arose had nothing to do with him being a trained, futuristic soldier several decades out of place in a communist, extremely primitive village.

* CoitusEnsues: Major Mercer has sex with Miranda and then Ariel with no buildup. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] though as Mercer is the only man either has ever seen, and they're naturally fascinated. It's possibly implied too that in their society sexual mores are more relaxed.

* WorldWarThree: The Great War, which began in or before 2015, killed seven billion people (99% of the population).

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture

* AndManGrewProud: A variation occurs in the episode, as it takes place less than forty years AfterTheEnd and the accompanying myths have been deliberately created. The teacher Ariel, whose grandmother Hera remembers life before the Great War when men ruled the world, tells the children of the enclave that, in the aftermath of the war, the Goddess unleashed a plague known as the Scourge which killed all surviving males as punishment for their evil.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Played to its horrific extreme in the episode. It opens with a male soldier, seemingly the LoneSurvivor of the male gender, entering an all-female village, without warning or fanfare, and collapsing from exposure to the elements. Note that just moments before his arrival, the girls' teacher was sharing stories with a room full of small children that could ''easily'' fit with the most radical of Taliban doctrine if the genders were reversed. After the entire episode shows just how badly things could go in that kind of environment, [[spoiler: the ending goes and shows that there are other men, all in cryostasis, and the narrator basically proclaims that humanity doesn't really need the male gender, aside from being a GlorifiedSpermDonor. Of course, if the other men mentioned were re-introduced into society like he was, it's a small wonder the attempts were horrific failures.]]

* TokenMinority: Pelé is the only person of color in the episode, and the sole one among her community.

* AmbiguouslyBi: Miranda might be bi, since she's Pelé's lover but [[YourCheatingHeart later has sex with Mercer]], assuming that it isn't just {{sitch sexuality}} for her (we might guess that many women have such relationships, as there are no men). Given she's never even ''seen'' a man before, it's hard to say what her (or indeed anyone's) sexuality is for sure.

* {{Gendercide}}: This took place in the past of the episode, where the few surviving men were {{human popsicle}}s. The thawed soldier protagonist proceeded to raise merry hell in the all-female society that sprang up, but it was also prevented from being a heavy-handed misandrist TakeThat by the fact that, as ham-fisted and ill-advised as the man's attempts to change it were, the new society was utopian only in appearance (i.e. what with the leadership's rampant favoritism in resource allotment and Big Brother-esque control on the information flow). It ended with him being "put down" (refrozen) and the leadership declaring that trying to make men return was ill-advised, and that all efforts to do so would be ceased [[spoiler:which is implied was the real reason they thawed him (and the others before him)-they wanted the least suitable test candidates in the most potentially disruptive situation possible to give themselves plausible deniability why they stopped as well as "proof" that men were the cause of all of society's previous ills, most probably to maintain their power]]. [[CruelTwistEnding Just to twist the knife further]], [[spoiler:the old woman who put him down was his ''fiancee'', several decades older, and thoroughly convinced of man's evils by a mix of propaganda, his own actions and probably a lifetime of accumulated resentment over numerous issues]].

* AmbiguouslyBi: Miranda, presumably, since she's Pelé's lover but [[YourCheatingHeart later has sex with Mercer]], assuming that it isn't just {{sitch sexuality}} for her (we might guess that many women have such relationships, as there are no men). Given she's never even ''seen'' a man before, it's hard to say what her (or indeed anyone's) sexuality is for sure.

* BiTheWay: Miranda, presumably, since she's Pelé's lover but [[YourCheatingHeart later has sex with Mercer]], assuming that it isn't just {{sitch sexuality}} for her (we might guess that many women have such relationships, as there are no men).

However, their elder who is named Hera, rules that they can't turn away someone in need. They therefore accept him into their enclave. Mercer is agreeable, and begins doing his part of the work. Pela, one of the woman, is especially opposed to his presence, but grudgingly accepts the ruling.

Miranda, one of the women that was more open to Mercer, becomes interested in him, and the two have sex. Pelé, who is her lover, reacts with rage in private at discovering this, fingering her knife and seemingly wishing to kill Mercer for doing this. Hera relates to the girls that she once was engaged to a man, keeping a locket he gave her.

* WomenAreWiser: Played straight and to extremes in the episode. A male soldier awakens in the near future from cryogenic hibernation to find that men have been completely wiped out by war and that only women remain, creating an Amazonian society. The women live in relative peace and harmony with each other, but the male soldier proceeds to make trouble, including getting several women killed while trying to steal items from other villages. It turns out that every male that they have unthawed [[ARealManIsAKiller has caused similar problems for the villagers]], and that the women no longer trust the male sex, meaning Mercer will be returned to cryostasis. The episode ends with an equally ham-fisted moral from the narrator: ''"The differences between men and women have been debated among philosophers since recorded history began. If indeed males are by their nature the aggressor, it is this quality that may one day be their undoing."'' Apparently the problems that arose had nothing to do with him being a trained, futuristic soldier several decades out of place in a communist, extremely primitive village. Nope, it's all about his gonads!