John and Eugene tackle two more episodes of Logan’s Run.  This week we contemplate the nature of good and evil and look at another of the masterpieces from the pen of legendary writer Harlan Ellison.

Half Life Synopsis

Logan and the gang encounter electronic interference in their car and then get captured by a bunch of savages with nets.  It’s just another day on Logan’s Run.

The savages, called the Cast-outs, are just about to kill them if they weren’t such bad shots, but a group of people known as Positives rescue them and take them back to their city.

When asked if they were processed, our heroes try to bluff their way through by saying, “yes, of course,” but it doesn’t take the city dwellers long to discover that is a lie.

In their civilization, all people are put into a machine that splits them into good and evil copies.  The evil ones are “cast out,” and the good ones are the Positives who live in the city.

But they’re not perfectly good and evil, for the good feel the need to impose their will on others and kidnap Jessica and cleft her in twain, chucking evil Jessica out with the Cast-outs.

Rem and Logan escape, find their way to the Cast-outs, and find that, while rough around the edges, they aren’t all bad either – ‘cause that’s just “being human.”

They convince them to return to the city and become rejoined, if possible. Still, the Patron of the city sets a trap, which would be fatal if it weren’t for the Patron’s wife, Rama II, who is secretly a Negative who assumed the place of the dead Positive version of herself.

The two halves of Jessica are reunited successfully – although, honestly, you can barely tell.

When Rama II commits suicide, the Patron decides to rejoin everybody, without, of course, bothering to ask if that’s what everybody wants.

Logan and the gang leave, and Jessica is happy knowing she can be unhappy.

Crypt Synopsis

Rem and his pets arrive in a ruined city, still standing two centuries after the thermonuclear war.  The presence of the car causes an automated beacon to signal to them.

Investigating, they discover a pre-recorded message from the year 2120. 

The message tells them of a government facility deep below their current location.  A plague was killing everyone, and while their scientists searched for a cure, they selected the six best and brightest among them to be placed in cryogenic suspension, awaiting a cure.

The cure was found, and exactly enough was made for the six individuals below, but then the power went out, and they couldn’t get to them with the cure.  The message from the past exhorts whoever finds this message to take the cure to the sleepers below.

With a quick zippity-zip, Rem fixes the elevator, and away they go.  When they arrive at the intact facility below, they are suddenly shaken by what is apparently the first earthquake there in 200 years.  The ceiling begins to collapse, Logan and Jessica are injured, and one of the two vials of cure is destroyed.

Also, simultaneously, the earthquake triggers the reawakening sequence for the sleepers, who awake just in time for Logan to find them.

The six best and brightest left behind to save mankind are a doctor, an engineer, a robotics expert, a psychic, an attractive woman, and a professional administrator.

When told that there’s a cure but only enough for half of them, they decide that Logan and Jessica must decide which of them lives and dies, and, for no apparent reason, they reluctantly agree to this.  They hide the serum until they decide.  (Even though the psychic should easily ascertain where they hid it.)

This brave new world is to be denied the wonders of bureaucratic administration, though, as Lyman, the Administrator, is found dead.

That makes things a bit easier for making the decision, but the five remaining contestants make it clear that they do not want Rem to be part of the decision-making process – him being a machine and all.

While Logan and Jessica try to get to know the sleepers, Rem continues investigating.

It should be no surprise that each sleeper tries to make the case that they should be among those that are cured.  Most try making logical arguments, but Sylvia Reyna tries a different approach.  She’s young and hot, and she’d do anything for Logan.  Logan turns her down flat – he likes his women simple, like Jessica.

Later, Rem discovers the logs of the long-dead leader of the project.  Just before his death, he discovered that one of the sleepers is an imposter, although he didn’t bother to reveal which one it was.

That night, Rem reveals the truth.  Lyman was murdered and his death was staged to look like an accident.  Also, there is an imposter among you.

Apparently, none of the six met each other before being sent into suspension, and an imposter simply took the place of one of the chosen ones.

But which one is it?

There’s a power failure, and in the darkness, the world loses out on a future of advanced robotics because Victoria Mackie, the expert in robotics, is shot.

And then there were four.

Rem proceeds to uncover the imposter.

Could it be Dr. Rachel Greenhill?

“No,” says Jessica, “she put an ace bandage on my injured knee.  She’s a real doctor!”

Could it be engineer David Parra?

“No,” says David Parra, “I built this place.  Just ask me, and I can tell you where any nut or bolt is.”

OK, you must not be the imposter.

Could it be psychic Dexter Kim?

“No,” says Logan, “We saw him levitate an object earlier.  He’s a real psychic.”

Then it must be Sylvia Reyna!  And it is! 

She grabs the precious vial of serum that Logan stupidly left on the table and threatens to destroy it if she doesn’t get to live.  Logan overpowers her and takes back the serum.  He hands it to the others.

“Clean up your own mess!” and they leave.

Later, we see Sylvia – or whatever her real name is – being placed back into suspended animation.