Sphere

Beth and Norman argue over what to do about Harry. Beth argues they should kill him, but Norman tells her that all they need to do is put him to sleep. They search the first aid cabinet and the computer program that tells them about each medication, and they finally find an anesthetic they believe will work. Norman takes a syringe of the medication to the dorms but finds two female Navy crewmen standing guard outside the dorm room. They won’t allow Harry into the dorm. Norman returns to Beth. They discuss using the spear guns, but discover that the guns are gone. In addition, Norman notices that Beth looks more attractive, but she points out that he looks less attractive. Beth suggests that they put on dive suits and reduce the life support enough to cause Norman to fall unconscious. They’re in the process of doing so when the peripheral alarms begin to sound.

The monitors show the message, “I am coming.” Harry joins Beth and Norman. Beth yells at Harry to stop, but he doesn’t understand. Norman tells him that he’s manifesting the squid even as it begins to attack the habitat. Harry doesn’t believe him. Norman frantically looks for the syringe of anesthetic, but Beth finds it first. She injects Harry’s shoulder, and he quickly falls unconscious. The squid disappears, and the damage appears minimal.

After placing an intravenous drip to administer continuous anesthetic to Harry, Beth goes to the sub to reset the timer. Norman contemplates all that has happened and is distracted when Beth suddenly moves the sub. He demands to know what she’s doing, but she says it’s a surprise. He sees that Beth is using the sub to drop red boxes around the spacecraft and DH-8. Norman can see writing on one of the boxes that says explosives. When Beth is done, she docks the sub back behind DH-7.

Norman tells Beth that it’s dangerous to have the explosives so close to them. She says it’s a cautionary move in case something comes out of the sphere. She tells him that the explosives aren’t wired and that she needs to do that by hand. Then she tells him she’s going to take a nap. She invites him along, but he refuses. Again, he notes that she looks more beautiful than before. She asks him to get her a new jumpsuit. When he returns, he finds her naked under a collection of sunlamps. Norman doesn’t remember the sunlamps and feels as though the staircase leading to the room wasn’t there before either. He looks up the specs on DH-8 and finds everything he sees in the architectural drawings. Norman feels unsettled, hungry, and tired. He lies on the floor to sleep.

Norman wakes in fright, afraid they’re being attacked again, but Beth assures him that they aren’t. She asks whether he figured out how to send up a balloon to check the surface weather. Norman has no memory of this conversation with Beth. They work together to figure out how to send a balloon up. When they finally get readings, they learn that the storm has passed. While Norman checks Harry, Beth tries to determine how to use the sonar. Norman argues that it isn’t necessary because Harry is unconscious, but Beth says she wants to be prepared for any contingency.

Beth goes out to wire up the explosives even though Norman argues against it. She promises not to wire up the ones closest to DH-8. While she’s outside, messages begin coming from Jerry. He says he’s coming but they shouldn’t be afraid. Norman warns Beth, but she argues that it can’t be the squid because Harry is asleep. Norman can’t see anything, but Beth begins returning to the habitat anyway. She claims that she feels something in the water. Her movements are quick at first but grow slower. Something begins to churn in the water behind her. Beth complains of being cold. When she’s nearly at the hatch, she stumbles and falls. Norman jumps into the water without his dive suit to grab her. He quickly weakens due to the cold but manages to pull her from the water. He wakes, warm, just inside the hatch. A sea snake is crawling over him. Then he realizes that many snakes are on him. Beth comes and quickly tosses them out the hatch.

Norman moves to the lab, where Beth warms him with space heaters and gives him glucose water to help with dehydration. Norman looks out the portal and realizes that Beth armed the explosive charges around DH-8. When he asks why, she tells him that she believes Norman is manifesting the creature that chased her in the water.

Beth explains that she believes Norman is one manifesting the danger because he had a brother who was stung by a jellyfish, and he was the only scientist in DH-8 who had nothing to do, so he created a situation in which his psychological training would be important. Beth also points out that Norman’s memory has missing pieces. She suggests that he entered the sphere but doesn’t remember. Additionally, Beth points out that Norman’s middle name is Harrison. She attempts to put him to sleep by administering anesthetic, but Norman runs away and hides in her lab. She locks him inside.

Norman struggles with the situation. He tries to find proof that he didn’t enter the sphere, but the only thing he can think of are the surveillance tapes, and any tape showing him in the sphere would have been taken to the sub already. Finding a tape next to the video recorder, he puts it in and turns it on. As Beth offers to let him out, he watches the tape, which shows her entering the sphere. Beth accuses Norman of manipulating her. She insists that he must be neutralized. He recognizes that Harry’s experience in the sphere caused him to manifest his fears. Beth, on the other hand, manifested an aimless, abstract power that was out to get her, so she had to protect herself. This was why she set the explosives and why she now turns off the life support to the lab to neutralize Norman.

Norman begins to run out of air. He searches in the darkness for the oxygen canisters that were available in the dorms but can’t find one. However, he does find a small emergency bottle. He begins searching for a way out of the lab and remembers the ceiling hatch. He opens it and slips into the water, making his way to B Cyl. He attempts to open the hatch, but it’s locked. In his panic, he slams his hands around the hatch and accidentally hits an emergency button that unlocks the hatch. He’s weak and cold by the time he gets inside, but he manages to get into his diving suit. Beth is watching from outside the room. She tells him he can’t get near her, but that isn’t his plan.

Norman goes to the spacecraft and to the sphere. He knows now how Beth and Harry opened the door: through the power of thought. He imagines the door opening, and it does. He steps inside, and the door closes. He’s surrounded by millions of small points of light and feels as though his body becomes transparent in the light. Norman speaks to an entity inside the sphere but through the conversation learns that he’s speaking with an imagined part of his own subconscious. Norman wakes outside the sphere. He enters the room Beth shown them and instead of a single woman sees all the crewmen. Then they disappear. The men turn into women. He has the power that Beth and Harry have.

Beth attempts to engage Norman in conversation as he makes his way out of the spacecraft, but he ignores her. Outside, he attempts to shut off the explosives with his imagination, but Beth turns them back on. He goes to the explosives and pulls one of the wires, imagining that it will disarm the explosives. Instead, it begins a 20-minute countdown.

Norman goes to the sub, intending to ascend to the surface. Norman believes that he must leave Beth and Harry behind because they’re weak. They never explored their unconscious, and this left them unbalanced and unable to handle the sphere’s power. Norman, however, explored his unconscious and was better equipped to handle the power. Nevertheless, as he begins the ascent to the surface, he realizes that his shadow, fear for his own safety, is clouding his decision-making. He knows he must go back.

Norman returns to DH-8 just 14 minutes before the explosives are set to detonate. Beth refuses to open a hatch to allow him inside, so Norman goes through a hatch in E Cyl. He uses oxygen to diffuse the water and allow the hatch to D Cyl to open. Norman finds Harry still in the lab. He removes the IV from Harry’s arm and wakes him. Beth continues to hide. Norman takes Harry to B Cyl. Beth huddles in a corner with a spear gun, but Harry hits her over the head with a wrench. Norman hopes that with Beth unconscious, the countdown on the explosives will stop, but it doesn’t. He and Harry drag her to the sub and struggle to get her inside. They have less than two minutes when they finally begin their ascent. When the explosives detonate, they’re still 200 feet from the surface. The shockwave spins the sub violently, but they arrive on the surface unharmed.

Norman, Harry, and Beth are inside a decompression chamber on the deck of a Naval support ship. A crew is monitoring them outside the door. Norman can see them playing cards. Norman, Harry, and Beth discuss what to tell the Navy. Norman says they really don’t know anything about the sphere. For all they know, it could have been created by humans rather than an alien life form. Harry points out that no evidence existed that whoever built the spacecraft knew that it would crash into the ocean 300 years in the past. Harry says that is why he wanted to make out his will: He believed that everyone on the team would die. Norman suggests that they use their power to forget the sphere. He theorizes that if they claim that a life support system failure led to the deaths of the others on the expedition, their unconscious will fill in details, and the evidence on the sub will change as well, supporting their claims. Beth isn’t sure she wants to forget, but Harry and Norman talk her into it.

Norman calls the support team for some food. One of the Navy crewmen tells Norman that the tapes on the sub support their story of a life support system failure. He explains that a leak in the habitat wall led to the problem. Norman finds a picture of a Corvette in his pocket but doesn’t know where it came from. He looks at Beth and comments on how pretty she looks. She smiles at the compliment.