Tv scifi episode about a villainous doctor/scientist who has a protocol to ensure he stays "evil"?

Question

Plot Summary

I have only the vaguest recollection of this one. Apologies in advance for the scanty description and any potential inaccuracies in the details.

As best as I can recall, the story centers around a doctor or a scientist of some sort who is in great danger. He reaches out to a woman for help. I believe he's convinced that there is a conspiracy afoot and "they" are after him.

I am not certain if the story was supposed to be set in the future or near-future, though it may have been.

The woman assists, and I believe a romantic bond blossoms between them during their escape efforts. Unfortunately, near the end the two are caught. It is at that point the twist in the story is revealed.

The people chasing after the man are in fact doing so at his behest. For whatever reason, the person he seems to be is not his true self. He's actually a very selfish and cruel sort, and established a fail-safe in case he went rogue.

The story ends with him being restored to his former malevolent personality, and I believe the woman meets some sort of unpleasant fate.

Timeframe/Production Details

I only remember that it was an episode of a television series, and was in color. There was closing narration on the story, leading me to believe it might be from one of the later versions of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, but I don't remember enough of the story for my Google-fu to be of much use.

Answer 1

I'd speculate, based on my Google-Fu, this is Outer Limits (1995) Episode "Blank Slate" Season 5 Episode 8. (Google has links to full episode upload.)

I tracked it down by doing a search on TV Tropes which turned up the trope "Amnesiac Dissonance". (Which was easier than a brute force reading of all episode descriptions.)

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AmnesiacDissonance

https://theouterlimits.fandom.com/wiki/Blank_Slate

To quote the end of the Plot Summary

"As Tom and Hope flee the clinic where tests are conducted on homeless people, they are captured by agents from Tom's employer. Government agents from Tom's former research facility erased his memories to prevent the technology from getting out, but he entrusted a copy of his memories to his current employer so his memories could be restored. They inject Tom with the final crystal while Hope is sedated. Later, Hope awakens strapped to a chair as Tom prepares to erase her memories like he erased the memories of numerous other test subjects. She pleads with him to stop, but his fully restored memories have also returned him to his unethical and heartless pursuit of his research. He tells Hope that she won't remember a thing and begins the procedure."