"The Adaptive Ultimate" is a science fiction short story by American writer Stanley G. Weinbaum, about an experimental medical treatment gone awry.
It was dramatized on June 20, 1952 on the television show Tales of Tomorrow under the title "The Miraculous Serum" (Season 1, Episode 38), and again on December 3, 1955 on the television show Science Fiction Theatre under the title "Beyond Return", starring Zachary Scott and Joan Vohs, with the story credited to John Jessel.
A film version was released in 1957 as She Devil, starring Mari Blanchard, Jack Kelly, and Albert Dekker.
[2] Dr. Daniel Scott approaches his colleague, Dr. Herman Bach of Grand Mercy Hospital, looking for a human test subject.
A witness describes the killer as a skinny brunette, but the Kyra Zelas on trial possesses a stunning figure and pure white hair, and the case is dismissed.
At that moment, her already-great beauty intensifies; Scott realizes that she is adapting once again, to make him love her, but even knowing this, he falls under her spell.
From experiments on guinea pigs, the doctors find that the adaptive ability is connected to hypertrophy of the pineal gland, but when they try to put Zelas to sleep with gas in order to operate on her, she is unaffected - she quickly develops an immunity.