Summary
Rod Serling’sThe Twilight Zoneis well known for its iconic twists and turns, as well as its moral messages. Characters are frequently tested by bizarre or fantastical circumstances, such as haunted telephones, magical objects, and alien invaders. As a result, they often learn something about themselves, and about the human condition as a whole.
The success of the originalTwilight Zoneresulted in a wide range of remakes and reinterpretations over subsequent decades. As such, the franchise is full of great plots, engaging characters, and shocking revelations.Some of these twistsare easy to see coming, but others are genuinely outlandish, leaving viewers to ponder what they would do if they ever stumbled intoThe Twilight Zone.
8"The Invaders"
The Twilight Zone(1959–1964): Season 2, Episode 15
Regular viewers ofThe Twilight Zonewill know that things are not always as they seem inRod Serling’s anthology series. From living dolls to “ugly” beautiful characters living in a world with upside-down beauty standards, the series never hesitates to subvert audience expectations. One of the best examples of this is “The Invaders”, which sees an unnamed woman harassed by alien invaders who emerge from a small flying saucer.
Told nearly without dialogue, the episode’s iconic twist casts the preceding events in an entirely new light. This episode challenges viewers' preconceptions and perspectives, and it is unsurprising that Serling rated it as one of the show’s best.
7"Spur of the Moment"
The Twilight Zone(1959–1964): Season 5, Episode 21
“Spur of the Moment” isn’t the only episode ofThe Twilight Zoneto feature a love triangle, but it demonstrates the importance of making the correct romantic choices better than any other. Anne Henderson is a young woman who is due to marry a wealthy banker, Robert. However, her childhood sweetheart, David, wants to rekindle their relationship. Anne’s dilemma is complicated by the appearance of a mysterious older woman, who chases Anne on horseback for reasons unknown.
An older Anne determines that the strange woman is none other than herself, trying to warn her younger self against a bad romantic match. This bizarre episodefuses time travelwith a kind of ghost story, although the older Anne’s attempts to alter her doomed marriage seem, perhaps inevitably, destined to fail.
6"The New Exhibit"
The Twilight Zone(1959–1964): Season 4, Episode 13
While the recent boom in true-crime shows and podcasts can make the subject seem like a contemporary interest, episodes like “The New Exhibit” show that humans have always had a fascination with sinister crimes. When the waxwork museum in which he works plans to close, Martin Sembescu swears to preserve the wax figures of several famous murderers in his own basement. However, when people around Martin start to die, he must face the possibility that the wax figures are coming alive.
The episode blurs the linebetween horror and insanity, with a conclusion that implicates Martin in the murders even though the figures appear to be alive. Just how much of the situation is happening in Martin’s head is unclear, but the episode is guaranteed to send a shiver down the viewers' spines.
5"A Little Peace and Quiet"
The Twilight Zone(1985–1989): Season 1, Episode 1
“A Little Peace and Quiet” feels like a paint-by-numbers episode ofThe Twilight Zonefor much of its runtime. It reuses the familiar trope of a watch that can pause time (previously seen in 1963’s “A Kind of Stopwatch” and focuses on an overworked housewife who uses her newfound powers to take a break from both her family problems and the wider issues in the world—she even pauses time to get rid of some anti-nuclear weapon campaigners.
The personal and political come together at the episode’s climax, which sees the protagonist pause time just moments before her city isdestroyed in a nuclear war. The episode ends with a genuinely mind-bending dilemma: should she carry on living by herself in a frozen world or allow the end to come? Many episodes ofThe Twilight Zoneoffer viewers morals, but few provide them any easy answers, and “A Little Peace and Quiet” is no exception.
4"A World of Difference"
The Twilight Zone(1959–1964): Season 1, Episode 23
The idea ofThe Twilight Zoneasthe boundary between fact and fictionis exemplified in “A World of Difference”, in which an actor, Gerald Raigan, struggles to differentiate between his real life and that of the character that he is playing in a movie. Raigan believes that he is Arthur Curtis, a successful businessman with a wife and child. However, he is unable to find any evidence of this life outside the set of the film on which he is working.
The episode forces viewers to decipher just where Raigan’s delusions begin and end. Although the character is able to find a sense of closure at the end of the episode, the story leaves the audience with many more questions than answers, not only in terms of its protagonist’s true identity but also in terms of the nature of reality itself.
The Twilight Zone(2002–2003): Season 1, Episode 8
The early 2000s iteration ofThe Twilight Zoneis generally considered to have been a failure (it lasted for only a single season), but it did breathe new life into some classicTwilight Zoneconcepts. Serving as a semi-remake of 1962’s “Dead Man’s Shoes”, “Dead Man’s Eyes” sees a woman receive visions of her husband’s murder from his apparently haunted glasses. However, while these visions do allow herto solve the mystery, her conclusions are far from expected.
“Dead Man’s Eyes” trades onThe Twilight Zone’s penchant for haunted objects, only to subvert the trope during the episode’s closing moments. This results in an ending that, at first, seems confusing. However, this is an episode recontextualized by repeated viewings, with a twist that changes everything.
2"Person or Persons Unknown"
The Twilight Zone(1959–1964): Season 3, Episode 27
“Person or Persons Unknown” offers a disconcerting premise: a man wakes up only to discover that nobody recognizes him. His wife claims that they have never met; no one can identify him at his office. He is eventually placed in a mental asylum, but he refuses to accept that his thinking is delusional. Further investigations seem to reveal the existence of a grand conspiracy.
The episode appears not to stick the landing with its fairly mundane solution to the mystery, but a final twist in the episode’s closing moments keeps the audience guessing. “Person or Persons Unknown” operates ona baffling nightmare logic, but this doesn’t prevent the episode from being a tense and engaging half-hour of television.
1"Come Wander with Me"
The Twilight Zone(1959–1964): Season 5, Episode 34
“Come Wander with Me” is an unusual episode ofThe Twilight Zone, and is certainly the closest that the original series comes to featuring a musical episode. Singer-songwriter Floyd Burney visits a rural community in the hope of finding his next musical hit, only to find himself trapped in the latest iteration of an eternally repeating cycle of love, jealousy, and music.
The episode is certainly divisive (critic and writer Marc Scott Zicree described it as having “various twists and turns that render it virtually incoherent”), but it’s arguable that the episode’s strength lies in its ambiguity. It is never clear quite what is going on—has Burney somehow become a character in a folk song, was his death fated, or is he trapped in some kind of time loop? The episode offers no concrete answers or morals, but this intriguing mystery is nonethelessone ofThe Twilight Zone’s finest stories.
The Twilight Zone
The complete series of The Twilight Zone is a must-have for aficionados of the strange and supernatural. This iconic anthology, graced by legendary actors, presents timeless tales of the mysterious and macabre. The Blu-ray collection, showcasing stellar performances in high definition, invites viewers to revisit Rod Serling’s masterful storytelling and experience the classic series like never before.
