5 Of My Favorite Twilight Zone Episodes

The Twilight Zone aired on television from 1959 until 2020. The series can still be watched. Below are five of my favorites that I have watched several times.

Why I Love 'The Twilight Zone'

I love watching The Twilight Zone because of the unexpected twists and the moral of each episode. As I watch, I try to guess what the twist would be. I am always surprised when the unexpected twists come at the end of every episode.

I also love the different genres of the episodes, which could be allegories, parables, or fables that reflect the moral and philosophical choices of the characters.

1. Time Enough At Last

Season 1, Episode 8, which aired on November 20, 1959, is about a man named Henry Bemis who works as a bank teller. Although Henry has a stable job, is married, and lives a seemingly typical American life, all he wants to do is read. His desire for reading takes precedence over every other aspect of his life.

Henry was warned about neglecting customers to read on the job. After the warning, he decides to spend his lunch break alone in the bank's vault with the door closed. He always takes a book and a newspaper to read during his precious time alone.

One day, he picks up the newspaper and reads: "H-BOMB CAPABLE OF TOTAL DESTRUCTION." At that moment, there's the sound of an explosion, and the whole vault shakes, resulting in Henry falling unconscious. When he wakes, he walks out of the vault to see the bank and the entire town in ruins. He desperately shouts for someone to respond, but there is no one left to hear him.

At first, Henry is lonely until he sees that the public library has survived the explosion. He begins stacking books and making enough piles to last him for years to come. Then the unthinkable happens.

When Henry reaches down to pick up a book, he slips and his glasses fall to the ground and shatter. He sits there with blurred vision and realizes that he will not be able to see to read all those books he had stacked in piles.

2. The Lateness of the Hour

In Season 2, Episode 8, which aired on December 2, 1960, daughter Jana of inventor Dr. William Loren objects to their perfect home, in which they are waited on hand and foot by mechanical servants that William built.

Jana begs her father to dismantle the robots before he and her mother become completely dependent on them. Once the robots had been disassembled, Jana was thrilled until she became aware that there were no baby pictures of her around the house. Jana arrives at a shocking awareness that she was one of the robots. At the end of the episode, the parents had reprogrammed Jana to be a maid to keep her around.

3. The Masks

In Season 5, Episode 25, which aired on March 20, 1964, Jason Foster is a very wealthy man who is dying. He calls his family together to celebrate a masquerade party with him. He coerced them into wearing grotesque masks. Foster explained to them that it was an old Mardi Gras custom for guests to put on a mask that was the opposite of one's true personality.

Throughout the night, the family begged to remove the masks, saying they were unbearable. Foster tells them that the terms of his will require them to wear the masks until midnight to inherit his estate. If any of them unmasks before then, all will receive only train fare back home.

When the clock struck midnight, the relatives rejoiced that they had kept their masks on. Now they would inherit the wealth. When they tried to remove the masks, they couldn't. Their faces had conformed to the hideous features of the grotesque masks they were wearing.

4. It's A Good Life

In Season 3, Episode 8, which aired on November 3, 1961, is about a 6-year-old boy who has mental powers, including mind-reading. With his mind, Anthony Fremont has blocked television signals, caused cars not to work, and made it snow. He creates grotesque creatures, such as three-headed gophers, which he then kills. Everybody is under his rule, even his parents.

Anthony makes those disappear who think unhappy thoughts. Therefore, people live in fear of the boy, constantly telling him how everything he does is "good." Once, Anthony got angry with a neighbor and turned him into a jack-in-the-box.

5. Eye of the Beholder

In Season 2, Episode 6, which aired on November 11, 1960, Janet Tyler has undergone her eleventh treatment in an attempt to look normal. That's the maximum number legally allowed by the "State." Janet's head is completely bandaged during the entire episode. Therefore, viewers cannot see what she looks like. The nurses and doctors are wearing masks so no one can see their faces either.

When the bandages are removed, and Janet sees herself in a mirror, she jumps up from the bed and runs down the hall crying. The operation didn't work because Janet is absolutely gorgeous with a perfect face, beautiful eyes, a nice nose, and long flowing hair.

So, why do the doctors and nurses consider the surgery a failure?

When the surgical team removes their masks, viewers see that everyone in the hospital looks like a hippopotamus except Janet. She was escorted out of the hospital by her own kind and sent to an "ugly camp" with people who looked like her.