The Twilight Zone: In His Image: Which man survived, Walter or Alan?

One hour The Twilight Zone episodes begin

In the fourth season of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone the episodes went from thirty minutes to one hour. The first was "In His Image" which premiered on January 3, 1963.

The plot revovles around Alan Talbot, (George Grizzard) who hears strange mechanical noises in his mind. Grizzard was also in The Twilight Zone episode The Chaser with Patricia Barry. Like many actors of that era he had roles in Thriller and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (three episodes).

Man versus machine

Talbot doesn't know he is not human. While at a New York Subway station one evening he encouters an older woman (Katherine Squire) who is preaching salvation and quoting the Bible.

She shouts praises to the Lord and won't leave him alone. The sounds in Alan's head become unbearable and lead him to push her to her death on the tracks when the train runs over her.

Desperate for answers, about the sounds he is hearing and why he resoirted to murder, Alan travels with his fiance Jessica Connelly (Gail Kobe) to the small town of Couerville, which he believes is his hometown.

Confusion abounds

No one recognizes Talbot and his aunt says her nephew Alan died years ago. A woman he is seeking died ten years before but Alan insists he saw aher three week prior. This leaves him with more questions than answers.

On their way back from Couerville the sounds in his mind get to Alan and he jumps out of the car and tells Jessica to drive off and leave him. He is hit by another car and his arm is damamged. That's when he reaizes he is not human.

Alan later makes his way to the home of Walter Ryder, a scientist who appears to be his identical twin. Walter has created several artifical men (not robots) and he programmed his memories into Alan.

Walter created Talbot as his opposite and a way to deal with reclusive nature. He realizes his experiement has gone wrong and decides to shut down the android.

An alternate reality

Alan who has only been around for eight days does not believe he is not a man. He attempts to defy his creator and the two men fight as a fire breaks out. In the next scene one of them arrives at Jessica's home claiming to be Alan who asks that they start fresh.

It is never explained how he and Jessica became engaged in an eight day period. Some Twilight Zone viewers believe the clone has won and murdered the man who created him. The ending scene shows one of the men wearing the clothing that Alan had on and a damaged arm.'

This has other fans to believe that Walter survivied and decided to start fresh by living as Alan and marrying Jessica. After all he had pointed out that Alan had tendacies to kill and could not survive without needing to be repaired at some point.

Similarities to other Twilight Zone episodes

Fans of The Twilight Zone might recognize similarities with several other episodes where rbots or andriods were inv9lved. Especially the episode The Lateness of the Hour where Jana (Inger Stevens) is shocked when she learns she is a robot and not her parents true daughter.

Jenna is so upset she bangs her arm on the railing to the stairs and repeats that she can't feel pain. At the end of the episode it's revealed that she was dismantled and recreated as a madi who was given new memories. In In His Image, Walter abandons his project and the androids that did not work out to live life with Jess.

Rod Serling's Sci-Fi anthology, The Twilight Zone can be viewed on Pluto, Peacock and other streaming services. Episodes also air weeknights at 11:00 pm on MeTV.