Poetic Injustice, Unfortunate endings

Most episodes end with someone receiving their just deserts
(and that is the proper spelling, pronounced like "desserts"),
but some episodes leave the viewer with a sense of sorrow,
such as "Time Enough At Last" and "Night Call." Any thoughts?

Hey, I swear, Kanamit and I are not the same person!

For those who don't know, I once posted a message on the proper spelling of "just deserts" when I was in one of my pedantic moods, and I still get occasional good-natured rebuffs. The reason for the single S is that it comes from the same roots as "deserve."

Then again, maybe a Kanamit would be interested in "just desserts." The only question is what kind of desserts a Kanamit would eat.

That would depend on who, I mean, WHAT the main course was.

Then there are those controversial ones. "Living Doll" provoked a LOT of discussion.

***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***
(As you might expect in a thread like this, anyway)




Henry Bemis didn't deserve his sad fate, but neither did the rest of the human race. Bemis probably did get it rougher than the people who didn't survive, but I think the episode would have been pointless if it had ended any other way. As Dickie Weiss recalls from Donne, in "The Changing Of The Guard," "No man is an island."

The ending of "Night Call," on the other hand, has always struck me as a weak ending. As it says in Zicree, in Matheson's original story the dead boyfriend promises over the phone to "be right over"; Matheson wrote another ending for television. Upon reading Kanamit's comment yesterday, I surprised myself by doing something constructive and conceiving of an ending that I thought was better: After realizing that the voice is really Brian's, Elva apologizes for her part in the accident. She regrets having been such a demanding and fussy person throughout her life, and asks Brian if he can possibly still love her enough to forgive her. After a pause long enough to create dramatic tension, Brian says yes. The next morning, Elva's aide finds her dead in bed, holding the phone against her chest, a look of peace on her face. She takes the phone from Elva's hands, holds it to her ear, and hears only silence.

"Caesar And Me" has an ending that seems unjust for everybody concerned except possibly Jonathan West, who, after all, didn't have to listen to his dummy. Does anybody have a better ending for that one?

I'll put links to this thread in the appropriate episode threads later, and as we go along.

The Irish Embassy arranges for Jonathan's release from prison and deportation, after which he becomes a member of the IRA. Mrs. Cudahy finds a new boarder in the person of the reformed John Rhoades.

As for Susan and Caesar, we next see them in New York performing a ventriloquist act, but only after they've pulled the old switcheroo.

I started this thread with "Time Enough At Last" in mind.

Recently I began to understand something different about that episode.
I think it does have a moral, misunderstood by many, including myself.

Henry Bemis was not involved in mankind, choosing to ignore all around him.
And I can't say I blame him! Rod Serling's script (based on the short story
by Lynn Venable) is so heavy-handedly biased against the people with whom
Henry must interact, we have no choice but to take his side in his struggle
simply to be allowed to read! His boss and his wife become caricatures.

His pleasure with finally being allowed to live out his escapist fantasy,
with no regard to the horror that had been visited upon his fellow Man,
had to be interrupted by a much-needed wake-up call. Yes, he does
express concern for his wife, but not for long, and I still don't blame him!
(Can't recall if this has been addressed in "Marriages Made in The Twilight Zone")

The moral may be this: no one can escape fate.

"The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe
had a similar message. When all around you are doomed,
it is sheer folly to believe you are exempt from the same end.

"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee."
- John Donne

Hey, Beev, I didn't realize that you had quoted Donne as well.

Every time I watch "The After Hours," I feel sorry for Marsha at the end. I know, I know...she understands now, she's back...but part of me feels she'd rather be doing something else.

I'd say "To Serve Man", but perhaps the human race does deserve it for being so focused on the short-term. But, then again, they don't really deserve that. *shudders*

The astronauts in Elegy.

Henry Bemis.

The couple in The Long Morrow.

Dan Hollis and several other residents of Peaksville, Ohio.

A lot of good ones in these last few posts. I think the two lieutenants in "Death Ship" also belong here. I just hope that that isn't their everlasting fate. The closing narration gives us reason to hope that it may not be.

All the townsfolk in "The Old Man in the Cave".

But after thinking it through, they pretty much got what they deserved, though I can't say I wouldn't do the same.

But my hero ,....John F'N Anderson......is still wandering around out there in the
Zone. Can't say he didn't try and stop them.



Thank you and good night.
TZ DZ Fan

Except that now he has no authority to tell him what's safe to eat.
My guess is he died soon after the rest of them did.

Number 12 Looks Just Like You

Although, technically, everyone WAS happy at the end.


Miniature and Kick the Can for the same reason


What did Charley's mother, sister and brother-in-law do to never see Charley again? Same with Mr. Cox.

I dont know why, but I would like to say Valley of the Shadow is an example. At the end you have to feel some sense of sorrow or dissapointment with how it turns out for the guy. His life could have been way better.

i'm surprised no one has mentioned "people are alike all over" the main character in that episode seemed like a good person to me

True.

Spoiler: I'm not so sure Sam Conrad's fate is all that bad. Look at it this way: Although caged, he'll have every luxury he could want under those circumstances. Furthermore, the Martians will want to see him procreate, just as if he were a giant panda on Earth. I have a hunch that, with no prospects of luring any Earth women to Mars, the Martians will assign Teenya to that task, and Sam will have no objections whatsoever.

Spoiler: I'm not so sure Sam Conrad's fate is all that bad. Look at it this way: Although caged, he'll have every luxury he could want under those circumstances. Furthermore, the Martians will want to see him procreate, just as if he were a giant panda on Earth. I have a hunch that, with no prospects of luring any Earth women to Mars, the Martians will assign Teenya to that task, and Sam will have no objections whatsoever.

it's the twilight zone, so nothing good can happen from that point XD i mean..there's no windows in the house! XD and i bet that the TV doesn't even work..but then again it's the twilight zone so we don't know for sure

Spoiler: I'm not so sure Sam Conrad's fate is all that bad. Look at it this way: Although caged, he'll have every luxury he could want under those circumstances. Furthermore, the Martians will want to see him procreate, just as if he were a giant panda on Earth. I have a hunch that, with no prospects of luring any Earth women to Mars, the Martians will assign Teenya to that task, and Sam will have no objections whatsoever.

it's the twilight zone, so nothing good can happen from that point XD i mean..there's no windows in the house! XD and i bet that the TV doesn't even work..but then again it's the twilight zone so we don't know for sure

***MORE SPOILERS***


A pleasing thought, Dan, but I'm not sure the Martians would want an Earthling interbreeding with one of "their" race. I imagine they'd have no problem having him interbreed with a female Earthling, if one should become available. Irrational thinking on the Martian's part, but otherwise, I think the point of the episode would be lost, and people really wouldn't be alike all over.

Sam Conrad is a "safety first" kind of creature, so his fate (luxury at the expense of freedom) seems appropriate for him, whether you consider it a good or bad fate. It bothers me a little that his fate doesn't seem to have been brought about in any way by his actions, though. On the face of it, it's just luck that Conrad didn't die and Marcusson didn't spend the rest of his life in Conrad's place. You can say that there might have been some form of karma at work. But in an episode in which there's otherwise no explicit fantasy element, just the normal laws of cause and effect, I'd be just a little happier if those same principles also connected Conrad's character and his fate. But maybe that's just me.

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp...likeAllOver.jpg


SPOILERS......



I'm assuming since Earth can send a ship to Mars, why wouldnt they send more ships? I don't think Earth or US exactly would allow a human to be caged on another planet. I always felt something would have been done about it either way. Just let him wait it out.

I know this should go on "Twilight Zone Revisited", but hey, this topic's perfect for it.

For those of you who have seen The Twilight Zone Movie...Does anyone else besides me find the ending of the first story (And the whole story, in general) cruel?

After all, while calling someone racial names is certainly intolerable, throwing someone through some of the worst racial persecutions in history seems like an absolute overreaction in terms of punishment, for me. And the lack of a happy ending doesn't help

PS: Wow, my first post here, and I sound like a crybaby Don't get the wrong impression, guys! Have been reading you since a long time ago, but didn't register until now.

Welcome, Isidro!

That was because Vic Morrow and the two Asian kids got killed filming the originally planned ending, where the bigot turns into a good guy after he's seen bigotry from the other side. All the suffering the character went through was originally supposed to change him for the better.

How do flowers sound?

Finally, one of those Welcome gifs!

To hear about that incident is just plain sad. But it justifies the ending, yes. Thanks for the info.

How do flowers sound?

According to 2002 Twilight Zone's "Evergreen", they sound like Amber Tamblyn














In all seriousness, sorry 'bout the word. Will moderate my language in the future, promise

How 'bout baby Harmon Gordon being left to the mercies of his wife-turned-de facto mother?