It's A Good Life
This story has been seen as a metaphor for political leaders who rule out of ignorance & can't stand to be told that they're wrong, and the people who acquiesce to their wishes...
On a given morning not too long ago, the rest of the world disappeared and Peaksville was left all alone. Its inhabitants were never sure whether the world was destroyed and only Peaksville left untouched or whether the village had somehow been taken away. They were, on the other hand, sure of one thing: the cause. A monster had arrived in the village. Just by using his mind, he took away the automobiles, the electricity, the machines - because they displeased him - and he moved an entire community back into the dark ages - just by using his mind. Now I'd like to introduce you to some of the people in Peaksville, Ohio. This is Mr. Fremont. It's in his farmhouse that the monster resides. This is Mrs. Fremont. And this is Aunt Amy, who probably had more control over the monster in the beginning than almost anyone. But one day she forgot; she began to sing aloud. Now, the monster doesn't like singing, so his mind snapped at her, turned her into the smiling, vacant thing you're looking at now. She sings no more. And you'll note that the people in Peaksville, Ohio, have to smile; they have to think happy thoughts and say happy things because, once displeased, the monster can wish them into a cornfield or change them into a grotesque, walking horror. This particular monster can read minds, you see. He knows every thought, he can feel every emotion. Oh yes, I did forget something, didn't I? I forgot to introduce you to the monster. This is the monster. His name is Anthony Fremont. He's six years old, with a cute little-boy face and blue, guileless eyes. But when those eyes look at you, you'd better start thinking happy thoughts, because the mind behind them is absolutely in charge. This is the Twilight Zone.
The Eye Of The Beholder
This episode deals with Janet Tyler. Her head is wrapped in gauze because she is undergoing experimental treatment to deal with a hideous deformity that has made her an outcast from the rest of society. All she wants is to be normal, in order to conform to everyone else. Also, the state has deemed different to be dangerous which must be "cut out like a cancerous growth."
The entire story you're led to believe that under those bandages is a hideous monster, only to have the story twist & find out that she looks "normal" & the world in which she lives in is populated by what looks like pig-people. The story has been seen as one of universal tolerance for differences, from race to homosexuality. Rod Serling ends the episode with this message...
Now the questions that come to mind. Where is this place and when is it, what kind of world where ugliness is the norm and beauty the deviation from that norm? The answer is, it doesn't make any difference. Because the old saying happens to be true. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, in this year or a hundred years hence, on this planet or wherever there is human life, perhaps out among the stars. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Lesson to be learned... in the Twilight Zone.
A Quality Of Mercy
The story deals with a young American Lieutenant given his first command of a platoon of battle weary soldiers in the Philippines at the closing days of World War II. Eager to storm into combat & make a name for himself, Lieutenant Katell wants to order an assault on sick & starving Japanese soldiers holed up in a nearby cave. One of the platoon's Sargeants pleads with him not to do it, since the cave & soldiers can be bypassed & avoided, but Katell is adamant to execute his plan.
Katell is then somehow pulled away & finds himself on Corregidor during 1942, where he's a Japanese Lieutenant named Yamuri. His Japanese Captain orders him to attack sick & starving American soldiers holed up in a cave. Katell/Yamuri pleads with the Japanese Captain not to attack the cave, but it's in vain. Katell is then somehow pulled back to the Phillipines as himself to find the United States had attacked Hiroshima & his platoon has been ordered to fall back. He's relieved that he didn't attack the cave with Japanese soldiers. The episode ends with this closing narration from Serling...
'The quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.' Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, but applicable to any moment in time, or any group of soldiery, to any nation on the face of the Earth - or, in this case, to the Twilight Zone.
He's Alive
This one deals with Peter Vollmer. He's a faltering leader of a neo-nazi organization that is preaching against immigrants & how they take jobs away from Americans. One night he's visited by the ghost of Adolf Hitler, who offers to help him. This leads to a series of events that sees the rise & fall of Vollmer. At the end we see Hitler's ghost move on, with Serling's narration coming in to tell us...
...Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare-- Chicago; Los Angeles; Miami, Florida; Vincennes, Indiana; Syracuse, New York? Anyplace, everyplace, where there's hate, where there's prejudice, where there's bigotry. He's alive. He's alive so long as these evils exist. Remember that when he comes to your town. Remember it when you hear his voice speaking out through others. Remember it when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind, unreasoning assault on a people or any human being. He's alive because through these things we keep him alive.
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