Created and narrated by Rod Serling, the original incarnation ofThe Twilight Zonedelivered some truly shocking twists throughout its five-season run. With its unique mix of science fiction, fantasy, and horror,The Twilight Zonecontinues to captivate audiences even today, and many of its moral lessons remain surprisingly relevant. AlthoughThe Twilight Zonewas not the firsttelevision series to use an anthology format, it was one of the most successful and influential takes on the idea.
Notevery episode ofThe Twilight Zoneended with a twist, but most offered some kind of commentary about society and/or human nature.Rod Serling wrote many episodes ofThe Twilight Zonehimself,but other well-known writers, such as Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson, also contributed to the iconic series. Even today, audiences love a good twist, andThe Twilight Zoneperfected the art of delivering shocking endings that recontextualized the entire episode.
10"Time Enough At Last"
Season 1, Episode 8 — Written By Rod Serling, Based On A Story By Lynn Venable
In one ofThe Twilight Zone’smost iconic episodes, Mr. Henry Bemis (Burgess Meredith) gets in trouble with his banker boss and his wife because he wants to spend all of his time reading. When Henry takes his lunch inside the bank’s vault,a nuclear explosion destroys the rest of the city.Although Henry contemplates suicide, he reconsiders when he happens upon a library with enough books to last a lifetime.
Now Henry can spend the rest of his life reading the books he loves without interruption. But as he organizes the books, he stumbles, losing his glasses, which shatter on the ground. Although Henry now has all the time in the world,he’s surrounded by books he can no longer read.Part of the shock of this ending comes from its simplicity, making it incredibly effective in its cruel irony.
9"The Silence"
Season 2, Episode 25 — Written By Rod Serling
In “The Silence,” Colonel Archie Taylor (Franchot Tone) offers to pay one of his fellow club members, Jamie Tennyson (Liam Sullivan), $500,000 ifhe can remain silent for an entire year.Needing money to pay off some debts, Tennyson accepts and agrees to stay in a glass room in the gentlemen’s club. As Archie begins to grow nervous that Jamie might actually win, he offers him smaller amounts of money to end the bet early, but Jamie refuses.
The storyline for “The Silence” was inspired by an Anton Chekhov short story called “The Bet.”
After a year, Jamie Tennyson emerges to collect his debt, only for Archie to reveal that he does not have the money to pay him. Distraught,Jamie reveals that he had his vocal cords severed a year agoso that he would win the bet. Although “The Silence” has no true sci-fi or fantastical elements, it still manages to be deeply unsettling and ends withRod Serling’s narrationabout the dangers of gambling.
8"Five Characters In Search Of An Exit"
Season 3, Episode 14 — Written By Rod Serling, Based On A Story By Marvin Petal
When a U.S. Army Major (William Windom) wakes in a strange cylindrical room alongside four others, he forms a plan to escape. After a failed escape attempt, the Major fashions a grappling hook and makes it over the edge of the cylinder, falling to the ground outside.Outside, a young girl picks up the Army Major toy doll from the show,revealing that the cylindrical room is a toy bin and all of the characters inside are toys.
The girl returns the Major to the barrel, andthe Ballerina (Susan Harrison) sheds a tear as she and her friends accept their fate.Although this is a sad ending, Rod Serling offers a final message of hope that these toys will soon become presents for happy children. It’s a simple premise, but"Five Characters in Search of an Exit"wrestles with fascinating philosophical questionsabout searching for meaning in a reality that doesn’t make sense.
7"Stopover In A Quiet Town"
Season 5, Episode 30 — Written By Earl Hamner, Jr.
“Stopover in a Quiet Town” centers on Bob (Barry Nelson) and Millie (Nancy Malone) Frazier, a couple from New York who wake up in a strange small town with no knowledge of how they got there. As Bob and Millie explore the deserted town,they discover that nothing is real.The drawers in the house don’t really open, the squirrels are stuffed, and the grass is made of paper-mâché.
The couple ended up in this town after Bob had too much to drink at a party, forcing the slightly tipsy Millie to drive. Rod Serling doesn’t mince words when it comes to the episode’s message, stating:“If you drink, don’t drive.”
Although they occasionally hear a child’s eerie laughter, there is no one in sight. In the end, a child’s hand picks upthe tiny Bob and Millie to reveal that the couple have become"pets"for an alien girland her pretend neighborhood. There are many ways this story could’ve gone, but the ultimate reveal is fun and unsettling, and comes as a genuine surprise.
6"The Hitch-Hiker"
Season 1, Episode 16 — Written By Rod Serling
When Nan Adams (Inger Stevens) embarks on a cross-country road trip, she gets a flat tire and briefly loses control of her car. After getting her car repaired, Nan continues on her way, butshe keeps seeing the same hitchhikerat various points along her journey. From Pennsylvania to Virginia to New Mexico, this hitchhiker (whom no one else can see) continues to appear, always ahead of Nan and her car.
As Nan grows increasingly fearful, she stops in Arizona to call her mother. The woman who answers the phone says that Nan’s mother entered the hospital after learning of her daughter’s death in Pennsylvania.Nan realizes she was killed in the initial accident,and the hitchhiker is a personification of death, following her until she realizes the truth. With this heartbreaking and shocking ending, “The Hitch-Hiker” cements itself as one ofThe Twilight Zone’smost memorable episodes.
5"I Shot An Arrow Into The Air"
Season 1, Episode 15 — Written By Rod Serling, Based On A Story By Madelon Champion
After a spaceship crash-lands on a barren asteroid, only four of the eight astronauts survive. With one of the survivors badly injured, the other three disagree about how to proceed, with Officer Corey (Dewey Martin) only concerned with his own survival.It doesn’t take long for Corey to turn against his fellow astronauts,ensuring his own survival by taking all of the water and supplies for himself.
As Corey crosses the desert, he eventually comes to a road sign for Reno, Nevada, and realizes thathis spaceship never made it off Earth.Horrified that he killed his friends for nothing, Corey then breaks down as the episode ends. Eight years later,Planet of the Apes(which Rod Serling co-wrote)would turn this particular twist into a classic, but “I Shot an Arrow Into the Air” makes great use of the shocking reveal.
4"Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?"
Season 2, Episode 28 — Written By Rod Serling
With the passengers of a bus holed up in a diner due to a snowstorm, two state troopers seek to determine which of the passengers is actually an alien from a nearby UFO crash.Tension builds as the bus passengers begin to suspect one anotherof being the alien. Soon after the bus passengers depart, one of them, abusinessman named Ross (John Hoyt), returns, claiming that the bridge collapsed and killed all the passengers.
Ross then reveals himself as a three-armed Martian preparing Earth for colonization. In the episode’s final twist,the diner’s cook, Haley (Barney Phillips), removes his hat to reveal that he is a three-eyed alienfrom Venus and that his people have intercepted the Martian fleet. Not only does this final twist come as a shock, but it also has a delightful and quintessentiallyTwilight Zonehumor to it that cements it as a classic.
3"To Serve Man"
Season 3, Episode 24 — Written By Rod Serling, Based On A Short Story By Damon Knight
When a race of aliens known as the Kanamits land on Earth,they share their advanced technology, helping solve many of the world’s problems.But one of the Kanamits leaves a book behind, and a cryptographer named Michael Chambers (Lloyd Bochner) and his staff member Patty (Susan Cummings) translate the title to readTo Serve Man,which seems to confirm the Kanamits' benevolence.
Believing the Kanamits' planet to be a paradise, many humans agree to travel there, but Patty keeps working to translate their book. As more and more humans line up to travel to the Kanamits' home planet, including Patty’s boss, Patty discovers the horrifying truth thatTo Serve Manis actually a cookbook for the aliens.It’s a shocking twist with classicTwilight Zonehumor that makes “To Serve Man” one of the series' most beloved episodes.
2"The Invaders"
Season 2, Episode 15 — Written By Richard Matheson
With almost no dialogue aside from Rod Serling’s narration,“The Invaders” tells the story of a woman(Agnes Moorehead) living alone who is terrorized by tiny invaders when they arrive at her home in a small flying saucer.The invaders fire weapons at the woman and slash at her ankleswith a knife, until she successfully captures one. After wrapping her attacker in a blanket, beating it, and throwing it into the fire, she follows the other invader to the roof.
The woman at the story’s center never speaks, and the only true dialogue comes near the episode’s end, from the doomed astronaut in the flying saucer.
The woman then begins attacking the flying saucer with a hatchet, as its occupant frantically radios back to his people that this planet is inhabited by dangerous giants.The flying saucer is actually from the US Air Force, and the tiny invaders are human astronautswho found an inhabited planet. Imagining the story from the astronauts' perspective makes the whole story even more horrific and solidifies this twist as one ofThe Twilight Zone’sbest.
1"Eye Of The Beholder"
Season 2, Episode 6 — Written By Rod Serling
In another one ofThe Twilight Zone’smost recognizable episodes, Janet Tyler (Maxine Stuart, Donna Douglas) undergoes her eleventh surgery to look “normal.” The episode opens with her face covered in bandages, while the nurses and doctors remain in shadow so that the audience cannot see their faces properly.Janet is described as being"terribly ugly,“and she will not be allowed to return to normal society if this treatment doesn’t work.
When Janet’s bandages are removed, she looks perfectly normal, beautiful even, while the people around her have grotesquely deformed features.While the obvious message is that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, this episode touches on many other complex questions of conformity, individuality, and prejudice, making it a particularly provocative episode ofThe Twilight Zone.
