#s1e36

WARNING: Spoilers!

LISTEN CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS FREAKING EPISODE I’M LOSING MY MIND OVER HERE

I want to preface this by saying that A World of His Own is a pretty boring episode. It’s fine, sure, but it’s mostly just standing around and talking. The concept is pretty cool, but the execution is a bit meager and leaves something to be desired. I enjoyed it well enough, but it’s at best mediocre.

Until the end.

Oh God, the end.

After the story is wrapped up and our friend the playwright is left with his new wife and happy life, Rod Serling, the man himself, appears. This is a bit unusual, as Rod had not made an appearance before in the first season, and as this is the last episode, does not make another in the first season. Rod sits happily on our playwright’s desk and explains that this episode of The Twilight Zone was enjoyable, but is still “fictional nonsense.”

Suddenly, breaking the fourth wall, our lovable playwright turns, a twinkle of madness within his eyes. He scolds Rod for calling the story “nonsense” and reaches within his wall safe. From within, he draws out an envelope labeled “Rod Serling.”

Now, let’s back up a bit. The basic concept of this episode is that our friend, the playwright, can create characters by describing them into his tape recorder. In order to destroy the character, he can cut off the bit of tape that describes them and throw it into the fire. Then, he can simply describe the character again to bring them back. The big twist is that his wife is a tape-summoned character that our playwright keeps the tape of in a wall safe. Got it? Good.

Without any prompting, our playwright TOSSES THE TAPE INTO THE FIRE. As the tape shrivels and burns, Rod says simply, “Well, I guess that’s how it goes,” and disappears into the aether.

CAN I POINT THIS OUT?

ROD DIES.

ROD JUST DIED.

ROD DIES????

So, uh. That happened.