Nothing in the Dark

"Nothing in the Dark"
The Twilight Zone episode
Scene from "Nothing in the Dark"
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 81
Directed by	Lamont Johnson
Written by	George Clayton Johnson
Featured music	Stock
Production code	3662
Original air date	January 5, 1962
Guest stars
Gladys Cooper: Wanda Dunn Robert Redford: Harold Beldon R.G. Armstrong: Contractor
Episode chronology
← Previous "A Quality of Mercy" Next → "One More Pallbearer"
List of Twilight Zone episodes

"Nothing in the Dark" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

Synopsis

A lonely old woman, Wanda Dunn, will not leave her seemingly abandoned, dark basement apartment because she's afraid "Mr. Death" is waiting for her outside. There is an altercation outside; Wanda peeks out fearfully. A young man at the door is lying on the ground, police officer Harold Beldon, and he has been shot. After much convincing, Wanda finally opens the door and brings him in. He talks to her about her fear, and she tells him she has seen Death before in the form of a man, and witnessed him taking away the life of a woman on a bus just by touching her. Wanda has been afraid of death ever since.

When there is a knock at the door, a man breaks into her apartment, and Wanda is knocked out. When she comes to consciousness, the man apologizes and explains he is a building contractor but that he is to demolish the building within one hour; he indicates that she has been given due notice and ample time to move, and if she will not leave he will call the police to escort her forcibly from the premises. She protests and asks Harold for help, but the contractor can't see Harold. Wanda looks in the mirror and sees only the bed where Harold is lying, but not Harold himself. She realizes that he is in fact Death, come to claim her.

After the contractor leaves, Death explains that he set up the elaborate ruse to get her to trust him, so she could understand that Death itself is nothing to be scared of. At first she is very angry, and claims it is not fair, as he had tricked her. But rather than being a monster, she eventually sees him as a gentle deliverer. He says, "Mother, give me your hand." She is finally convinced to touch him. "You see. No shock. No engulfment. No tearing asunder. What you feared would come like an explosion is like a whisper. What you thought was the end is the beginning."

Before she even realizes anything has changed, she finds herself standing beside her own dead body. Wanda and Death walk together hand in hand through the doorway, up the stairs, outside into the sunlight.

Notes

• Death is also referred to as "Mr. Death" in the prologue to "One for the Angels", another episode in the series.
• One possible continuity error in the episode: Beldon is revealed to be Death because his reflection doesn't show in the mirror. Yet when the old woman touches Beldon's hand, presumably to her death, her reflection is still present in the mirror, even though her body is shown to be on the bed. If one is to assume that the mirror reflects what is actually happening, a fact implied by Beldon's revelation, the woman's presence in the reflection would conflict with such. Another interpretation would be that it is simply that just Death does not have a reflection.

References

• DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
• Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090

External links

• "Nothing in the Dark" at the Internet Movie Database
• TV.com episode page
• Nothing in the Dark review at The Twilight Zone Project
• Full video of the episode at CBS.com