Mute (The Twilight Zone)

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The Twilight Zone Original series Season four (1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5) January 1963 – June 1963 List of The Twilight Zone episodes
Episodes: In His Image The Thirty-Fathom Grave Valley of the Shadow He's Alive Mute Death Ship Jess-Belle Miniature Printer's Devil No Time Like the Past The Parallel I Dream of Genie The New Exhibit Of Late I Think of Cliffordville The Incredible World of Horace Ford On Thursday We Leave for Home Passage on the Lady Anne The Bard

“Mute” is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

[edit] Details

Episode number: 107
Season: 4
Original air date: January 31, 1963
Writer: Richard Matheson
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Producer: Herbert Hirschman
Director of photography: Robert W. Pittack
Music: Fred Steiner

[edit] Cast

Ilse Nielsen: Ann Jillian
Harry Wheeler: Frank Overton
Cora: Barbara Baxley
Miss Frank: Irene Dailey
Professor Werner: Oscar Beregi, Jr.
Tom Poulter: Percy Helton

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Ilse, a twelve-year-old girl, is orphaned when her parents die in a fire. She is left in the care of others unaware of her true condition. It seems that her parents raised her in ignorance, and did not even teach her to talk. In actuality, Ilsa was raised (along with other children in far-away Europe) by parents who subjected her to an experiment. The experiment was essentially a language deprivation experiment, in which no one spoke (verbally) with the child. The experiment was intended to draw out inherent telepathic abilities that the parents believed all people once possessed, but which had been repressed after the development of spoken language.

The experiment with Ilsa was particularly successful: Ilsa communicated telepathically well. But after the death of her parents, Ilsa lives in a world of people who speak with voices instead of their minds: her life is turned upside down. By the time she is found by a couple (from Europe) who had also raised their child as part of the experiment, Ilse's telepathic capability has been overtaken, especially by her experiences in public school and the genuine love of her adoptive parents. Additionally, Ilsa wants to stay with the two normal people (husband and wife) who have been taking care of her for the past three months, because they genuinely care about her (especially the wife). It is explained at the end that Ilsa's parents, while being nice to her, had not loved her, but viewed her primarily as a living experiment.

(There might be some similarity with Loglan, where some children were raised with Loglan only.)