A Message From Charity
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| “A Message From Charity” | |||||||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||||||
 Scene from "A Message From Charity" |
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 6, Segment 2 |
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| Written by | Alan Brennert | ||||||
| Directed by | Paul Lynch | ||||||
| Guest stars | Kerry Noonan : Charity Payne (Robert) Duncan McNeill : Peter Wood Vanessa Brown : Aunt Beulah Gerald Hiken : Squire Jonas Hacker James Cromwell : Obadiah Payne Michael Fox : Tom Carter Jennifer Parsons : Ursula Miller Jack Wells : Dr. Maxwell Phil Proctor : Mr. Wood Barbara Lindsay : Mrs. Wood |
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| Original airdate | November 1, 1985 | ||||||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||||||
"A Message From Charity" is the second segment of the sixth episode from the television series The New Twilight Zone. This segment is based on the short story "A Message from Charity" by William M. Lee. The story was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction November, 1967.
[edit] Synopsis
Peter Wood is a teenager sick with a fever that puts him in a type of telepathy with Charity Payne, a Puritan girl from the 1700's, who also has the same type of fever. The two share realistic thought-visions of each other's world, and Charity has a chance to glimpse the future of 1985. The teenagers discover they can communicate and the relationship becomes one of true friendship.
When Charity is discovered (when she tries to humble a know-it-all neighbor girl), she is branded a witch for her knowledge of future events. Now her friend from the future must help her escape the clutches of her villagers, and prove she is not a witch before she is tried and executed.
Peter discovers the historical fact that a dead body would be discovered nearby Charity's township and that Squire Hacker would be a suspect in the murder. This information is used to convince the Squire that Charity could reveal his hidden life in a trial, so he drops all charges and releases the girl. After that, Charity tells Peter that they probably should not go on communicating as problems may arise again. Peter sadly agrees and they tell each other goodbye.
Approximately one year later, Peter, while attending college, receives one last telepathic call from Charity. She has left him a message at Bear Rock, a local landmark in nearby Harmon Brook, which has existed since before Charity's time. Peter runs to the brook and finds the message Charity has left from the past. Chiseled into Bear Rock is a Valentine-like heart with the initials "PW + CP".
[edit] Closing narration
| “ | He reached out with his mind, searching for some trace of her...but found only silence. Peter Wood was alone... | ” |
(At this point, we see a scene of Peter on campus, talking and joking with his friends)
| “ | A new year with new friends and a new confidence and, in time, he began to doubt whether it had ever really happened. Until, one day... | ” |
(At this point in the narration, Charity contacts Peter for the final time and tells him she is breaking their vow not to contact each other, but she wants him to know she has left him a message on Bear Rock. He sprints there, sees the heart and initials, smiles)
| “ | Harmon Brook is very different today. Its waters not quite as pure, its banks lined with tract homes and shopping centers, But Bear Rock is still there. And so is a message, a message from a girl long gone, and yet, never really gone in heart and mind. A last remembrance of friendship and first love. A love that will live, only and always, in the Twilight Zone. | ” |
