Nothing in the Dark

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“Nothing in the Dark”
The Twilight Zone episode

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

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

Contents

[edit] Opening Narration

“ An old woman living in a nightmare, an old woman who has fought a thousand battles with death and always won. Now she's faced with a grim decision: Whether or not to open a door. And in some strange and frightening way, she knows that this seemingly ordinary door leads to the Twilight Zone. ”

[edit] 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 faints, thinking it's "Mr. Death". When she comes to, the man apologizes and explains he is a building contractor but that he is to demolish the building the very next day; 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, Harold 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's 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.

[edit] Closing Narration

“ There was an old woman who lived in a room and, like all of us, was frightened of the dark. But who had discovered in the minute last fragment of her life that there was nothing in the dark that wasn't there when the lights were on. Object lesson for the more frightened among us, in or out of the Twilight Zone. ”

[edit] References

[edit] External links

[edit] Twilight Zone links

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