| "The Convict's Piano" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The New Twilight Zone episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 30 |
||
| Directed by | Thomas J. Wright | ||
| Written by | Patrice Messina James Crocker |
||
| Original air date | December 11, 1986 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
|
Joe Penny : Frost |
|||
| Episode chronology | |||
|
|||
| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||
The Convict's Piano is the thirtieth episode (the sixth episode of the second season (1986–1987) of the television series The New Twilight Zone.
Music is heard while a convict's hands appear to play the piano, but without an actual piano and with his eyes closed, in a prison yard. He is interrupted by a bunch of roughnecks playing football. The piano playing convict, by name of Frost, turns and attacks the one who fell on him. He is taken to the infirmary and treated for a flesh wound. The guard then takes him to another life convict/prison trustee, by name of Eddie O'Hara, and they converse about how Frost's ex-girlfriend was found murdered and he was convicted of it, although Frost claims he didn't do it. They also discuss how Frost can play the piano, so that he could play Ave Maria for the bishop who is coming to visit the prison.
They find an old piano in the reception hall that belonged to a gangster named Shaughnessy, a friend of O'Hara's. It was sent over after Shaughnessy just disappeared so that the prison population could enjoy the music but it sat gathering dust—until now. Frost starts playing with the piano and finds some very old sheet music in the seat, from the 1890s. He suddenly realizes that he has traveled back in time and is playing the music on a very new piano in a band uniform on a bandstand from around the 1890s. He stops playing and seems to shimmer back to the present in the prison. The next day, out in the prison yard, he is harassed by the guy who cut him, but O'Hara steps in. They then talk about how O'Hara was framed by Shaughnessy for killing a guy. It turns out they were both in love with the same girl. Then he asks where Frost went yesterday, while he was playing the piano.
Frost goes back to the piano and plays music from 1917. As he begins to play, he appears to travel to a bar in 1917 playing "Over There". He talks to an army grunt, gets a beer and grabs a box of matches, before he stops playing and goes back to the present. Next, Frost goes to the doctor to get his stitches out and tells the doctor what happened to him. Of course, the doctor thinks he's nuts. Frost then pulls out the matchbox and realizes he is not nuts. He goes back to the piano, but is intercepted by the jerk who knifed him. He threatens Frost but the guard comes and they run. O'Hara shows up and Frost tells him all about it and promises to get O'Hara a chance to face Shaughnessy in 1928. O'Hara thinks he's crazy, but watches as Frost disappears as he plays the music. Suddenly, Frost is in a swanky club playing "Someone to Watch Over Me" when Shaughnessy himself comes over, upset over the piano playing. It turns out this is his club and he wants a new piano so he's sending this old one over to the prison for his "friend" Eddie O'Hara. Shaughnessy, who decides to show Frost a thing or two, takes over on the piano. Shaughnessy plays in the middle of Frost's song. Frost gets up but doesn't disappear. Instead he dances with Shaughnessy's girl. However, when Shaughnessy quits playing, HE disappears back to the prison in the present. Shaughnessy demands to know where he is, and O'Hara tells him he is right where he belongs and he wants to be the first to give him a state pen welcome. He punches him out and knocks him into the piano, which crashes to the ground and shatters into pieces-trapping Shaughnessey in the present to serve out Frost's sentence. Back in 1928, Frost, realizing what's happened, just smiles as he stares at the piano...