Fair Warning (The Twilight Zone)

"Fair Warning" is the twenty-sixth episode of the science fiction television series 2002 revival of The Twilight Zone. The episode was first broadcast on January 8, 2003, on UPN.

Opening narration

Plot summary

Tina Bishop, a young girl working at a flower shop, is discussing her six months with her boyfriend Ryan. Her boss Gwen comes in and tells them to break it up. Gwen and Ryan leave and Tina goes back to work. A man appears from the shadows, wearing a clerk’s uniform with a name tag saying “George”. George insists that they met at a laundromat and that she has deep feelings for him. Tina has no idea who he is and tells him to get out, but George warns her that she has to stop him from killing her. She starts to call the police but George disappears in the second her back is turned.

Later, Tina tells Gwen what happened. They check out the nearby stores and find a George Straitton who is the exact image of the man Tina saw. They call the police and Detective Henley interrogates George, but he denies having ever met Tina. Henley admits there is nothing they can do unless they have some evidence against him. Even Gwen is not sure if Tina saw what she insists she saw.

After Gwen leaves the flower store for the night, George appears again and accuses Tina of betraying him with Ryan. It is clear that he has been stalking the couple and knows everything that they have done. This time George tells Tina to drop Ryan and save herself. She refuses and turns to run, bumping into Ryan as he returns. When she looks back, George has mysteriously disappeared again. Ryan searches the flower store but does not find anything. He calls the pet store where George works and confirms that he is working there. Ryan tells Tina he is going to see George and warn him off.

As Tina walks out to her SUV, she finds George waiting for her. He tells her that he is trying to save her life and that sending Ryan has put her in danger. He insists that he will not be able to stop himself from killing her and she has to get away from him by leaving the city. Tina refuses to leave and starts calling Henley, and George disappears again. Henley tells her to come down to the station where he explains that Ryan attacked George and was arrested. The security tape shows Ryan and George on the tape at exactly the same time that Tina claims George confronted her in the parking lot.

The next day, an increasingly angry Ryan wonders if Tina is imagining things. She insists that what she saw is real and Ryan tells her to handle it on her own. Tina meets with Gwen, who tells her that she needs to see a psychiatrist and gives her a doctor’s call.

Tina puts on a pair of sunglasses and goes to see a bruised and battered George at the pet store. He soon recognizes her and insists that she is nuts, but Tina tells him to stop stalking her. George says he never has and threatens to call the police on her. She goes back to the flower store and calls the psychiatrist, leaving a message to make an appointment. As she leaves for the night, a car secretly follows her home.

Back at her apartment, Tina finds George waiting for her. However, this George has no bruises on his face. He tells her that he tried to save her but she just would not listen. She asks him why he keeps threatening her and then saying he is trying to save her, and “George” says that he is being torn apart. Tina runs for the door and finds an injured George outside. She backs away and the real George enters the apartment. The uninjured one says that as George’s conscience, he has done everything he can. George and “George” merge into one and George comes after Tina. She grabs a pair of shears and stabs him in the side.

Later, Henley and his men take George away. George wonders how Tina knew what he was thinking and Tina tells him that his conscience gave him away. As George is being taken away on a stretcher the paramedics, Forest Whitaker appears outside Tina's apartment and talks about the voice that makes the difference between life and death as Tina and Henley walk by him.

Closing narration

External links

• "Fair Warning" at TV.com
• "Fair Warning" at the Internet Movie Database