A Stop at Willoughby

Description: Season 1, Episode 30

Air Date: May 6, 1960

Plot Summary: An overly stressed business man dreams of a quiet town where he can escape his unfulfilled life.

Review: I think I might just have to classify this episode in the underrated category. It's not as good as I would want it to be, but it was ahead of its time in certain respects and the message was sound advice. The story shows us the shallow life of a man named Gart who has reached an impasse. Gart has grown wary of his annoying boss and bitchy wife. The boss is your stereotypical business executive that screams all his dialogue while only caring about results and money. Gart's wife is a cliched bitch that only married Gart for the potential money he would make. Her ambitions have translated into pressure for Gart to succeed where he wouldn't have chosen to otherwise. As for Gart himself, he simply reflects on a life he didn't necessarily choose and how everything about himself is an act to maintain appearances--to be someone he's not and never intended to be. I'd say this was not something typically addressed in 1960 especially in regard to the blunt shallowness and nihilism connected to work and marriage. In fact, I'd say society wanted (and continues to want) people to think things will turn out to the contrary.

With Gart cracking under the pressure, or perhaps no longer caring, he dreams of a magical town called Willoughby as he rides a train home from work each day. In Willoughby, life is simple and devoid of complexity, almost in a naive sense, but this is a dreamworld after all, right? Although Gart would wake from this dream, he becomes fixated on the notion of getting to this place. He realizes that it is his own apprehension to escape that stops him from fully embracing the dream. One day, when finally caving in to the pressure of success, and his wife abandoning him, Gart decides he will go to Willoughby the next time he dreams. Sure enough, Gart arrives at his destination, and, we can assume, reaches a sense of inner peace. In reality, Gart appears to have committed suicide while on that train ride home--seemingly leaping from the train in mid-motion. Then it is revealed that Willoughby is actually a funeral home. The episode is a bit ambiguous as to whether Gart really went to a dreamworld or was getting glimpses of an afterlife as he grew closer to death. I suppose it's up to the viewer to decide which was the true reality, but I will believe Gart was transported to his own imagined paradise. Alternatively, you could view the ending as significantly more morbid and that the only real release from life's stress is death itself. Regardless, a happy death is better than a lifetime of unhappiness.

Overall, this is a good episode with a few interesting points to consider. This is definitely a good example of introspection and an examination of how believing you have everything you want may not, in fact, be what you truly desire. There is certainly more to life than material gain and you bet your sweet ass there is more to life than simply striving to give that material gain to someone else. One of the best points of the episode was touching on the idea of spending more than you have to maintain an appearance and to hide your real self. No wonder people have mid-life crises. I do wish there was a concise conclusion or a whimsical approach, but other episodes have addressed that concept.