Description: Season 1, Episode 29
Air Date: April 29, 1960
Plot Summary: A woman with a hazy past meets a child who appears to know everything about the woman.
Review: I might be stretching things a bit here, but I think TZ really wanted to call this episode "molested as a child." This would certainly explain the plot shenanigans more precisely. I'm not even joking either; the story seriously sets this plot line up, but, of course, doesn't deliver. In this respect, the episode is quite disturbing. However, since they couldn't go balls to walls back then with ideas, I think they settled for this whole murder mystery bullshit. I don't know. I'll let you decide.
We are introduced to a woman, named Helen, coming home from work as a teacher, as she comes across a little girl that Helen oddly invites over for hot chocolate. The little girl claims to know everything there is to know about Helen and demonstrates this ability in an almost psychic capacity. I have to hand it to the actress playing the little girl, Terry Burnham, she does an amazing job. Despite the knowledge and intelligent demeanor, Helen doesn't seem all that unnerved by the little girl. But Helen is bothered by the little girl's cocky attitude? Priorities, hun, priorities! Anyway, it would seem Helen doesn't remember quite a bit about her own childhood, and the little girl clearly knows the truth regarding a mysterious trauma Helen faced. Before the little girl can blab, a man comes knocking at the door claiming to be a former employee of Helen's mother who had been murdered when Helen was a child; the little girl runs off during this time as well.
The man creepily discloses he had a crush on Helen when she was a little girl. Keep in mind, this guy was a full grown man when the mother died and Helen was meant to be like 10 or 11. The man also expresses further interest in the current Helen in a weird way. Exasperating the pedo-level is when the man pulls out a photo (from of his ass seemingly) of Helen as a little girl. Yeah, that's totally normal. Oh come on! Well, sure enough, the photo of Helen as a little girl is a dead ringer for the little girl Helen has been talking to. And like the little girl, this molester clearly knows the truth regarding Helen's trauma but he too leaves suddenly. Eventually Helen talks to the little girl again who reveals she truly is the embodiment of her younger self; I guess it's ambiguous as to whether it's all in Helen's head or a real manifestation of sorts. Helen has been forgetting a horrible truth regarding her mother's murder and the little girl has awakened it. As Helen remembers the murder more clearly, the pedo-guy reappears to tell us a few more juicy details. Apparently he has been stalking Helen her whole life and watching her from afar. The episode claims it was to make sure she never blabbed about him being the actual murderer but nice try. Now that the cat is out of the bag, the guy tries to grab Helen, but, through sloppy editing, Helen ends up knocking pedo-man down a flight of stairs. Random cops sum it up for us regarding Helen's reconciliation with her trauma, the truth behind it, and the appearance of the little girl. The episode ends with Helen talking to another little girl for whatever reason. Oh no, don't tell me you have another trauma, Helen?!
Okay, if you remove the murder and replace that with Helen getting molested, doesn't it all fit? The guy admits to having a crush on a little kid, keeps a photo of her as a little girl on him, has watched her grow up creepily, and seems to want her even now! This would also explain Helen's willful forgetfulness better. Plus, this theory addresses why she became a teacher to help children and why she's still single. It all adds up. OR, I could be completely wrong. Eh. The episode isn't too bad as is, but it would be revolutionary for the era if looked at in the way I interpret. I mean, it's not like they could feasibly write a story like this back then anyway, and Mr. Serling was a smart guy.
No, you're not wrong, all of the details you mentioned do add up to the creepy guy being a molester, and the only reason Sterling changed it to murder is because they couldn't air anything on TV about child molesting back in the day. You are right on the money with your assumption.
ReplyDeleteI was curious why the perpetrator waited so long to come back to Helen, since he revealed how badly he wanted to confront her.
I think that the little girl was a play in Helen's mind, but the creepy perp coming over to her place was real. The reason I believe that Helen having the illusions of her childhood self was because it was mentioned that Helen saw someone familair looking in car a little while previously, and even though she couldn't immediately place him, it still struck a deep chord in her deepest hidden memories to where she then envisioned her childhood self when she got home. That helps explain her childhood self trying to remind her who the man in the car really was. And she couldn't place the man in the car or her childhood self right away due to her buried traumatic memories that caused her to not remember her childhood well.