The Passersby

Description: Season 3, Episode 4

Air Date: October 6, 1961

Plot Summary: At the end of the Civil War, a lonely woman watches the stream of soldiers that pass by her home.

Review: While this is mostly an average episode, I really enjoyed some of the ideas proposed; it's definitely a unique way to look at the afterlife or at least the logistics of how it could possibly work. The only real problem was that the twist was beyond predictable which makes the story a slow buildup pointlessly. All that happens is we meet a bitter and lonely, confederate woman just as the Civil War draws to its end. She sees numerous injured and defeated men walk by her dilapidated house each day. One day, a crippled officer stops by and stays with the woman for a time. The two reflect on the misery of war, but the woman is angry that her husband was killed. I kept thinking the two would hook up in a '60s kind of fashion or that it would be revealed the officer really was her husband; neither of the things happen.

One night, a union officer, who had helped the officer staying with the woman, visits and the woman tries to shoot him. Of course he doesn't die as it should be abundantly clear they're all dead. Eventually the woman's husband appears as he tries to help her move on into the afterlife. It's kind of interesting how they present this purgatory-esque scenario whereby the casualties of the war are in their own isolated place. This road that all the soldiers have passed by leads to the end of the line, but the woman has somehow manifested her home at its edge. The husband and the other officer decide to move on, and the husband claims he will meet her in the place that lies beyond the road. As the woman cries, unable to accept the situation, Lincoln shows up to console the woman. He tells her he is the last person on this road and serves as the final death of the war. Again, it's fascinating that this afterlife is like a separate grouping and has a distinct beginning and end. Not wanting to be alone, the woman goes to the end of the road to meet her husband and that's it. The episode deals with themes we've already discussed, but they're spun differently enough. If they had added something extra to fill out the predictability, this could have been one of the classics perhaps. As it stands, this episode leans on the average side of things.