Description: Season 5, Episode 19
Air Date: February 7, 1964
Plot Summary: After a large storm, an old woman begins to receive mysterious phone calls.
Review: This could have been a scary episode, but they kind of blow it along the way. An old woman, named Elva, receives a bizarre call in the middle of the night during a storm. Mr. Serling mentions how Elva wants some excitement in her life so I guess that's why she makes such a big deal out of receiving a phone call. It never crossed her mind this was nothing more than a wrong number? After hounding the operator lady--because that used to be a thing once upon a time--the operator says they have a crew working to repair any fallen lines that went down during the storm. In the meantime, Elva receives more calls with each subsequent call becoming more and more clear until a voice can be understood. Elva's reactions are what make this episode lame since she would be the easiest person in the world to troll. Is it really so hard to simply unplug the phone?
Eventually we learn that Elva could not receive any calls due to the fact that her line has been down the entire time. More so, her line specifically went down nearby a cemetery. The plot thickens! Right when you think this story is building up to something interesting we come to discover the line is laying on top of Elva's fiance's grave. Wait, hold on. This lady is OLD, but her fiance died in 1932...that would put her in, at least, her 40s and unmarried? In 1932?! Nowaday that may be meaningless, but back then that was a serious statement. Well, okay, sure. Elva now wants to talk to the ghostly caller except he's moved on after she told him to stop. Mr. Serling even mentions she's made her bed and must lie in it. Wow. How are you going to make the ending that dark out of the blue? If everything didn't fall to pieces at the last second, this could have easily been one of scariest episodes. It's still pretty creepy for its time, but it had the potential to be one of the legends.
Same woman from Nothing in the dark again acting both frightened and immensely stubborn. No Kidding, why couldn't she just unplug the phone or leave it off the hook? Even her caretaker suggested that. And when the voice was making weird sounds, why would she then continue to stay on the phone saying "hello?? hello!? hello!? who's calling please!? hello!?" And the whole episode was pretty much just that until the twist at the end of it
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