The Twilight Zone – Season 1 Episode 10 “Blurryman” Recap & Review

Blast From The Past

Blurring the line between fact and fiction, The Twilight Zone subverts expectations by delivering a final episode that pays tribute to the original Twilight Zone all those years ago. We begin with a simple enough set-up, with a writer looking outside and seeing an apocalyptic setting before Jordan Peele arrives to narrate again. Only, this time he breaks his persona midway through and begins walking off-set with script writer Sophie, discussing the significance of the lines he’s given.

From here, the episode then follows Sophie as she tries desperately to nail the right hook for the episode while the pressures of the TV crew weigh down around her. Things go from bad to worse though when a strange, blurry figure continues to show up on film reels, prompting the Director to ask for an explanation around what’s happening. As Sophie walks through the set, she calls her friend, expressing concerns about what’s happening but pauses as the lights suddenly go out and the blurry figure shows up in the doorway.

She runs. Runs through the sets of the other episodes out onto the street, tripping over a dolly camera before seeing computer screens flickering, showing the blurry figure himself on still images from other episodes. “What are you showing me?” Sophie says desperately before the figure shows up again and continues to stalk her. As bottles smash and tables flip, she makes her way onto the set with the other crew members.

However, none of the other cast members notice her, as if shes a ghost. She continues on before coming face to face with the blurry figure, finally able to embrace her past fears and snapping back to reality. As she finally gives Jordan the narration he wants, Sophie believes her ordeal is behind her. However, the blurry figure returns and Sophie is whisked away from the present to a black and white alternate reality. Rod Serling appears and takes her through doorways to the Twilight Zone.

For all of its ups and downs this year, The Twilight Zone ends on a suitably touching tribute to the original. It’s a great way to end the series too, with enough weird and wonderful twists to make it closer to the original Twilight Zone than some of the other episodes in the series. It’s bittersweet in a way that The Twilight Zone ends in this manner. The quality this year has been so wildly inconsistent that to end on such a high is a reminder of how good this series can be. Unfortunately the quality has been fleeting at best but hopefully the second season can build on this and deliver a much more concise and even spread of decent episodes. If it can do that The Twilight Zone could easily be one of the better anthologies out there.