Life After Life

 

 

 

 This is my entry in the Favorite TV Episode hosted by A Shroud of Thoughts

 

What happens after we die? 

 Every religion in the world (and most cultures) has some idea,  and they are as varied as a Wheel of Fortune game.  Some religions are more people friendly than others, to be sure.  Ken Jennings (the guy who wowed the world by winning Jeopardy for 70+ times in a row) published a book titled 100 Places to See After You Die, while, maybe not comprehensive, is a pretty interesting look at how cultures view what happens after we leave our mortal coil.

The standard view of the Grim Reaper is one that will come to mind to most people who are reading this blog entry.  The Grim Reaper has been characterized as a skeletal figure with a hooded robe and a scythe, and, except for a few times in movies (such as Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey), is a pretty scary apparition.

 

But what if Death didn't look like that?  What if he was a well-mannered, clean-cut guy in a tailored suit and smoked Oasis cigarettes?

 

Rod Serling, the host of The Twilight Zone, took viewers into often surreal realms, and the afterlife was no stranger to the series.  (Although he wasn't Death in the series episodes. Usually he was just a guy who let us into those private worlds.) In at least a dozen or so episodes, the ultimate destination of a man (or woman) was addressed.  Sometimes the ultimate end was not so sweet, and occasionally, the end turned out to be not so fearful as it was imagined to be.  In all cases, the essential theme of the show came through, however.

The essence of The Twilight Zone was usually categorized into one of two different themes.  In some, a not too likeable character got his just desserts, while in others a hapless victim found himself in a situation that, while maybe unwarranted, gave the victim a new perspective (although not always for the benefit of the victim...)

Spoiler Alert!  In most of these encapsulations I reveal the gotcha! denouement that ended the episode, so if you want to watch them first, don't read anything but the title of the episode, go watch it, then come back.

In the first set of stories we are dealing with people who have a less than respectable past and are in their own kind of punishment for their misdeeds.

 Judgement Night:  The afterlife for Karl Lasner (Nehemiah Persoff) is nightmarish, to say the least.  He is trapped on a British boat, during the height of WWII, with no idea how he got there.  The one thing he is sure of is there is some impending doom coming.  In essence, he is sure there is a German U-Boat stalking the ship, and he knows, I mean KNOWS, that the ship will be sunk.  It becomes apparent that that indeed is what will happen, and the reason he knows is because he has been condemned to an eternity of reliving the event because he was the heartless U-Boat commander that sunk said ship.

A Nice Place to Visit: In this episode a small time hood/thief is shot and killed in a gun battle.  Rocky (Larry Blyden) finds himself as a guest to his guardian "angel", Pip (Sebastian Cabot) who administers to his every need.  And he has everything he could possibly want in this afterlife.  He can't lose at gambling, he gets every woman without any effort etc.  But it gets boring and he finally tells Pip that he is tired of this Heaven and wants to be sent to "that other place". Whereupon Pip informs him that THIS IS "that other place".

 

The two episodes above fall into that category of someone getting their "just desserts".  Karl is at the end of his first encounter an entirely unfeeling and sadistic (typically) German sailor, who even ridicules one of his subordinates for even having a hint of sympathy for their victims.  And although the episode is played for laughs, Rocky is not a very likable fellow himself at the beginning.  You MIGHT feel some sympathy for him later in the episode, but then you have to remember, not only was he a crook, but he even attempts to shoot the police as he is being chased.

In the case of people who are likable and just having a rough time of it, I present a set of episodes.

Nothing in the Dark:

An elderly woman (Gladys Cooper) lives in what is determined to be a condemned building.  She keeps the door locked because she is afraid that the next person who enters it will be Mr. Death, come to take her away.  She doesn't want to die, she is afraid of the other side.  But a policeman (Robert Redford) is shot outside her door and, against her better wishes she brings him inside. When he finds out she is afraid he does his best to calm her fears.  A man claiming to be from the company sent to demolish the building tries to entice her outside to safety, but she is sure HE is really Mr. Death.  Only, as it turns out, the "policeman" she admitted is the real Mr. Death..  But by this time he has convinced her that the next life is nothing to be afraid of.

A Passage of Trumpet:

In New York City, a wannabe jazz trumpeter struggles with coping with the down side of life.  Joey (Jack Klugman) used to be a top dog on the jazz circuit, even having once played with Tommy James, but now he is an alcoholic and misses the limelight.  He even has to sell his cherished trumpet just to get money to drink, and ultimately steps in front of a truck.  He finds himself in limbo, neither alive nor really dead.  A visit from someone who eventually turns out to be the angel Gabriel (John Anderson), convinces him to give life a second chance.

 One for the Angels:

In this episode, Lew Bookman (Ed Wynn) is a likable guy who makes his living as a street peddler.  Everyone in his neighborhood likes him, especially the kids.  When Mr. Death (Murray Hamilton) shows up and announces that he has come for lew, Lew tries to get out of it.  He negotiates a deal that he gets one last "pitch", one he calls "one for the angels" before he goes.  But wily Lew has an ace up his sleeve.  He states that he will not even try for his pitch.  But Mr. Death will not be outsmarted so easily.  He tells Lew he still has to take someone, and that someone is going to be one of the children. Ultimately Lew makes his pitch to none other than Mr. Death and accompanies him into the afterlife.

In all three cases, the afterlife is not so nearly as devastating as it's made out to be.  In the first, the woman gets to go on to a better life on the other side, while in the second, Joey gets a new outlook on life and continues on with his life, but the afterlife waiting for him farther down the road is at least a little more optimistic.

Then, of course, as was sometimes the case, we get the sentimental stories.  In these, the main character passes on to the next life, and finds that the new life is not so bad.

The Hunt:

Written by Earl Hamner, Jr (the writer of what eventually became the TV series "The Waltons"), this is the story of a backwoods man (Arthur Hunnicutt, Jr. who goes out hunting with his dog.  An unfortunate accident results in the death of the two, but they find they really don't know what has happened until later.  Once he determines that he is indeed dead, he continues down the road.  He first comes to a gate that he thinks is Heaven, but the gatekeeper refuses to let his dog come with him.  He decides that eternity without his best friend is unacceptable and continues down the road.  At the next gate he discovers that the first gate was actually the entrance to Hell, and the gatekeeper refused to let the dog in because the dog would have known instantly something was amiss. 

A Stop in Willoughby:

An ad exec (James Daly) who is pressured by his boss and his rather unsympathetic wife dozes off on his commuter train.  While asleep he dreams he is on a much older tain which makes a stop in an unfamiliar town called Willoughby.  From the window he notices that it a peaceful and rath Elysian town where things are far more laid back than his hectic day to day life.  He dreams of getting back there, so the next day, when he dreams of this halcyon heaven he steps off the train.  But, since he is only seeing it in his dreams, when he actually steps off the train, the real train is still moving.  He makes it to Willoughby, only it is in an afterlife, but it is a step up from the horrible life he has to endue. 

One particular episode stands out because it addresses what happens during times of intense strife, and what we might see at the end of that strife.

In The Passerby a Confederate soldier (James Gregory) pauses on the way back home after the Civil War to have a chat with a woman (Joanne Linville). During the episode many soldiers pass by on the road and it gradually becomes apparent that the road is not filled with those going home after the end of the war, but are actually ones who died during the war and are going on to their new home in eternity.

There are several other episodes in the original pantheon that sometimes deal with an afterlife, albeit peripherally.  For instance, in Elegy three astronauts have to crash land on an asteroid which turns out to be a glorified cemetery where the caretaker manufactures a scene of the dead persons biggest wish and then eternally ensconces them in this scene. And in The Hitchhiker a woman is forever being haunted (hunted?) by a hitchhiker who turns out to be Death come to collect her soul after she had died in a car wreck earlier in her cross-country trip. 

But by far one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes is A Game of Pool in which our returning actor, Jack Klugman comes on the scene as a wannabe pool star who is forever dealing with being called second rate compared to a legend (Jonathan Winters) who is no longer among the living.  He wishes more than anything to be given the chance to prove himself against this star player, and is given the chance when the star returns from the afterlife to play him a one-on-one game. Ultimately he wins, but the curse he gets as a result is he takes the place of the star after he dies and has to answer the call whenever another would-be hustler wants the chance to prove himself.

 

The thing to remember in all of this is your next life (or afterlife) is always going to be based on how you conduct yourself in this present life.  So be good and remember that no matter where you go you will be affecting that future state.  Assuming, of course, there actually is one.  In The Twilight Zone there always was, but then, I won't state for a fact that there actually is.  Have a good journey, however, just in case...

Note: A word of thanks to Ken Jennings, who inspired this post, since he had a chapter dedicated to The Twilight Zone in his book mentioned above.

Quiggy