Spur of the Moment (The Twilight Zone)
| "Spur of the Moment" | |
|---|---|
| The Twilight Zone episode | |
| Episode no. |
Season 5 Episode 21 |
| Directed by | Elliot Silverstein |
| Written by | Richard Matheson |
| Featured music | Rene Garriguenc |
| Production code | 2608 |
| Original air date | February 21, 1964 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
|
Diana Hyland: Anne Henderson | |
| Episode chronology | |
"Spur of the Moment" is episode 141 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Plot
The episode opens with a young woman riding on horseback on June 13, 1939. Upon a ridge, she views a woman in black screaming at her. Anne, petrified, races back to her home where her parents and her fiance, Robert are waiting for her. She tells them of her frightful experience. Her parents and Robert, a respectable investment broker, calm her down and talk of the upcoming marriage. Moments later, her former fiance, David Mitchell, appears at the door and pleads to Anne to call off her wedding and be with him. He tells her that if she states that she does not love him, he will leave. She does not answer. Her father tells David that her silence is proof she does not love him and David leaves.
Twenty-five years later, an older Anne is obviously miserable. She disparages her father, whom we learn has died, for spoiling her and never allowing her to earn anything in life. Her mother defends her deceased husband to her daughter, slapping Anne. Anne slaps her back much harder. Anne asks her mother if she remembered that night many years ago when she came home terrified after riding her horse. She reveals to her mother that she now realizes that it was herself who was pursuing the younger Anne on horseback to warn her that she was making a mistake in her decision to whom she would marry. However, it is David, not Robert, who walks into the room, revealing to the audience that she changed her mind that night. In a flashback to that night, Anne runs out of the house to David, telling him that he is her true love.
Back in the present, the older Anne leaves the house on horseback, fleeing the abusive David who mocks her for her decision to marry him. She approaches the ridge line and sees her younger self down below. She pursues the young Anne with the warning, but Anne rides away in terror.
References
- DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
- Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0