These 10 episodes of The Twilight Zone will blow your mind. A landmark in anthology television, horror, science fiction, and whatever else it would dip its toes in, The Twilight Zone is as relevant now as it was 66 years ago when creator Rod Serling’s voice welcomed brave travelers to the frightening entrance of The Twilight Zone.
There are over 150 episodes in the original run of The Twilight Zone. Some episodes are best known for their twists, some are best known for prominent actors appearing in early roles, and some are best known for their continued, unsettling relevance. This is a list of The Twilight Zone episodes that will make your head explode like this: boom.
Where Is Everybody (1959)
Season 1, Episode 1
As the first episode of The Twilight Zone ever, there was a lot riding on “Where is Everybody?” and the episode delivered with all the mystery, unnaturalness, and disquiet that viewers would come to expect from the series. It was probably a mind-blowing moment for viewers in the ’50s to see what Rod Serling had thought up.
The episode follows a man named Mike Ferris (Earl Holliman) who finds himself walking along a dirt road with no memory of who he is or how he got there. He soon arrives at a town that seems completely deserted, which eventually leads to a mental breakdown. It’s alarming and confusing, and perfectly Twilight Zone-esque.
A Stop At Willoughby (1960)
Season 1, Episode 30
In “A Stop at Willoughby”, Gart Williams (James Daly) is an advertising executive who is tired of his life. He falls asleep on a train car every day and one day wakes up in a town he’s never heard of called “Willoughby”, which seems to exist in 1888. He returns to the town again and again, finding it harder to leave the peaceful village each time.
This is an episode of The Twilight Zone that weaves the fantastical alongside the realities of life, flipping from one to another. It would be dizzying if Willoughby did not seem like such a splendid place, and the ending is one of those shocking, though beautiful and melancholic, finales only this series can pull off.
Stopover In A Quiet Town (1964)
Season 5, Episode 30
In “Stopover in a Quiet Town”, married couple Bob (Barry Nelson) and Millie Frazier (Nancy Malone) are a young couple who wake up in an unfamiliar house in an unfamiliar neighborhood. As they explore the empty town, they realize that nearly everything in it is fake or a prop.
I won’t spoil the ending of the episode because it’s a lot of fun, but this is one of those The Twilight Zone episodes that keeps throwing stranger and stranger things at you until you almost can’t believe it. Very little information is given to the viewers to start out, making for an exciting and mind-blowing ride.
A Game Of Pool
Season 3, Episode 5
In “A Game of Pool”, Jack Klugman plays Jesse Cardiff, a pool shark who laments that people would consider him the best ever if only he could beat the legendary James Howard “Fats” Brown. The problem is, Fats is dead, so he’s shaking his fists at ghosts, that is, until the ghost of Fats appears.
When Jack challenges Fats to a game of pool, Jack soon gets more than he bargained for. It’s one of those strange episodes of The Twilight Zone that seems to have been birthed from a single small idea and expanded into a lesson on lives well-lived and the danger of wanting more and more.
Five Characters In Search Of An Exit (1961)
Season 3, Episode 14
Some of The Twilight Zone episodes present an outlandish plot, and then the point of the episode is to slowly unveil the reality of the situation, putting everything you’ve seen in a different context. “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” becomes a mind-blowing tale once you guess the twist.
In the episode, a clown, a hobo, a ballet dancer, a bagpiper, and an army major find themselves trapped in a large cylinder, with no memory of how they got there, or even of who they are. They soon realize they are actually dolls. It’s an easy twist to guess, but one that intensifies the events of the episode.
The After Hours (1960)
Season 1, Episode 30
The Twilight Zone can be properly frightening when it wants to be, like in the season 1 episode, “After Hours”. In this episode, Marsha White (Anne Francis) is browsing in the mall for a gift for her mother. However, after she’s invited up to the ninth floor, Marsha becomes unnerved when she learns there is no such floor.
She becomes even more disturbed to find a mannequin that looks just like a saleswoman she spoke with while she was supposedly on the ninth floor. This is a mind-bending episode of The Twilight Zone that becomes more comprehensible the longer it goes on, and though it begins scary, it softens into something sad.
Eye Of The Beholder (1960)
Season 2, Episode 6
“Eye of the Beholder” features one of the best endings to any episode of The Twilight Zone, and begins with Janet Tyler (Maxine Stuart and Donna Douglas) undergoing her 11th facial reconstruction surgery. Covered in bandages, we are left to wonder what Janet must look like. When the obscured doctor finally removes the bandages, we’re treated to the twist.
Janet is a conventionally attractive woman, but the doctors, nurses, and everyone else in the world all have monstrous faces with pig-like snouts and twisted features. In this society, the beauty norms are different, and Janet is sent away from society to a village of the “ugly” who look more like her.
Shadow Play (1961)
Season 2, Episode 26
“Shadow Play” starts with the questions and Twilight Zone-style strangeness from the get-go, and it never lets up. The episode begins with Adam Grant (Dennis Weaver) being sentenced to death in court. Surprisingly, he bursts out laughing and tries to tell anyone who is listening that this is all a dream, and he’s been repeating it over and over.
It’s unclear how many times Adam has had to repeat his death, but his desperation and near-madness suggest this has been happening for a while. Since it’s The Twilight Zone, the audience knows that Adam is likely telling the truth, but it’s how the others in the episode come to see Adam’s point of view that really makes it unique.
Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up? (1961)
Season 2, Episode 28
In “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?” two state troopers hear reports about a UFO crash landing and track the wreckage to a nearby diner on a snowy winter night. The blizzard has caused a bus filled with passengers to take refuge there as well. The troopers suspect that someone in the diner is not who they say.
The tension in the episode grows and grows, and every time you think you’ve discovered the impostor, The Twilight Zone throws you for a loop. The final reveal at the end of the episode is actually a double reveal, and you’ll be scratching your head and laughing, wondering how anyone could have missed the alien.
To Serve Man (1962)
Season 3, Episode 24
“To Serve Man” is spoiled by its title at this point, so it’s a testament to the rest of the episode that it’s still one of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone. In the episode, 9-foot-tall aliens arrive on Earth and reveal that their only motive is to serve man, which they end up doing, ending war and famine.
However, the end of this The Twilight Zone episode reveals that the aliens have a different reason for coming to Earth, one involving the dietary habits of the aliens. “To Serve Man” goes a long time without revealing what is really happening in the episode, but the final twist is so darkly funny, you’ll be shocked even knowing it’s coming.
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