Voices from The Twilight Zone: Nothing in the Dark
By Pat Brennan
Previous ⬅ Voices from The Twilight Zone: Long Distance Call
“You know, it’s the safest thing in the world.”
With a little effort, I was able to keep my jaw from dropping. My friend/unofficial life coach Winifred and I were sitting in a busy cafe when she decided to drop that philosophical A-Bomb in my lap. We had been talking about the existential dread I’d been struggling with as of late, and as I banged on and on about how my fear was keeping me up most nights, that line (a paraphrasing of the Ram Dass quote “dying is absolutely safe”) popped in her head.
It left me reeling. How the hell could a word like that be used to describe the end of a person’s existence? I had known death, watched it take people away, and not a single moment of that experience seemed safe to me. It was a violation, a corruption, a monster that stole something precious and dragged it somewhere dank and dark. Living with the reality of its inevitable visit made me furious, and I told myself I would never entertain the idea of ever surrendering to that ultimate eventuality.
We find the embodiment of that sentiment in the form of Wanda Dunn (Gladys Cooper), the protagonist of the season three Twilight Zone outing, “Nothing in the Dark.” She is a woman who has convinced herself (perhaps rightfully) that the specter of death is lurking around every corner, so much so that she has all but barricaded herself within the dilapidated tenement house she calls home. Lonely and afraid, she turns away what few visitors she receives and refuses to hear the warnings given to her by a contractor (R.G. Armstrong) who’s been given the task of leveling her building.
This quiet and isolated existence is shattered one evening when Dunn is awoken by the sound of gunfire outside her home. When the shooting ceases, a new noise disrupts the silence as a wounded man cries for help. Just beyond her door lies Harold Beldon (Robert Redford), a young police officer who is minutes away from death thanks to the bullet his chest has caught. Dunn is the only person around who can offer him assistance, but she cannot decide whether to do so. Is this man truly who he says he is, or is he someone…or something…else entirely?
Now Entering The Spoiler Zone
So many installments of The Twilight Zone during its five-year run centered around humanity’s fear of the unknown. Oftentimes those stories focused on how that fear was reflected from a societal standpoint, but there were also instances when the idea was examined on a more existential level. “Nothing in the Dark,” written by science fiction legend George Clayton Johnson, is one of the best examples of this. It’s a story that succeeds on a number of levels, but what hooked me immediately was the deft way it taps into that all too human fear of what waits for us on the other side.
Humanizing that fear is the wonderful Gladys Cooper. By then a veteran of stage and screen, she brought a subtle blend of quiet dignity and vulnerability to the Dunn character that’s undeniably affecting. Once she was filled with an unshakable exuberance, spending her days “out in the sunlight.” Now, she won’t even face the boy who delivers her groceries for her.
“How do you live like this?” Beldon asks her when she relays to him the lonely rhythms of her days, and her reply is simple: “If I don’t live like this, I won’t live at all.” As she longs for the vitality she once had, we truly understand how much she has lost.
And yet, despite that anxiety, she chooses to open her door to the wounded Officer Beldon. It’s a touching scene considering how much she feels she is risking by doing so. You could argue that instance of courage seals her doom (he does turn out to be Mr. Death, after all) but in reality, it’s what ultimately frees her. By being given the opportunity to speak face-to-face with her fate, Wanda is released from the dread that has shackled her to that room for so long. When she finally takes Beldon’s hand, it’s a surprisingly poignant moment as he says:
“You see? No shock. No engulfment. No tearing asunder. What you feared would come like an explosion is like a whisper. What you thought was the end is the beginning.”
On the topic of Beldon, this iteration of Death stands out from the other interesting personifications found in The Twilight Zone. Unlike the menacing drifter seen in “The Hitchhiker” or the wily dealmaker of “One for the Angels,” this Grim Reaper is polite, friendly, and kind, in addition to being a total hunk. Pre-stardom Robert Redford’s performance isn’t as nuanced as his co-star Cooper’s is, but he definitely lends an angelic quality to Death that would have been fairly unconventional at the time.
Which was probably the point. As Marc Scott Zicree points out in The Twilight Zone Companion, “What Johnson is getting at in his script is the notion that death, rather than being something frightening, is simply part of the natural process.” There is a cyclical nature to nearly everything we encounter in our lives, an end to every beginning, and all of us understand that inherently. It’s what comes next, and the leap of faith it requires, that haunts us.
When I revisited this episode, I was immediately brought back to my conversation with Winifred from years ago and the piece of advice she gave me. It was eerie, actually, how vivid the memory was. I could feel the steam rising up from the mug of tea I was drinking, heard the chatter of the dozens of other folks sitting in the cafe that day, and smelled the scent of fresh coffee beans being roasted nearby. “You know, it’s the safest thing in the world,” she said matter-of-factly, and as I listened to Rod Serling’s closing narration, the meaning of those words became forehead-slappingly clear to me.
The end will come. That eventuality is perfectly natural, as is a little healthy trepidation of its arrival. But to allow the anticipation of that day to take away the enjoyment of the lives we have now is to throw away something we’ll never get back. 🩸
About
Pat Brennan is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Fangoria, Bloody Disgusting, Dread Central, and Rue Morgue. He lives in New Brunswick with his wife, son, and very needy cat. Follow him on Instagram @ horrordad87.
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