Voices from The Twilight Zone: The Purple Testament
By Pat Brennan
Episode: “The Purple Testament” | Original Series (1959–1964) | S1E19
It’s hard to believe that Rod Serling went to his grave thinking that he’d be forgotten.
The idea that this giant-of-a-writer spent his final days on Earth in a hospital bed worrying that his contribution to modern storytelling wasn’t anything short of gargantuan is a heartbreaking one. Today, The Twilight Zone is considered by many to be a high point in the medium of television. However, only a handful of the stories it told are now remembered by the average genre fan. Episodes like “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” “Eye of the Beholder,” and “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” are all classics, to be sure, but there are so many other tales that deserve to be revisited and lauded. And that’s exactly what this ongoing series will be dedicated to.
Each installment of “Voices from The Twilight Zone” will highlight a lesser-known or forgotten episode of the legendary television show and examine what makes it special, be it thematic elements that are just as relevant today as they were decades ago, standout performances that may have been overlooked, or the simple fact that it’s a fantastic yarn in dire need of a dust off. My goal for this series is to help keep the memory of Rod Serling and the other writers who worked on The Twilight Zone alive by showing just how robust and timeless their stories truly were.
So now, let’s step through that old familiar doorway together and listen for what we might hear in the darkness.
On the morning after his high school graduation, Rod Serling enlisted in the United States Military with the intention of serving his country during World War II. He was 18 years old at the time, brimming with the combination of bravery and naivety that only comes with youth, and he couldn’t possibly imagine the kinds of things he’d witness over the next three years. Soon he was seeing combat during the Battle of Leyte as part of the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 11th Airborne Division. He would spend nearly all of his time fighting in the Philippines, and during the course of that time, he’d narrowly escape death on a number of occasions while losing friend after friend to the brutalities of battle.
It’s no question that the traumas Serling experienced would go on to influence his writing for years to come. Many installments of The Twilight Zone would explore themes centered around war, its crippling effects on our humanity, and our inclination towards conflict. Episodes like “King Nine Will Not Return,” “Deaths-Head Revisited,” and “A Quality of Mercy” are all hard-hitting classics (some may even appear in future installments of this series), but the one that I find most haunting is “The Purple Testament.” It’s the first TZ tale to tap into Serling’s wartime experience (“The Last Flight,” which aired a few weeks before “The Purple Testament,” was written by Richard Matheson) and one of his most stirring efforts in that arena.
The story follows a soldier named Lt. Fitzgerald (William Reynolds) as he grapples with a uniquely horrible gift that the cosmos has bestowed upon him. One day he discovers that, if he sees an unearthly light shining from a person’s face, it means they’re moments away from meeting their end. At first, he refuses to believe he has this ability, hoping against hope that his predictions are simply coincidence, but Lt. Fitzgerald is soon forced to accept their validity as the evidence mounts. This unwanted knowledge leaves him trying to answer a supernaturally amplified version of the awful question faced by all soldiers during times of war: how do you continue to live when death is all you see?
My favorite kind of stories are the ones that provide new insights each time they’re experienced. One of the greatest strengths of “The Purple Testament” is how rich its narrative is. For an episode whose runtime is only 25 minutes long, the ground it covers is surprisingly far-reaching. What’s more, its emotional impact hasn’t lessened over time, which is astonishing considering it’s nearly 65 years old.
“These are the faces of the men who fight,” Serling says in his opening narration as it plays over a shot of soldiers, fresh off the battlefield, exiting a transport vehicle after arriving back at their camp. Their expressions, combined with Rod’s words, paint a poignant and somber picture for the audience; fear, exhaustion, and shock are all present, immediately stripping the story of the romanticism that characterized so many depictions of war in that era’s media. It’s also the first time in the episode that we encounter the motif of the face, which will be a crucial element of the story going forward. Obviously, it plays a huge part in the plot, considering Lt. Fitzgerald’s soon-to-be-revealed power, but it’s also one of the main ways in which the characters of “The Purple Testament” are humanized. By focusing on their faces and the vulnerability they display, we are forced to see them as people rather than mindless toy army men that are wound up, pointed toward the enemy, and sent marching to their doom.
In addition to providing a more realistic depiction of soldiers’ plight, there are a few instances in “The Purple Testament” where Serling seems to criticize the institutions of war and their class structures. One of the subtlest comes early on when we hear a man, who has returned from a mission that saw heavy casualties, inform an officer that “we got the bridge, whatever they wanted it for.” There is an air of bitterness to his voice at this moment, as if a part of him is lamenting the hierarchy that is inherent in the military and the fact that some men don’t have to get their hands dirty while others are sent out to die without even understanding what it is they’re dying for. One of the cruelest realities of war is that too often those with the most power sacrifice the least.
These aspects of “The Purple Testament” definitely make it one of the more memorable installments of The Twilight Zone, but the moment that continues to stay with me comes during its climax [SPOILERS AHEAD]. After finding out that he’s being put on rest leave, Lt. Fitzgerald begins to prepare for his journey back to headquarters. However, as he’s packing up his belongings, he catches his reflection in a mirror and sees that strange light emitting from his own face. Knowing what this means, he approaches the Jeep that will be taking him away with the resignation of a man on death row walking toward the gallows. A few minutes later after the vehicle has departed, we hear an explosion off in the distance and know that the soldier’s final vision was just as accurate as all the rest.
Years ago, I found myself yelling at the TV screen during my first viewing of this episode. It just didn’t make any sense to my adolescent mind at the time. If Lt. Fitzgerald knows that the path he’s about to go down (both figuratively and literally) will ultimately lead to his demise, then why does he take it? Why does he resign himself to death when he has the opportunity to go on living?
Obviously, the idea of fate comes into play here, and it’s probably the most logical reason for his decision. Lt. Fitzgerald sees this as the unavoidable endgame of his own destiny. Perhaps he even believes that, if he were to not get on that Jeep, death would still find him somehow. My interpretation builds on this thought in that I think his resignation comes out of a place of sheer exhaustion and brokenness. In As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling, Anne Serling’s incredibly insightful and heartbreakingly candid memoir, she gives this apt quote when speaking of the emotional toll the war took on her father: “…you can’t experience the deaths of your fellow soldiers without a piece of you dying as well.”
In the case of Lt. Fitzgerald, I believe he’s lost too much of himself to go on. He’s seen too much of the worst humanity has to offer and decides that this last ride he’s about to take is more of an exit than an end. Through this lens, it might be one of the darkest endings seen in The Twilight Zone’s five-season run, and certainly, it’s one of its most sobering. 🩸
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 Twitter @PBrennan87.
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