The Eye of the Beholder
(Season 2, Episode 6)
“Suspended in time and space for a moment, your introduction to Miss Janet Tyler, who lives in a very private world of darkness. A universe whose dimensions are the size, thickness, length of the swath of bandages that cover her face. In a moment we will go back into this room, and also in a moment we will look under those bandages. Keeping in mind of course that we are not to be surprised by what we see, for this isn’t just a hospital, and this patient 307 is not just a woman. This happens to be the Twilight Zone and Miss Janet Tyler, with you, is about to enter it.”
The human imagination is a scary place. So when Janet Tyler is introduced, whose head is entirely covered in bandages and is established as being grotesque, chances are the viewer is going to imagine the worst. Tension and dread build throughout the episode as we learn that this is her eleventh procedure to fix her face. The doctors are horrified upon taking off her bandages, disgusted at her “hideous” appearance. Of course, Janet Tyler looks like a movie star–it’s everyone else who sports pig noses, twisted lips, and sunken eyes. Turns out they all exist in a dystopian state where conformity is valued above all else, and Janet’s human beauty is enough to get her thrown out of society. This episode pushes two important lessons: one, that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and two, the inherent dangers in valuing sameness above all else–lessons that are still all too relevant today. -Bri Lockhart
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