On this Twilight Zone day, I can't help but think of two of the series' strangest episodes.

It’s been 64 years since The Twilight Zone first crept onto our television screens, quietly disturbing us with the darkest and most terrifying of stories. Created and hosted by the late Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone remains one of the most influential television shows in pop culture history — and I can’t imagine a world without it.

While there are many notable episodes from the show’s original 156-episode run, there are two in particular that have stuck with me my entire life. These particular episodes are some of the most famous of the bunch, often found on many best-of lists, and are often confused with each other (although for a more than understandable reason).

“Eye of the Beholder” and “The Masks” tell two different, but equally shocking, stories about “inner” beauty. Both episodes were written by Serling himself, whose writings often criticized and explored the human condition – and subverted it.

Turns out the old adage is true

The Twilight Zone

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The season 2 episode, “Eye of the Beholder”, transports the viewer to an alternate universe where typical standards of beauty are reversed and humans are judged solely on their appearance. We meet a woman named Janet who has undergone eleven surgeries, the maximum number allowed by the government, in order to look like everyone else in society. At the moment of revelation, the doctor removes the bandages and declares that the procedure has failed.

But instead of something strange and disfigured, it’s a beautiful woman looking back at us. It won’t take long for us to understand why: the nurses and doctors turn out to be horrible creatures with dark, sunken eyes, twisted lips, sagging skin, and pig snouts for noses. Janet attempts to escape from the hospital and is fortunately saved by a normal, attractive man named Walter – who plans to take her to a remote village where people of “her kind” will find her beautiful.

Now the questions that come to my mind: “Where is this place and when is it?” “What kind of world where ugliness is the norm and beauty the deviation from that norm?” Do you want an answer? The answer is that it makes no difference, because the old adage turns out to be true. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, this year or a hundred years from now. On this planet or anywhere there is human life – perhaps among the stars – beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Lesson to learn from the Twilight Zone.
Rod Serling, “the eye of the beholder”

Men, the macabre and masks

The Twilight Zone

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“The Masks,” season 5, episode 26, is a slightly similar tale that aims to teach the viewer that beauty is truly superficial. A rich old man named Jason Foster is on his deathbed – and his terrible, selfish family is coming to collect his inheritance.

Although they completely don’t deserve his wealth, Foster plans to leave them his fortune anyway…but with a catch. He is planning a “special Mardi Gras party” where every member of the family, including himself, will have to wear a mask. Foster unknowingly gives each member a horrible, disfigured mask that resembles their personality and they must wear the masks until midnight or they will not receive the inheritance. Well, when the clock strikes twelve and Foster dies, the masks don’t exactly come off. They delight in their new wealth for a moment or two before realizing that their faces have taken on the features of grotesque masks – and that their physical appearance now permanently reflects who they are inside.

Mardi Gras incident, the dramatis personae being four people who came to party and in a sense let themselves go. This they did with a vengeance. They now bear the faces of all that was within them – and they will carry them for the rest of their lives, sad lives now to be spent in the shadows. Tonight’s story about men, the macabre and masks, from the Twilight Zone.
Rod Serling, “The Masks”

A cut above

The Twilight Zone

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Although they are among the most famous, perhaps due to their jarring visuals and shocking revelations, the messages behind these two episodes are much deeper than you might think. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But it is also about fascism, the otherness of marginalized people. I rarely see articles or essays commenting on a very specific part of “The Eye of the Beholder,” a two-second scene where the pig-faced “leader” of society addresses his people via a television broadcast. The speech is eerily reminiscent of fascist dictators of the past, which, when you realize that Serling served in World War II, adds a new dimension to this narrative.

“Les Masques”, on the other hand, poses something a little more existential. I found a recent article in the r/TwilightZone subreddit with the title: “Hot Take: The Family in The Masks Did Nothing Wrong and Didn’t Deserve What Happened to Them.” » The OP describes the family members as kind, cordial, and respectful. They describe the fate of each member and describe how their behavior wasn’t so bad.

This confused me and several other people in the comments. “If they weren’t horrible people, the masks wouldn’t have become a permanent fixture on their faces, reflecting how ugly they are inside,” someone wrote. That’s the whole point of the episode. But OP and others went beyond that, questioning our motivations and intentions as human beings. “Are they really that cruel? Did they really deserve their fate? People aren’t inherently terrible like that. Even if they are, they don’t deserve to suffer? Right?”

The Twilight Zone

(Image credit: Prime Video)

Regardless of how you feel about the ending, the fact that just two months ago people were having a heated discussion about the real moral takeaway from a 60+ year old episode of television is nothing short of astonishing. And I think that says everything you need to know about The Twilight Zone, about what Serling was trying to accomplish. It doesn’t matter whether or not you agree with the moral, the lesson, or the fate of the characters – you end up taking part of the episode with you, whether you realize it or not.

The Twilight Zone is now streaming in its entirety on Prime Video. For more, check out our list of the best TV shows of all time and our guide to the best shows on Amazon Prime Video.