The Twilight Zone “The Passersby”

Oh look.  A Civil War story.  The American one from 150 years ago, not the Steve vs. Tony one.

Basic Premise:  A Confederate widow and a wounded soldier wait by the side of the road.

Writer:  Series creator Rod Serling

Commentary:  Sitting by the side of a weird road is a burned out plantation house.  Waiting there is Lavinia Godwin, waiting for her husband Jud to come home.  Or she’s pissed that he was killed in the war and hates all Yankees.  Or both.  Anyway, she lets a nameless Confederate Sergeant to rest there a while since he has a guitar and a crutch.  He can’t play the guitar if he’s using the crutch and all.  Besides, Lavinia just got over an illness.

But other guys keep passing by.  Soldiers mostly.  The Sergeant recognizes one as a man who saved his life, but didn’t he die?

Oh, and Lavinia decides to blow away a Union lieutenant with a shotgun, but nothing happens despite blasting him at point blank range.  Why, Lavinia is outright outraged.  Outraged, I say! But then her husband Jud shows up, saying they all have to move on to he end of the road with everyone else.  The Sergeant has figured everything out by then and gets up.  Lavinia?  She’s a different story.  She needs a little more prodding.

The Twist:  They’re all dead!  Lavinia won’t accept it until Abe Lincoln comes along as the last man to die in the war.  Then she’ll run off to Jud.

Wait, hold on…she hates Yankees.  Why would Lincoln be the one to convince her?  And furthermore, how did she get on a road with people who presumably died in the war.  She had a bad fever!  It’s almost like someone didn’t quite think this one through.

What about Rod?  He’s there to promote the next episode in a pool hall, and by “pool hall,” I mean a room with a pair of racks on the wall, one for the sticks and one for the balls.  That’s it.  Not much of a hall.