Two (The Twilight Zone)
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“Two” is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
[edit] Details
- Episode number: 66
- Season: 3
- Production code: 4802
- Original air date: September 15, 1961
- Writer: Montgomery Pittman
- Director: Montgomery Pittman
- Music: Nathan Van Cleave
[edit] Cast
- Man: Charles Bronson
- Woman: Elizabeth Montgomery
[edit] Synopsis
A male and female survivor from opposite armies of a war meet in a deserted, war-ravaged town. Immediately, they begin to fight each other but the male wants to put an end to it. After a period of adjustment, they learn to trust each other and eventually walk away from the town together. The beauty in the message of two is that a uniform is only as meaningful as the emotions that create it. Once those feelings are gone or are no longer needed, it becomes an obstacle more than anything to what it really is to be human. Those two souls did their duties respectively, hated one another as they were told to, killed as they were told to, but once the world that needed those services ceased to exist, they could truly be human again. In the end they could find comfort with each other simply as human beings, no longer soldiers, but always as heroes, in the twilight zone....
[edit] Trivia
- Almost certainly the apocalyptic war that precedes the events of this episode was between the United States and the Soviet Union. The only thing the girl invader says is prekrassnyi (прекрасный), the Russian word for “lovely”.
- Notably, this episode contains no supernatural elements.
Two tells the story of the two last people on Earth presumably, after an apocolyptic war in the not too distant future. They are wearing different uniforms, obviously on opposite sides of whatever conflict finally finished civilization. The episode is meant to be universally applicable, as the male's uniform is reminsicent of a 19th century soldier, while the female's is impressivley modern (very Soviet-like). The clothing they wear is just that, random fabrics pieced together that do not deter from the fact they both bleed the same color, love, hate, and feel just like any other human being. What is so powerful in their eventual bond with one another is that despite differences in language, nationality, political ideology, and anything else that can divide humans, we still need the kind of companionship that can only be found with another living soul.
[edit] References
- Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
