This is a neat episode--one that shows just what sort of bizarre ideas the show was able to come up with and make work...and work well.
The show starts with a bum stumbling upon a dead man. Well, not wanting to waste perfectly good shoes on a stiff, the guy steals the shoes and replaces his old beat up shoes (is it stealing if they are dead?). Oddly, however, in true "Twilight Zone" tradition, this starts a bizarre chain of events. It seems that upon putting on the shoes, the bum is suddenly possessed by the spirit of the dead man--and the dead man wants revenge. So the guy now seeks out those who killed him--confronting them and wanting what is by all rights his. The folks he approaches are baffled, however, as he looks nothing like the dead man...yet he knows things only the corpse could know!! This episode has a particularly good ending, but the story idea is pretty cool as well. No complaints or changes I'd make to the show--this is one good episode.
By the way, it's not a serious error but Merrill talks about "hypnotism". This term, though created just before the war was not widely known or in widespread use. If anyone were referring to hypnosis, they might term it "mesmerism" back in 1863--not hypnosis.
The show starts with a bum stumbling upon a dead man. Well, not wanting to waste perfectly good shoes on a stiff, the guy steals the shoes and replaces his old beat up shoes (is it stealing if they are dead?). Oddly, however, in true "Twilight Zone" tradition, this starts a bizarre chain of events. It seems that upon putting on the shoes, the bum is suddenly possessed by the spirit of the dead man--and the dead man wants revenge. So the guy now seeks out those who killed him--confronting them and wanting what is by all rights his. The folks he approaches are baffled, however, as he looks nothing like the dead man...yet he knows things only the corpse could know!! This episode has a particularly good ending, but the story idea is pretty cool as well. No complaints or changes I'd make to the show--this is one good episode.
By the way, it's not a serious error but Merrill talks about "hypnotism". This term, though created just before the war was not widely known or in widespread use. If anyone were referring to hypnosis, they might term it "mesmerism" back in 1863--not hypnosis.