10/5/06: The Twilight Zone: “Mute” (1963)

Here’s what the pre-school teacher says to RightWingTrash: “…and I’d like to arrange a conference so we can discuss how to help your son with listening.”

Here’s what RightWingTrash hears: “…and to ensure that your 2-year-old is on the proper path to becoming a faceless clerk for a large insurance company, I’d like to take a large syringe and start injecting massive doses of Ritalin through his eyeballs.”

Unfortunately, RightWingTrash has a habit of responding to what we’re hearing instead of what folks are saying. So there’s a lot of yelling and a few references to Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, and then a lot of apologies to everyone in the synagogue.

Our busy day has gotten us thinking about the scariest episode ever of The Twilight Zone. “Mute” is from the series’ fourth season, and there’s a good reason why most of those hour-long shows are forgotten. Fortunately, the same neglect that almost killed The Twilight Zone created an important cautionary tale.

The story’s depressingly simple. A 12-year-old girl is orphaned and sent to live with a new family. They don’t know that the girl was raised by German (!) parents who were making her the subject of an experiment in telepathy. Little Ilse doesn’t speak, but that’s not necessary. She can read minds.

This is particularly irritating to prim schoolteacher Miss Frank (!), and the episode is dedicated to the woman’s determination to destroy Ilse’s powers. She does this through particularly sadistic methods. At the end, a traumatized Ilse has begun to speak and no longer has psychic abilities. It’s actually painful for the little girl to use what was once an extraordinary talent.

The scary thing about “Mute” is that this is supposed to be a happy ending. The episode is so screwy that Cindy Sheehan should be invoking it as a parable. The Twilight Zone is clearly liberal, but usually sports the old-fashioned liberalism that shaped conservative thought. This is the new-fashioned liberalism that wants our school systems to weed out the exceptional.

Rod Serling spent most of this season out of town, but that’s no excuse. It’s hard to believe that this script came from the same guy who gave us the source material for The Omega Man. The only thing that cheers us up is knowing that little Ilse grew up to become Ann Jillian—and Ann Jillian doesn’t need to read minds to know what most men are thinking in her presence.

Make it your own: The fourth season really isn’t so bad, but this is a good time to plug The Twilight Zone: The Complete Definitive Collection. Let’s also give credit to TwilightZoneMuseum.com, which is a fine source for TZ info and the occasional swiped graphic.

 

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