A Small Town
Episode 8 of The Twilight Zone Season 2 begins with a car accident leaving the town of Littleton reeling. We then skip forward a year to find the town deserted and a remnant of what it once was. After his wife’s death, hides away in his house, living with grief and feeling bitter disdain toward the Mayor. Up in his attic Jason finds a miniature replica of the town, complete with all the intricate details. As he starts spraying water on the model, it begins to rain outside leaving him dumbfounded and confused. After heading to the diner and listening to all the different residents’ concerns, Jason starts to modify the miniature model bit by bit, using the suggestion box to change everything on the miniature village, which transforms the town as well. Despite making positive changes, the various residents believe the Mayor is responsible for everything Jason’s doing. Up in his attic, Jason continues to deliver positive changes to the town with the inclusion of a gigantic sign that brings a whole wave of new people in. Desperate to get his revenge on the Mayor’s sleazy attitude, Jason drops a rock onto his car but the Mayor spins this to his advantage, telling the crowd that it won’t crush his spirit. Jason then takes things one step further and drops a tarantula on the road in order to scare the Mayor. That evening, there’s a power outage as the new sign causes as big power surge to plunge the town into darkness. This causes the residents to begin charging into the streets as the Mayor loses the support of the people, prompting Jason to step up and admit he was the one who made all the changes. Jason shows the Mayor his model town and he suggests changing Littleton into a New Vegas-style casino. As the two wrestle for control, the model topples over and is rendered completely broken. Lonelt hands find one another in the shadows; through this act of destruction may just lead to positive change for the town as news crews arrive and film the damage around Littleton as a result of the model being destroyed, which is where the episode ends. While the idea surrounding the model village is a good one, it’s not wholly original given this has been done in the past, with shows like Doctor Who, Angel and Goosebumps all taking this concept and running with it. On the whole though, this is a pretty forgettable episode and to be honest, it never really goes anywhere at the end either. None of the characters have that much depth and the whole drama essentially amounts to nothing, especially after building up the mysterious kid who continuously draws all the incidents occurring around town. Unfortunately this is not one to remember.
