"Zoning" Out, Volume II: Vanish

"AND WHEN THE SKY WAS OPENED" - December 11, 1959

In the first episode of this series, I wrote about how The Twilight Zone was on the air before we knew much about what it was really like in outer space, so they could be wildly creative in how they wrote stories about the Final Frontier. Like the premiere episode "Where is Everybody?", the 11th episode of season one "And When then Sky Was Opened" is officially about the effects of outer space travel... but it's also not. It's about what happens after the return from space and the resulting horror of the trip. It's also, somewhere, a nightmare about one of the biggest fears people think about as they age - being forgotten.

(Yes, I did skip around rather than going in order. I'll come back around in time)

The plot of "And When the Sky Was Opened" is a simple one. Three men - Ed Harrington (played by Charles Aidman), Clegg Forbes (played by Rod Taylor), and William Gart (played by Jim Hutton, the future Ellery Queen and father of Timothy Hutton), have returned from outer space in an experimental aircraft. The episode picks up not long after their return, but something is very amiss. Forbes is freaking out because the night before, Ed Harrington disappeared. Not, like, kidnapped or anything, he just vanished and everyone's acting like they have no idea who he is, and that he never existed. Only Forbes seems to recall his best friend in the world. That includes his shipmate Gart, who is sympathetic but cannot recall anyone named Ed Harrington. Obviously this is very difficult for Forbes to believe. They were all in space! Together!

The story then goes backwards to when Harrington had a physical form, as he and Forbes hit the town to celebrate being back on Terra Firma. It's there that poor Ed starts feeling a little off. He drops his beer, but that's okay, the bartender gives him another. Least he can do for a returning hero! Eventually he decides to get into the phone booth and call his parents to let them know he's safe and sound, but he gets the Nan Adams treatment - his parents don't know who he is. It's then that the panic sets in and suddenly... he's gone. Forbes asks the bartender where he went and the bartender doesn't even remember the guy being there at all! The spilled drink that was on the floor is gone, and the newspaper showing all three men returning has been reduced to Forbes and Gart. He was there one second, and gone the next, and the world shrugged and moved on. Scary!

Obviously, this is incredibly unsettling to Forbes. It would be to any of us! He keeps trying to find ways to prove Harrington's existence, like checking with his girlfriend, calling his superior officer, checking phone records... nothing. It's like not only did he disappear, every last trace of his existence has been wiped away. When we return to the present. Gart reiterates that he doesn't know any Ed Harrington and it's then that old Forbes goes off the deep end. Then, suddenly, he feels "like he doesn't belong" and really panics. In an unfortunate filming gaffe, a scene that is supposed to show that Forbes is no longer showing a reflection in a mirror accidentally shows part of his arm, but the point is made - he is now vanishing. He takes off down the hall. Gart, who is injured and laid up in the hospital where most of the episode is filmed, limps out to see... nobody.

Once the nurse gets him settled (after, of course, explaining that Forbes is unknown to her) he sees the same newspaper that once showed three returning astronauts now shows... just him. In many ways, poor Gart, as the sole survivor, demonstrates the horror of what's going on better than anyone. Realizing that Forbes was telling the truth, he too spirals into the same despair. From here I bet you can figure out the ending. What some may not like, but what I DO like, is the ambiguity of the ending. Everyone disappears, but why? Did something happen in space? Is the entire episode a parable for these guys getting "taken out back" to make sure they never reveal the nature of their mission? It's open to interpretation, I think. It's unusual for a Twilight Zone to have an open-ended, ambiguous ending, but I feel it's warranted here.

"And When the Sky Was Opened", for me, is a top-tier episode just for the subtle, psychological horror show that it is. No blood, no violence, no creepy gremlins ripping apart wings. Just... 3 guys who came back from space until they didn't. Their senses of self ripped away, unable to return to Earth because they were no longer of earth. But also, there's a study of loneliness in here as well, as Harrington's vanishing act creates a situation where a man in Forbes loses his best friend in a mysterious, insane way that he cannot describe, understand, or process, so he loses himself too. It creates a domino effect that cannot be explained. It helps that all actors involved are tremendous and sell what's going on in such a way that it avoids being campy. It's not "scary" in that kind of way, but very unsettling. I can only imagine how unsettling it felt in a world where space was just a place we talked about going.