1.28 --- Her Pilgrim Soul

Directed by : Wes Craven Written by : Alan Brennert Starring : Kristoffer Tabori, Anne Twomey, Gary Cole First aired : 13th of December, 1985. Kevin (Kristoffer Tabori) and Dan (Gary Cole, Office Space, Dodgeball) are a pair of scientists who have just freshly finished their latest and greatest work : a hologram projector. However, both are equally amazed to see that the projector all of a sudden shows a human foetus, something which was not pre-programmed in any capacity. Thinking it's just a glitch, they reset the system and after reinitiation all seems alright, until next morning Kevin returns and finds a little girl sitting alone inside. Intrigued, Kevin starts talking to her, and finds out her name is Nola (portrayed as an adult by stage actress Anne Twomey). Dan calculates that Nola is aging at approximately ten years a day, and it is soon apparent that she remembers things as the years (or, better said, hours) pass by. Dan manages to uncover some information on Nola, discovering she was a real person at the beginning of the 20th century, and that she was a sort of a black sheep in her family. She got married to a Jewish fellow named Robert, which caused the ire of her father who disinherited her. Back at the lab, Kevin can't quite get his thoughts off Nola, in turn moving away from his own house and growing apart from his wife, who wants him to devote more time to her in order to have a baby. At her age of thirty-something, Nola reenacts her pregnancy and misscariage, an event which leaves a mark on both her and Kevin. She disappears, but reappears again, and two keep on socializing, playing chess and such. Meanwhile, Dan is still busy with the background checks on "real" Nola. He finally tracks down an elderly man who knew them both, and is shocked to hear that Nola died during her miscarriage. *** Reviewer's note *** : the next paragraph is my interpretation of the events. It might not exactly be that way as described for you, but after some serious head-scratching, I came to this particular conclusion. Carry on. While Kevin is asleep at the lab, Nola, now well aged, uses the voice decoder to mask herself as him, calls his wife and asks her to come pick him up, saying his work at the lab is done. Then, she wakes Kevin up and reveals him the truth - he is, in fact, a reincarnation of Robert, and she came to visit him to relieve him of anguish and grief he seems to have carried over from his past life. She leaves him, and moments after Kevin's wife is at the door - the two have a loving reunion, and things finally come back to their place, both for Kevin...and for Nola. *** I don't recall what was the last time I had this variety of feelings while watching the Twilight Zone. When it started, I felt the set-up was rushed, that we would learn more of Kevin and Dan before Nola appears. Then, as it started settling down, it got better, and better, and better...and then Nola and Kevin share an introspective moment, and I'm lost again. Finally, she addresses him as "Robert" while disappearing, and it all comes together. My final verdict is : this is a special episode, one worth not only watching, but also thinking about it. Writer Alan Brennert pitches us some very complex concepts and ideas - the existance of human soul, reincarnation, past and present lives and how they connect, and works them slowly on the audience, culminating in a rousing success at the end. Hats off to him. Wes Craven returns for his sixth feature, delivering a credible job behind the camera - I especially liked the neat trick of incorporating the opening credits into the episode. Anne Twomey is delightful as four different incarnations of Nola, and special effects, along with the make-up job, are above average. I could have done with some more screen time for Gary Cole, who I fondly remember from another "night programme" (see my intro post) show, Midnight Caller, but this is just a minor gripe. Oh, and yes, that IS Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years playing a ten-year old Nola (Danica McKellar) TZ Trivia : nine years after starring in Her Pilgrim Soul, Gary Cole would appear in another TZ offshoot - this time, the "Rod Serling's Lost Classics" TV-movie, playing James in the first segment ("The Theater"). He also appeared in one Outer Limits episode, the '90s reincarnation of it that is. Odd trivia : it's somewhat amazing to find out that the 80s TZ proved itself as a fertile ground for future voice actors. Kris Tabori joins the list, contributing his vocal chords to Star Wars : Knights of the Old Republic amongst others things, breathing life into the memorably grumpy battle droid HK-47.