A Stop At Willoughby - Twilight-Tober Zone
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- Опубликовано: 29 окт 2020
- "A Stop At Willoughby" is a well conceived and executed story with great performances from the handful of actors that are focused on. Unlike the melancholy, but ultimately positive tone of a similar Twilight Zone episode "Walking Distance", this episode gives us a darker angle on a similar story. What did everyone think of this episode? Let us know in the comments!
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"A Stop at Willoughby" is episode 30 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. Rod Serling cited this as his favorite story from the first season of the series.
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Should we make this an October tradition? Let us know!
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Yes make it a tradition! By the way each and every night I have dreams where I wake up into another dream into another dream into another dream and so on. I can relate. What is real? In the end I liked the ending
Way to many great episodes of this great show to stop now.
Yes. DO IT. There's so many episodes. You can keep this up for years.
Absolutely!
I've really enjoyed learning about this show this October. I'd heard of it, but was under the impression that it was just some old horror show that I wouldn't be interested in. I'm happy to see that there's a lot of variety of styles, great through-provoking content-- whether I agree with the message or not-- and amazing skills in the use of camera angles and lighting. I never would have learned any of this if this series didn't exist, and I'd love to continue the "education" next year if you can. :)
I never thought of it as him committing intentionally, I thought he genuinely believed in his mind that he was getting off at Willoughby, and when he died, his afterlife was the Willoughby he'd been dreaming of.
Exactly!!
Willoughby is heaven and the reason he couldn't get off previously was because he wasn't dead yet, as soon as he died, he was able to get off the train. The train is also symbolic of being in purgatory.
Very well done! That’s exactly what it is.
@@AnAdorableWombat1 I agree. Willoughby is the after life. How he was able to see it in his dreams is the strange part because generally, the only people who claim to have seen the after life are those who have had near death experiences.
So it’s like a jacobs ladder
The conductor should have been the one from the funeral home picking up the body. That would have been a perfect creepy ending.
I'm surprised that they didn't do it that way!
But that's exactly what you'd expect them to have done.
Makes you wonder why this idea escaped Parrish, Houghton and even Serling...
That would of been amazing!
Maybe the herse driver instead.
As someone with depression and anxiety, I can really relate to this character, since I always have this fantasy world where everything is better, in my head, than dealing with the real world
I was actually depressed when I randomly clicked this episode, and I got scared that I would have a relapse. But if I didn't watch it, I wouldn't know how to save myself from the worse.
I've suffered from a chronic depression thats effected me 3/4th of my life. There have been some days I've barely been able to hold on- but unlike some people I have a very loving and supportive family to help me out. I feel for the main character here. I don't know if I would have lived this long without my family.
As someone with Asperger's and anxiety, the world I envision in my head often seems a lot friendlier than the world I actually live in. You are not alone.
Omar 94 you're not the only one who feels that way. All my life I felt that there was something terribly wrong with this world we live in and it's like I really don't belong here. However suicide is not the answer.
Sameeee
Rod Serling was ahead of his time when it came to the portrayals of mental health in fiction, especially since mental health was such a foreign concept to most people at that time.
It really was. I remember that. One was supposed to be ashamed.
Man, I can’t believe we’re almost at the end of Twilight-Tober, this should be a new Channel Awesome tradition
INDEED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think a lot of people have asked for it so they likely will
Yeah there are other great episodes in the other seasons
@@gingergoddess8953 I'm against ...
But I will be happy with a twilight-vember, a twilight-cember, a twilight-anuary, a twiliht-ebuary ...ect ect:)
It just might become an October tradition. What do y'all think?
Here's my theory for a stop at Willoughby, the train conductor is death and he's trying to tell the man that it's his time and he should go, that's why the conductor is always trying to entice him to Willoughby because he knows that he'll like it there more
I don't think Gart committed suicide, I think he really believed he was stepping off a stopped train. Whether or not he made it to Willoughby depends on whether or not you believe in the soul.
When I saw that one, I thought his soul went to Willoughby; but his body was left behind dead.
I thought so too.
EXACTLY. This was hardly a sad story. The Twilight Zone is a different dimension, and they say as much in the opening the opening credits. This man transferred to an after life of his choosing. Why are we even watching this show if it's all just a dream?
as someone who has contemplated suicide this episode sort of gets it. when you are at your all-time low you look for any kind of mercy. Willoughby with it's kind, pleasant and slow atmosphere is a personification of the mercy we think death will give us when we finally jump. I'm not saying that death is the answer because by any means you shouldn't kill yourself. But i think maybe this episode can help explain that feeling to people that don't understand that mind set and will give them something to think about on how much they could be pushing someone to the edge and to remember that the person they could be pushing is still indeed a person not a machine.
No horror just peace. Serling’s depiction of death being that welcoming force is something he returned to time and again. May all of you be at peace when death comes.
Right before he closed the shade on the commuter train that last time, the look on Gart's face said it all: THIS IS IT! WILLOUGHBY OR BUST!!! James Daly was absolutely brilliant in this episode
I interpreted the ending as his supernatural escape into a more humane place. Which makes the conductor into a good guy; perhaps some sort of angel.
Factual. That's how I saw it too. That's how I think it was intended.
That is how I view it as well
Agreed.
I wrote something along the same lines. 😊
If you believe human spirituality and the afterlife is real then this man simply decided to move to a better neighborhood. I always found this episode to be charming.
I love that there’s such a sweet sincerity to Willoughby played both before and after Garth takes the jump. Aside from the Conductor, nothing about it seems off or malicious from the start, making that monologue Garth gives when he describes his dream all the more emotional.
After watching him get needled, condescended, and screamed at for most of the episode, seeing him step off that train and be met with a simple “Hi, Mr. Williams” tugged at my heart.
The maliciousness of the conductor is something we put on him. Much like the portrayal of death in the episode of the woman driving across country. People put motivations and tones and looks to these characters that they simply don't have which turns them dark in a way. But I think that says more about the people viewing the characters than the characters themselves.
@@Quandry1 Very well said. I even apply that philosophy to the character of the Cryptkeeper. We see the gaunt, skeletal face, hear the cackling laugh, and constant puns. Right off the bat, most viewers instantly get an evil vibe from him. In truth, he's actually a neutral storytelling wiseman. The tales he provides are old fashioned morality plays. We think they're mean and cruel. But are actually meant to teach us about right and wrong. He's not necessarily evil, nor necessarily good. Just that funny go-between separating us from the stories. Without him, we might actually BECOME the stories!
@@Quandry1 I think the background music of the dream train might be slightly off putting, which could be projected on the 1888 conductor. That said, I didn't find him creepy; he was a kind of usher showing Gart to his new home...a supernatural real estate agent, maybe.
Free at Last
@@ECO473
Agree 💯.
There actually is a town called Willoughby, and apparently they have an annual festival there dedicated to this episode.
What state is this Willoughby in?
@@rogue7723 Ohio, looks like!
We have a village called Willoughby in Lincolnshire, England every time I pass the sign for it I keep saying one day i'm going to take the road to it, eventually I did this year (2021) and it was also a very lovely peaceful village.
I grew up in Willoughby! Right off of Lake Erie
Oh no you're not fooling me that easily creepy train conductor man
I always interpreted Willoughby as his own personal afterlife, like his mind was in such denial about the fact that he fell from the train, that the the heaven he went to just shaped itself around his fantasy, or something like that.
Yes, I'd like to think that his character left this world and entered another. Perhaps a Twilight World, but certainly not this one. I don't see this episode as a tale of suicide, but one of escape. I don't advocate escape or suicide, just that this story describes how one person found it. Seeing the funeral home sign on the back of the hearse was like a splash of cold water, bringing everyone back to the real world and the cost involved with that decision.
He didn't fall from the train. He jumped off the train.
That sounds good.
This is by far my favorite episode of the Twilight Zone. Wanting to escape a demanding horrible job for a much better and more fulfilling life is so relatable and something I felt at my last job.
Glad you got out of there
@@thehillisalive Same
It's also rather subversive for the time it was released. Remember, this was 1960, the "Mad Men" era where a successful ad exec was considered one of the dream careers to have. And the main character here HATES it, hates it all and just wants a simpler life where he can be happy.
Fun fact: James Daly was the father of Tim and Tyne Daly, and you can see the strong physical resemblance.
Fun fact, Rod Serling called this his favorite story of season 1
The train route that the main character takes home is the same one Serling took when he was living and working in live TV in NYC. There's a lot of Serling in the main character, just like in "Walking Distance."
I can see why, its such a great episode
@@gregoryblack8109 A true Classic!
@@geoffreyfyfe2248 wow that adds another layer to this, my favorite episode.
I appreciate how this episode seemed unsuspecting enough, and then has that dark ending out of nowhere. It's great.
Especially since if you had to get up and miss the last couple minutes of the episode for whatever reason, after he gets off at the other town, you could just assume that it was a time-travel episode or something like that. You'd have no idea.
@@Perid0tStar exactly.
He guessed he had to leave the old to start the new.
Anytime I stop to think upon this episode again, I want to hug Gart and help the poor man. I conceptualize Willoughby as the idea of the character's unconscious terminal desire as an escape, the only way to the kind of peace he so painfully desires. And in the domain of the Twilight Zone, I think he found it somehow. Thanks for another excellent review!
I love this episode. I have watched it many times since the 1980s. Another episode where people yearn to go back to those childhood summer days without stress is "Kick the Can"
I love this episode! it’s an accurate description of many husbands in America, who can’t take it anymore.
I have seen this episode more times than I could literally remember. I always interpreted it as his "soul" being released and Willoughby was his Heaven. Or something similar. But, basically, that his physical body was back in the reality where his wife and job were located; however, his consciousness, his soul, whatever you want to call it, is now living a relaxing life in an early 1900-style town. I could see him finding a nice job on a farm, or maybe something in town at a store.
1888 to be exact.
This is not a horror story nor a modern tale. It works through metaphysics and mysticism. The character dream is of a simpler life which comes to pass when he dies. He is transported to the 19th century where he feels most alive in heaven.
Theory: The conductor is the Grim Reaper
I thought the same as well,
I think that the Discworld Death is probably the best depiction aside from Julian Richings in SPN.
If that really was Death or a Reaper, then portraying Willoughby as such a positive place for him could've been them trying to help ease him into how he would pass,
@@jasonabernethy99 The pattern I continue to see from the Grim Reaper archetype in the Twilight zone episodes is that the Reaper eases the victims into oblivion as opposed to a quick shake. You see that in these clips with the conductor
@@Kentrc11 yeah. The ones where the reaper knows how, when, where everyone dies always intrigue me. With this, they can help you make peace with the inevitability and nothing changes from the norm,
With the twilight zone, every other person is death/grim reaper
@@wingzero7X lol
This is one of my favorites. The Twist is one of my favorite reveals in the whole show, and while the conductor may have bothered you Walter, He didnt bother me all that much.
I like when he says a place where a man can live his life full measure.
@@moealbert7339 Still trying to understand the origins of "full measure." It was also used in either Civil War or WWI.
His cap says "Conductor". "A person who directs the performance of an orchestra or choir." and "A person in charge of a train, streetcar, or other public conveyance, who collects fares and sells tickets."
He's doing his job, after all....
I think you nailed it.
I see this story as a victory. I don’t believe he intentionally committed suicide. He found his peace and Willoughby really existed in his after world. In other words he found heaven.
Definitely not suicide. Just peaceful departure.
This is one of my favorite episodes. I think we all can relate wanting to go back to a simpler time.
This might be my favorite episode. Nostalgic, sad and dark.
There are probably 2 correct interpretations of this, one happy and the other brutal.
Reminds me of a strange Indian story that involves white men (no offense), who were hunting "piranhas. " These were attacking the a heard of buffalos that "belonged" to a group of Indians. These were their buffalos. The Indians are pissed that is their livelihood, their food and shelter etc. They are also sacred animals.
However in this story the "Great Spirit" puts his hand down to the earth picking up buffalo spirits or maybe bodies.
His hand draws back what looks like a thin curtain that looks like the weight of a veil. He lays the buffalo in what appears to be a beautiful green grassed paradise with beautiful pink rock formations.
The animals are met by many live looking buffalo.
The dead ones then stand up and en mass, run away with the others.
Paradise after death for animals.
i love the conductor, in fact, of all the actors in this, i like him the most, more then once i wish i would have a dream like that, except i wish i would wake up on the white star liner OLYMPIC and be mid ocean. maybe never to come into a port, but to just be on this beautiful liner.
This episode is one of my two favorites. I took more as a happy ending though in that he left one world for another. I took it as him continuing on in Willoughby after getting off the train free to have a carefree better existence
Me too. All Mr. Williams really wanted was to slow down and really live to a full measure in a calm and peaceful setting.
A stop at Willoughby was not Garth’s ending, but rather his new beginning..
As someone who is a massive fan of the twilight zone and has Autism and ADHD i've always loved this episode, it's an amazing take on burnout the feeling of pressure of not being able to fulfill people's expectations and people never truly understanding that what you have isn't what you want, gart's wife and boss even kinda remind me of how my mother and teachers treated me as i was forced into a school that was tailor made for the exact opposite of my interests, leading me to eventually just stop even attempting to do work or attempting to articulate the reasons for me being unhappy
Willoughby looks more and more beautiful everyday may god find mercy on us
This is probably one of the darkest episode of the Twilight Zone, being as it’s a metaphor for suicide
I thought it was more about looking back and reflecting on your past.
@@chasehedges6775 Except unlike "Walking Distance", the main character doesn't travel back into his childhood. He escapes into a fantasy world of his own making.
I agree that it is a metaphor for suicide. At the end of the episode when Williams got off the train at Willoughby we then find Williams dead. The conductor explains that he hollored something about Willoughby then ran out to the platform and jumped to his death!
There is a later episode where a child attempts suicide/death to join his dead grandmother. It kinda comes out of nowhere and was considered a weaker part of the episode.
I never really saw it that way.
First, "Willoughby" doesn't vanish the instant he steps off the train. Second, he looks very peaceful in his death scene.
While getting ones wish wasn't an uncommon event, most characters didn't look quite as satisfied by the time the story wrapped up, and there was ALWAYS a price to pay.......
In The Twilight Zone.
(Da, da, daaaaa.
Da, da, da, da, da, dum)
"Push Push Push, Williams!!!"
This is the last time I'm gonna post this: Somebody needs to make a video of all of the times from the 5 Seasons of The Twilight Zone where someone died from falling out a window or off a building. In just these 31 episodes we've seen it happen 4 times, and it happens at least a handful of times each Season.
I think they choose that manner of death because its less messy and easy to imply; you show someone getting stabbed you have to show blood (something TV used to shy away from). But show a tall building and most people will have no trouble believing the fall is fatal, even if you never see the body and just hear the sound of the impact. Saves on special effects, is still believable, and (most importantly) the censors are okay with it.
In the episdoe The Most Unusual Camera had so many window falling I kept laughing the entire time.
promises, promises
Welcome to... The Defenestration Zone.
@@gameskyjumper1721 I now realize how funny that was when the waiter gave a scream before he fell out the window!
Imagine the conductor as Death, and the train his (iron) horse. He was there, not to entice Garth to suicide, but to escort him to his final destination.
I dont want twilight tober to end! 😭
Careful that's exactly the kind of comment that could land you in The Twilight Zone.
@@Grayvorn hey, if I got to go to the swimming hole with aunt t, I'd accept it happily.
@@PeachesDreemurr I guess, but I'd prefer the power from 'A World of His Own' myself.
This is my favorite Twilight Zone episode of all time.
He truly saw dead people. One of my favorites of escape-ism. He could have sleepwalked off the train.What ever happened , it was one step into the Twilight Zone.
Probably the best "Twilight Zone" episode, along with another episode called "Static." I too can relate to the main character, who wants to escape his grim life. Some day's, I just want to escape into a simpler time!!
That and eye of the beholder, which touches on appearance and segregation for being different.
I've ALWAYS wanted to escape to a simpler place and time, but here I am at 60, and life gets more complicated every day. I think I gave up looking for Utopia since early on in my life. I don't think it exists on earth. I've travelled quite a bit and no place came anywhere near the place of my dreams. I'm back in my country, though in another city far from my own. I seem to have come full circle with no satisfaction. I loved travelling but never did find anywhere near what I was looking for.
@@kristianferencik8685 Eye of the Beholder has become reality today. Youths seem to compete on who can dress down the most and on who can turn out looking the ugliest. The era of the clean cut look with clear skin and beautiful clothes has long gone. The least said about the hair and make-up the better. 40 years ago, ppl used to dress like beautiful models on the catwalk, and no, not today's catwalk.
If this had been extended to an hour, it would have been interesting to see Gart happily adjusting to his afterlife in Willoughby, along with Jane's reaction to the loss of her meal ticket and suburban lifestyle. It also would have been interesting to see Misrell's reaction to Gart's "departure," and the resulting damage to his business because of it.
This is my favorite twilight zone episode.
I think it is fascinating to compare this episode to Mad Men, both of which are looking at the same type of company at the same time in the same city, but one doing so from a contemporary lens and one doing it 40-50 years later. Some of the visual differences were surely driven by production budget (not the least, the color film), but Mad Men also contained a lot of nostalgia for the esthetics of that period.
Okay so when it came down to the ending, am I the only one who thought that when the guy died, his soul was actually traveling to an alternate reality, gaining a physical body there and making a new life for himself in Willoughby? Perhaps he even changed his last name to the place that finally gave him peace. Perhaps he found himself a better woman to love him, and together, they could have had a family. And from that family, they might have created a family business, one that perhaps was inspired by his past depression and miserable life: a funeral home, which he passed down from himself to his child, and so on and so forth. It would explain the Willoughby & Son Funeral Home that took his past life's body away.
The soul is the person, or, if its an animal, the soul is the animal.
However, I also sometimes, after watching a good movie or an episode of a TV series that touched me deeply, wonder if the characters did lived happily ever after.
Whoa, I really like that interpretation!!! It captures the ambiguous fate of his soul and keeps his connection between two portals.
I love this episode. Many of us feel like men out of time. We feel like the world goes to fast or just isnt for us. The world chews up and spits out people but I like to believe even though he died he found a paradise in Willoughby. That maybe it was his own personal heaven. Not out of malice but as a relief from a world that left the natural order behind long ago. Just my thoughts on it.
I’ve seen a lot of Twilight Zone episodes but I haven’t seen this one, but I definitely relate to the main character, as someone who struggled with depression. Just from watching this review, I feel somehow happy for him, even though it can be taken as portraying suicide in a positive way. I definitely see it more as him ascending to heaven after committing suicide, but I also like the idea that he shed his mortal vessel to transcend to a different dimension/time. This reminds me of one of the shorts from the Animatrix where the kid, who had communicated with Neo, was chased through the school by agents and at the end took a “leap of faith” and “transcended to the other side”, so to speak. Except in that one, he escaped to not a heavenly place but the “real” world. Still, the similarities are obvious. Anyways, I can’t help but feel happy for the guy; he seems so overwhelmed and unhappy in the real world (assuming that was the real world, who’s to say what’s real and what’s not), and even though he died, it’s nice to finally see him at peace.
I agree with you and thought the same thing after watching it. I like your final idea though, of what is the real world. Maybe he didn't go to sleep or die to be in Willoughby, maybe he just woke up.
Jason Wingreen, the contemporary conductor at 4:28, was the original voice for Boba Fett.
The guy who portrays Gart Williams, like many actors in "Twilight Zone," appeared in the original "Star Trek" series, specifically the episode 'Requiem for Methuselah' as the immortal Flint.
I hope that in the off-screen, what-happened-next? portion of this episode, that Janie's life went to hell. She'd probably blown through their savings doing every manner of "keeping up with the Joneses" purchase and home remodeling move she could think, one of the reasons she was always harping at her husband to stay at the agency and o even better, and was denied any life insurance as it's determined to have been a suicide.
We've all known a Janie or two in our lives. Even if Gart lived, she was set to divorce him and latch herself onto her next husband/victim. Our clue to this was when Gart described her as having "an appetite." People like her just take, take, take, and never seem to be satisfied. Chew 'em up and spit 'em out and then move on to the next person who can at the very least temporarily fill the void in her own life. Yeah; I sort of agree with you. A follow-up episode with the Janie character taking center stage would have been most interesting to see.
As in her getting her just-desserts? Now that is something I REALLY want to see.
Nice interpretation! Karma comes for Janie?
The 1st rule of Willoughby Club: You do not talk about Willoughby Club!
For some reason, this is my top favorite episode. I know that it's dark, and that it's a metaphor for suicide, but part of me wants to believe that his soul entered that place in his dreams. Like in the legends of the fae folk, one must be dead to this world in order to live in theirs. I think that the reason the conductor was creepy was because he wasn't human. Maybe the conductor was Death. Or maybe he was a different magical being in disguise, offering Williams passage to a better world--the catch being that he would have to sever all ties to life on this plane of existence, to this dimension. When Williams left his briefcase behind, that was the signal that he was ready to do so.
I know the attraction of wanting to live in a place that I visit only in my dreams. Mine are very vivid, and I have constructed "worlds" in my dreams. I have a "memory set" in these dream worlds. It's like an established set of facts or events that I "know" to have taken place. They also follow linear plots, and it is often like tuning into a new episode of a favorite show, except I'm in it. It really is like traveling to another place for a while. Some of these worlds are like alternate universes--like, what if I had slacked off in college, for example. Some are based on TV shows I like. Heck, one time the dream was so realistic that I had forgotten I had graduated college and thought I was going to be late for class--until I saw my diploma hanging on the wall! The mind is a fascinating thing.
I'm so glad that someone other than me noticed the "Bradbury account" and its homage to the author!
I live one city over from Willoughby, Ohio. The gazebo still looks the same to this day. Great episode.
Willoughby, Ohio had a suicide by train incident in 1933, when a young woman wearing a blue dress who was unknown to the people in the town, after spending the night in a local boarding house, was killed by an oncoming train. She died instantly, but her body was intact save for a hemorrhage to her brain. All she had in her belongings were some coins and a train ticket to a town in Pennsylvania. The locals chipped in to buy a burial plot and a gravestone, with the words, The Girl in Blue, carved on it. Some 3,000 people, basically the whole town, attended the memorial service. In the 1990s, someone did research and found out her name, Josephine (Sophie) Klimczak.
You have to wonder if Rod Serling, a native of central New York State, not terribly far from northeast Ohio, had heard of this story while growing up. It is possible that he did, and that he used the town's name in memory of the Girl in Blue.
I had never really thought of connecting "A Stop at Willoughby" with "Walking Distance" before, but I always saw the theme of the story as a warning against idealizing the past, especially a past you weren't ever a part of. "Anyone who looks for their happiness in the past, isn't working toward their (has no) future." is the morale I would give in the "you see Timmy" moment if this episode had one.
Nice review. A deeply moving, great episode. Rod Sterling had a great heart.
This episode and Walking Distance are two of my favorites. There is a gazebo in both of these episodes. It enticed me to have one built in my backyard.
I really like that. The gazebo adds a nice touch to both, two of my favorite episodes as well.
A wonderful episode that mirrors “Walking Distance” but is the darker cousin perhaps. A man who could not look forward, and ultimately paid with his life.
Btw, the modern conductor in this episode, Jason Wingreen, was the original voice of Boba Fett in TESB.
It was just an answer to his prayers! He would live in Willoughby! Finally happy!
This is definitely one of my fave episodes. I always keep looking for Willoughby when I travel by train
I appreciate your enumeration of the subtle directorial and cinematographic elements implemented in A Stop at Willoughby that amplify the tension, pathos, and wistfulness experienced by the unfortunate Gart Williams. The last few days of Mr. Williams’ life commentate upon the rigidity of the corporate environment in the nineteen-fifties, which necessitated constant formality and extensive personal investment in the pecuniary success of the company. Devotion at the expense of stress and degradation of individualism was prioritized, corroding the mental and physical health of the employees without sufficient compensation or recompense for what they endured. In the context of this cultural climate, Gart finds his desperate longing for tranquility and simplicity incompatible with the elevated competitiveness of working within the thankless corporate structure and incongruous with society’s conceptualization of what constitutes the epitome of a successful, idealized man. Gart’s wife corroborates this mentality, venomously vituperating her husband for his deviance against this image of the perfect family man who willingly subjects himself to the whims of the company for the sake of being an effective provider. The innate traditionalism of these societal roles also seems to also have negatively impacted Gart’s wife herself, as she appears frustrated in her own impotence to become an ambitious corporate individual and tormented by her forced reliance on her reluctant husband to adopt this position in her stead.
The convergence of these unyielding expectations without reprieve results in the ideation of a different life for Gart to embody, an unending summer of liberation and relaxation in contrast to the turbid skies and bitter winds of his current reality. Willoughby is peace, a place of rest for the wearied where the hardships of life are impenetrable and dissipate in the summer heat. Willoughby is the comforting embrace of death, and the promises of an idyllic afterlife to follow. Traditionally, trains are metaphorical for the passage of life where death is the final destination, just as Willoughby is the final stop for Gart on his journey through life. In Walking Distance, the synthesis of Martin’s experiences in his idealized past emerge with the recognition that adult responsibilities need not be concomitant with joylessness and monotony in life, leading him to embrace his future with contentment. Conversely, Gart reflects upon Willoughby as an unobtainable reality, a life simply divergent with his own, with the satisfaction and happiness he will always be deprived of in his current existence. Willoughby strips Gart of hope instead of imbuing him with it, consequently leading him to choose Willoughby, and death, over life.
Especially now, it seems apt to repeat how much hope is truly necessary for us all. Please stay strong everyone.
Poignant words, Walter, as always.
Good stuff, Hayley.
@@WalterCulture Thanks, Walter!
Thank you for the good advice at the end. Too many times a person is ignored when they just need a kind word or a listening ear.
That train conductor scene of him expositioning the time and place, as a teenager I went to a real wild west attraction in North Carolina (I don't think the location was authentic but it was themed) and part of it was getting to walk around on real trains of that era where the conductor playing his part said something eerily similar......im starting to wonder if he was referencing this show since I remember at least two adults chuckling at what he said despite it not being funny.
Williams didn’t commit suicide; he stepped off the train into a great new life.
Loved your interpretation and narration. There is no equal to the Twilight Zone.
Great take. Gotta say that ASAW has always been, for decades, my absolute favorite TZ episode by far. I say this not only because of its utter brilliance, plus how much it has meant to me personally, but also because it was the clincher episode that truly turned me on to the Twilight Zone. From there, I would go on to cherish such classics as Uncle Simon, Living Doll, and It's a Good Life, just to name a scant few. But 'A Stop At Willoughby' will always hold a very special place in my heart because of its symbolism. The first time I saw that hearse door close I got reverberating chills and things would never be the same. That was it; I was hooked on this show and would never look back. And there is more to this episode for me than just the dichotomy of the storyline. Whether it is a daydream, a hobby or other outlet, or an actual place that we each like to go to to escape life's struggles, we all have our own Willoughby that we like, if not need, to visit periodically. Only in reality our private Willoughbys do not end in tragedy but provide the inner peace that Williams was so earnestly seeking in this episode. Great job, Rod! Love it!
The scene where he calls his wife, pleading for help is devastating.
It is but the thing I've always wondered about that scene is did he REALLY think she'd be understanding and comforting? Did he really know her at all?
Man, that's dark, but at the same time, he's so lucky!
Sometimes, the world of the death is far better than our reality.
I didn't find the conductor "creepy." I felt him to be kind and reassuring. And in the final scene, with "beautiful dreamer" playing, Gart Williams found contentment and peace...
One of my favorite episodes!!!
Without a doubt one of my favorite episodes of twilight zone.
We all dream of a better, more simple existence. But it comes at a high price
I love this episode. It holds a special place in my heart. 10 years ago, I was living and working in one of the biggest cities in North America. Had a good job and pretty good pay but I hated every solitary minute I spent in that city and at that job. I had been working there for 3 years at that point and I was getting more and more agitated with everything. My job, my neighbours, my landlady, everything. One day, I was listening to whining customers and a b**ch of a boss and I just said to myself, you know what f**k this. I grabbed my things, went to my boss and said I quit and walked home. Loaded my stuff into my brothers car, paid the last month's rent and left the rat race. Now I'm much happier. Oh I don't make the money I did but I have much more free time. I saw this episode as a kid but it wasn't a favourite. Rewatched it and I can so relate to Gart. I'm glad he found happiness at last.
I always felt sorry for Gart. I never thought that he had depression but was more on the verge of a mental breakdown. I'm not sure why he became an ad executive in the first place. Maybe it's because he was trying to live up to everyone else's expectations. Or maybe he wanted that career at first but grew tired of the fast paced environment. Willoughby is no more than Williams's idea of Heaven. He wanted to live a more peaceful and simplistic lifestyle. I never really cared for his wife because she never cared for his well-being. All she cared about was the lavish lifestyle. As for the ending Gart did commit suicide subconsciously. I mean he did jump off the train to his death. I believe the ending is bittersweet. I'm glad that he found the peace that he wanted but I find it sad that it cost him his life.
One of my favorites, can really empathize with the guy, I'd definitely choose to stop off in my version of Willoughby.
As someone with anxiety and depression issues who once contemplated suicide and was stuck in a dead end retail job gathering the shopping carts, I'm forever grateful to have a close, supportive family who listened to me. I did end up quitting that job on my own terms, and spent a week in the mental hospital (as I was cutting myself at that time, along with the thoughts of suicide by gun).
I would like to personally thank channel awesome for getting me into the twilight zone
"First, the 'stimulant'... and then the 'chaser'."
goona be sad when this series ends.
Personally I think the message at the end is that many people suffering from depression and other mental illnesses see death as the only escape. The only peaceful option in their miserable/stressful life. Instead of just ignoring the signs of someone who needs comfort/love/someone to listen to their troubles, actually do something about it so they don't take the 'peaceful option.' His wife only brought him down and ignored him, but if she listened to him, tried to understand his problems, and showed love instead of disgust and disappointment, maybe he never would have dreamt of Willoughby Maybe he would have quit his job and found a better one with nice people. Maybe even start a family.
If only she was more supportive of him when he called to tell her that he's had it and he's resigning right then and there. But no she hung up on him leaving him alone!
Love this episode
This is one of my favorites, the main character I felt empathy for and wanted him to find peace, but oh boy who knew his peace of mind would come in the form of death
One interesting detail, and possible foreshadowing, is that in the beginning of the episode, after the incident with his boss, Williams asks his secretary for a razor blade and a map of human arteries.
Another one that makes me sniff a little that he can't find a perfect life in this life. I have depression myself and somehow it has gotten worse since I have been sick. I guess we all want to find our own Willoughby. I just hope we don't have to die for it.
One of my favorite episodes, poignant is the only word that comes to mind. I can't help but wonder if he was being given glimpses of his heaven. That job and home-life was killing him only because he felt so trapped but >50 years in the future now, we can't judge Williams thru the perspectives of 2022 . . . where we too are trapped. Hmmm. . . Willoughby, next stop, Willoughby. . .makes me grateful for so many things.
This episode is actually triggering, I like how Serling touch a topic that seems taboo at the time, awesome episode!
Pretty sure every working person has craved a summer day in a slow paced town like Willoughby.
My all time favourite Twilight Zone episode - pure genius and a twist ending that lingers in the memory for ever more
Rod Serling's daughter attends our towns yearly festival commemorating this episode. We live in the quaint looking village of Willoughby where the train depot and tracks still exist.
Daaaaamn. This is just hitting me that it's almost the end of the Twiloght Zone. I hope we can revisit it next year, when witches come howling and black cats are seen. When the moon howls and whispers: "Tis near Nostalgiaween..."
The Boss: "Push, Push, Push, Williams!!! Push, Push, Push. RIGHT ON DOWN THE LINE!!!!"
The Conductor: "Willoughby! Next stop, Willoughby!"
What great foreshadowing for what was to come. Nicely handled and makes "A Stop At Willoughby" a quotably dark episode.
I found this episode so sad because it presented to us a man who could not find any happiness in his life. And only found it in a dream world.
Cowpoke, I am real glad you were able to make this doggone episode just in time thanks.
One of my favorites.
We're at the second to last episode of the twilight tower zone.
Hopefully, Walter will continue to do this for the next 4 Octobers so he can finish reviewing the entire Original Series.
We can only hope
😭
The conductor of the train is the grim ripper politely inviting the man to step into his new internal home in this case Willoughby.