Jackie Rhoades is a small-time racketeer who lives in a cheap motel room in New York City waiting for his mob boss George to tell him his crime assignment for the night.\u00a0 Jackie is afraid of everything but most of all George.\u00a0 He\u2019s biting his fingernails and sweating like a pig.<\/p>\n
When George shows up, he mocks Jackie for being a coward and tells him that he\u2019s going to graduate to murder.\u00a0 He has to shoot an old bar keeper who won\u2019t pay George protection money.\u00a0 Jackie begs George not to make him commit murder but George tells him if he doesn\u2019t shoot the old man then his own life is over.<\/p>\n
After George leaves, Jackie agonizes into the mirror about his predicament and even as he insists that he\u2019ll be caught doing it he decides to kill the old man.\u00a0 But as he\u2019s getting ready to leave, his reflection in the mirror starts talking to him.\u00a0 It\u2019s a more assertive, more confident version of Jackie.\u00a0 He tells Jackie that he\u2019s the better side of Jackie\u2019s personality and he\u2019s been submerged all these years while Jackie has sabotaged their life with criminal activities and knuckling under to racketeers and gangsters.<\/p>\n
Scared Jackie tells his alter ego that he has to kill the old man and nothing will stop him.\u00a0 His alter ego tells him this is his last chance.\u00a0 If he kills the old man he\u2019ll be caught and their life will be over.\u00a0 Scared Jackie lashes out at the mirror and spins it around but now he sees the mirror image growing and coming at him.<\/p>\n
In the next scene George shows up in Jackie\u2019s room and finds Jackie sitting in a chair with his hands over his face.\u00a0 George confronts Jackie and tells him he\u2019s gonna skin him alive.\u00a0 But now Jackie tells George he quits and when George gets angry, Jackie punches George in the face and throws him out.\u00a0 As the episode ends Jackie, now called John is leaving the flophouse for good to get a job and start his new life and Jackie in the mirror is trying to understand what\u2019s happening to him.<\/p>\n
In the comments on an earlier episode I expressed the opinion that having a discussion with someone is a lot better than a soliloquy.\u00a0 Now granted that technically it\u2019s really just one person but without a doubt dialog beats monologue.\u00a0 The technique was effective and the episode benefited by it.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t Shakespeare but it was good.\u00a0 B.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jackie Rhoades is a small-time racketeer who lives in a cheap motel room in New York City waiting for his mob boss George to tell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[237,4,244,240,1661],"tags":[1751,38,1355,1194,44,309,265,1691,154,1692,838],"class_list":["post-6256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-tv-reviews","category-tv-reviews","category-twilight-zone","tag-nervous-man-in-a-four-dollar-room","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-rod-serling","tag-sci-fi","tag-sci-fi-tv-review","tag-science-fiction","tag-sff-tv-show-reviews","tag-tv-review","tag-tv-reviews","tag-twilight-zone"],"yoast_head":"\n