The scene opens on a woman sitting on the porch of a southern mansion that has been devastated by the Civil War.\u00a0 On the road in front of her home a stream of war veterans from both sides is limping along.\u00a0 A Confederate Sergeant asks the woman if he can have some water from her well and she graciously agrees.\u00a0 While he drinks the water, they talk about the war and its aftermath.\u00a0 He was wounded and has a serious leg injury.\u00a0 She has lost her husband in the war and was herself recently deathly ill with a fever.\u00a0 To cheer both of them he asks if he can play his guitar and she gladly agrees.<\/p>\n
As we see more of the soldiers who are passing on the road it seems obvious that they are unbeknownst to themselves actually the dead.\u00a0 One Union officer who had helped the Sergeant when he was wounded is revealed to be an animated corpse that shows no meaningful effect when the woman shoots him with a gun.\u00a0 She does this at a point when being reminded of the pain of losing her husband she vows to take revenge on the Union soldiers.\u00a0 After this event the Sergeant knows he must reach the end of the road.\u00a0 But just as he is leaving the woman\u2019s husband is heard approaching the house singing a song.\u00a0 The husband tells his wife that they are both dead and there is nothing left holding them to this world.\u00a0 He says he is headed to the end of the road and if she does not come with him now, he\u2019ll wait for her at the end until she makes up her mind to come.\u00a0 The Sergeant heads off down the road and the woman\u2019s husband soon after that.\u00a0 She unsuccessfully pleads with her husband to stay and then collapses on the road in front of the house in sorrow.<\/p>\n
Just then Abraham Lincoln shows up walking down the road and tries to persuade her to proceed.\u00a0 He tells her he is the last man on the road because he is the final casualty of the Civil War.\u00a0 At first, she refuses but then changing her mind she runs down the road to catch up to her husband.<\/p>\n
The story has a sort of melancholy grace to it and the characterization of the woman and the Sergeant are very affecting and natural. \u00a0Serling uses Lincoln as a touchstone to represent the tragic consequences of war for both sides.\u00a0 Although I don\u2019t think it describes the complexity of the psychic wounds that still stalk the land, I recognize that he wants to allow grace for both sides in the conflict and that is admirable.\u00a0 B.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The scene opens on a woman sitting on the porch of a southern mansion that has been devastated by the Civil War.\u00a0 On the road<\/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":[38,1355,1194,44,309,265,1691,1812,154,1692,838],"class_list":["post-6549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-tv-reviews","category-tv-reviews","category-twilight-zone","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-rod-serling","tag-sci-fi","tag-sci-fi-tv-review","tag-science-fiction","tag-sff-tv-show-reviews","tag-the-passersby","tag-tv-review","tag-tv-reviews","tag-twilight-zone"],"yoast_head":"\n