The episode opens up with a funeral mass being held in a rustic church somewhere in a country holler.\u00a0 A young man named Jeff Myrtlebank is being mourned by his family, friends and sweetheart.\u00a0 He died two days earlier from influenza and the town is assembled to say goodbye and lay him to rest in the churchyard.<\/p>\n
Suddenly the cover of the coffin is pushed open and Jeff sits up.\u00a0 The congregation panics and stampedes out of the church. \u00a0When Jeff follows them out most of them are too frightened of him to go near him.\u00a0 Jeff tells them that he just woke up in the box and doesn\u2019t remember anything after he fell ill.\u00a0 Jeff begs his family to welcome him back and finally his kid sister Liz comes up and hugs him.\u00a0 Now the town doctor who up until this moment assured everyone that he had carefully checked for any sign of life when Jeff expired remembers a very rare syndrome that causes suspended animation as a side effect and declares this the reason for the miraculous cure.\u00a0 This breaks the ice and the crowd calms down and Jeff\u2019s parents get over their fear and take him home to a big meal to satisfy a three day fast.<\/p>\n
But after a few days his parents notice some changes in their restored son.\u00a0 Whereas previously Jeff was never a hard worker now he is relentless at performing all the hard farm work that he undertakes.\u00a0 He has become remarkably stronger than he was before but despite this higher work output, he now eats much less than had been his habit.\u00a0 Overhearing his parents talking about these things, Liz spread this information as gossip and it makes the rounds in the community.\u00a0 Pretty soon the consensus around town is that Jeff is possessed by a haint or evil spirit.\u00a0 When Jeff goes to see his girl Comfort Gatewood at her home, she is afraid of him, especially after the bouquet of roses he freshly picked for her turns out to be wilted and dead.\u00a0 Her brother Orgram, who had always bullied Jeff when they were younger attempts to throw Jeff out of the house but Jeff easily beat him in a fistfight.<\/p>\n
Now the whole town is convinced that Jeff is demon possessed.\u00a0 Deciding that she still loves Jeff, Comfort reaches Jeff\u2019s farm before the mob and warns him that they are coming to threaten him and force him to leave town.\u00a0 When the mob reaches his property and gives him the ultimatum, Jeff asks Comfort if she will marry him.\u00a0 When she accepts Jeff tells her to stand behind him and then he faces the crowd.<\/p>\n
He makes a speech.\u00a0 He says that there are two possibilities about him.\u00a0 One is that he\u2019s just a normal man and if that\u2019s the case they have nothing to fear from him.\u00a0 The other possibility is that he\u2019s a haint and if that\u2019s the case then he can use his powers to destroy their crops and kill their livestock.\u00a0 When the mob thinks about this for a moment, they get the message and change their tune and say now that he is marrying Comfort everyone will be one big happy family and they depart quickly.<\/p>\n
After they are alone Comfort asks Jeff if he really has those powers and Jeff demurs that it was just something he had to say.\u00a0 But as he is lighting his pipe the match flares up without Jeff striking it.\u00a0 Comfort exclaims about this but Jeff says, “Comfort, honey, first thing you got to learn is not to imagine things.”\u00a0 Then as they\u2019re walking toward his house the property gate at the road closes slowly behind them on its own.<\/p>\n
Well, you all know I like the comical episodes and this one is definitely that.\u00a0 And I liked the way it was done with just the right amount of cornpone, tongue-in-cheek hillbilly flavor to lay to rest any doubts as to its intentions. \u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a B.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The episode opens up with a funeral mass being held in a rustic church somewhere in a country holler.\u00a0 A young man named Jeff Myrtlebank<\/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":[38,1355,1194,44,309,265,1691,1866,154,1692,838],"class_list":["post-6918","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-last-rites-of-jeff-myrtlebank","tag-tv-review","tag-tv-reviews","tag-twilight-zone"],"yoast_head":"\n