The Twilight Zone: The Mind and the Matter

A man who hates people becomes omnipotent and makes them all disappear.

Archibald stuck in crowd — There are simply too many people

Episode Summary

This episode is about a man named Archibald Beechcroft, and he hates people. Really hates them, and he reminds us constantly of this fact.

Archibald talking to man — Archibald’s having a bad day

Every day when he goes to work he deals with a crowd of people on the train, a guy spills coffee on him in the office, people talk to him in the bathroom – he hates all of it!

Archibald having lunch — Archibald has lunch with the coffee boy

As an apology for spilling coffee on him earlier, the coffee boy gives Archibald a book called The Mind and the Matter, that teaches people how to make thoughts turn into reality.

Archibald reading book — Archibald reads *The Mind and the Matter*

Archibald reads the book and, imagine that, he actually gains omnipotence; he tests this new power by making his landlady disappear. Hey, that’s a good idea!

Archibald in empty train station — Everyone’s gone

Disappearing Act

The next morning, he makes everyone in the vicinity (the world?) disappear. But he soon finds out that maybe this wasn’t a good idea.

Archibald and conscience in reflection — Archibald speaks to his “conscience”

At the behest of his…conscience, I suppose – his reflection – Archibald brings some people back, but makes them all versions of himself. Duplicates.

Archibald looking at woman Archibald duplicate — Har har

As he spends time with all these other Archibalds, he realizes, wow, he’s a miserable guy to be with. So he brings everything back to the way it was before and returns the Mind and the Matter book to the coffee boy: “Frankly, I thought it was a lot of pap,” he says, “It was interesting, but totally unbelievable.”

Archibald with coffee boy — Archibald returns the book to the coffee boy

Thoughts

Not the greatest episode, with an ending so predictable, you can see it coming the minute everyone disappears. Archibald was a jerk (obviously) and it’s not clear if he learned his lesson or not at the end. It tries to be comedic, but just isn’t funny.

unhappy Archibald — How’s that “no people” thing working out, Archibald?

I was disappointed because the premise was intriguing, and I wanted to see Archibald do fun things with these powers, like play practical jokes on people à la Q in Star Trek or do the same sort of stuff as Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty (albeit on a much smaller budget). But no, Archibald lacked imagination.

Archibald in doorway — Was the landlady restored with everyone else?

The few things he did do with his omnipotence were rather boring; turning everyone into duplicates of himself was the only thing he did that was halfway amusing. And it was so weird he got his powers overnight from just reading a book! A weak episode that could have been better with a few quick fixes.