Many Twilight Zone episodes have a moral, or lesson, and this episode is one of them.
The year is 1939. On the day she is supposed to marry Robert Blake, young heiress Ann Henderson, wearing a white blouse, is out riding horseback on her father's estate when she finds herself being chased by a hideous creature clad in black, also on horseback. This other rider screams what sounds like a screeching war cry, and seems to charge at Ann. Ann is terrorized and rides back home as fast as she can, losing the other rider. She tells her parents and her betrothed about her experience. Then, in bursts an impetuous young man, poor and rebellious David Mitchell, who is the opposite of Robert, who is well-to-do, well behaved, and approved by Ann's austere parents.
We soon learn, as does Robert, that Ann really loves David, when, on what was supposed to be his and Ann's wedding night, Robert spies Ann and David kissing like two true lovers. The sad, heartbroken expression on Robert's face is palpable.
Fast forward to contemporary times (1964). Ann is miserable and, like her lazy free-spending husband, David, her "true lover", she is an alcoholic. Her mother is still alive and widowed, and constantly lectures Ann about what she and David are doing to the late Mr. Henderson's estate and legacy. One morning, after another argument with David, which is a constant routine in their miserable marriage, Ann, clad in black, goes out horseback riding, her favorite pastime. While riding, she sees a younger woman, wearing a white blouse, also riding on the estate she now owns. We soon learn that the older Ann is herself the "hideous creature", chasing after the younger Ann (who is still in 1939), not to harm her, but to warn her that she is about to make a mistake she will regret for the rest of her life, their lives. That screeching scream the audience hears is merely her calling out young Ann's name. It was purposely made to sound so hideous and incoherent to us because that is how it sounded to young Ann, who is completely and hopelessly unaware of the black clad rider's true intentions. The older Ann will repeat this routine every morning, which will apparently be a repeat of the same morning back in 1939, the day she was supposed to marry Robert. Her efforts will end in vain every time, because, like the song says, "You Can't Ever Go Home Again".
Many of us do essentially what the older Ann was doing, trying to turn back time, undoing much of what we did wrong and do it over. But, alas, life does not grant such do-overs. Try to get it right the first time!
At the episode's end, we see the contemporary Ann stop riding, breathing hard. It might have been more dramatic, and fitting, if she had started to break down crying, a reflection of the fact that deep down she knows that this routine is a grand exercise in futility.
The year is 1939. On the day she is supposed to marry Robert Blake, young heiress Ann Henderson, wearing a white blouse, is out riding horseback on her father's estate when she finds herself being chased by a hideous creature clad in black, also on horseback. This other rider screams what sounds like a screeching war cry, and seems to charge at Ann. Ann is terrorized and rides back home as fast as she can, losing the other rider. She tells her parents and her betrothed about her experience. Then, in bursts an impetuous young man, poor and rebellious David Mitchell, who is the opposite of Robert, who is well-to-do, well behaved, and approved by Ann's austere parents.
We soon learn, as does Robert, that Ann really loves David, when, on what was supposed to be his and Ann's wedding night, Robert spies Ann and David kissing like two true lovers. The sad, heartbroken expression on Robert's face is palpable.
Fast forward to contemporary times (1964). Ann is miserable and, like her lazy free-spending husband, David, her "true lover", she is an alcoholic. Her mother is still alive and widowed, and constantly lectures Ann about what she and David are doing to the late Mr. Henderson's estate and legacy. One morning, after another argument with David, which is a constant routine in their miserable marriage, Ann, clad in black, goes out horseback riding, her favorite pastime. While riding, she sees a younger woman, wearing a white blouse, also riding on the estate she now owns. We soon learn that the older Ann is herself the "hideous creature", chasing after the younger Ann (who is still in 1939), not to harm her, but to warn her that she is about to make a mistake she will regret for the rest of her life, their lives. That screeching scream the audience hears is merely her calling out young Ann's name. It was purposely made to sound so hideous and incoherent to us because that is how it sounded to young Ann, who is completely and hopelessly unaware of the black clad rider's true intentions. The older Ann will repeat this routine every morning, which will apparently be a repeat of the same morning back in 1939, the day she was supposed to marry Robert. Her efforts will end in vain every time, because, like the song says, "You Can't Ever Go Home Again".
Many of us do essentially what the older Ann was doing, trying to turn back time, undoing much of what we did wrong and do it over. But, alas, life does not grant such do-overs. Try to get it right the first time!
At the episode's end, we see the contemporary Ann stop riding, breathing hard. It might have been more dramatic, and fitting, if she had started to break down crying, a reflection of the fact that deep down she knows that this routine is a grand exercise in futility.