The Fugitive (Twilight Zone)

"The Fugitive"
The Twilight Zone episode
Scene from "The Fugitive"
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 90
Directed by	Richard L. Bare
Written by	Charles Beaumont
Featured music	Stock
Production code	4816
Original air date	March 9, 1962
Guest stars
J. Pat O'Malley: Old Ben Susan Gordon: Jenny Nancy Kulp: Mrs. Gann Wesley Lau: First Pursuer Paul Tripp: Second Pursuer Russ Bender: Doctor Stephen Talbot: Howie Gutliff Johnny Eiman: Pitcher
Episode chronology
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List of Twilight Zone episodes

"The Fugitive" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

Plot

The story opens at a public park, where a group of children are playing softball. They are accompanied by Old Ben, a kindly, grandfatherly gentleman, whom the kids adore. When it is Old Ben's turn at bat, he knocks the ball out of sight, ending the game. They then decide to play "Spaceman", one of their favorite games. Old Ben, who usually plays the spaceman, suggests that Jenny play the visitor from outer space this time. Jenny declines, saying she can't make herself into as convincing a spaceman as Old Ben, so Old Ben assumes his customary role. He runs behind a huge tree to prepare.

When Old Ben emerges (looking like a nightmarish, shelled monster), the children "zap" him with pretend guns, and Old Ben's creation is dispatched to the next life. Old Ben then reappears from behind the tree and announces that the spaceman is gone, and the camera then pans to series host Rod Serling, who, while seated on a park bench, introduces this episode, noting that it combines science-fiction ("the improbable made possible") with fantasy ("the impossible made probable").

Old Ben carries Jenny home (she walks with a leg brace that restricts her movement), where Jenny lives with her unsympathetic aunt, Agnes Gann. As they approach the rowhouse, Ben causes his roller skates to dematerialize. This is observed by two well-dressed men who are watching the house from across the street. From their reactions, the disappearance of the skates is not surprising.

The two strangers enter the apartment building and question Agnes about Ben. Agnes is not surprised, assuming the police are interested in Ben. She believes him to be of questionable character. Jenny, who has been sent to bed without supper for spending time with Old Ben, overhears the conversation and limps upstairs to his apartment to warn him about the two men. Old Ben reveals to Jenny that he is actually from another planet, a planet Jenny has never heard of and that his appearance is strictly a disguise. Old Ben decides that it is time for him to "skedaddle" again, but before departing he uses a strange device to heal Jenny's bad leg. The two strangers, noticing that Jenny is now walking around without her brace, hatch a scheme to make Jenny temporarily deathly ill, forcing Ben to return and save her.

With the men waiting, Old Ben explains to Jenny that he is not a criminal but the king of his planet. He grew weary from the pressures of ruling his world, from having so much of his authority overridden by red tape...and by "the Council", which evidently wields more power over said world than he does. Accordingly, Ben came to Earth for a self-authorized vacation. The strangers tell Jenny that Old Ben's people love him as much as she does; they want him to return and continue the remainder of his 5,000-year reign. Old Ben realizes that he must go back to his planet, but regrets that it would be against the rules for Jenny to go with him. Old Ben is granted a moment alone with Jenny to say goodbye after he promises not to run away.

Jenny comes up with a plan that will keep them together. She has Ben change himself into her identical twin. Since Old Ben's subjects are unable to tell them apart, they are forced to return with both of them.

At the end of the episode, host Rod Serling holds up an 8-by-10 black-and-white photograph of a handsome young man, noting that the photo shows Old Ben's true appearance and that when Jenny grows up, she will become his queen. There has been much speculation about the identity of the uncredited man in the photo.

References

• DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
• Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090

External links

• "The Fugitive" at the Internet Movie Database
• TV.com episode page
• Full video of the episode at CBS.com