Acts of Terror (The Twilight Zone)
| "Acts of Terror (The Twilight Zone)" |
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Acts of Terror is the forty-sixth episode and the eleventh episode of the third season (1988–89) of the television series The Twilight Zone.
Opening narration
Louise Simonson, considered quite pretty once, not long ago. Before the arguments, and the years and the stick took it out of her. Louise Simonson, like so many, broken on the wheel, with one subtle difference...this wheel has a name.
Plot
Louise Simonson is a doting housewife who looks for the daily mail. The mailman noticed a nasty bruise and says it could happen to anyone, but look after it. She excitedly brings in this mail from her sister to her husband, Jack. Jack reminds her that she should fix his lunch...now! She reluctantly fixes her husband's lunch. Then she plaintively asks if she can open the package. She does so, revealing a black sculpture that looks like a doberman pinscher. Jack, of course, acts like the "big man" he is and thinks it's a dig at him. So he hates it.
Louise is cleaning broken plates off the floor after Jack hated the eggs she made. He had also apparently beat her as well. Then, when he attempts to leave on a fishing trip, a doberman attacks him. He gets out to check it but the dog is gone. After he leaves on his trip, Louise has a friend over and she comments on how Jack beats her.
Jack returns from his fishing trip and he comments on the nice dinner Louise set up for the guests, Phil and Claire, they have over. While Jack and Phil are discussing some affair he's having with a woman named Denise, Louise overhears. Somehow, the sculpture disappears and Louise's rage gives it life. The dog attacks Jack in the garage but when he tries to shoot it, it vanishes again. Without evidence, the police aren't able to do anything. Jack pushes her and she finally confronts him. The dog appears again, everywhere Jack tries to go. He escapes as Louise explains that she calls the dog, but the dog attacks him. Jack begs Louise to call it off and somehow it broke the sculpture. He laughs but it doesn't make the dog go away. Louise somehow controls the dog and makes it stop.
Louise packs up and leaves. Jack thinks he is going to attempt to stop her...but the dog reappears to protect her. She tells him he is wrong for what he did to her. She pulls away, leaving him forever...
Closing narration
Louise Simonson, driven by pain and anger, into the desperate regions of the human heart, only to discover the preeminence of her own personal power and an act of recognition that reverberates in and out of the Twilight Zone.