Air date: December 11, 1959
The X-20 Dynasoar, an experimental spacecraft, is shown in a hangar where two men are inspecting her after a crash landing in the desert.
At the hospital, one of the men, Colonel Forbes, goes to see Major Gart and is immediately identified as one of the men who flew the shuttle. Forbes talks to Gart, who is clearly not pleased with his hospital stay, and asks him how many people there were when he left yesterday. Gart tells him it was just him and Forbes, but Forbes insists that a third man, his best friend Colonel Ed Harrington, was on the flight yesterday and they had drinks together. Gart reads a newspaper stating "Two Spacemen Return From Crash In The Desert". Forbes continues to insist there were three survivors, not two...
A flashback begins, showing Harrington and Forbes going off to the bar the night before the test flight, with Gart warning Harrington to make sure Forbes doesn't drink too much. The newspaper there states "Three Spacemen Return From Crash In The Desert, All Alive". At the bar, the two men are given rounds on the house because they are now celebrities. Harrington drops his glass and apologizes. When Forbes asks Harrington what happened, Harrington says he suddenly got an uneasy feeling that he doesn't belong, that someone or something made a mistake by letting them live. He goes to call his parents, but he calls Forbes over immediately afterward and says that his parents claimed not to have a son. Despite Forbes's insistence that this must be a joke, Harrington is certain that it's part of the feeling he got that they don't belong. Forbes learns that the bartender who served them also has no idea who Harrington is, the glass Harrington dropped has disappeared, and suddenly, Harrington himself is nowhere to be seen. The headline now reads "Two Spacemen Return From Crash In The Desert".
Forbes goes home to his wife, who is mad at him for not seeing her that night. She starts worrying about his mental health, just as Forbes is beginning to feel that something is wrong. Forbes insists he sent her a telegram saying that he and Harrington were going out, but then realizes that the telegram would be proof of Harrington's existence; he finds it and discovers Harrington's name is no longer on it. He calls the military base to figure out if they have records of Harrington, but they don't. He starts freaking out, insisting this is all some sort of sick practical joke. Hoping Harrington is at the bar, Forbes goes back and discovers no sign of Harrington there. End of flashback.
Unswayed by Forbes's argument, Gart insists it was only him and Forbes on the voyage. Suddenly, Forbes gets the feeling that Harrington was right: someone or something made a mistake by letting the trio survive the crash, and as a result, they no longer belong. When he looks in a mirror and sees nothing looking back at him, Forbes panics and runs out of the room. Gart goes after him but is stopped by a nurse; the same nurse who recognized Forbes earlier, but now doesn't know Forbes. Gart insists that Forbes was with him and discovers that his hospital bed is missing. Gart finds the newspaper, which now reads "Lone Spaceman Completes Journey; Lands In Desert". Gart falls back into his bed horrified, knowing exactly what is about to happen to him.
The nurse comes back with a man saying they have an open room for three malaria patients, the same room the astronauts were in.
The episode ends with a shot of the hangar the X-20 was being kept in, now empty. The sheet covering her is now lying on the floor, as if she and her crew never existed... or no longer exist at all.
And When the Tropes Were Opened:
- Adaptation Deviation: It is only loosely based on the short story "Disappearing Act" by Richard Matheson. The episode concerns three astronauts, Colonels Ed Harrington and Clegg Forbes and Major William Gart, who are erased from existence after completing the first manned flight into space. In the short story, the protagonist Bob is a largely unsuccessful writer in a tempestuous marriage to a woman named Mary. When he tries to call his mistress Jean, he can find no proof of her existence. Over the course of the next week, everyone in his life ceases to exist until he eventually suffers the same fate.
- Blatant Lies: When we first see Forbes, who is asked by a nurse how he's feeling, Forbes says he's fine. Even before we see what's troubling him, it's obvious Forbes is very much not well.
- Cassandra Truth: Forbes insists there was a third man on the crew, Ed Harrington, his best friend who abruptly disappeared. No one else remembers him ever existing, to the point where even news articles have changed to that effect. Gart realizes the truth when Forbes disappears in the same way, but just as no one but Forbes remembered Harrington, no one but Gart remembers Forbes. In the flashback, before he vanished, Harrington felt that something wasn't right, and that he, Forbes, and Gart aren't meant to be there, but Forbes and Gart thought he was being paranoid.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Forbes's hand is shaking so badly when he tells Gart about his experience that he can barely light his cigarette.
- Cosmic Horror Story: The astronauts are unable to fully comprehend, nor is the audience ever told, what exactly is happening to them; only that there is absolutely no chance it can be stopped.
- Downer Ending: The three astronauts have been erased from time and space by unknown forces, all traces of their existence are gone, and any memory of them existing has been erased. The X-20 no longer exists either. No one knows where they went, or that they were ever there.
- Dramatic Drop: Harrington drops his beer as the feeling that he shouldn't be there starts to take hold.
- Eldritch Abomination: A potential theory for what happened is that one of these took interest of the trio during their flight in space, and is now taking them back where it dwells, erasing their memory from the world as it does so so as not to arouse unwanted suspicion.
- Flashback Effects: The standard "wave" effect signals the start of a flashback.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: All three astronauts go insane as they realize they're being erased from existence for reasons beyond their comprehension.
- Have a Gay Old Time: At the start of the episode, Major Gart's complaint of "If I get another thermometer in my puss...", referring to his mouth. To modern audiences, this may come off as confusing.
- Hope Spot: Forbes gets a hunch from his girlfriend Amy that a telegram he sent could help confirm Harrington's (supposed) existence, until he pulls out the telegram that suddenly says that only he was getting out of the hospital.
- Missing Reflection: Forbes realizes that he is about to disappear when he discovers he no longer has a reflection.
- Nothing Is Scarier:
- What in the hell was it that erased the astronauts? Aliens? God? Time travel? We never get anything more than vague speculation.
- Whatever happened to the X-20 and her crew during the twenty-fours they were missing is also left vague. The best guess, as surmised by Harrington, is that they encountered something they weren't supposed to, and now it's come back to get them.
- Obsessive-Compulsive Barkeeping: When Forbes is talking to the bartender about Harrington.
- Ret-Gone: Harrington, Forbes, and Gart are erased from existence one by one shortly after their return to Earth. The same fate befalls their spacecraft, the X-20.
- Rewatch Bonus: Viewers with an attention to details will notice that when Harrington freezes in the bar and realizes something's wrong, he was looking straight at a mirror. The importance of this detail is clear later when Forbes sees that his reflection has disappeared.
- Ripple Effect Indicator: The Daily Chronicle initially features the headline "Three Spacemen Return from Crash; All Alive" and a photograph of Harrington, Forbes and Gart. After Harrington ceases to exist, the headline changes to "Two Spacemen Return from Crash in Desert" and only Forbes and Gart are pictured. When Forbes likewise ceases to exist, the headline then reads "Lone Spaceman Completes Journey; Lands in Desert" and only Gart appears in the accompanying photo.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Forbes is the only person to remember that Ed Harrington ever existed after he disappears. Similarly, Gart is the only one to remember Forbes after he disappears.
- Sanity Slippage: Everyone thinks Forbes is going through this in regards to his insistance that Harrington exists.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Harrington, and eventually Forbes, theorize that something shouldn't have let them re-appear during their space flight, and is coming back to fix its mistake.
- Un-person: All evidence that the astronauts existed is gone by the end of the episode.
- The Un-Reveal: It's never revealed at all what exactly what happened to the astronauts and X-20 when they disappeared from their radar and from reality.
- You're Insane!: Forbes begins shouting this at bar patrons at the bar after Harrington disappears, the obvious irony of the situation seeming to be lost in his delirium.
