Rod Serling: The home of Mr. Gregory West, one of America's most noted playwrights. The office of Mr. Gregory West. Mr. Gregory West: shy, quiet, and at the moment, very happy. Mary: warm, affectionate. And the final ingredient: Mrs. Gregory West.
Air date: July 1, 1960
Gregory West (Keenan Wynn), a mild-mannered, affable playwright, is having a pleasant evening in his study, snuggling with his companion Mary (Mary LaRoche), who's just fixed him a cocktail. But when his wife Victoria (Phyllis Kirk) shows up, Gregory hurriedly snatches a reel of tape and throws it into the fire... at which point Mary vanishes.
Victoria is not nearly as gentle and loving as Mary is. Her persistent, aggressive questioning leads Gregory to finally confess the truth: he invented Mary and brought her out of his imagination with his special dictaphone. In fact, any character or object he describes into the machine comes to life in the real world. When Victoria refuses to believe him, he resorts to drastic measures to prove his point.
The last episode of Season 1. Notable for being the first on-screen appearance of Rod Serlingnote ...and the only time he's been noticed in-universe.
Serling: We hope you enjoyed tonight's romantic story on The Twilight Zone. At the same time, we want you to realize that it was, of course, purely fictional. In real life, such ridiculous nonsense could never...
Gregory: [interrupting] Rod! You shouldn't. [pulls out an envelope reading "Rod Serling"] I mean, you shouldn't say such things as "nonsense" and "ridiculous". [throws the envelope into the fire]
Serling: [resigned] Well, that's the way it goes. [disappears]
A Trope of His Own:
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Victoria doesn't believe that Gregory conjured Mary up, even after he describes an elephant in the foyer and one actually appears there. Then at the end, when she sees an envelope with "Victoria West" written on it, she refuses to believe she is one of Gregory's creations—this after she's both seen the elephant and Gregory making Mary appear and disappear. Victoria then makes the extremely poor decision to throw it into the fire herself. Justified in that she isn't a person, she's only a character Gregory invented, and thus it's not unrealistic that she would react somewhat unrealistically.
- Ironically, Rod Serling himself falls victim to this at the end of the episode, describing the episode itself as being nonsense... causing a pissed-off Gregory to erase him in response.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Mary repeatedly questions Gregory's behavior in regards to Victoria. He's not happy with her anytime, but what Mary says when disappearing after just coming back.Mary: Again? Why do you do this to me, Greg?
- Armor-Piercing Response: Right before she's about to vanish, Mary says she's done with Gregory's nonsense.Mary: Don't bring me back again, Greg.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Gregory notes how Victoria was able to come back against his will precisely because he made her so strong, but didn't provide the kind of relaxed qualities that would temper her. As he says, "I asked for it."
- Betty and Veronica: Gregory's blonde-haired, sweet, loving, second creation Mary, and his fiery and demanding, dark-haired first creation Victoria. Despite the fact that Victoria is mean and nasty and obviously can't stand him, Gregory picks her, until she makes the decision to erase herself.
- Bookends: At the beginning, Gregory is on the couch as Mary fixes him a martini. At the end, he's there again.
- Bottle Episode: The entire episode takes place in Gregory's study, or the hallway leading to it.
- Celebrity Casualty: Rod Serling appears as himself and becomes another one of Gregory West's victims when Gregory erases him.
- Creator Cameo: This, the last episode of the first season, is the first time that Rod Serling shows up on camera himself. Serling's appearances would become a fixture and a trademark of the series starting in Season 2.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: How else do you describe erasing the creator of the show?
- Dramatic Drop: Gregory drops his martini when Victoria knocks on the door to his study. At the end, he reveals that he was even more surprised because she had broken loose of the storyline he had written for her.
- Face Death with Dignity: When Gregory wipes Rod from existence, Rod simply mutters "Well, that's the way it goes" before he fades away.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: At the very end, Rod appears in the room and begins doing his usual end-of-episode narration. But then we see Gregory and Mary turn to face him...
- Foreshadowing: Gregory describes Victoria as perfect, impeccable, and flawless, hinting at the fact that she is a fictional character brought to life. When describing his power, he also noted to her how some of his characters just come alive and can't be controlled.
- Gaslighting: When she isn't accusing him of being insane, Victoria assumes Gregory is trying to make her insane.
- Grew Beyond Their Programming: Victoria comes back to Gregory's house against his will. This is the first time that she has demonstrated independence, indicating to Gregory that she has grown beyond the parameters he set when he created her.
- Imagination-Based Superpower: Gregory can create anything he can think of just by describing it to his dictaphone.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Gregory wrote Mary, his second, calmer, and sweeter love interest to be blonde-haired.
- Happily Married: Gregory and Mary at the ending, after Victoria destroys herself.
- I Warned You: After Victoria vanishes, Gregory stresses that he warned her and she didn't listen.
- Loophole Abuse: Right before Gregory is about to erase Mary for the second time in the episode, Mary simply requests that George not bring her back again. After Victoria accidentally erases herself, Gregory begins frantically describing his wife into his dictation machine... only to promptly switch gears and describe his wife Mary.
- Noodle Incident: Gregory says that he first discovered his power when Philip Wainwright (the lead character in his play Fury in the Night) suddenly walked through the door and talked to him. He says an assortment of different characters he was writing have since come to life and interacted with him.
- Oddball in the Series: This is the only episode of The Twilight Zone where Rod Serling appears at the end rather than at the beginning, though he appears at both the beginning and the end in "The Obsolete Man" and "The Fugitive". It is also the only one where he is part of the story as opposed to merely delivering narration. Gregory throws a "Rod Serling" envelope into the fire and he disappears in the same way as Mary and Victoria did.
- Oh, Crap!: Victoria, when she starts feeling weird as the envelope containing her description crinkles up in the flames, realizing far too late that Gregory was telling the truth.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Unable to figure out where Mary went, Victoria makes a show of acting like she was wrong and amused over the idea of Gregory fooling around with such "a drab, ugly little creature" on the couch.Gregory: Well, she's not so drab. [realizes what he just said]
- Pygmalion Plot: Gregory and his habit of inventing women to be with. His first attempt failed quite badly, but his second attempt seems to be a success.
- Real Time: No discernible time skips occur in the episode's narrative.
- Rewatch Bonus: In the teaser, Gregory is quite surprised over Victoria being at his door, with Mary begging to not have to go through this again. Through the course of the story, we learn that both women are his creations, with Mary being fully aware of that and Victoria having achieved her own level of control.
- Rewriting Reality: Gregory can change reality however he wants just by describing what he wants to his dictaphone.
- Self-Deprecation: Rod's initial narration at the episode's end is him poking fun at how silly the whole story had been, just before Gregory erases him.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: An In-Universe example. Not only is Gregory the only character who acknowledges the existence of Rod Serling, but it turns out that Rod Serling himself is a product of Gregory's dictaphone. It gets worse when Gregory erases Rod...
- This Cannot Be!: Having spied Gregory with Mary, Victoria wants into his study immediately. Upon entering, she sees only Gregory there, leaving her looking around with a dumbfounded expression on her face.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Victoria is one of Gregory's creations. She realizes this too late, before she disappears after throwing her own envelope into the fire.
- Wham Line: "Rod, you shouldn't!"
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Seeing Mary in the flesh doesn't convince Victoria of Gregory's supernatural power, since the woman simply waked through the door. She instead thinks her husband is an adulterer using mundane secret doors in an attempt to gaslight her and get her committed.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Gregory says this about his power when Victoria gets to the point of trying to call a psychiatrist.
- You're Insane!: As Gregory goes on and on about his power and how it works, Victoria says he should be put away.
Rod Serling: Leaving Mr. Gregory West — still shy, quiet, very happy... and apparently in complete control of the Twilight Zone.
