Rod Serling: You're about to meet a hypochondriac. Witness Mr. Walter Bedeker, age forty-four, afraid of the following: death, disease, other people, germs, draft, and everything else. He has one interest in life, and that’s Walter Bedeker. One preoccupation, the life and well-being of Walter Bedeker. One abiding concern about society, that if Walter Bedeker should die how will it survive without him?
Air date: Nov. 6, 1959
Walter Bedeker is a "perpetually ill" hypocondriac who constantly despairs over the frailty and impermanence of human life. Despite receiving a clean bill of health after yet another visit from his doctor, Walter is bemoaning his impending demise when a man suddenly appears in his room. The man introduces himself (this month, anyway) as "Mr. Cadwallader", and he offers to make a trade with Walter. He can grant him immortality and complete indestructibility for as long as he wishes in exchange for a rather small, unimportant, inconsequential item in Bedeker's possession: his soul. Although Walter realizes that Cadwallader is the Devil and is initially hesitant, he reluctantly agrees to the trade. To assuage Bedeker's lingering doubts, Cadwallader writes an escape clause into their agreement. If Bedeker should want to die, at any time and for any reason, he may call on Cadwallader, who will ensure him a quick and painless death.
With his new Complete Immortality, Bedeker commits a string of thrilling acts to flaunt his new ability, such as drinking poison, letting himself get caught in fires, and even jumping in front of trains and the like to collect insurance settlements from the associated companies. Rapidly growing bored with these exploits, he decides to jump from the roof of his building, much to his wife's dismay. After pleading with him not to jump, she accidentally falls off the roof herself. Wanting to give the electric chair a try, Bedeker calls the police and tells them that he killed his wife. To facilitate the lie, he acts as uncooperative as possible during his trial, but his lawyer manages to get him a life sentence in prison instead of the death penalty Terrified at the prospect of living in prison for hundreds of years, Bedeker decides to use the escape clause. Cadwallader appears and happily complies, giving Bedeker a fatal heart attack.
Escape Tropes
- Affably Evil: Mr. Cadwallader/The Devil, who provides Walter his standard M.O. deal-for-your-soul bit. However, he is quite polite and accommodating, and gives Bedeker exactly what he asked for with no tricks or hidden clauses.
- Though he quickly shows what he is really like after Walter signs his contract, casually flipping the signed and sealed papers onto the floor for Walter to pick up.
- Age Without Youth: Walter is aware of the concept and seeks to prevent his aged body from becoming a living husk. The Devil is impressed with his idea and offers Bedeker to have his appearance change minimally over the millennia.
- Asshole Victim: Walter Bedeker. After he makes a deal with the Devil for immortality and total invulnerability, he repeatedly commits insurance fraud, lies that he killed his wife, and feels no remorse for his actions. It's hard to feel sympathy for the old man after he's doomed to spend eternity in Hell (or an Ironic Hell, at that).
- Batman Gambit: Despite providing a Deal with the Devil, Mr. Cadwallader doesn't directly screw over Walter with his deal, giving him exactly what he wanted no strings attached, which seems odd given how you'd expect him to put in some trick that will eventually condemn Walter to Hell despite the immortality. But as the episode progresses Walter gets up to numerous things that would be considered damning, particularly his glee at his wife dying, and then rather than get executed he's given life in prison, which makes him terrified about how he might Go Mad from the Isolation... which is when Cadwallader comes by offering to enact the escape clause, something Walter immediately takes up, which heavily implies Cadwallader knew Walter gaining immortality would cause him to commit various damning acts and eventually corner himself into a situation where death is his only out, so he didn't need to personally screw him over.
- Deal with the Devil: Immortality/invulnerability for a soul. Cheap, right? The titular detail on the contract is there in case Mr. Bedeker needs it. If he invokes it, his soul will be taken (and he will die) immediately. Surprisingly, unlike most other examples of this trope, the deal plays out exactly as Bedeker wanted. He gets what he agreed to with no use of phrasing to screw him over or direct efforts by the Devil to screw him over later.
- Establishing Character Moment: If Rod Serling's narration isn't convincing enough of what kind of person Walter is, the first five minutes or so sums his character up in a nutshell. He's rude to his doctor, doesn't believe his prognosis that he's healthy as a horse, and treats his poor, sweet wife as though she secretly hates him.
- Evil Laugh: Twice by Cadwallader:
- The skin-crawling bellowing laugh that he lets loose with right after Bedeker signs the contract
- At the end, when he tempts Bedeker into exercising the escape clause.
- Failed Execution, No Sentence: A rare (attempted) invoked example. Bedecker hopes to be sentenced to the electric chair for killing his wife, knowing that he can survive it and desiring the thrill. Unfortunately for him, his lawyer is able to reduce the sentence to life in prison... which is a very bad thing for an immortal. He ends up invoking the escape clause immediately to avoid centuries of imprisonment.
- Fat Bastard: Cadwallader is the Devil, looking to claim Walter’s soul, and he’s rather chubby in this episode.
- Faux Affably Evil: Cadwallader acts very jolly and friendly to Walter when he first appears to him, but he laughs at Walter’s expense at the end when his deal backfires on him.
- Forgot About His Powers: Being immortal, Walter could easily escape prison, having nothing but time to plan and even try faking his death via Suicide by Cop. Unfortunately, Bedeker panics the moment he hears the sentence and uses the escape clause that same day (with some prompting by Cadwallader).
- The Hedonist: From the start, Walter Bedeker suffers from A Tragedy of Impulsiveness, jumping to petulant conclusions throughout the episode and blaming his wife and the world for his boredom. If he'd had any real patience and self-control (and empathy), almost none of the plot of the episode could have occurred. Instead, he seeks thrills from risking his life, impulsively decides to claim he's murdered his wife, and then impulsively decides to evoke the Escape Clause without taking a moment to consider other alternatives. It is difficult to have any sympathy for him at all.
- Immortality Immorality: Of the Deal with the Devil variety.
- Immunity Disability: Walter makes a Deal with the Devil to gain immortality, which is presented as an immunity to death. He confesses to murdering his wife after she falls off the roof of his building so that he can experience the electric chair, but his lawyer manages to get him life in prison. Since he can't die, he's going to be there a long time... at least until the Devil shows up and "mercifully" gives him a fatal heart attack.
- Ironic Echo: "After all, what's a few hundred years, or a few thousand?" The first time Cadwallader brings this up to Bedeker, it sounds tantalizing, a chance to drink deep from the grail of life for however long he wants. The second time these same words are brought up, it's after Bedeker has been sentenced to life in prison and a guard remarks he'd only be in jail for a lifetime, lending an ominous implication that Bedeker could spend a long time in his cell.
- It's All About Me: Walter is thoughtless, self-centered, and demanding even before he sells his soul.
- Jerkass: Even before the death of his long-suffering wife, Bedeker is a deeply unsympathetic character. He's selfish and rude, treating everyone he talks to with disdain. One almost pities the Devil for being stuck with him for eternity.
- Karmic Twist Ending: A perfect example. Walter becomes immortal through evil means, does evil deeds, and by the end of the tale his only choice remaining is whether to die immediately and go to Hell, or wait and see how long it takes him to Go Mad from the Isolation after living in prison for centuries.
- Never Say "Die": Done by the Devil. While explaining the contract's escape clause, he speaks of Bedeker's "demise" and "departure". Averted, however, by other characters.
- Noble Demon: Cadwallader surprisingly comes across as this. He honors his deal with Bedeker completely and doesn't even try to screw him over on the phrasing or nature of the deal, giving Walter exactly what he wants.
- Read the Fine Print: Technically speaking, if Walter ever exercised his "escape clause," it should just mean that he is no longer immortal, but gets to keep his soul, since the terms of the deal were null and void. Cadwallader isn't worried because he knows that Walter is such a despicable jerk, he would end up gaining his soul anyway.
- Stealth Insult: When Bedeker is considering Cadwallader's deal, he asks about his appearance. Cadwallader says, "I'm afraid I can't do much about that." before clarifying that Bedeker's appearance won't change with age.
- The Sociopath: Once he sells his soul, Bedeker loses any sensibility he didn't lose already. His response when his wife plummets 14 stories to her death to stop what she thought was an attempted suicide? "I wonder what it felt like."
- We Are as Mayflies: Bedeker compares the lifespan of a human to the vast ages the Earth, and even greater the Universe has lived. "Why can't a man live five hundred years or a thousand? Why does a man have to die the moment he's born?" So says Bedeker, grousing about how man has to die so soon, which attracts the Devil.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Bedeker at first, but when faced with the prospect of spending eternity in prison, he realizes it will be a long hell of a time.
- World of Ham: The appeal of this episode comes almost entirely in the Ham-to-Ham Combat between Bedeker and "Mr Cadwallader"!
Rod Serling: There's a saying: "Every man is put on Earth condemned to die, time and method of execution, unknown." Perhaps this is as it should be. Case in point: Walter Bedeker, lately deceased, a little man with such a yen to live. Beaten by the devil, by his own boredom, and by the scheme of things in this, the Twilight Zone.
