Rod Serling: Cameo of a man who has just lost his most valuable possession. He doesn't know about the loss yet. In fact, he doesn't even know about the possession. Because, like most people, David Gurney has never really thought about the matter of his identity. But he's going to be thinking a great deal about it from now on, because that is what he's lost. And his search for it is going to take him into the darkest corners of the Twilight Zone.
Air date: March 23, 1962
After a night of raucous partying, David Gurney (Richard Long) wakes up the next morning to discover that his wife Wilma no longer recognizes him. As he continues throughout his day, he finds that nobody else – not his dresser, his coworkers, the local bartender, or even his mother – displays any sign or recollection of knowing him. As if that isn't enough, all of David's documentation regarding his identity has been changed by unseen forces to further assist in the notion that he's not known by anyone. He is ultimately committed to an asylum, due to being seen as delusional, but soon breaks out, determined to find some inkling of proof that he's still a real person.
Trope or Tropes Unknown:
- All Just a Dream: David wakes up the next day to find that the events of yesterday never happened... but discovers that he no longer recognizes Wilma.
- Cassandra Truth: David desperately tries to convince everyone around him of his identity and the fact that most of them know him very well, but none of them recognize him.
- Creator Cameo: The mental patient in the asylum who thinks that he's Winston Churchill is played by John Brahm, director of the episode.
- Gaslighting: David discusses the trope, believing that someone or something is attempting to drive him crazy by paying everyone who knows him, including Wilma, his best friend Pete, and his own mother, to pretend not to know him.
- Here We Go Again!: When David wakes up at the end, he believes the whole episode was simply a nightmare. Until he finds out that Wilma doesn't look at all like he remembers her.
- Napoleon Delusion: When David is committed to a mental hospital, one of his fellow patients believes that he's Winston Churchill.
- Not Helping Your Case: Jumping out of a window and stealing a van certainly doesn't help David convince Dr. Koslenko that he's not crazy.
- Riddle for the Ages: The true reason why no one can remember David, why all of his documentation has been erased or changed, and then why everyone else looks different to David himself but still knows him, is never explained at any point in the episode.
- Ripple Effect Indicator: Although there's no confirmation that the episode's events are time-travel induced, David finds a picture of himself with Wilma taken before he vanished, but as he shows it to Dr. Koslenko, she vanishes from the picture before he can see it.
- Soft Glass: When David jumps out the window, it breaks more like wood than glass, and he's uninjured from the stunt.
- Unperson: David wakes up one morning to find that all records and memories of his existence have been erased.
Rod Serling: A case of mistaken identity? Or a nightmare turned inside out? A simple loss of memory, or the end of the world? David Gurney may never find the answer, but you can be sure he's looking for it in the Twilight Zone.
