Rod Serling: "This object, should any of you had lived underground for the better parts of your lives and never had occasion to look towards the sky, is an airplane, its official designation a DC-3. We offer this rather obvious comment because this particular airplane, the one you're looking at, is a freak. Now, most airplanes take off and land as per scheduled. On rare occasions they crash. But all airplanes can be counted on doing one or the other. Now, yesterday morning this particular airplane ceased to be just a commercial carrier. As of its arrival it became an enigma, a seven-ton puzzle made out of aluminum, steel, wire and a few thousand other component parts, none of which add up to the right thing. In just a moment, we're going to show you the tail end of its history. We're going to give you ninety percent of the jigsaw pieces and you and Mister Sheckly here of the Federal Aviation Agency, will assume the problem of putting them together along with finding the missing pieces. This we offer as an evening's hobby, a little extracurricular diversion which is really the national pastime in the Twilight Zone."
A DC-3 aircraft designated Flight 107 arrives from Buffalo, New York under unknown circumstances. The crew who investigate the plane discover that it is completely devoid of any signs of life; no pilots, no passengers, not even any luggage. Grant Sheckly, an investigator for the FAA who claims to have never been stumped by a case, is called in to investigate the mysterious aircraft. Grant soon discovers that everyone around him who can see the aircraft sees a different minor detail through their point of view, meaning that it's up to him to solve the mystery.
Tropes on Arrival:
- 13 Is Unlucky: The Original Flight 107 was carrying thirteen passengers when it suddenly disappeared for unknown reasons.
- The Ace: Grant claims himself to be one, having never been baffled by a case.Grant: I've had twenty-two years in this saddle, and I've never been licked yet.
- Achilles' Heel: Grant is an experienced ace of his profession, but the case of Flight 107 from 17-18 years ago was the one case he was never able to crack, and it ate at him all these years. Rod Serling mentions the trope in his closing narration.
- Captain Obvious: Rod Serling's opening narration goes this route: "This object, should any of you have lived underground for the better parts of your lives and never had occasion to look toward the sky, is an airplane[.]"
- Chromosome Casting: The episode has an all-male speaking cast. The only women to be found are stewardesses who get no lines or characterization.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Grant has a moment when Robbins off-handedly states that he's creeped out by all the empty blue seats on the plane, because he's seeing brown seats when he looks inside, and Bengston reports seeing red seats. He then asks everyone present to read the ID number on the plane's tail, and everyone reports seeing a different number. At that moment, he realizes that they're all seeing a hallucinatory DC-3, and they're all differing on the fine details.
- Flying Dutchman: Flight 107 is said to be this, as it mysteriously disappeared and was never found.
- Heroic BSoD: Grant loses his mind when the repressed memory of the only case he ever failed to solve comes back to haunt him, slowly rambling to himself as he leaves the office.Bengston: (...) But that was one case you never able to button up. Nobody was ever able to button it up. Just sits on the books... as lost, presumed crashed for reasons unknown. Mr. Sheckly... why don't you let me drive you home?Grant: For reasons unknown? Why I've never been licked on a case yet. Never! We always found the causes... we always found the causes... I've never been licked on case yet... we always found the causes... we always found the causes... I've never been licked on a case yet...
- Madness Mantra: Grant descends into madness as his worst memory continues to eat at him, repeating "We've always found the causes. I've never been licked on a case yet." over and over as he stumbles out of the hangar.
- My Greatest Failure: There actually was a Flight 107 that mysteriously disappeared about 17-18 years earlier. Sheckly investigated the disappearance, but was never able to solve it. Since then, he repressed the memory of his failure to solve the case, and it manifested in the form of hallucinations of the craft and his fellow inspectors.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Robbins the mechanic lampshades how the plane itself unsettles him, but the empty interior disturbs him even more.Robbins: I tell ya this though, I get spooked just standing around here. I get more spooked inside, though. All those empty blue seats just staring at ya...
- Plot Hole: Considering that he never met Paul Malloy in reality, it's never explained how Sheckly was able to perfectly imagine him in his hallucination.
- Riddle for the Ages: What caused the disappearance of the original Flight 107 and its crew and thirteen passengers? Time travel? Alien abduction? God? It's never explained, which frustrates and baffles Grant Sheckly, who couldn't solve its disappearance.
- Shattering the Illusion: Grant proves that the mysterious airplane that landed in the airport didn't exist, and was all an illusion. After he proves it, his fellow investigators disappear as well, revealing that they weren't real either.
- Skyward Scream: The episode ends with the traumatized Sheckly screaming to the skies about what happened to the real Flight 107, and why it never left any clues for him to find.
- Spotting the Thread: The first thing that clues Sheckly in that something is wrong is when Robbins, the mechanic, mentions the seats on the plane are blue. Sheckly says they're brown, and Bengston says they're red. Sheckly then has them each look at the tail number of the aircraft, where upon all three see a different number.
- That One Case: The unsolved disappearance of Flight 107 is this to Sheckly, the only case he was never able to solve.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Sheckly's failure to solve the case of the original Flight 107 traumatized him so much that he repressed the memory, and it came back to take the form of a complex illusion.
Rod Serling: "Picture of a man with an Achilles' heel, a mystery that landed in his life and then turned into a heavy weight, dragged across the years to ultimately take the form of an illusion. Now, that's the clinical answer that they put on the tag as they take him away. But if you choose to think that the explanation has to do with an airborne Flying Dutchman, a ghost ship on a fog-enshrouded night on a flight that never ends, then you're doing your business in an old stand...in the Twilight Zone."
