Air date: January 24, 1963
Peter Vollmer (Dennis Hopper) is a neo-Nazi who is trying to drum up supporters to his cause, but is struggling to gain followers due to being spineless, cowardly, and uncharismatic. His only real friend is Ernst Ganz (Ludwig Donath), an elderly Holocaust survivor who acted as a father figure to him in his youth. Ernst knows of Peter's activities and fully disapproves of them, but he still allows Peter to stay in his apartment out of pity for the unfortunate young man.
After his latest failed rally, Peter is visited by a mysterious, shadowed figure who gives him advice on how to win over crowds. By following this advice, Peter gains numerous new followers, who support his hatred of Jews, blacks, Communists, and many others. On the benefactor's advice, Peter has one of his followers, Nick Bloss (Howard Caine), murdered one night and claims that the Jews are responsible, creating a martyr for his cause and bringing in even more followers.
One day, watching from a bar, Ernst watches Peter preach prejudice, bigotry, and intolerance, reminiscing on how the Nazi Party did the same in his younger days, and how no one believed it was happening and couldn't stop it before it was too late. Refusing to let history repeat itself, Ernst storms into one of Peter's rallies and orders everyone to stop listening to him. The old man tells everyone present how nobody bothered to stand up to Adolf Hitler when he was doing what Peter is now, and how he won't make such a mistake again. Peter tries to get Ernst to leave, but the old man keeps rebuking him for the sad and pathetic wretch he truly is, causing his followers to desert him in disgust. After the spectacle, the benefactor berates Peter for screwing up. Peter angrily retorts that he's the one doing all the work while the figure hides in the shadows like a coward, demanding the benefactor reveal himself. Enraged, the benefactor tears into Peter for thinking him to be a coward:
With that, the benefactor steps out of the shadows, revealing that he is none other than Adolf Hitler (Curt Conway) himself. Hitler tells Peter that he's done giving advice, and from now on, he gives orders. He hands Peter a pistol and orders him to kill Ernst, telling Peter that weakness amongst his disciples is no longer tolerated and he is to become steel.
Peter confronts Ernst in his apartment, his pistol drawn. Unafraid, mildly disappointed, and strongly aware that this scenario was coming, Ernst tries to persuade Peter to turn back to the light before it's too late, but Peter shoots him in the stomach, mindlessly declaring that he's made of steel. With his last breaths, Ernst reminds Peter that ideas, like freedom and equality, can't be killed with a mere bullet.
Later that night, Hitler congratulates Peter on his kill and asks how he feels. Peter says that he felt immortal, to which Hitler roars, "Mr. Vollmer, we are immortal!" The police suddenly confront Peter, saying that he's a suspect in Nick's murder. Peter tries to escape, but is swiftly gunned down. As he lays dying, Peter goes insane upon seeing his own blood, screaming to the officers "There's something very wrong here... Don't you understand that I'm made out of steel?!" Disappointed by Peter's failure, Hitler leaves him to bleed out and fades back into the shadows, searching for another candidate to spread his vile messages of hatred.
The Tropes Are Alive:
- Abusive Parents: Peter admits that his father was a violent alcoholic who'd hurl him against the wall for minor reasons, and his mother suffered from a mental disease that left her emotionally absent to him.
- Allegorical Character: Hitler is depicted as the literal manifestation of hatred and prejudice, with his return only being possible when Peter attempts to revive Nazism in his city. At the end of the episode, when Peter is killed, Hitler simply returns to the shadows to seek out another bigot to enlist to his cause. As Rod Serling puts it, Hitler is still alive, and always will be, so long as people continue to preach hatred and prejudice.
- An Aesop: Nazism and the prejudices it exploits are still alive and kicking, and the public must be conscious of them if they want to prevent the rise of the next Führer.
- As Long as There Is Evil: Serling uses this in his closing narration, explaining that as long as prejudice is around, Hitler is still among us.
- Badass Boast: Hitler's "I invented darkness!" rant to Peter, quoted above.
- Bigotry Exception: Peter is a Neo-Nazi committed to "purifying" the world, but the only thing that he loves in said world is Ernst, an elderly survivor of The Holocaust who he says was like a father to him. Unfortunately, after Ernst disrupts one of his rallies and puts the growth of his movement at risk, Peter murders him at Hitler's command.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Peter tries to do this to his shadowy mentor for hiding in the darkness instead of directly helping him, only to run when his mentor reveals himself to be Hitler.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Hitler is presented in this way, claiming to have invented darkness itself and conquering the world before Peter was ever born.
- Casting Gag: Paul Mazursky and Howard Caine, who play Peter's thugs Frank and Nick, were Jewish in real life.
- Chromosome Casting: The episode has no speaking roles for women.
- Dare to Be Badass: Ernst gives himself such a treatment before he confronts Peter. He and a friend are sitting in a bar across the street from the assembly hall where Peter is holding a rally. Ernst grimly remarks on how he's heard everything Peter's preaching about before, and he's already seen where it leads. He then notes just how easy it was, because no one could believe it was happening until it was far too late. At that point, he realizes that he has to do something while there's still time to stop history from repeating itself.Ernst: It mustn't happen again. We can't let it. We simply can't let it happen again. All, all that nightmare. Oh, no. No. Not this time.
- Dramatic Irony: Peter's gradual downfall and eventual death isn't caused by his murder of Ernst, the Holocaust survivor who raised him as his own son and humiliated him at his rally, but by the death of Nick, one of his followers who he had killed in a False Flag Operation to blame the Jews.
- Emerging from the Shadows: The reveal of Hitler's identity is done this way.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Peter is very reluctant to order Nick's murder, and later agonizes over the possibility of killing his father figure. It's subverted in that he goes through with both deeds anyway, gradually turning himself into steel.
- Evil Is Hammy: Peter, the Hitler-wannabe orator played by Dennis Hopper.
- False Flag Operation: At Hitler's urging, Peter has his chubby Butt-Monkey follower Nick killed so that he can blame the Jews for the murder.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: The closing monologue from Serling is one of the few times he never mentions the Twilight Zone itself - all the better to carry the moral of the story.
- Hero Antagonist: Ernst, the old man who acted as a father to Peter, and the police who gun him down for resisting arrest.
- Hijacked by Ganon: The cruel irony of Peter's attempts to resurrect Nazism is that he doesn't become the new Führer, but rather a puppet following the orders of the original Führer. The episode ends with Peter dying and Hitler moving on to find new recruits, not-so subtly implying that so long as there are preachers of hatred and intolerance, Hitler may very well be behind it.
- History Repeats: Ernst recollects how, back in the old days, no one believed that Hitler was a threat until it was too late, and realizes that it could just as easily happen again. He manages to stop Peter's movement, but it's implied that Hitler will continue finding a successor to his beliefs, and as long as there's hate and prejudice in the world, he might just succeed.
- Historical Ugliness Update: Curt Conway, who plays Hitler, does not look like the real Hitler at all, which is especially obvious when he has to stand by a photograph of the real one. He looks old, wrinkled, and squat compared to the real deal, though it could be partially explained as how Hitler would have appeared if he lived to the early 1960s.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Though Hitler didn't need much help, the episode portrays him as the physical incarnation of pure evil, boasting of how he invented darkness itself, as well as the implication that he's immortal so long as hatred and prejudice exist.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Peter's False Flag Operation, which was to murder Nick and blame his death on the Jews, backfires spectacularly. Instead of making a martyr to elevate his movement, Peter ends up becoming the prime suspect in the police's investigation, which ultimately leads to his death.
- Hypocrite: Peter condemns those who disagree with his cause as "Communists", yet tries to justify his own views as "differing opinions".
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Peter comes across as one in the opening scene, where his lack of charisma has him unable to win over even the smallest crowd.
- Manchild: According to Ernst, Peter is still the same
sad and lonely boy who runs to him for comfort at his very core. This is notably the only reason he hasn't given up on Peter yet. - No Celebrities Were Harmed: Peter is thought to be based on infamous Neo-Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell.
- No Swastikas: Despite the fact the episode's premise centers around Hitler and the Nazis, the network censors forbad the episode to explicitly mention Peter's political party by name or display any swastika. Consequently, the armbands substitute the swastika with a burning torch, but the episode manages to slip a few examples of Nazi iconography through the censors. A swastika appears in Peter's eyes when he sees the shadowy figure for the first time, and the fake note stapled on Nick contains the words "good little Nazi".
- Odd Friendship: Neo-Nazi Peter has remained close friends with the elderly Holocaust survivor Ernst. It doesn't get much odder than that.
- Oh, Crap!: When Peter's benefactor steps out of the shadows and reveals his true identity, Peter's face takes on a bug-eyed, slack-jawed expression that only Dennis Hopper could pull off.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Rod Serling doesn't add his trademark "...in the Twilight Zone" at the end of his closing narration, signifying that the idea of Hitler being kept alive by feelings of hate and prejudice is very much real.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Hitler's ghost appears to Peter in order to help his small and ineffectual Neo-Nazi group gain influence. He's even implied to not be a mere ghost, but the embodiment of hatred and prejudice itself.
- Paper Tiger: Peter, for all his ideals and shouting, is weak and inefficient as a leader. It's lampshaded by Hitler:Hitler: Your voice is that of a lion, your instincts are those of a rabbit.
- Reaction Shot: During Peter's first speech, as he calls out the actors in his conspiracy theories ("Palestine! Africa! The Vatican!"), the camera cuts to three people watching him (a Jewish person, a Catholic, and an African-American). Their reactions are non-verbal, but clearly illustrate their offense.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Ernst delivers a lengthy one to Peter, right in front of his audience, to dress him down and reveal who he really is:Ernst: Go on, Mr. Vollmer. You were saying? I can tell them what you were saying. I've heard it before. I've heard it a thousand times before. In Munich, in Berlin, on a hundred different street corners. It was drivel then, and it is drivel now. (...) Well, what is this one here? The new model? A 1963 Führer right off the assembly line? Well, this one is not so new. He's not so fresh. This one is nothing but a cheap copy! (...) Well, let me tell you about this one. About the breed, the species. They're all alike. They are all alike! Problem children! Sick, sad, neurotics who take applause like a needle! (...) Listen to me, Peter. And let them listen. Or else I'll tell them about a quaking, whimpering boy who cried on my couch; who still cries on my couch. (...) Yeah, put me down, put me down. Shut me up! Stifle me! Why don't you? Why can't you? (grabbing Peter's armband) Because this is your courage right here! This is your strength! This, and the torchlights and the crowd and the sieg heil! (the incensed Peter slaps him) The rebuttal. The only sort of answer your kind knows how to give. (to the audience) This is your Führer. He's yours. I give him to you. A gift from the sewers.
- Villainous Breakdown: Peter has one throughout the episode, culminating in his death by police.
- Villain Protagonist: Peter, a violent Neo-Nazi thug.
- We Didn't Start the Führer: It's implied that "Hitler" is actually a supernatural being seeking out Neo-Nazis to advise, hoping to plunge the world into fascism once again. Serling's closing narration makes it quite clear that Hitler will continue to live so long as hate and prejudice live as well.
- While You Were in Diapers: Hitler gives Peter a speech to this effect, quoted above.
- You Cannot Kill An Idea:
- For his dying words, Ernst tells this to Peter, saying that his movement is already over.
- This also applies to Hitler, as Rod Serling's ending narration reminds the audience that he can and will continue to live, so long as hatred and prejudice live as well.
