Examination Day
Dickie Jordan (David Mendenhall), a 12-year old boy with an extensive intellect, wishes on his birthday to pass a mandatory government exam where intelligence is measured. His parents are nervous regarding the idea, and keep dodging the question with pleas that Dickie doesn't have to do his best on the exam. Why exactly they insist that he not do his best remains to be seen.
Tropes
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Dickie's birthday wish is to do well on the exam. He passes with flying colors, but it turns out that people who do too well are killed before they start asking too many questions about their government.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Dickie's parents know what will happen if he does too well on the test, but they can't find the nerve to reveal the truth to him either because they don’t want his last day on Earth to be unhappy if he passes the test, or because there could be someone listening in on their conversations, which is likely since they live in a dystopia that's bound to be surveillance-heavy. They just keep changing the subject or trying to get him to watch TV.
- Death of a Child: The totalitarian government Dickie and his parents live under gives mandatory tests that identify child prodigies... who are killed before they can grow up to question them.
- Died on Their Birthday: On his twelfth birthday, Dickie wishes that he will do well on his mandatory intelligence test. When he passes the test, he is killed by the government for being too intelligent.
- Downer Ending: Dickie does too well on the government test and he's killed in accordance with the law, and the tyrannical rulers of the government remain in power and will continue to execute any child who is too smart. The episode ends with Dickie’s grief-stricken parents crying while they share a hug.
- Dystopia: Dickie lives in a totalitarian future where child prodigies like himself are killed for scoring too well on government mandated intelligence tests.
- He Knows Too Much: The government kills children who score too highly on their tests because they'll start learning the truth about their totalitarian practices.
- Karma Houdini: The government rulers stay in power and receive no punishment for executing Dickie and who knows how many other children.
- Named by the Adaptation: Dickie's parents are named Richard Sr. and Ruth. In the short story by Henry Slesar, their first names are not given.
- Nothing Is Scarier: It's bad enough that Dickie's government kills him for being too intelligent, but the fact we never learn how it's done raises all sorts of horrific questions.
- Persecuted Intellectuals: The totalitarian government exterminates anyone who scores too high on a mandatory examination at only twelve years old. Dickie is one such victim.
- Tall Poppy Syndrome: Dickie is a naturally inquisitive and curious child who loves to read and learn. On his twelfth birthday, he's taken in for a government-mandated intelligence test, and hopes he'll do well. He does, but that turns out to be a huge problem, as the government declares it a crime for people to be too smart. The whole point of the exam is to make sure that everyone the government rules under stays at the "right" level of intellect, particularly stupid and unthinking. As is the case with Dickie, they kill any child who exceeds their limit.
- Truth Serums: Before he takes the test, Dickie is given a truth serum to ensure that he answers all of the questions as truthfully as possible.
- Would Hurt a Child: The totalitarian government gives tests that identify child prodigies, who they kill before they can grow up to threaten the power structure.
A Message from Charity
In 1700, a Puritan teenager named Charity Payne (Kerry Noonan) develops a bacterial infection and grows ill. In 1985, an American teenager named Peter Wood (Robert Duncan McNeill) similarly develops such an infection. For reasons unexplained, Peter and Charity come into telepathic contact with each other through their shared illness. Peter is excited to show Charity what his 20th century life has to offer, but when she tells her acquaintances of her visions, they begin thinking her to be a witch. To this end, Peter needs to quickly find some information to help Charity before she's put to death.
Tropes
- Adapted Out: The parson of Annes Town in 1700 is only mentioned briefly and is not named. In the short story by William M. Lee, he's named John Hix and is a minor supporting character.
- Age Lift: In the 1967 short story of the same name, Charity is 11 years old in 1700 when she begins communicating with the 16-year-old Peter in the present. In the episode, she is seemingly closer to Peter's age, though the exact number of years isn't revealed. This change was made because the episode places more emphasis on Charity and Peter being each other's first love than the original story. There is also the scene in which Squire Hacker attempts to rape Charity after claiming that she needs to disrobe so he can check her for the mark of a witch, which is toned down in the episode compared to the short story.
- Artistic License – History: Squire Hacker tells Charity that he will have her burned at the stake for witchcraft. In reality, the most common method of execution for convicted witches in the Colonies was hanging.
- Attempted Rape: Jonas attempts to rape Charity, claiming that he needs to check her body the Devil's mark after she is accused of witchcraft. After attacking him, she manages to escape unharmed.
- Bittersweet Ending: Peter and Charity have their telepathic bond severed for good, but Charity leaves Peter the titular message, a declaration of love, in a place where he can easily find it.
- Burn the Witch!: Jonas tells Charity that he will have her burned as a witch when she manages to fight off his attempt to rape her.
- Canon Foreigner: Peter has a younger brother named Bobby in the episode. In the short story, he's an only child.
- The Constant: There is a rock near Harmon Brook in Annes Town/Anniston called Bear Rock, so named because it resembles a bear bending down to drink from the stream. In 1700, Charity carves a message of love for Peter, their initials in a heart, under the bear's jaw on the left side.
- Death by Childbirth: Charity's mother died while she was giving birth to her.
- First Friend: Peter found it very difficult to make friends when he was a kid. When Charity breaks off their telepathic contact, he tearfully tells her that she was the first real friend he ever had. The closing narration makes it clear that they were also each other's First Love.
- Grade Skipper: Peter tells Charity that he skipped two grades when he was younger, which stunted his social skils.
- Karma Houdini: Squire Hacker faces no consequences for raping at least one young lady and nearly doing the same to Charity.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Peter notes that Hacker was ultimately convicted of the murder of two sailors, albeit posthumously.
- Mark of the Beast: Jonas tells Charity to strip so he can search her body for the Devil's mark. She immediately realizes that the Squire intends to rape her, as Faith Tanner was extremely upset when he subjected her to the same search last year.
- Please Select New City Name: The village of Annes Town was renamed to Anniston in the late 19th Century.
- Seeing Through Another's Eyes: Charity, a Puritan girl living in the village of Annes Town in Colonial Massachusetts, and Peter, a teenage boy living in 20th century town of Anniston, Massachusetts, gain the ability to communicate with each other and see through each other's eyes after they both contract an infection from the bacteria in Harmon Brook. Charity and Peter can also experience sensations from the other's perspective, as Peter introduces Charity to the unimaginable luxuries of his time such as orange juice and chocolate ice cream, and she quickly becomes tipsy when Peter has a glass of wine.
- Seers: After she is accused of witchcraft, Charity claims to have the second sight, obliquely revealing that she is aware of the bodies of two murdered sailors hidden in Squire Hacker's root cellar, when she actually learned of the bodies from a history book Peter found in 1985. As a result, Hacker finds her innocent of witchcraft, saying that her second sight is a gift from God which his own grandmother possessed.
- Setting Update: Peter's native time is 1985. In the short story, it's 1965.
- Third Eye: Master Croft's ewe has a lamb with three eyes, which is used as evidence when Charity is accused of witchcraft. After Squire Hacker finds her innocent, he holds that the lamb was deformed as a result of a noxious plant growing on Croft's farm.
- Witch Hunt: Charity is accused of being a witch after she tells her best friend Ursula of what she has seen through Peter's eyes, such as cars, television, airplanes, men walking on The Moon, and The American Revolution. The "evidence" against her is the fact that her family's well is the only body of water in Annes Town that is not tainted, and Master Croft's ewe gave birth to a lamb with a Third Eye. While searching for references to Charity's trial in books on Colonial America, Peter finds a reference to Jonas being posthumously convicted of the murder of two sailors in 1704. During her trial, Charity claims to possess the second sight, and describes the root cellar in which the bodies are hidden. Jonas holds that her second sight is a gift from God, and proclaims her innocent of witchcraft. However, Charity reluctantly breaks off contact with Peter to ensure that no such incidents happen again.
- With Friends Like These...: Charity tells her best friend Ursula Miller what she has learned of the future through her telepathic contact with Peter. Ursula then brings Charity's claims to the attention of Squire Hacker, who accuses Charity of being a witch.
"He reached out with his mind, searching for some trace of her... but found only silence. Peter Wood, was alone." (...) "A new year with new friends and a new confidence and, in time, he began to doubt whether it had ever really happened. Until, one day..." (...) "Harmon Brook is very different today. Its waters not quite as pure, its banks lined with tract homes and shopping centers, but Bear Rock is still there. And so is a message, a message from a girl long gone, and yet, never really gone in heart and mind." (...) "A last remembrance of friendship and first love. A love that will live, only and always — in the Twilight Zone."
