The Mind of Simon Foster
"The year is nineteen-hundred and ninety-nine. Within the box, evidence that some things do not change with the passage of time. Its contents: the collected debris of a shattered life, now valuable only for the dimes and nickels they can solicit from a third party. A familiar process, and a familiar long walk, that is about to lead into the unfamiliar terrain — of the Twilight Zone."
In a dystopian version of the year 1999, Simon Foster (Bruce Weitz), a broke and unemployed vagrant, pawns all his valuables for petty cash in the hopes that he can pay his rent and get a job. His usual pawnbroker, Mr. Quint (Geza Kovacs), offers to let Simon in on his practice of "memory transference", a black market operation where people who go to him have their memories physically extracted from their minds, whereupon Quint sells them to wealthy buyers who seek unique experiences. Simon is forced to undergo this sketchy trade so he can pay off his crooked landlord, but when he goes to get a job interview, he finds that he can no longer remember details that the counselor asks him, leaving him torn between getting his memories back or getting more cash.
Tropes
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The episode is set in a futuristic version of 1999, where the United States is experiencing a major economic depression, with an unemployment rate of 32%.
- Blackmail: Simon's landlord turns out to be a crooked extortionist who, after Simon pays him the rent he's owed, immediately and illegally demands next month's rent in advance, threatening to set up a "clerical error" and give his apartment to someone else if he says anything to the Housing Commission.
- Black Market: This is the only place where people can get genuine meat as opposed to meat substitutes in this version of 1999. Mr. Quint also illegally harvests and sells memories removed from desperate people to wealthy collectors.
- Chromosome Casting: The counselor at the unemployment office is the only female character in the episode.
- Collector of the Strange: Mr. Quint sells the memories of desperate people who trade them to him to wealthy tycoons who collect their different experiences, such as someone's high school graduation or someone losing their virginity.
- Cranky Landlord: Simon's landlord, who threatens to throw him out if he doesn't pay his overdue rent by the next day. This forces Simon to accept Mr. Quint's offer to buy the memory of his high school graduation. When Simon pays the rent he owes, the landlord proves himself to be corrupt as well, illegally demanding the next month's rent in advance. He tells Simon that if he goes to the Housing Commission to complain about this, he could find that his apartment has been given to someone else due to a "clerical error".
- Crapsack World: 1999, where the United States is in the midst of a major economic depression. The unemployment rate is 32%, bread costs $5 per loaf, and real meat can only be obtained on the black market. As a result, Simon tries to piece together enough money just to survive, even in the short term.
- Downer Ending: At the end of the episode, during his second interview, Simon is revealed to have had the memories of multiple different people placed in his head by Mr. Quint as a "not perfect" solution to his problem. As a result, he's left a walking, talking, blissfully ignorant mishmash of different lives that overlap and contradict each other, leaving him completely unable to secure a job and keep paying his rent, let alone function as a mentally sound person.
- Fake Memories: Simon has the memories of numerous people put in his mind by Mr. Quint as a half-assed means to fix his problem. As seen by his closing interview, the memories are disjointed, haphazardous, and contradictory, and they're not likely to let him get any sort of job now.
- Karma Houdini:
- Mr. Quint gets off scot-free for illegally harvesting and selling Simon's memories to interested buyers, and he's free to keep doing so to everyone who comes to him. He does try to help Simon get new memories in the best way that he can, but the result turns out even worse for Simon in the long run.
- Simon's crooked landlord also gets away with extorting Simon with paying next month's rent in advance right after he pays the rent he already owes him, and is no doubt playing the same ruse on his other tenants.
- Motor Mouth: The ending has Simon, his mind now filled with random memories from the lives of completely different people, ramble about these contradictory pasts to the worker at the employment agency, ignoring her growing concern with a dissonant smile on his face. He even keeps going over the closing narration.
- Riddle for the Ages: We never know where Mr. Quint got the many random memories he ultimately gives to Simon, nor do we know where they originally came from.
- Shout-Out: As Simon leaves his shop, Mr. Quint says goodbye by telling him "Be seeing you", a phrase commonly used by the inhabitants of the Village in The Prisoner (1967).
- Stepford Smiler: Once Quint loads his mind with different peoples' memories, Simon becomes blissfully ignorant as he describes his highly contradictory background to the unemployment office, almost as if he had schizophrenia.
- Transferable Memory: Memories can be copied, removed, and transferred to other people in 1999. Mr. Quint offers to take Simon's memory of his high school graduation in exchange for the rent money he desperately needs to pay back. Simon reluctantly agrees, and although he intends for it to be a one-time deal, his financial situation means that he must return to the pawn shop again and again to keep selling his memories. Over the next few weeks, Quint takes his memories of his fifth birthday, his first steps, and a trip to the circus, among others. When Simon has an interview for an engineering position, however, he finds that he can't remember anything he needs to know, as he has sold his memories of attending college. He nevertheless returns to Quint's shop and sells his memory of making love for the first time. After he does so, Simon realizes that his memories were a vital part of him and holds Quint at gunpoint, demanding to have them back. Quint can't comply with the request, since he's already sold Simon's memories, but he attempts to compensate by giving Simon other people's memories. At his next job interview, Simon discusses his numerous new contradictory memories, including graduating from numerous different high schools and colleges (including Sorworth College; for women only), as well as being both an only child and having a brother and sister.
- Video Phone: Simon uses one to talk to a counselor at the employment agency several times, including two separate job interviews.
- Zeerust: Memories can be transferred with ease in this version of 1999.
"Exit Simon Foster, a patchwork collection of lost dreams, held together by the stolen memories of strangers. A man who discovered that we truly are the sum of our parts. Mr. Simon Foster, a very special resident — of the Twilight Zone."
