The Twilight Zone - The Lonely

15 pounds. Jack Warden is the tortured prisoner on an asteroid, sentenced to stay there for fifty years due to a homicide conviction he claims is self defense. He is all alone on this hot, desert rock with a car that just reminds him of home, a tin shack with worn paperback books, chess board with various bolts for game pieces, and a ramshackle bed with unimpressive accommodations. John Dehner is Allenby, astronaut captain with sympathy for Warden's Corry. He is humane and understanding, while his accompanying astronauts, Adams and Carstairs (Ted Knight and James Turley), grumble and gripe about having to bother at all with Corry, considering his plight deserved. Only able to visit Corry months at a time, Allenby admits there's nothing worse than seeing a lonely man tormented without companionship. So he secretly brings along on one trip a crate, not indicating to his fellow astronauts what is inside.

It is a female android, in the lovely form of Jean Marsh, and she is intricately designed to behave, feel, react like a real human woman. When Corry denies her as a companion, at first, he sees her crying tears, relenting from his anger, soon embracing her instead of rejecting her. The Death Valley location is quite incredible; it makes for a desolate, demoralizing, dry landscape. It makes the lips chap, scorches the flesh, and beats down its rays upon poor Corry and I thought Death Valley in this episode perfectly persuades us that this is a prison unlike any other. Marsh isn't just beautiful to look at but her soft grace and innocent, demure nature touches Corry. He's indeed softened, and I think we are, too. I believe the night scene where Warden and Marsh look off into the sky at constellations isn't included in showings on Syfy. It is a sweet, romantic scene that illustrates something magical had grew between man and android. The point the episode drives is when does a companion become more than just machine? Does she "outlive her usefulness" once Corry is told by Allenby he's been pardoned and can leave the asteroid? Did she deserve a better fate than Allenby shooting her in the face to prove to Corry that what lies underneath the synthetic flesh is parts, wires, and gyros? To Allenby, she was a mechanism for Corry's loneliness, not a significant mate. To Corry she became so much more...then Allenby's gun reveals the mechanics behind her beauty. Corry "snaps out of it" and this device is left behind.

This episode continues to haunt me. The ending, when I watched it for the first time, left me....I don't know if bothered is the word, maybe reflective is better. Whatever the case, I couldn't stop thinking about Alisha being left behind. The beauty gone, a head opened with the robot in full view, Alisha was discarded and left to rust and eventually deteriorate until that lovely created companion that helped Corry overcome his torment was no more. I guess her quiet smile and comforting presence providing much needed solace kept us from dwelling on her being this mechanized mate built for a purpose. That purpose was considered finished... because law regarding imprisonment on asteroids was declared over, no one would ever need that companion. She outlived her usefulness. Was that all she was? Property to be abandoned at a moment's notice. Allenby thought so. Reckon he'd felt that way had it been him in Corry's position?