TZ Post SYFY Marathon - Kick the Can

"Kick the Can" really hit home for me and would have probably been certainly impactful on NYE in 2020. We lost a lot of people "aged out" and when this episode introduces us to the old folks home of Sunnyvale, the elderly in attendance either sit off to themselves or walk forlornly, all seemingly overcome with the sad reality of a life long gone. I'm 43 years old and my mother is 63 and my stepfather is aging towards 70. Both have Covid and are dealing with serious pneumonia. Almost every family in the US is impacted by Covid in one way or another. Almost all of us know someone who has nearly died or died from it. And their median age is close to the folks in "Kick the Can". I don't know what it was but this episode has never punched me emotionally as it did tonight. Accepting you are old or trying to whip up just whatever magic might be left that will allow those of a certain vintage to recapture their youth. The Twilight Zone can create that magic and does for a select group at Sunnyvale who dare to play kick the can at Ernest Truex's lead. Truex's best friend for life, played by Russell Collins, just can't give the effort to try and see if kick the can will spark that magic allowing him to follow suit and retrieve the youth that had been gone for nearly 60 years. Good to see Burt Mustin (from "Night of the Meek" and can be counted on for any elderly man role TZ could offer him) as a member of the home who follows Truex and reclaims his youth. Marley will be recognized for film and television as well; here, he is the Sunnyvale supervisor worried about Truex's senility...just because Truex wants to be silly and have fun, not just accept he's old and finished. That message of not deciding to quit living reads well. Sadly, too often we look at our older loved ones as out to pasture and off alone by themselves just really landed hard tonight for me. My mother is not allowed to her my stepfather. Too many real stories about separate loved ones by Covid, lots dying in a hospital bed alone. I like that Twilight Zone allowed some old folks from Sunnyvale the chance to find that youth and feel young again.