The Best Episodes of The Twilight Zone Season 2

Episode Rankings

1. #1 Fan Favorite
   

   6.4/10(402 votes)

   #1 - The Once and Future King / A Saucer of Loneliness

   S2:E19/27/1986

   An Elvis impersonator is transported to the 1950s where he meets the real Elvis who thinks that the impersonator is his long dead brother. A quiet waitress sees a glowing UFO, which gives her a message that everyone wants to know. She refuses to reveal exactly what the message is.

   Directors:Jim McBride, John D. Hancock

   Writers:David Gerrold, George R. R. Martin, Theodore Sturgeon

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   Directors:Jim McBride, John D. Hancock

   Writers:David Gerrold, George R. R. Martin, Theodore Sturgeon
2. 

   6.6/10(363 votes)

   #2 - What Are Friends For? / Aqua Vita

   S2:E210/4/1986

   Alex Mattingly wonders whether his son Jeff's new friend Mike is real or imaginary. This episode is a cruel "fountain of youth" spin-off. A fortyish reporter is at risk of losing her anchor position on a network evening news broadcast to a younger reporter. She hears about a special type of bottled water from a friend of hers. She orders some at a relatively low cost. It works. Yet she finds she must drink it every day in order to retain her youth. When she orders another 5-gallon container. The price jumps up to $200. She talks to the water deliveryman. He refers he to her as "girlie". She remarks "girlie" is an old term and asks for his actual age. He says something along the lines of "I don't think you'd want to know". She is halfway done with the second bottle and is tearing apart her place looking for items to pawn when her husband shows up. They have no kids. She explains what has happened and decides to end her dilemma by balancing their situations.

   Directors:Paul Tucker, Gus Trikonis

   Writers:Rockne S. O'Bannon, J. Michael Straczynski

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   Directors:Paul Tucker, Gus Trikonis

   Writers:Rockne S. O'Bannon, J. Michael Straczynski
3. 

   6.3/10(320 votes)

   #3 - The Storyteller / Nightsong

   S2:E310/11/1986

   In the early 20th century a young woman takes a job as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse. One of her students, Mica, secretly takes extra books home to read. When the teacher confronts him, she finds that the boy is reading the books to his ailing grandfather - who claims to be more than a hundred and forty years old! A young DJ working the graveyard shift at a radio station rediscovers a record album by her boyfriend who disappeared five years ago. When he suddenly appears again, she is surprised and upset.

   Directors:Paul Lynch, Bradford May

   Writers:Michael Reaves, Rockne S. O'Bannon

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   Directors:Paul Lynch, Bradford May

   Writers:Michael Reaves, Rockne S. O'Bannon
4. 

   6.2/10(373 votes)

   #4 - The After Hours / Lost and Found / The World Next Door

   S2:E410/18/1986

   A Woman goes to a mall for a doll, but encounters strange things after the closing hours... A young college student has been losing personal items for some time. The mystery is resolved when she finds two time-travelers in her closet. A hen-pecked man with a boring life and a secret yearn to build inventions finds a secret door in his basement that leads to a parallel world. In that world, his counterpart is a rich famous inventor in a Victorian-style setting who is equally bored with his life. The two switch lives and are happy ever after.

   Directors:Paul Lynch, Bruce Malmuth, Gus Trikonis

   Writers:Rockne S. O'Bannon, Rod Serling, George R. R. Martin

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   Directors:Paul Lynch, Bruce Malmuth, Gus Trikonis

   Writers:Rockne S. O'Bannon, Rod Serling, George R. R. Martin
5. 

   7.5/10(389 votes)

   #5 - The Toys of Caliban

   S2:E512/4/1986

   An elderly husband and wife live in terror of their son, a boy who has the power to summon anything he can conceive. They are forced to limit what he sees and reads, since anything he summons has to come from...somewhere. When he becomes sick from eating too much summoned food, they take him to a hospital and attract the attention of a social worker, who doesn't know of the boy's power and is shocked at the parents' harsh treatment. The boy inadvertently kills his mother when he sees a picture of a heart in a magazine, and "summons" it out of her chest. Later, as the social worker comes calling, the boy demonstrates his power by summoning his missing mother...who has been two weeks in the grave. As the worker summons the police, the boy's father has him summon an explosion, killing them both rather than have his son fall into the hands of the government.

   Director:Thomas J. Wright

   Writer:George R. R. Martin

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   Director:Thomas J. Wright

   Writer:George R. R. Martin
6. 

   6.8/10(290 votes)

   #6 - The Convict's Piano

   S2:E612/11/1986

   A man in prison who insists that he is innocent of a crime discovers a piano that transports him to the old days of gangsters.

   Director:Thomas J. Wright

   Writer:James Crocker

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   Director:Thomas J. Wright

   Writer:James Crocker
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7. 

   6.3/10(318 votes)

   #7 - The Road Less Traveled

   S2:E712/18/1986

   A man who dodges the Vietnam draft is haunted by visions of his other life as a soldier during the war.

   Director:Wes Craven

   Writer:George R. R. Martin

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   Director:Wes Craven

   Writer:George R. R. Martin
8. 

   7.3/10(378 votes)

   #8 - The Card / The Junction

   S2:E82/21/1987

   A compulsive spender accepts "The Card" to keep up her habit. Unfortunately stringent penalties kick in for late payments. A modern-day miner has an argument with his wife and then goes off to work in the local mine. A collapse traps him, but he finds another survivor - a miner who claims to be from 1912. The two men figure out that somehow they have become connected through time. The modern-day man helps the 1912 miner to survive, and the latter is rescued. The modern-day miner appears trapped...but the rescuers look in an unexpected spot and find him. It turns out the 1912 miner wrote a letter marked for delivery 74 years later directing them where to search.

   Directors:Bradford May, Bill Duke

   Writers:Michael Cassutt, Virginia Aldridge

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   Directors:Bradford May, Bill Duke

   Writers:Michael Cassutt, Virginia Aldridge
9. 

   7.2/10(374 votes)

   #9 - Joy Ride / Shelter Skelter / Private Channel

   S2:E95/21/1987

   Two teenage boys and their girlfriends steal a recently deceased man's classic car. While they are on a joyride, they accidentally kill a policeman. A survivalist traps himself in his bomb shelter when a nuclear blast finally comes. On board an airplane, a lightning storm transforms a boy's walkman into a telepathic tuning device that informs him that the man sitting next to him is carrying a bomb.

   Directors:Peter Medak, Martha Coolidge

   Writer:Ed Redlich

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   Directors:Peter Medak, Martha Coolidge

   Writer:Ed Redlich
10. 

    6.6/10(316 votes)

    #10 - Time and Teresa Golowitz / Voices in the Earth

    S2:E107/10/1987

    A Broadway composer, Bluestone, who has just died of a heart attack is visited by "Prince", who gives him one wish because of his contributions to entertainment. Bluestone wants to relive a youthful encounter with the girl of his dreams, Mary Ellen Kasgrove. When he returns to the high school party, nothing is as he remembers it but one girl, Teresa Golowitz, sits by herself. Prince, in a girl's body, reminds him that Teresa committed suicide that night. Bluestone gets her to sing and convinces her to meet him the next day. When he returns to the present, Bluestone finds out that Teresa went on to become a famous singer and that because of his interference he won't be going to the "higher place". He and "Prince" head off to lower fields to prepare some entertainment. In the far future an expedition returns to a desolate barren Earth where a scientist begins to see the ghosts of those who died years ago.

    Directors:Curtis Harrington, Shelley Levinson

    Writer:Alan Brennert

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    Directors:Curtis Harrington, Shelley Levinson

    Writer:Alan Brennert
11. 

    5.5/10(288 votes)

    #11 - Song of the Younger World / The Girl I Married

    S2:E117/17/1987

    In 1916 a girl and a young man from a reformatory for wayward boys fall in love and try to get away from her father, the superintendent. He finds out and doesn't approve of their love, locking away his daughter and punishing the boy. With the help of a wandering vagrant the girl finds a way to use a book to transfer both her and the boy into a primordial world where they become wolves and can live free and together. An attorney and his wife have successful careers. They feel something is lacking in their marriage. Soon, they encounter younger versions of their mates.

    Director:Noel Black

    Writers:J. M. DeMatteis, Anthony Lawrence

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    Director:Noel Black

    Writers:J. M. DeMatteis, Anthony Lawrence