The Twilight Zone (2019) episode review — 1.3 — Replay

Original release date: April 11, 2019
Writer: Selwyn Seyfu Hinds
Director: Gerard McMurray

Rating: 5/10

The episode starts in a diner, with Nina Harrison (Sanaa Lathan) and her son, Dorian (Damson Idris), about to head off to college. She films him on an old camcorder, and a state trooper, Officer Lasky (Glenn Fleshler) enters. When she rewinds the tape to film over her son accidentally squirting ketchup on himself, she apparently rewinds time.

When they’re driving to Uncle Neil’s house, Dorian jokingly picks up the camera and starts filming. He gets pulled over, and the police officer freaks out when he realizes it’s recording.

Nina reaches to turn it off, and accidentally hits rewind.

She feels uncomfortable, and demands that Dorian pull over, even though he has no idea anything has happened. The cop pulls over behind them. Dorian tells the officer that he needs to get his mother to the hospital, but first the cop demands that he move his vehicle. Dorian speaks up and the officer pulls a taser, so Nina, now understanding what her camera can do, hits rewind.

They end up back at the diner, and Nina demands that they leave now. Nina drives instead of her son, and takes a different route. She brings up the idea of finding a hotel and not going to college until the next day, and Dorian agrees. When they’re watching lottery numbers get announced, Dorian mentions something about “particles unfolding the way they’re destined to,” and things happening “the way they should.” She rewinds and tells him that if she guesses the lottery numbers, he has to promise to visit her when he’s in college. He’s amazed when she’s right, of course, and that police officer shows up at their hotel room.

He demands to see their ID’s (he’s there for a noise complaint or something), and he gets angry when he notices the camcorder. She rewinds just as he pulls a taser out.

They’re back at the diner again, and Nina tries to figure out a way for the state trooper to go away. She decides to introduce herself to the officer, and buy him a slice of apple pie. She talks about how her son is so important, anticipating him coming after them, I guess. The officer is standoffish at first, but seems to be friendly enough, even after she mentions his wife, who is apparently dead.

When she and her son go to leave, the officer asks her about her car, and demands to see her ID and proof of ownership. This time she gets angry at the officer, but her son says that he has a picture of the pinkslip on his phone. After he goes and gets it out of the car, he gets shot when he holds up his phone to the officer. When she’s at the morgue, Nina rewinds to go back to the diner.

They leave just as the officer enters, but she comes off very suspicious when he sees her. When they’re on the road, Nina pulls over and explains things to her son. She needs him to help her figure out how to end it.

They finally get to Uncle Neil’s (Steve Harris) house. She tells Neil everything, and he says he believes her. He tells her where to hide, and takes them to this old underground tunnel thing.

They take it, and end up at the college, but the officer stops them on campus and pulls a gun. More police officers show up and a crowd gathers behind them at this HBCU. Dorian tells her to rewind it, but she instead films. The crowd behind her pulls out their phones to film. Officer Lasky backs down after Nina makes a speech.

Ten years later, she now has a granddaughter, who ends up breaking the camcorder. Dorian tells his mother to let it go.

I have some mixed feelings with this episode. The premise is very Twilight Zone, and the racial allegory sort of is, too. However, the ending is pretty bad. I think it’s disingenuous to the state of the world today, considering there are plenty of videos of cops killing black people that haven’t resulted in any kind of justice. And it’s a little disingenuous to the series, as well.

It’s an ending very much not in the spirit of the original Twilight Zone. Peele’s closing narration reveals that by looking to her past, Nina was able to save the future. That’s what literally happens, of course, as going to her old home, her brother is able to help her. But her past makes up like one line of the episode before they go there; it just doesn’t feel like a fair ending.