The Twilight Zone Review: The Blue Scorpion (Season 1 Episode 9)
What’s in a name?
Jeff (Chris O’Dowd) finds himself among many other Jeff’s on The Twilight Zone Season 1 Episode 9, “The Blue Scorpion,” as his father’s suicide and a gun become integral parts of what is in store for him.
The show has, at times, struggled with pulling back when it should go a little further. Here, on “The Blue Scorpion,” the show goes for a topic that really hits home: when someone loses everything, where do they turn? In this case, it’s a gun, and the episode goes down a path perhaps a little too far.
Chris O’Dowd’s Jeff is a distracted, lost soul, trying to find something to bring his life on track. O’Dowd has the right kind of personality for the role, a laid-back but frustrated manner where there’s humor there, but an edge underneath where O’Dowd can take the character into darker territory.
The atmosphere is top notch, this leering, creepy tone building and taking over Jeff’s life.
To anthropomorphize the Blue Scorpion gun is at first somewhat of a gimmick, where perhaps it’s supernatural what Jeff is experiencing.
There is a feeling as though the fetishization of guns is taking over, the way Jeff holds the gun and especially during the gun range sequence. The way the music builds and crescendos as he fires, the look of bewildered joy as he grows more comfortable; it’s all part of him coming to accept the Blue Scorpion.
It’s in a larger context of Jeff regaining his manhood, his masculinity bruised and damaged after losing his father and losing his marriage. The gun makes him feel powerful again, something sorely missing from earlier scenes of the episode.
It is brief, though, with where it all goes.
Jeff’s constant glances toward his blue bag are these tense moments, wondering if he’s going to pull the Blue Scorpion out and do something drastic. The divorce proceedings are especially threatening, as he feels the walls closing in on him.
It can be difficult to tell if Jeff is experiencing a descent into madness or if the spirit of the gun is taking control. Perhaps it’s both, as there’s times O’Dowd plays the scene with a look of concern, as though he isn’t sure what just happened, a sense of brief confusion before continuing on.
It’s an immensely dark topic, dealing with mental health as someone’s life deteriorates in front of them and finds solace in the wrong places.
It does break from the trend in its last moments, showing Jeff’s life get better once he’s broken free of the gun’s grip.
For Jeff to become a hero when, from the looks of it, he is just about to go into his ex-wife’s house with the gun, is an alarming thought.
Does the interruption of the burglar mean more deaths are stopped, or is the gun simply a coping mechanism for Jeff, and he has no plan of using it if he does indeed go into her house uninterrupted?
The way the episode closes out leaves an open-ended question on Jeff’s soul, where he’s potentially rewarded for being interrupted for something heinous. It’s chilling, but still, open to interpretation.
But for it to fall in the hands of kids is an even darker fate, especially with the accompanying bullet having the kid’s name on it (at least, to his eyes).
It’s an ending that really rubbed me the wrong way, a little too far for my tastes. Likely the point, though, and so it does its job.
The Twilight Zone Season 1 Episode 9, “The Blue Scorpion,” fashions a tale of a man with no control finding the control he needs. The reasons are misplaced, but he comes out the other side with some form of control back in his life.
The episode is a success in playing with our expectations, finding O’Dowd in a difficult-to-read part where he excels in showing the collapse and eventual redemption of his character. The redemption may be misguided and for something he himself does not do, but the layers of deep brokenness brings forward a compelling story.
What did you think of this episode of The Twilight Zone? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Twilight Zone streams Thursdays on CBS All Access.
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Kevin Lever
Kevin Lever has been following television closely for most of his life, but in starting to cover it, he has grown a further appreciation. He strives to give the blockbusters their due, and give the lesser known shows a spotlight to find more fans.