The Perfect Starter Episode Of The Twilight Zone Is A Stealth Holiday Special

Getting into "The Twilight Zone" is easy, but picking the perfect "Twilight Zone" episode for newcomers to the series? Not so much. The show has plenty of excellent episodes, but not all of them appeal to every audience. Some are the favored choice of horror fans, while others lean more sci-fi. Some aim to moralize, while others simply entertain with twisty, ironic, and sometimes silly stories.

There are dozens of viable entry points for the greatest anthology series in TV history, but one has consistently worked best for me over the years: "Five Characters in Search of an Exit," an existential yet optimistic one-room play of sorts that's nestled in the middle of the show's third season. If you haven't seen this episode, it's best to go in blind: its final twist is one of the show's best, not only for its cleverness, but the rare "Twilight Zone" perspective shift that delights rather than terrifies. A master class in narrative sleight of hand that doubles as a stealth holiday special, "Five Characters in Search of An Exit" is a crowd pleaser that'll get even the most dubious would-be fan hooked on this classic series.

The episode opens with a military man (William Windom) awakening in a cylindrical, bare room with no memory of how he got there. Its only features are four other people who are also having trouble recalling who they are. Among them: a somber "hobo" (Kelton Garwood), a Scottish bagpiper (Clark Allen), a ballerina (Susan Harrison, channeling the delicate grace of Audrey Hepburn), and a devilishly dramatic clown (Murray Matheson). Matheson, in particular, gives an incredible performance here, mixing nimble physical comedy with an edge of unhinged danger and a theatrical flair that calls to mind the works of Tim Curry (though not, oddly enough, Curry's Pennywise).

It's the type of performance the show is known for: one that seems strange or spectacular at first, but grows on you throughout the episode, until you suddenly realize the actor is the soul of the story — even if he does have a flower pot on his head. The story in question largely tracks the group's attempts to figure out where they are and to find a way out of their predicament. Anyone who spent time in the trenches of the "Lost" message boards will be familiar with the theories these stranded characters put forth. Are they part of an experiment? In another realm entirely? Are they in hell?

The theorizing is half the fun here, as unlike many of the series' other mysteries (whose influence on a half-century-plus of pop culture is so ubiquitous that they might now seem predictable to first-time viewers), it's pretty unguessable the first time you watch it. It's only after the group finally finds a way to lift the Major over the side of the room's tower-like walls that we're told what's actually going on: these are toys in a holiday charity bin, on their way to little orphan girls who are in need of a friend to hold.

In what may be the sweetest single plot twist in the series, Serling ends the episode not with a jolt of terror, but one of joy. He pulled a "Toy Story," but did it in a way that presented its existential locked-room mystery with all the seriousness of his typical dread-inducing storytelling. While the clown's ponderings about hell and the initial premise of the episode might scare younger viewers, "Five Characters in Search of An Exit" generally appeals both to kids and to the child in all of us. Fans on the "Twilight Zone" Subreddit have pointed to the episode as one of the best to get new fans invested in the show, and it's true. It's impossible not to start guessing at the ending as these five strangers scramble to understand who they are and where they came from. The fact that the toys in question are out of date to modern viewers makes the endeavor all the more challenging.

The ending comes as a relief for kids, and it challenges adults to recapture the innocence we had as a child, when it seemed possible that our favorite dolls might love us just as much as we love them. By setting the episode at Christmastime, Serling also wills us to set aside our cynicism for a moment to enjoy the idea that such a dark mystery could end with holiday magic. "This added hopeful note," he adds in his concluding monologue: "Perhaps they are unloved only for the moment. In the arms of children, there can be nothing but love." The cute ending does nothing to detract from what came before, though, which is a richly rendered exploration of humankind's search for meaning.

If all of that weren't enough to make "Five Characters in Search of An Exit" a top-tier beginner's "Twilight Zone" episode, it also looks incredible. Two-time Emmy winner Lamont Johnson directs the action and angst with a sharp eye for blocking and choreography; each character occupies their own space and uses it well, conveying their raw emotions through the actions most expected from their archetypal roles. Often, they're shot altogether, in picture-perfect poses that should've been our first hint that this tableau isn't exactly organically made. Our visual sense of the cylinder constricts and expands depending on the claustrophobia of its prisoners, and when their status as toys is revealed, the camera relishes revealing their rigid joints and painted faces.

"Five Characters in Search of An Exit" encompasses nearly everything that makes "The Twilight Zone" great: precise, stylish filmmaking, powerful genre acting, smart, twisty scripts, and philosophy at its most accessible and humane. Plus, it's a holiday episode that blows most other Christmas fare out of the water. The next time your family tries to put on "Elf" or "A Christmas Story" again, suggest something better: a quick but resonant trip into "The Twilight Zone."