‘The Twilight Zone’ (2019) Recap: ‘Six Degrees of Freedom’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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If there’s one thing science fiction and horror and any genre that takes the time to explore the human condition and our society as a whole, has yet to accomplish, it’s providing its audience with a solid  understanding of what drives humanity to push forward and continue on as a whole. Sure, stories can cite the survival instinct that’s present within all of us as a fine reason to get up in the morning and go to work to pay our bills because without money, there’s no food or shelter for us to survive within, but I think we all know it goes far deeper than that. There’s something powerful that pushes us and guides us to forge ahead and see what tomorrow brings and that’s perhaps why fiction steers clear of this examination simply because, there’s no easy way to explain our drive and our motivation.
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However, this is clearly a topic that Jordan Peele’s iteration of The Twilight Zone was eager to tackle, because last night’s episode of the series, ‘Six Degrees of Freedom’, handled such a notion in the most fascinating way imaginable, by putting five astronauts, who were to be the first human beings to ever land on Mars, in quite the harrowing situation. For mere minutes before their ship, the Bradbury Heavy was set to begin its voyage to the stars, they received some utterly terrifying news; nuclear missiles from North Korea had started to strike American soil and they and they were left with a simple choice. Either launch now and finish the mission, knowing full well they may never return home since there was a fair chance this was mankind’s twilight hour, or abandon ship and potentially spend their final moments with their families.

Surprisingly, the crew chose the former and worked to complete their mission, but it was the journey toward Mars that mattered here, because the isolation and loneliness of a crew without a home is what allowed for this episode to dive into the question I posed a little while ago and I’ll be honest in saying that this was handled in utterly brilliant fashion. Because the crew was at their breaking point for the duration of their mission to Mars, working through grief and shock and every negative emotion possible when faced with the end of the world, yet, they kept at it, they worked to complete their mission because they believed that by making it to Mars, that perhaps someday the survivors of this nuclear holocaust would find inspiration in their act and be better than the world that failed them and therein lie the lesson. For what drives us to see tomorrow, is a deeply embedded belief that we are something special, that we are something more and that we are meant to do wonderful things and change lives and well, there’s a lot of truth to that.

After all, in our brief time on this planet we have in fact accomplished great wonders. We’ve cured diseases, taken to the skies to fly like the birds and we’ve created technological wonders beyond our imagination and heck, we’ve even been to the stars, because of how much we believe in the notion that one individual can inspire others to work together and make the impossible, possible, and well, despite the fact that this was a supremely dark episode for a vast majority of the hour, that message made the rough journey worth it, as did the ending. Because that little twist involving another species from another place in the universe, served as a first for this newly reimagined series in that, this was the first episode that truly felt like it came from the script vault of the original series. For the fantastical was a staple of Rod Serling’s vision and well, it doesn’t get much more fantastical than a group of aliens testing mankind’s mettle.

But what was more impressive, is that when all is said and done, this was actually an uplifting tale, one that really worked to push a more positive message across to the audience. And what I took away from this one, is that while our world often stands on the brink and is in a quagmire politically and socially right now, there are still beautiful and wonderful things happening around us and we need to take the time to recognize and celebrate those things and our humanity as a whole. Because we are indeed something special, and something worth saving, and perhaps, if we take those brief moments and smell the proverbial roses, maybe, just maybe, our petty differences will be put aside and we can realize that we are all same and in this mess together, and accomplish new wonders, and to find a message like that, buried in a waking nightmare, is quite the special treat indeed and more proof as to why it’s a wonderful thing to have this series on the air during these troubled times.  

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