‘The Twilight Zone’ (2019) Recap: ‘The Blue Scorpion’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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Somewhere in our homes right now, is an item that holds great significant to us. It could be something as simple as a genuine family heirloom, one that we care for and keep safe thanks to the importance it holds when it comes to our family line. Or it could be a collectible item that means the world to someone since it invokes a personal memory, or it may be something as innocuous as a pen that just so happens to bring its owner luck since it was present for every great moment in their lives. The bottom line is that there are important items that hold great power just sitting around our household and the power and credence we give them is quite fascinating when all is said and done.

After all, they are just items, things, inanimate objects that can do very little, yet we still tell tales of why those cufflinks grandpa used to wear matter, or how that baseball played a part in the greatest summer of our youth, or how that pen helped us meet our dream guy or dream gal since it was present on the night we met. But while all of that sounds normal and innocuous in so many ways, one has to wonder, why do we give these items such power? Why must a pen have the same importance as the person we marry? And it just so happens that Jordan Peele’s latest iteration of The Twilight Zone felt the need to explore these questions in fascinating fashion, by way of last night’s episode, ‘The Blue Scorpion’.

Now I won’t lie, at first glance, I really thought that this story was going to be the show’s attempt to take on the nature of America’s love affair with guns, since in this story we meet Professor Jeff Storck who finds himself in quite the tough place. For his father has committed suicide, his wife is ready to leave him and all he’s left with is the mysterious gun called ‘The Blue Scorpion’ that his father used to end his life and if that’s not a setup for a story on guns, I don’t know what is. But as this series is wont to do, it quickly changed gears and focused instead on the power of the gun itself, since the mystique surrounding this weapon eventually enveloped Jeff and prompted him to keep it at his side at all times in the hopes that it would fulfill its legend of making one’s problems go away and ironically, it did just that.

But what matters more here, is the grand exploration present in this tale revolving around why items hold such power in our lives and the answers to the questions I posed earlier were quite simple in nature. For in a crisis, where we have nothing, an object becomes a focal point for hope, one that symbolizes our recovery and our progress and really, that’s what it all comes down to, the fact that these items are totems in their own right, and once the trouble or the moment has passed, these items suddenly become the embodiment of a memory, destined to tell their story for as long as they remain in our possession, and while that sounds harmless, there was a danger that the series wanted to convey when comes to this, in that, they can also be unhealthy. Because Jeff had an entire house full of items that spoke to the memory and wonder of his father’s life, yet he chose the gun and the fury it symbolized over anything else and well, that says everything it needs to when it comes to the dark side of totems…

If anything, I have to admit that this episode ended up being quite the pleasant surprise. Because ‘The Blue Scorpion’ served as another wonderful homage to Rod Serling’s iteration of the show since the fantastical was everywhere in this story, and I loved the little coincidences that Jeff kept running into here, making one wonder if the gun really did have the magic that everyone believed it did, or if such matters were nothing more than incredible coincidence and I really did enjoy this one when all is said and done. For it once again demonstrated the show’s versatility storytelling wise, and it offered a welcome respite from some of the heavier ideas present this season and the change in pace here, leaves me wondering what direction the series is going to take when it comes to next week’s season finale. Will that tale have something important to say about our world? Or will it continue to explore the bizarre? Or…will it find a way to bring both elements together? I suppose we will have to tune in to find out. Until next time.  

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