'The Twilight Zone (2002)' Retro Recap: 'Sensuous Cindy'

Written by Scotty

It can be difficult to follow through with promises, especially if you do not believe in them. It makes me wonder why you would make that sort of promise if your heart is not behind it, no matter the reason. I know one reason is to make others feel better, but when you break that promise, it hurts you as much as it hurts them. A person is only as good as their word, and a promise that is broken can change how that person is viewed and even effect who they are for the entirety of their life.

Ben Baker and his fiancé have made a vow to stay sex free until they are married. But that is six months down the road and Ben has urges that cannot be fulfilled by this promise. Working at a glamor magazine does not help at all as he gets to see beautiful woman all day long. Knowing that he is in need of a release, Garrett loads a virtual reality program on his computer that could save his sanity until the wedding. Plugging into Sensuous Cindy, Ben is placed with a woman that will be able to fulfill his fantasies and even after those are taken care of, he still snuggles with Cindy and gives her more of an insight into his life.

Returning home to his fiancé Samantha, Ben is thinking free and clear about how he will be able to make it to his wedding day and will not try anything with her until then. All seems fine around the house that is until the phone rings with Cindy on the other side of it, wanting to see Ben again. Making a promise that he will see her in the morning, Ben pushes it off. Knowing that Cindy is only a computer program, she will not be able to stop him from living his everyday life. Cindy is persistent however and is able to move about any system in the office and when Ben tries to sneak out on her, she is able to shut down the elevator causing him to agree to anything that she asks.

Calling Garret to get help in deleting the program, Ben thinks that everything will be better with Cindy out of the picture. But when seeing that Cindy has taken over Samantha’s computer as well, he will have to take more drastic measures. Not knowing what is driving the program to continue to follow him, Ben is able to get a virus written for him to take Cindy out once and for all. What he does not know is that she may be even closer than he thinks when it comes to who he loves the most.

I have the hardest time working with technology these days since things are changing so fast. I don’t even know how virtual reality works, but I have seen several different articles about artificial intelligence and that frightens the heck out of me. Once a computer is able to learn and to feel, wow, there may not be a need for us humans anymore. The driving force for Cindy in this episode is to find true love and stop being used for the purpose that she was designed for, but when she finally finds that person who can be her prince charming, she is hurt by his actions. Ben is only looking for a good time and a way to release while he is being forced to stay true to his word until the wedding. I cannot believe that this would even be an option someone would take, but it just goes to show that if you break your word, it will come back to bite you in hind end.

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