"The Twilight Zone (2002)" Retro Recap: "Time Lapse"

Written by Scotty

Have you ever forgot something that you did, or how you ended up somewhere?  I think everyone has had that happen at least once in their lives, if not on several occasions.  Not being able to remember a short amount of time is nothing to be concerned with as it happens to everyone and if you are doing the exact same thing every day, it happens more often.  Did I close the garage door, did I turn off the iron, did I turn off the stove?  Any of these sound familiar?  I am sure they all do, but these are just seconds out of your day.  Once you are not able to remember days to weeks, there might be something else happening and you should definitely get yourself checked out.

Zack Walker is loving life, at least when he is around the hospital with his lovely fiancé Maria.  Wheeling in their next patient, the two start joking about Zack’s impending bachelor party and what will happen.  Joking that he will not be able to remember what happened, Maria guarantees that she will know everything that goes down as her brother will be there with him.  As the two keep their spirits high for the weeding, their patient Mr. Fisk is in a coma and not able to do anything, including being able to tune the two love birds out. 

When getting ready to leave the hospital, Zack is hit with what seems like a panic attack, but when he wakes up, he knows it is much more than that.  Waking up in a hotel in Portland, Oregon, Zack is unsure about how he arrived there.  After talking to the desk clerk, Zack knows that he was awake when he arrived, he just has no recollection of it.  Calling Maria and telling her where he is and promising that he will be back home in Phoenix the next day, Zack is more concerned about what happened while he was blacked out.  Getting in the car and heading south, Zack instead finds himself moving further up north and now is in a meeting with an underground group that he seems to have a deal with.  Receiving a gun that can beat metal detectors and scanners, Zack is starting to put the pieces together.

Waking up from another blackout in a new hotel room, Zack gets to see firsthand what is blacked out self is up to.  With a map drawn out of where he needs to be at certain times, Zack thinks that he is going to kill the president’s daughter.  Not wanting to allow this to happen, Zack calls the Secret Service to get them to detain him so he cannot harm a soul, but when his story does not seem to make sense, Agent Carl Taggart has to get verification that Zack is on the level.  Inspecting his room and seeing all of the timing and maps, Agent Taggart has no doubt that this man is going to kill the first daughter, but when Zack blacks out again, the Agent is not able to stop him from getting close.  Watching the first daughter enter the hotel and riding up the escalator to greet her fans, Zack goes through blackout after blackout until he finds himself standing with a smoking gun in his hand.

This is a fun situation to think about.  What if someone was able to control your body without you knowing what is happening?   But it could also be very frightening to think that someone would be able to control you and do anything that they want without your permission.  I don’t know what would be able to cause this, but if it is for the greater good, and I could help, sign me up.  Not really, I don’t want anyone messing with my mind or body, I pretty much have it set the way I like it.  Starring Ethan Embry as Zack Walker, Alexandra Barreto as Maria and Nathaniel DeVeaux as Agent Carl Taggart.  This is an interesting storyline that ties every step up at the end, but you have to be able to read the clues as to who is doing what, the same way as Zack does when he keeps finding a gun in his possession.  

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