"The Twilight Zone (2002)" Retro Recap: "The Pool Guy"

Written by Scotty

There are times in life when you have to do what you can to get by.  Sometimes that means having to take a job that you may be overqualified for and extremely underpaid for what you are doing.  There is no shame in doing this to make ends meet, as we have all had to do it at least once in our lives.  Money might not be the most important thing in our lives, but we are required to have it in order to live at any level.  Just make sure that if you are forced to take one of these jobs, that you do not take advantage of the situation, there may be something more dangerous hiding behind it.

Ritchie Almares is just the standard over aged pool guy that is not looking for anything better.  He knows the gig is nothing special, after talking to a coworker about how great his job is not, he does not get the love and affection of all of the ladies that you read about in fiction or see on television, he just gets sunburned while cleaning other people’s pools.  As he walks back to his truck, he sees a newspaper on his windshield and when he reads the story, he sees a man with a gun pointed directly at him.  Not able to run, Ritchie is shot in the chest, but it was a good thing it was only a dream.

Waking up in his bed, his roommate Lenny comes in to check on him since he has been screaming for a while now.  Ritchie tells his friend about the dream, but when he takes his shirt off, he sees that he has been scarred.  Going to the doctor’s office to get the wound checked out, Ritchie is met again by the strange man with a gun in his hand.  Telling Ritchie to wake up before he shoots, he is shot again, but this time in the stomach.  Ritchie does not know what to do or what to think as he wakes up again. Being pestered about paying the rent on time, Ritchie has a new client whose pool he is going to clean today, so the money will be there on time. 

Arriving at the large house, Ritchie is approached by the hot wife living there and Mrs. Hunt is looking for something from him.  Being drunk and kissing her new pool boy, the two are caught by Mr. Hunt who knows exactly what and why his wife is doing this.  Ritchie sees that this is the same man from his dreams that keeps shooting him and wants to get away with just a beating.  Waking up on a table in the Virtuacorp offices, Ritchie finds out that he is undergoing dream therapy.  Not believing this is happening, he is approached by Mr. Hunt once again and shot.  Waking up for real this time, Ritchie finds out that he is being billed by Virtuacorp, but he does not remember signing any contract for the dream therapy to take place.  Sneaking around the office to try and find some answers, he finds out more than he bargained for when seeing that he has been arrested for the murder of Mr. Hunt.  Being shot again, Ritchie wakes up, but is starting to understand that his life is nothing more than a bad dream.

Dreams can be a frightening thing, especially when they start to feel real.  There have been many a nights I have woken up in a cold sweat, not knowing what is real and what was the dream.  Imagine if you were not able to wake up and kept having the same dream over and over again.  That would be the most uncomfortable thing that could ever happen to someone, especially if they do not understand why it is happening.  But by the end of the episode all is answered in the typical Twilight Zone fashion and you may not see it coming.  Starring Lou Diamond Phillips as Ritchie Almares, Erik King as Lenny, Jana Mitsoula as Mrs. Hunt and Mackenzie Gray as Mr. Hunt.  I really dig how this story played out in the end, although I wish it had proof that Ritchie was the killer, just so he and us could have seen it to prove that his torture is justified.  

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