"The Twilight Zone (2002)" Retro Recap: "Shades of Guilt"

​Written by Scotty

You can say it as much as you like, but you will never know what it is like to walk in someone else’s shoes.  With everyone on a different life path and having different obstacles to face along the way, you may feel bad for them, but you will never know their true struggles.  As you get into different relationships with people that have different backgrounds, you start to understand where they are coming from and where they want to go and this is the first step into their world, but there is so much more that they may not tell you or you will never witness first hand that could make you understand what it is like to be them.  Keep your eyes and ears open when around your friends and even more so when visiting a place where you are not wanted, as you may start to understand what troubles are out there in the world that you never noticed before.

While sitting at a stop light Matt McGreevey is talking to his wife on the phone when an African American Man starts banging on his car door in a panic.  Not knowing what to think about this man other than he is potentially dangerous and probably crazy, Matt pulls away only to witness the man being beaten behind him. Plenty frightened about what just happened before his eyes, Matt notices that he has received a cut on his forehead but has no idea where it came from.  Having problems sleeping, Matt wakes up with aches and pains throughout his body, and sees that he is bruised from head to toe.
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Getting a cup of coffee with his friend before heading to work, Matt picks up a newspaper and sees the man’s picture on the front page.  John Woodrell, a college professor has been beaten to death during a hate crime.  Knowing he could have done something to help the stranger out, Matt tries to defend his stance on what he did and if he knew that the man was a professor, he would have let him into the car without question.  Arriving at work, the office is viewing Matt differently since his skin is darkening. Needing to find out what is wrong with him, Matt takes the rest of the day off to visit the dermatologist to get answers.  The doctor is not able to tell Matt anything about what is happening to him, just that his skin is in good health and he looks fine for a mixed breed individual.  Not believing what was said to him, Matt heads home in a huff, but when he arrives, he finds his change was far from complete.

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Letting himself in his wife Hilary sees an intruder in her house and threatens to call the police unless he leaves.  Matt tries to prove that it is him, but when his neighbor comes along with a gun threatening to shoot, Matt is forced to find a safe place in town.  Not able to get a hotel room since his current ID photo looks nothing like him, Matt wanders the streets trying to come up with a plan to change him back to normal.  Seeing the Woodrell’s report in the paper, Matt decides to visit the family and try to gain forgiveness from them for not trying to help when John was beaten to death.

As the widow’s father answers the door, he sees a spitting image of his dead son-in-law standing in front of him.  Matt tries to plead his case to Thomas and the widow Clare, but when Clare askes him one simple question, she knows that she will never be able to forgive the man for what he did not do.  Matt is left on the streets alone looking like John Woodrell and everything is not fine when a couple of racists decide to make an example of him.

They say you can never know a man until you have walked in his shoes, well, that might be true and if you are forced to see the world from his body, you might start to understand how different things really are.  Matt tries to defend himself about being a racist, saying that he was frightened when John approached his car, but when the question was asked if John was white, would he have helped, Matt knew what the answer was in his heart.  It is a hard look at how society judges people based on their skin color and even though this was made in 2002, you still hear stories of it happening today.  A person should never be judged by the color of their skin, a person should be treated like a person, no matter what.  Starring Hill Harper as John Woodrell, Vincent Ventresca as Matt McGreevey, Mari Morrow as Clare Woodrell and Blu Mankuma as Thomas, this cast really seemed to capture the struggles of daily life.  This is a hard subject to tackle and be respectful in the storytelling process, but this episode did seem to show the hardships and struggles that we are still dealing with today.

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