The Twilight Zone One For The Angels – Season 1 Episode 2 (1959) Review

Twilight Zone - Episode 2: One For The Angels - Blu Ray Here

The second episode of the mighty Twilight Zone series was definitely a serious one. It hit me hard as I watched it again for the purpose of a review for this site. This one written by Rod Serling, is a powerful, and moving story of a man that meets up with death. Ed Wynn plays Lou Bookman, and Murray Hamilton plays “death”. When a man is approached by death himself, he starts to panic, and tries to get out of dying, as he wants to continue staying alive. It’s his time though, but Bookman, finds a way to get a little more time, thinking he has outsmarted death this time around, and therefore puts on a showcase, only to find out that if he doesn’t go, someone else just might. It’s there that the morality play starts and ends, in my opinion.


In order to get more time, Lou decides to talk about the things he regrets, and that he has unfinished business on Earth, so he can’t get going. Death then decides to hit a girl with a car, and gets very ill. It’s here that Lou has a change of heart, so he tells Death that he wants to make one last pitch, an epic sales pitch that will ring to the heavens. SO he does it, he goes in front of death and basically sells him with an incredible pitch that is definitely for the ages!

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It's with this pitch, that the little girl is saved, and Death walks away with Mr. Bookman on the way up, and yes, there is a moment of trepidation, but alas, saving a young child ends up giving Lou a second chance, and so he packs up his suitcase for a pitch, and goes to the great beyond, assuming heaven.

The questions and moralities that come through here are fascinating. I found myself thinking about death, and what I would tell him if I wanted to get a second chance at some more life. What am I left here to do? What is my purpose? Existentialism isn’t outside of the wheelhouse for Serling’s writing. This episode is very good, simple, with only a few people cast, and a lot of dialogue that pushes the story forward. I never felt bored, and I kept thinking about the notion of death and the replacements that sometimes happen, or so it seems. I mean, if one person skips death, does that mean that someone else dies?

At the end of the day, “One For The Angels”, really does well here. A life dedicated to children, or revered by them could very well get you to a new home, in heaven. Or at least that’s what I gathered. Then again? Who am I to say what Rod Serling was getting at. This is a great episode, if you ask me. It’s more about morality, and life, then it is about death, but you know, it’s well acted, and that’s what matters. Classic! You can pick this up alongside the other episodes from Season 1 via the “Twilight Zone Complete Series Blu Ray” here.