Air date: November 17, 1961
For reasons unnrevealed, the Earth has fallen out of its orbit last month and is now hurdling towards the sun, moving closer to it each day. In New York City, an artist named Norma (Lois Nettleton) watches as her neighbors who haven't succumbed to the extreme heat leave the apartment building to head up north for "colder" climates. The only people who haven't left yet are herself and her landlady, Mrs. Bronson (Betty Garde). Electricity is gradually cut off, water is restricted to one hour per day, and the streets are either deserted or full of looters. Both women try to support each other in the last days of humankind, but they grow weaker as the end of the world comes closer, with Norma accidentally burning her hand on the windowsill and Mrs. Bronson becoming delirious. She begs Norma to paint something cold rather than continually painting the sun and burning cities.
A looter soon enters the building, but Norma and Mrs. Bronson lock the door. He begs to be let in, but Norma pulls a gun and tells him to go away. Against her orders, Mrs. Bronson unlocks the door and lets him in. He feverishly drinks all the water they have left, but upon seeing their distressed faces, he breaks down and apologizes for scaring them. He claims the oppressive heat is responsible for the deaths of his wife and infant son, which had driven him insane, as well as the fact that Norma's paintings remind him of his late wife's artwork. Norma meekly nods to the man before he stumbles out of the building, rambling that he's not a terrible person to himself. In an attempt to console her, Norma shows Mrs. Bronson a painting of a waterfall she made. Delirious, the landlady imagines swimming in splashing in the imaginary water and praises abour how cool it is before succumbing to the heat and dropping dead. As the heat gets stronger and stronger, Norma watches in horror as the thermometer bursts and her paintings melt around her, screaming and collapsing as well.
The scene then cuts back to the apartment, this time at night, with heavy snow falling outside. Norma is bedridden with a high fever and being attended to by Mrs. Bronson and a doctor, having been dreaming of the oppressive heat all along. As the doctor leaves, a delirious Norma tells Mrs. Bronson how happy she is that's it's cool again. However, a private conversation between the doctor and Mrs. Bronson makes it clear that things are actually far from well off: the Earth has indeed fallen out of its orbit, but it's moving away from the sun, which will ultimately reduce it to an inhospitable ball of ice. As Mrs. Bronson reenters, the delirious Norma wistfully asks how great it is to have no sun at all, to which Mrs. Bronson hesitatingly agrees.
The Midnight Tropes:
- All Just a Dream: The episode's plot, where the world is ending because Earth is moving closer to the sun and is being bombarded with everlasting heat, was actually a dream that an ill and delirious Norma was having. Unfortunately, in reality, the world is still going to end, because Earth is moving away from the sun and will ultimately freeze over completely.
- Apocalypse Anarchy: A news report early in the episode warns of looters and wandering maniacs prowling the New York streets, before he begins ranting about the end of the world and is forcibly taken off-air.
- Apocalypse How: It's already a Class 1, guaranteed to become a Class X, as the Earth is spiraling closer and closer to the sun. Even with the ending revelation that Earth is spiraling further and further from the sun, we're still looking at either a 5 or 6, maybe 4 if life close to hydrothermal vents survives.
- Big Applesauce: The episode is set in New York City, which has been largely abandoned as everyone moved to find colder temperatures.
- Book Ends: A variation. The episode begins with Mrs. Bronson bringing up how the Earth is moving in such a way that will end life as they know it, and someone they know say they're about to move their family somewhere it will be better for a while. The difference is, the beginning is about how the Earth is moving towards the sun, while the ending is about the Earth moving away from the sun.
- Bottle Episode: Except for two scenes in the hallway, the plot of the episode never leaves Norma's apartment.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: The episode was adapted as a graphic novel by Walker Paperback in 2009.
- Cruel Twist Ending: As per the doctor's exposition, Earth isn't moving towards the sun. It's moving away from it.
- Cutting the Electronic Leash: A radio DJ deviates from the script to blurt out the reality of the situation. As a result, he's forcefully taken off the air.
- Death of a Child: The looter who breaks into Norma's apartment and drinks all the water she had left tells her that his wife died from childbirth complications, and his newborn baby died soon after (likely from the heat). It's subverted when it turns out to be part of Norma's dream.
- Disney Death: Mrs. Bronson dies in Norma's dream, but she turns out to be alive and well when Norma comes out of her delirium. Neither she, nor Norma, nor anyone else on Earth will be alive for long, unfortunately.
- Downer Ending: Earth is doomed to freeze into a giant ball of ice in only a few weeks, ensuring that humanity goes extinct.
- Endless Daytime: The Earth is spiraling closer and closer to the sun, and as a result, there is perpetual daylight outside. It turns out in the end that Norma is dreaming, and the Earth is actually spiraling AWAY from the sun, meaning that it will freeze over. note
- The End of the World as We Know It: It occurs both in Norma's dream via the planet plunging into the sun, and in real life via the planet hurdling away from the sun and freezing over. It's made uncomfortably clear in both scenarios that all anyone can do is hold off the inevitable destruction of the Earth and everyone on it.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Mrs. Bronson tells Norma that she heard on the radio why it's getting hotter: because the Earth is getting closer to the sun.
- Failed a Spot Check: Mrs. Bronson opens the door without hearing the front door close, despite Norma saying seconds ago that she wanted to hear the looter leave through the front door.
- Fever Dream Episode: Most of the episode is revealed to be the result of Norma dreaming while under a high fever.
- Foreshadowing:
- Norma says "I keep getting this crazy thought. This crazy thought that I'm gonna wake up and none of this will have happened." That's indeed what happens in the end, but the end of the world is still going to occur.
- It seems odd that several characters are wearing long-sleeved clothes in spite of the scorching heat. This foreshadows that Norma is actually dreaming.
- Ghost City: New York City has been nearly evacuated due to the extreme heat, as people are packing up and travelling to cooler regions.
- Glacial Apocalypse: Zig-Zagged. The episode takes place in a world where it's getting hotter all the time because Earth is getting closer and closer to the sun. It turns out that this scenario is All Just a Dream, but in actuality, Earth is getting colder and colder because it's moving away from the sun, to the point where it will eventually become an uninhabitable ball of ice.
- Irony: In the end, Norma, having woken up, remembers her dream about the crushing heat and fantasizes about coldness and darkness. In truth, this excessive cold and dark are precisely what's causing the end of the world.Norma: It was horrible. There was a midnight sun, no night at all. Mmmm... isn't it nice to have coolness and darkness?
Mrs. Bronson: (apprehensively) ...yes, dear. It's wonderful.- If you look closely, Mrs. Bronson appears to be smiling when Norma describes "a midnight sun, no night at all."
- Minimalist Cast: Only seven characters show up throughout the episode.
- No Antagonist: The closest thing the story has to one is the sun itself. Even the looter who breaks into Norma's apartment says he wouldn't hurt them and he was just desperate for some water.
- Readings Blew Up the Scale: The thermometer on Norma's wall eventually bursts from the extreme heat.
- Sanity Slippage: When she sees Norma's latest painting, a waterfall, Mrs. Bronson starts rambling about how wonderful the water is and how they should go swimming, shortly before she collapses and dies.
- Screaming Woman: Norma screams to no end as the heat increases drastically, becoming so hot that her paintings begin melting right off the canvas.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: As Norma recounts her nightmare about a world with a neverending sun, she states her relief that everything is cool again. Mrs. Bronson's only response is to stare off into the distance and agree how wonderful it is, not having the heart to tell Norma that she and the rest of the world are still doomed.
- Title Drop: The last lines of the episode, as Norma describes her dream.
- We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: A weather reporter gradually goes off-script, though never raising his voice above "1950s radio reporter" levels, passes along the idea that he's panicking, but nothing matters with the end of the world. He's last heard struggling to fight back against the men who forcefully take him off air.
- Wham Shot: When the world heats up so much that Norma's paintings melt and the artist herself collapses, we suddenly cut back to the thermometer that burst in the scorching heat. It's fixed and now reads -10 degrees, as snow falls heavily outside the window.
