What proceeds is an odd couple of games. Some mad, mad, mad, mad games.
Rod Serling: Jesse Cardiff, pool shark, the best on Randolph Street, who will soon learn that trying to be the best at anything carries its own special risks. In or out of the Twilight Zone.
It's after hours in Lister's Pool Room in Chicago, and pool shark Jesse Cardiff (Jack Klugman) is alone, polishing his game. He considers himself the best pool player around, but is haunted by the memory of late pool legend James Howard "Fats" Brown, whose skill continues to overshadow him. Jesse muses that he would give anything to play Fats for one game and firmly prove that he is the best, even though Fats has been dead for 15 years.
"At your service!" says a voice, seemingly from nowhere. Jesse turns around to find Fats himself (Jonathan Winters) standing in the room with him, the late legend having been summoned from the afterlife to answer Jesse's challenge. If Jesse wins, he'll become the greatest pool player ever, but if he loses, he dies. Jesse accepts the wager without fear.
As the game progresses, Fats criticizes Jesse for spending all of his time on shooting pool, commenting that he himself lived a full life outside of the game. The game comes down to one ball that both men need to sink in order to win. Fats misses his shot, leaving Jesse with an easy approach to the pocket. Ignoring Fats' warning that his victory may give him more than he bargained for, Jesse sinks the ball and wins, cementing his newfound title. Fats thanks Jesse for the game him and vanishes, while Jesse angrily calls him a sore loser.
Years later, the now-dead Jesse has wound up in Fats' former situation, routinely forced to travel from the afterlife back to Earth to be challenged by one opponent after another until someone beats him. Meanwhile, Fats has gone fishing, relieved of his burden of being the best.
This episode was remade for The Twilight Zone (1985), with Esai Morales and Maury Chaykin as Jesse and Fats, respectively. It uses George Clayton Johnson's originally intended ending in which Jesse loses to Fats.
A Game of Tropes:
- Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Jesse plays a one-on-one game against Fats to gain his reputation as the greatest pool player ever, with his life on the line.
- An Aesop:
- As Fats says, you may be the very best at what you do, but the journey and challenges will never end.
- Spending your whole life perfecting one particular skill isn't worth it, even if you are the best.
- Work and hobbies shouldn't take complete control of your life.
- Always Someone Better: Jesse is overshadowed by Fats, but he actually claims the title from the late legend once he defeats him, as well as the many other challengers waiting in his path.
- Badass Boast: Fats gives a somewhat understated one:Fats: Now, I'm just a pool-player. There’s probably no less important thing on the face of the Earth. But mark this in your pocketbook: I'm the best. It's a proud thing to be the best at anything.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Jesse wishes to play Fats for one game. He actually gets the chance, but at the risk of his life. Furthermore, even when he wins, there are unexpected consequences. It's lampshaded by Fats when it comes down to the final shot:Fats: Wait a minute, Jesse. Before you shoot, think of this. Shoot that ball, and you may win more than what you bargained for.
- Bad Guys Play Pool: Subverted. Neither Jesse nor Fats are outright villains, only cocky and slightly arrogant pool sharks who are just playing to see who the best player is.
- Bittersweet Ending: Jesse finally beats beats Fats and becomes the greatest pool player to ever live, but after he dies, he is destined to spend eternity defending his title until a new champion comes, having nothing but the title to show for his life. Fats, meanwhile, has lost his title, but is now freed from holding onto his burden and is said to be enjoying a much happier afterlife.
- Bottle Episode: With the exception of two brief scenes in the afterlife, the entire episode takes place in Lister's Pool Room.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: When Fats leaves after Jesse beats him, Jesse rants to the audience that they must have seen him win.Jesse: Well, you saw it, didn't you? I beat the king of the hill, Fats Brown! (tosses Fats' picture aside)
- Cassandra Truth: Just before the final shot, Fats admits that he hopes Jesse wins and warns him he'll get more than he bargained for if he does. Jesse doesn't heed either statement.
- Chekhov's Skill: An interesting variation. Fats' casual approach to pool and his ability to enjoy life beyond the game are implied to have kept him from crossing the Despair Event Horizon in the afterlife. He was unhappy being stuck with the title of champion, but he knew that other pursuits were waiting for him if he ever lost. As such, he's seen cheerfully practicing his shots in Heaven, and doesn't mind his summons to Earth. Jesse, by contrast, has nothing going for him besides pool, and is shown to be utterly broken in the final scene, not even bothering to practice. Even if someone does eventually beat him, he'll have nothing else to do. As such, he's slumped over the heavenly pool table at the end, miserable and exhausted.
- Competition Freak: Played With. While Jesse is obsessed about beating Fats, he wasn't very keen on playing in a life-of-death game. Nevertheless, Fats bluntly calls Jesse out on it:Fats: I take them as I find them. To you, pool is not a nice, friendly game. It's a win-at-any-price affair. I acted accordingly.
- Cruel Twist Ending: After he dies, Jesse has to spend his afterlife in an Ironic Hell. The Remake/original script plays it differently: he loses, but is still allowed to live, and Fats makes clear that Jesse will be known only as a second-rate has-been.
- Cynical Mentor: Mixed with Stealth Mentor. Fats is Jesse's opponent in the game, but he does give Jesse warnings about how boring being a champion will become.
- The Determinator: Deconstructed with Jesse. He's so devoted to pool that he has no life outside of it.
- Dutch Angle: Two of them are used during tense moments in the pool game.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Fats carried the title of best pool player ever in the afterlife for years, and is finally free of his burden when Jesse beats him.
- Expy: Jesse is quite similar to Henry Bemis from "Time Enough at Last": both are obsessed with their hobbies (pool for Jesse, books for Henry) but the main difference is that Bemis just wants to be left alone, whereas Jesse wants to prove his worth as the best pool player ever.
- Fridge Horror: At one point, Fats says that when he was Jesse's age, he would jumped at the challenge, which implies that Fats is older than Jesse. If Fats is still the same age when he died, how long has Jesse lived when he winds up in the afterlife?
- Freudian Excuse: Jesse says that he's often had people lording their superiority at various things over him, which gave him a chip on his shoulder about being the best at something. He took to pool largely because he won the first time he ever played against someone.
- Geas:
- It's heavily implied that Fats is under one of these. He longs to be released from his role as history's greatest pool player, which can only happen if someone beats him in a game. The trick is that Fats can't deliberately lose; he has to be defeated fair and square, or it won't count. Ergo, he has to play to the best of his ability every time, regardless of how badly he wants to be freed.
- In a smaller example, he also seems obligated to warn his opponent about the price of victory, though the warning itself is admittedly vague. When Jesse blows him off, Fats remarks that he's required to tell that to every challenger he faces.
- Graceful Loser: Fats, when he's finally freed from the burden of having to defend his title, and is said to have gone fishing.
- Humble Hero: Fats Brown. He knows that he's the best pool player there ever was, and certainly takes pride in that fact, but he also doesn't let it go to his head too much, nor does he believe that being a great pool player is anything more than it is, even saying that he always made time to enjoy life away from the game.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Jesse boasts of his skill at the game of pool, but Fats points out that he's secretly afraid he isn't as good as he claims to be.
- Ironic Hell: Jesse defeats Fats and gains his title as the best pool player ever. Now he has to spend his entire afterlife defending the title against an endless parade of opponents. Fats implies at one point that it's meant to be this way because Jesse treats pool as a life-or-death, no-mercy competition to the point of sacrificing having a life outside the game.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Jesse takes early command of the game and seems to be wiping the floor with Fats, even gloating to the bigger man as he racks up his point total. In response, Fats silently whips out his cue, and in about three shots, demonstrates why he's known as the best pool player in history. Jesse can only stare in slackjawed silence as Fats evens the score without breaking a sweat.
- Morton's Fork: Jesse ends up trapped in one after he beats Fats and passes on into the afterlife, where he's stuck defending his title as the best pool player ever for eternity. Every match he wins is just an extension of his broken state, and he can't do anything else beyond practicing his shots. Even if Jesse does eventually lose, it's heavily implied that he'll be spending eternity just as unhappy, as he never developed any interests or hobbies beyond pool, so he won't have anywhere to go or anything to do once he's free. Win or lose, he's going to be utterly miserable.
- Mundane Afterlife: Jesse's afterlife is to be spent defending his title until he's defeated, just as Fats had to do. It's implied that once he is beaten, he'll be free to enjoy a much happier eternity just like Fats did (though since he never developed any interests besides pool, that's very much up for debate).
- No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Part of the drawback of being a champion. When you're trying to outdo the best, you have something to inspire you to keep trying. When you are the best, you have to continually defend the title against those who usually aren't up to your level, and thus make the given task a tedious chore instead of something fun. Having to keep doing it well after dying doesn't help, either.
- On One Condition: Fats agrees to play Jesse for one game, at the cost of Jesse's life.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Fats comes down from heaven as soon as Jesse inadvertently challenges him to a game. Jesse beats Fats and, after he dies, has to return to Earth every time that he is challenged, having become trapped in the same Ironic Hell as Fats.
- The Perils of Being the Best: Fats describes being the best at anything in these kinds of terms. He says being the best certainly brings satisfaction and provides others a challenge that inspires them, but he also says that it's basically a job at this point. He also mentions his duty of having to continually weed out potential challengers after his title. It's not until Jesse himself dies that he realizes what a burden being the best really is.Fats: Someone has to keep the flame. Someone has to weed out those who haven't got what it takes. Y'see, the champions, the legends... they serve as a purpose, a challenge, an incentive.
Jesse: I don't need a challenge!
Fats: Everyone needs a challenge, Jesse. Someone great out of the past to say, "Match what I've done, boy, and make it better." That's true in all walks of life. - Posthumous Character: James Howard "Fats" Brown. The episode establishes that he's been dead for 15 years, but he comes back from the dead to play Jesse in a single life-or-death game.
- Pride: Fats says that pool may be the least important thing on the planet, but it's still a proud thing to be the best at, just as it's proud to be the best at anything else. He cites a race car driver and a bullfighter he knew who risked their lives on a daily basis just to maintain their reputations as the best. Jesse even notes the wonderful things he gave up in order to be able to say he's the best at something.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Jesse beats Fats and officially becomes the best pool player ever. But after he's died, now he has to spend all of eternity defending his new title, having done nothing else with his life.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Downplayed with Fats' repeated discussion with Jesse throughout the game. He points out that Jesse's obsession with being the best has completely consumed his life and reduced him to a shell of a person, pointing out that he at least took the time to experience the other wonderful things about the world. It's somewhat harsh, but not necessarily cruel, as Fats genuinely wants to help Jesse and seems legitimately concerned for him. Unfortunately, the other man shrugs it off as trash talk and doesn't listen.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Jesse is the red to Fats' blue.
- Relieved Failure: The episode ends with Jesse winning a hard-won game against the ghost of Fats and becoming the newest pool champion... and yet, Fats is smiling in relief. It turns out he'd long grown tired of having to defend his title from beyond the grave, though his professional dignity forbade him from just throwing matches. He genuinely needed someone to beat him fair and square, and Jesse simply obliged him. The epilogue reveals that Jesse is now trapped in the role of pool champion long after his death, while Fats is finally free to spend his afterlife doing other things like fishing.
- Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Jesse is so obsessed with being the best at pool that he's given up having a steady job, friends, and even a woman. Fats calls him out on this, saying that even he didn't take the game this seriously.
- Second Place Is for Winners: Played with. Being second place really isn't so bad when you don't have to spend eternity defending your ranking in an Ironic Hell. Fats came out as the true winner of the two, having Jesse take his place while he's freed from his burden.
- The original script inverts it, though: Jesse loses and Fats makes clear that he'll pass into pool gamer history as a loser.
- Serious Business: Deconstructed with Jesse and the game of pool. He devoted his entire life to getting better at the game, at the cost of everything else. Fats is shocked at just how much he's allowed his desire to be the greatest take over his life, and he tries to get Jesse to understand that there's more to life than a game, to no avail.
- Shadow Archetype: Jesse to Fats. Both focused their lives on pool and are always driven to win. However, Fats says that he still took time out to enjoy life, while Jesse pushed everything else out to be the best.
- "Stop Having Fun" Guys: Jesse has shades of this. Since pool is the only thing he has going for him, he takes the idea of Fats actually enjoying himself while playing as an insult.
- Title Drop: After Fats insults Jesse about his unwillingness to accept his challenge:Jesse: Nerve? You mean insanity! Risking my life on a game of pool?
- Throwing the Fight: Averted. Fats does want to lose, but he's bound by his personal set of rules to play to the best of his ability, otherwise, it wouldn't count.
- Troll: Fats makes noise when Jesse goes to shoot, making him miss. When Jesse calls him out, Fats claims that part of the fun is being a little bit of a joker to your opponent. It's another bit of emphasis on their different approaches to pool: Fats, though extremely skilled, still realizes it's just a game and meant to be a good time, while Jesse looks at it as life-and-death and thus takes no pleasure in it.
- Victory Is Boring: Jesse finally becomes the best pool player ever, and his reward? Spending eternity defending his title against an endless series of challengers until he himself loses. It's solidified further by Fats' relief at his defeat and by Jesse's tired and exasperated expression at the end of the episode, as he is called to another pool room to face another challenger.
- Wanting Is Better Than Having: Jesse's drive to be the best is what brought him joy. When he defeats Fats and finally becomes the best, he becomes bored and miserable.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Fats starts sweating when Jesse is on the verge of winning. Jesse thinks it's because Fats is worried about losing his title, but it's actually because Fats is worried that Jesse won't win. Jesse also assumes that Fats' warnings about how he's wasted his whole life in a pool hall are designed to throw him off his game. They're not: Fats is genuinely attempting to alert Jesse to what he's done and break his bad habits, not trying to disturb his concentration.
Rod Serling: "Mr. Jesse Cardiff who became a legend by beating one, but who has found out after his funeral that being the best at anything carries with it a special obligation to keep on proving it. Mr. Fats Brown, on the other hand, having relinquished the champion's mantle, has gone fishing. These are the ground rules in the Twilight Zone."
