Rod Serling: Sheriff Charlie Koch on the morning of an execution. As a matter of fact, it's seven-thirty in the morning. Logic and natural laws dictate that at this hour, there should be daylight. It is a simple rule of physical science that the sun should rise at a certain moment and supersede the darkness. But at this given moment, Sheriff Charlie Koch, a deputy named Pierce, a condemned man named Jagger and a small, inconsequential village will shortly find out that there are causes and effects that have no precedent. Such is usually the case in the Twilight Zone.
Air date: March 27, 1964
Sheriff Charlie Koch (Michael Constantine) can't sleep the night before the execution of a man, as he feels conflicted about the situation. His wife, Ella, is no comfort as she snarls, "What time do they string him up; you know what I mean...what time does he get hung?" Her attitude represents the hateful sentiment of the town that looks forward to the fate of Jagger, a man who is to be hanged after being convicted of killing a bigot in self-defense. On the day of his execution, the sun does not rise in the morning.
There is still some dispute as to whether Jagger is guilty. However, he is hanged anyway, much to the town's delight. The town reverend steps in and says the sky is black because of all the hatred in the world. In fact, the sky becomes even darker after the execution. Later, a radio broadcast reveals that the town is not the only place where this disturbance is happening. The sky has turned dark over North Vietnam, a section of the Berlin Wall, Chicagonote , a street in Dallas, Birmingham, Alabama, and other places of hate around the world at that time.
I Am the Night – Trope Me Black:
- An Aesop: Don't let hatred fester, for if left unchecked, it blinds people from doing what's right.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: The townspeople were greatly pleased after Jagger was hanged. The Reverend called them out on it, just before the town's hatred takes away what little light was left.
- Asshole Victim: The bigoted man Jagger killed in self-defense definitely counts.
- Be All My Sins Remembered: Colbey and Sheriff Koch indulge in this, calling out their own misgivings and admitting they all have their own agendas that kept them from doing the right thing. Colbey admits to holding back details on Jagger's trial so he could sell newspapers, and Sheriff Koch went along with the Townspeople when they refused to do an autopsy on the shot victim so he could just be re-elected sheriff.Sheriff Koch: Maybe I don't deserve any. You (Colbey) were right, you know. I saw the victim. He did have powder burns. But when a committee of townspeople came to me and said there'd be no autopsy I just bent my head and I nodded. We all got little axes to grind, don't we? I want to be re-elected sheriff. You want to keep selling newspapers. And Deputy Pierce here, he likes to feel important, he likes to be popular. Likes to stay on the good side of people. Here we are gentlemen, treading water in a sewer.
- Corrupt Politician: Sheriff Koch went along with the hanging so that the townsfolk would re-elect him as sheriff. Colbey calls him out on it, and Koch later admits it.
- Crime of Self-Defense: Jagger killed a man in self-defense. Unfortunately, the man was popular with the townsfolk precisely because of his bigotry and so the townsfolk demanded Jagger's execution and the Sheriff goes along with it so he can be re-elected.
- Downer Ending: The town and many places around the world that are rife with hate are plunged into darkness, and the Reverend is sure it isn't going away anytime soon, if ever.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Jagger is shown being hung, with his execution being a Sound-Only Death.
- Hollywood Law: Jagger is publicly executed on May 25, 1964. The last person to be publicly executed in the United States was Rainey Bethea in Owensboro, Kentucky on August 14, 1936. Note, however, that May 25, 1964 was actually two months in the future when this episode originally aired, thereby placing the customary Twilight Zone change in societal norms not in the usual alternate reality but a very near future US.
- Humans Are Bastards: The darkness appears all over the world in places where hate abounds.
- Ignored Epiphany: Despite facts staring him in the face and the Reverend's speech, Deputy Pierce lingers in this trope for a short while. He's in denial that the darkness is connected to the town's collective hatred and believes it's just an exceptionally thick fog, and sun will soon follow. But the hesitation in his voice as he questions his cohorts implies even he has a kernel of doubt that the darkness will leave soon. It's implied that, upon hearing the radio broadcast about places rife with hatred being plunged into darkness, the Deputy realizes the full scope of how badly hate has affected their little town.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The town pays dearly for executing Jagger, and for delighting in Fantastic Racism.
- Miscarriage of Justice: Colbey refers to the entire fiasco as this. He hid details and facts on the trial in his reporting, Sheriff Koch sat back and did nothing so he could get re-elected, while Deputy Pierce committed perjury on court to get Jagger convicted.Colbey: You're right, Deputy. Justice is being served. On a platter with its tongue cut out just like the carcass of any dead animal...
- The Night That Never Ends: It stays dark well into the day and gets darker after Jagger's execution.
- The Power of Hate: Greatly deconstructed, not necessarily as a power, but as a corruption strong enough to black out the sky and, unfortunately, strong enough to exist in our reality.
- Public Execution: Jagger is publicly hanged for murder.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The Reverend gives one to the Deputy and townsfolk after Jagger is hanged. Colbey, the editor, gives a few as well.Deputy Pierce: You've seen the light, Reverend. You've really seen the light.The Reverend: Have you? Have any of you? In all this darkness, is there anybody who can make out the truth? He [Jagger] hated, and he killed, and now he dies. You hated, you killed, and now there's not one of you. Not one of you who isn't doomed. Do you know why it's dark? Do you know why there's night all around us? Do you know what the blackness is? It's the hate he felt, the hate you felt, the hate all of us feel, and there's too much of it. There's just too much. And so we had to vomit it out, and now it's coming up all around us and choking us. So much hate, so much miserable hate.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The places the darkness appears over are not coincidental.
- World of Symbolism: The darkness specifically appears in places where hatred is rampant.
Rod Serling: A sickness known as hate; not a virus, not a microbe, not a germ – but a sickness nonetheless, highly contagious, deadly in its effects. Don't look for it in the Twilight Zone – look for it in a mirror. Look for it before the light goes out altogether.
