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The Pharaoh's Curse
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- Forest Whitaker: Magic is an art based on deceit, on illusion disguised as reality. Tonight Mario Devlin will question what he's always taken for granted: the difference between artifice and reality. Because tonight Mario will get his first real magic lesson in the Twilight Zone.
Tropes for this segment include:
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Mario tries to uncover the secret to the titular act. Too late, he discovers that it's real magic, and is now trapped in his aging mentor's body.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Harry and Shannon are body-snatching ghouls, but they do appear to legitimately love each other, going by the scene where Harry reassures Shannon (even calling her "sweetheart") after she expresses concern over whether or not he is currently strong enough to go through with performing the Pharaoh's Curse.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Before entering his casket, Harry gives his cane to Shannon and says "won't be needing this."
- Grand Theft Me: Harry has been using the Pharaoh's Curse to forcibly swap bodies with a younger protégé for centuries, at least. Shannon does it more frequently.
- Shout-Out: The trick that Mario demonstrates at the beginning of the episode is called the "Blade Runner."
- Forest Whitaker: There's a place where blind ambition is forced to see. A place where if you're not careful, that climb to the top will age you beyond your years. But it's also a place where those who believe in real magic can stay forever young. A trick whose secret lies hidden deep within the Twilight Zone.
The Collection
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- Forest Whitaker: Miranda Evans has a bond with children. She understands their problems, their fears. But tonight she will meet a special little girl with a very unique problem that will stretch Miranda's bond with reality itself.
Tropes for this segment include:
- Abusive Parents: Danielle Randall's parents are a more emotional example. They're extremely controlling over every aspect of her life, down to her television watching and diet. It's clearly taking a huge toll on her.
- Adults Are Useless: If you think about the premise for very long, it brings up several questions about how Danielle has managed to claim that many victims already without her parents or any other adults suspecting that anything unusual is going on.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Miranda Evans (a fully-grown human female) squares off against a collection of living Barbie-sized dolls. No points for guessing who wins, although Miranda really should have let the dolls get her out of the house instead...
- Downer Ending: Miranda gets turned into a doll and the little girl gets away with it.
- Good All Along: The dolls, who were actually trying to warn Miranda to leave before she suffers their fate.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Danielle's justification for transforming her babysitters into dolls—she's so desperately lonely for any sort of companionship that she'll do whatever it takes to make people stay with her...whether they want to or not.
- Karma Houdini: Danielle, who turns her babysitters into dolls, gets away with it. Her parents merely think that every sitter bails on her halfway through the night. And yet, her father complains that this is the third time this has happened through one agency, and no one has noticed that over a dozen girls have disappeared after babysitting this one house...
- Kiddie Kid: Danielle is stated to be ten, but occasionally acts extremely immature, lashing out when anyone touches her toys and assuming that every babysitter she has naturally wants to be her very best friend. Justified in universe by her parents being overly controlling and treating her like a baby, suggesting that she hasn't matured because they won't let her.
- Living Doll Collector: Danielle, a little girl who turned all her babysitters into Barbie dolls because she was lonely and didn't want them to ever leave.
- Poor Communication Kills: Miranda thinks the dolls are trying to hurt Danielle. In reality, they are trying to get Miranda to leave before she is also turned into a doll, and Miranda doesn't realize it until it's too late. This was not helped by how the dolls ominously tried to warn her, by underlining a passage in her college textbook that was pertinent to the situation.
- Wham Shot: While in Danielle's closet, Miranda finds a bag containing several IDs, each one having the names of the dolls in Danielle's collection...
- Forest Whitaker: Miranda Evans thought she could help a little girl overcome her fears. Now Miranda will be able to ponder the true meaning of fear from inside a glass prison known as the Twilight Zone.
