Air date: June 10, 1960
Marsha White (Anne Francis) is browsing in a department store for a present for her mother, deciding on a gold thimble. The elevator man takes her up to the ninth floor, though only eight are listed. On the otherwise dark and deserted ninth floor, she finds an enigmatic sales clerk whose only item is exactly the gold thimble Marsha was looking for. She buys it, but is deeply disturbed by the mysterious elevator operator and by the aloof sales clerk who somehow seems to know all about her. It isn't until Marsha's back in the elevator, on her way down, that she notices that the thimble is damaged. The elevator operator directs her to the Complaints Department on the third floor.
Mr. Armbruster, the sales supervisor, and Mr. Sloan, the store manager, greet her story with some skepticism, informing her that the store doesn't have a ninth floor. Marsha then thinks she's spotted the sales clerk who sold her the thimble, only to discover it's one of the display mannequins. Sent to lie down and recover from her shock, Marsha awakens to find herself accidentally locked inside the now-closed store. Her panic is increased by hearing eerie voices calling her name, then noticing the mannequins have begun moving. She bumps into a male mannequin dressed as yachtsman, whom she recognizes as the elevator operator who took her to the nonexistent floor.
Now frantic, Marsha backs into the elevator, which takes her right back to the ninth floor. The door opens on the sales clerk, very much alive and human. Marsha screams and crumples to the floor, sobbing hysterically, only to be told not to be so silly. The sales clerk draws her to her feet and leads her out of the elevator into the dark room. As the living mannequins close around her Marsha stares at their faces. Slowly the memories come back to her; she herself is a mannequin. The ninth floor is her home, a storage area for the store, and the other mannequins are her friends. She's overstayed her annual month-long vacation living as a human to the point of forgetting her true identity, much to the annoyance of the sales clerk, whose turn it now is. Marsha apologizes by explaining it "seems so real", and the now-good-humored sales clerk forgives her before leaving for her own month vacation as a human. As the clerk is bid goodbye, Marsha is left alone with the yachtsman. He asks, "Was it fun?" Sweetly and sadly, she replies, "Ever so much fun... Ever so much fun." as both harden back into mannequins.
While making his morning rounds on the sales floor the next day, Mr. Armbruster does a double-take upon passing the mannequin of Marsha White on display.
Not to be confused with After Hours.
The After Tropes:
- Animate Inanimate Object: The mannequins have the ability to come alive. Every month, one of them leaves the store and goes to live as a human.
- Aside Glance: As Mr. Armbruster passes by Marsha's mannequin, he notices that it looks just like her and turns his head to look at it. He turns his head to face the audience and looks at them in astonishment. He turns back to look at the mannequin, turns back to the audience and gives them a bemused look, then walks away.
- Bittersweet Ending: Marsha becomes a mannequin again, and she's shaken to realize she's not a human being, but the other mannequins aren't harmful and are in fact her friends, and they're very understanding of the whole thing. Plus, it's revealed that all the mannequins get a month out of the year to go on "vacation" and live among the humans — so at least she'll get to go out and have fun again next year.
- Climactic Elevator Ride: Marsha's final, unwilling trip up to the ninth floor.
- Cloudcuckoolander: The sales clerk is a mysterious variation. Not only has she got exactly what Marsha is looking for on the ninth floor (of course, it's the only merchandise on said floor), but she knows Marsha's name without her giving it, and asks out of the blue if she's happy. When Marsha snaps that that's none of her business, the sales clerk snarkily agrees, just as though it were her business.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: This episode was adapted as a graphic novel by Mark Kneece and Rebekah Isaacs in 2008.
- Dark Is Not Evil: While the mannequins are creepy and unsettling, they have no ill intentions at all.
- I Never Told You My Name: The alarm bells really start to ring for Marsha when the lady behind the counter on the strangely empty ninth floor actually addresses her as "Marsha".
- Loss of Identity: Marsha has been pretending to be a regular person for so long, she's forgotten that she's not one at all.
- Murderous Mannequin: Subverted. The store's mannequins aren't evil or malicious. They just want to remind Marsha that she is a mannequin herself.
- Missing Floor: The ninth floor of the department store.
- Nothing Is Scarier: The scenes where Marsha runs around the dark, abandoned department store with mysterious voices following her.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Pay close attention to Marsha and the salesclerk's conversation quite closely. It's obvious the salesclerk is nudging her and saying "You had your fun! It's my turn now!" in coded terms.
- Red Herring: Marsha mentioning the gold thimble is a present for her mother is enough to convince the audience she has to be a normal person to know she has a mother. Turns out, she doesn't, Marsha's just a mannequin who convinced herself she was a normal person.
- Though the script revealed that her "mother" was actually a kindly old woman who took her in. The woman later died after accidentally poking her finger while sewing and suffering from an infection. Unable to comprehend the concept of death, Marsha went to buy her a thimble.
- The Remake: This episode was remade for The Twilight Zone (1985).
- Sarcasm Mode: The best way to describe the salesclerk's response when Marsha tells her it's none of her business if she's happy.Salesclerk: (laughs) Really? Alright, Ms. White, suit yourself: it's 'none of my business'.note
- Tomato in the Mirror: Marsha isn't who, or what, she thinks she is.
- Twist Ending: Marsha is a mannequin who deluded herself into thinking she's a flesh and blood person.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Marsha keeps telling the staff of the store about the woman in the ninth floor, while they keep insisting they don't have a ninth floor.
