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The Twilight Zone (1959) S5E34: "Come Wander with Me"
(aka: The Twilight Zone S 5 E 154 Come Wander With Me)

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Come Wander with Me

The Twilight Zone (1959) S5E34: "Come Wander with Me" Recap
Mary Rachel serenades "The Rock-a-Billy Kid".

Rod Serling: Mr. Floyd Burney, a gentleman songster in search of song, is about to answer the age-old question of whether a man can be in two places at the same time. As far as his folk song is concerned, we can assure Mr. Burney he'll find everything he's looking for, although the lyrics may not be all to his liking. But that's sometimes the case when the words and music are recorded in the Twilight Zone.

Air date: May 22, 1964

Floyd Burney (Gary Crosby), a musical celebrity dubbed "The Rock-a-Billy Kid", arrives in a small rural town in search of a new song. He's directed to a dilapidated shop in the woods run by a reclusive old man (Hank Patterson), but after his offer of money in exchange for a song is rebuffed, Floyd hears a female voice singing and wanders off through the woods, absentmindedly passing a woman in a black shawl and a nearby tombstone inscribed with his name. Next to a lake, he meets Mary Rachel (Bonnie Beecher), a pretty and mysterious young woman who reluctantly sings "Come Wander with Me", a song for him about two lovers who meet in the woods and are torn apart by a tragic fate. Floyd offers to purchase the song from her, but she claims its rights aren't for sale. As Floyd seduces her, he secretly manages to record part of the song into his tape recorder as he's watched by the woman in black, who appears to be a second Mary Rachel.

Shortly after, Billy Rayford (John Bolt), a jealous young man with a rifle whose family is mentioned in Mary Rachel's song, confronts Floyd. Revealing that Mary Rachel has been arranged to marry him and thinking that Floyd is trying to steal his bride, Billy intends to take the Rock-a-Billy Kid to his three brothers so that they can deal with him, prompting Floyd to resist and ultimately kill Billy. Mary Rachel's voice suddenly sings of the altercation in a new verse of the song on his recorder, leaving Floyd greatly unnerved and trying to flee, taking Mary Rachel with him. While pleading with Floyd to stay with her, Mary Rachel sings a new verse of "Come Wander with Me" that foreshadows the Rayford brothers finding Billy's corpse and getting revenge on Floyd for killing him. The brothers soon after arrive to chase Floyd, and as he prepares to flee, Mary Rachel begs him to stay, hoping that things will be different "this time", hinting that this entire series of events has occurred many times before, and thus implying that the pair are caught in a time loop instigated by the song she keeps singing. As the horrified Floyd runs off, he looks back to see that Mary Rachel is now dressed in the black shawl as she professes her love to Floyd, revealing herself to be the same mourning woman he passed earlier (and perhaps a witch who uses the spell to keep him by her side).

Floyd soon finds himself back at the shop in the woods from earlier. When he tells the old man what's happened and begs to be allowed to hide, the old man declines to help him, prompting Floyd to angrily kill the proprietor by clubbing him over the head, hiding among the old musical instruments as Billy's brothers arrive at the shop. When they see the old man's body, Floyd bumps a music box, setting off a chain reaction that activates all of the other instruments. Among the cacophony of noise, the Rayford brothers close in on Floyd and shoot him dead. The camera returns to Floyd's tombstone in the first scene, thus fulfilling the prophecy within "Come Wander with Me" that decreed Floyd would die, and no doubt allowing for the loop to start over again.


Tropes:

  • Ambiguously Human: Mary Rachel is subtly hinted to be a witch, who uses "Come Wander with Me" as a sort of musical spell to keep Floyd in a "Groundhog Day" Loop so he can become her boyfriend if he makes the right choice and fights for her. The theory carries evidence by the fact that she's the only person to remember previous iterations of the loop, dispenses new verses of the song in person and on Floyd's tape recorder, and is able to instantly change her attire into the black shawl she wears to mourn him.
  • Anguished Declaration of Love: Mary Rachel tells Floyd that she'll always love him while dressed in the black shawl she always wears in mourning after he's killed (again).
  • Asshole Victim: Floyd tries to steal people's songs for his singing career and kills Mary Rachel's husband-to-be in a struggle, leading him to be shot dead by the man's brothers. Mary Rachel's vague explanation of the musical time loop implies that he can break it if he stands his ground and fights for her honor, but since he never remembers the loop when it restarts, he always takes the cowardly route, getting himself killed.
  • Bookends: Barring Floyd's arrival in the woods and the closing shot of his grave, the episode begins and ends with him in the old man's music shop.
  • Cassandra Truth: No matter how many times the loop restarts, Mary Rachel can't get Floyd to believe that their situation keeps repeating itself. Even though she expresses it in pointlessly vague terms, she has evidence to back up her claim that something weird is going on. Unfortunately for her, Floyd (who never remembers the loop when it restarts) thinks that it's some kind of con she and the Rayfords are running on him.
  • A Deadly Affair: Floyd seduces Mary Rachel, who is set to be married to Billy, so she'll give up the rights to her song. It leads to the deaths of himself, Billy, and an innocent shopkeeper.
  • Dirty Coward: Floyd's biggest flaw, aside from being a self-centered sleazeball who has no hang-ups with stealing other people's songs. When Billy's brothers come calling, Mary Rachel suggests that he can break the time loop by staying loyal to her and letting her hide him instead of running away. Since Floyd doesn't remember the events of the loop whenever it restarts, he always chooses to try and save himself at all costs, which seals his fate.
  • Downer Ending: Floyd dies, as he always does, leaving Mary Rachel heartbroken once again. Near the end of the episode, she implies that Floyd can change his fate if he ever becomes brave enough to hold his ground after killing Billy (and therefore prove his love for her), but he hasn't so far because he never remembers anything that happens after the loop restarts.
  • Foregone Conclusion: As he leaves the music shop, Floyd passes his own grave. Later in the episode, he accidentally kills Mary Rachel's arranged fiancé Billy, whose three brothers kill him out of revenge. Afterwards, it's shown that the loop starts over again.
  • "Groundhog Day" Loop: The episode is revealed to be the latest iteration of one such loop. It's heavily implied that the song "Come Wander with Me" is actually a spell that Mary Rachel (who's quite possibly a witch) uses to trap Floyd, Billy and his brothers, and the old shopkeeper in said loop so Floyd can prove his love for her. She tells Floyd that certain events within the loop always occur, and thus suggests that they try to change the outcome by doing something different. Unfortunately, while she remembers every past loop, Floyd doesn't, meaning that he always seals his fate trying to save his own ass rather than fight for her love.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Floyd really isn't that great of a guy. He goes around claiming that other people's songs are "public domain" and thus not actually theirs, and then he turns around offering them a pittance to "buy" the rights to the songs so he can get famous off them. When he meets Mary Rachel, he seduces her to steal "Come Wander with Me" for his catalog, and it's obvious in his interactions that he's just playing with her feelings, aching to ditch her as soon as he can. After killing Billy in self-defense, he abandons Mary Rachel to save himself, despite her pleas and warnings (and his own promise) to stick by her side. He then kills the innocent owner of the music shop before hiding inside, just as Billy's brothers kill him. Despite this, Mary Rachel refuses to move on from Floyd and admit that he isn't worth her time, continuing to sing the titular, magical Murder Ballad to restart the loop and fruitlessly plead with Floyd to make the right choice.
  • Love at First Sight: Assuming that each iteration of the loop is identical, Mary Rachel always falls for Floyd's seduction more or less immediately, concluding that he's her true love before they've even known one another for an hour. This is tragically deconstructed when Floyd unfortunately doesn't feel the same way, only using her to get a new song for his act no matter how many times the loop restarts.
  • Love Martyr: Mary Rachel is madly in love with Floyd even though he's obviously playing her for a sap to steal the titular song from her. Being a (possible) witch, she sings the song as a magic incantation to instigate a time loop to pressure Floyd into fighting off Billy and his brothers for her instead of running away to save himself and getting killed as a result. No matter how many times Floyd dies, her weak-willed nature means that she refuses to stop singing the song and dragging him, the Rayfords, and the old man in the music shop into a deadly affair for any reason whatsoever.
  • Murder Ballad: "Come Wander with Me", which centers around a pair of lovers in the woods who are robbed of a romantic future together because of a tragedy. It's hinted to actually be a magic spell, given that the woman who keeps singing it is likely a witch, since it includes new verses about Floyd killing Billy and the resultant fallout as the episode progresses, and it instigates the time loop that results in Floyd dying over and over again.
  • Musical Episode: The episode centers around a magical Murder Ballad sung by a woman who is very likely a witch, which traps the cast in a time loop and adds to itself as the plot progresses. Protagonist Floyd is an up-and-coming musical star who's dubbed "The Rock-a-Billy Kid", and an old shop of musical instruments plays a small, but important, role in the end.
  • No Name Given: The old man who runs the music shop has no spoken name.
  • Prematurely Marked Grave: Early in the episode, Floyd wanders past his own tombstone without even noticing it. The reason why it's there, despite Floyd being alive, is because the events of the episode keep happening over and over thanks to Mary Rachel.
  • Red Baron: A non-battle example; Floyd is billed as "The Rock-a-Billy Kid" when he introduces himself.
  • Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Mary Rachel, the apparent caster of the song that keeps the whole cast trapped in a time loop, is seemingly the only one to remember that the events are repeating themselves.
  • Runaway Fiancée: Mary Rachel is supposed to marry Billy, but she doesn't seem very enthusiastic about it. She readily agrees to run off with Floyd when he promises her faithful love, even though he only wants her song and ditches her at the earliest opportunity. The whole reason the time loop occurs at all is because she just can't admit that Floyd isn't the right man for her, prompting her to keep singing the magic song that triggers the loop over and over.
  • Titled After the Song: The magic song Mary Rachel keeps singing also serves as the title of the episode.
  • Trouble Entendre: When Billy says that his brothers will "deal" with Floyd, it's pretty clear that he means something violent.
  • Two First Names: Mary Rachel is a rare female example, as both her first and last names are popular names for women.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Floyd is a local musical star known as "The Rock-a-Billy Kid", but the viewers quickly discover that he's nothing but a sleazy thief who steals the songs of others without bothering to give them credit, and runs out on Mary Rachel after killing her fiancé instead of fighting for her love.
  • Wandering Minstrel: Floyd and Mary Rachel are a pair of them, the former venturing into a rural forest community for "inspiration" for new songs, and the latter being a possible witch who triggers a time loop by singing the titular Murder Ballad again and again.

Rod Serling: In retrospect, it may be said of Mr. Floyd Burney that he achieved that final dream of the performer: eternal top-name billing, not in the fleeting billboards of the entertainment world, but forever recorded among the folk songs of the Twilight Zone.

Alternative Title(s): The Twilight Zone S 5 E 154 Come Wander With Me

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