20/20 Vision
"Focus on Warren Cribbens. A myopic little man; precise with figures, awkward with people. His horizons: a bottom line dotted with decimal points. But his safety in numbers is about to be erased."
Warren Cribbens (Michael Moriarty) is a meek and awkward loan officer at a farmers' bank, known by his co-workers as "The Human Calculator" for how good he is with numbers and figures. His fellow worker Sandy (Cynthia Belliveau) accidentally bumps into him one day, stepping on his dropped glasses. Through his now-cracked glasses, Warren develops the ability to see the future. He quickly learns that the impending future will have a local farmer, Vern Slater (Grant Roll), broke and homeless after a highway cuts through his land. Noting that the bank's president Mr. Cutler (David Hemblen) will make a huge profit from the resultant highway, Warren sticks by his own moral code to improve the Slaters' future.
Tropes
- Bookends: In the beginning, Warren gains the temporary ability to see into the future when he bumps into Sandy and she accidentally steps on the right lens of his glasses. At the end of the episode, he catches her from falling off a ladder and gets the left lens broken, which causes him to lose the ability.
- Bottle Episode: All but one scene of the episode takes place in the farmer's bank.
- Death by Falling Over: Through his future-viewing glasses, Warren learns that Sandy will fall off a ladder and break her neck, so he rushes to save her at the cost of his future sight ability.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Warren saves Vern and his family from abject poverty and keeps Sandy from breaking her neck. Though Mr. Cutler fires him and his glasses are broken beyond fixing, Warren leaves with his head held high, having become more assertive in his life.
- Embarrassing Nickname: The uptight and highly committed Waren is embarrassed when he overhears Sandy refer to him as "The Human Calculator".
- The Glasses Gotta Go: When his glasses are broken beyond repair, Warren throws them away, having decided that he's done what's right.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: For the most part, Warren has been under the impression that Mr. Cutler's protocol to foreclose Vern's farm is merely professionalism. But then, Warren uses the glasses to see what will become of this. What he sees is an obscenely rich Mr. Cutler who is boasting how he has another project in the works that will foreclose another farm and make his pockets fatter for it. This alerts Warren that going through with the foreclosure won't even be the professional thing, and will only benefit the greedy Mr. Cutler in the end.
- Morally Bankrupt Banker: Mr. Cutler, president of the farmer's bank, orders the newly-promoted Warren to foreclose any property with payments outstanding. Cutler happens to know that a state highway is being built in the area, and he hopes to sell hundreds of acres of land to the government at a huge personal profit. Warren sees the impact that foreclosure will have on Vern and his family using his ability to see the future and offers him a personal loan made of his life savings. Though this saves the Slaters' farm, Cutler fires him, as the highway is now going to pass directly through the property and cost him a fortune.
- Nice Guy: Though he's calculated and withdrawn, Warren shows himself to be a good man who can't stand to see Sandy die in an accident or the humble Vern lose everything because of his crooked boss.
- Running Gag: A mystical, melancholy country tune plays whenever Warren sees the future through his glasses.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Though he's assigned to foreclose any property with outstanding payments, Warren just can't bear the fact that he'll be responsible for Vern and his family going bankrupt, so he puts his life savings into a personal loan that will let Vern and his family keep their property. Mr. Cutler fires him for costing him a fortune, but Warren decides that it was worth it.
- Seers: Loan officer Warren discovers that he can see the future through the cracked lens of his glasses. The ability first manifests when he witnesses a teller accidentally dropping a bill into the trash seconds before it actually happens. When Mr. Cutler orders him to foreclose on Vern's property, Warren sees Vern as a depressed and destitute old man. He later visits the Slaters' farm to discuss business with Vern, and sees the farmhouse as an abandoned shack ready to collapse on itself. Warren's conscience gets the better of him and he loans Vern his own life savings to tide him over, which leads the furious Cutler to fire him. He's also able to use his power to prevent Sandy from falling off a ladder and breaking her neck.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: As Cutler tears into Warren for costing him a fortune with the new highway, Warren calmly rebuts that he and his coworkers work in a farmer's bank, a place meant to help farmers in need, just as he did with Vern.
- Socially Awkward Hero: Warren is rather withdrawn in the workplace, focused more on getting his work done than acknowledging his fellow workers. He overcomes this with some well placed Character Development.
- Superpowers For A Day: Warren gains the ability to see into the future when he bumps into Sandy and the right lens of his reading glasses breaks. Later that day, Warren saves Sandy from falling off a ladder and breaking her neck. In the process, the other lens is broken, but Warren assures her that he doesn't need them anymore.
"Accidents will happen, and Warren Cribbens had a lucky break. Instead of blindly following orders, his eyes were opened and he saw: humanity, and discovered it was his greatest asset. Add him to the list of those who have peered into — the Twilight Zone."
