Something in the Walls
"We direct your attention to the man with the sleek, black briefcase. His name: Dr. Mallory Craig. Occupation: psychologist. Newly employed by the Crest Ridge Sanitarium. For the last two weeks, he has been visualizing his first day, looking forward to it with eager anticipation. But there's a terror behind those cold institutional walls, that nothing in his education has prepared him for."
Dr. Malloy Craig (Damir Andrei), a newly-hired psychologist at Crest Ridge Sanitarium, gradually dedicates his time and resources to Sharon Miles (Deborah Raffin), a patient who firmly opposes anything with patterns. Sharon tells the doctor that she's been seeing the faces of otherworldly creatures violently contacting her from surfaces with patterns on them, leaving her warnings not to tell anyone about them. Believing that the beings aim to replace her in the normal world and throw her into their own, Sharon keeps them at bay by having her walls and clothing adorned with solid colors. Unfortunately for Sharon, the weather isn't doing much to help her problem.
Tropes
- Alliterative Name: The Crest Ridge Sanitarium head nurse is named Rebecca Robb.
- Alternate Universe: Sharon speculates that the creatures that have been harassing her through the walls are from a parallel universe which has intersected with ours, and they can only enter our universe through these intersections, which they intend to do to replace Sharon.
- And I Must Scream: Sharon ends the episode by being dragged into the alternate universe as one of the creatures replaces her. She's last seen in the wall of her old room, pleading with Mallory to help her as the creature leaves, free to do God knows what to/with her body.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The creatures who have been harassing and threatening Sharon through the walls finally get to her, leaving one of their own to take her place in the normal world.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Discussed, as Sharon assures Dr. Craig that she never wanted to have sex with her brother during her therapy session.
- Cassandra Truth: Sharon had herself voluntarily committed to Crest Ridge, and she tells Mallory that she's seen creatures living in the walls and anything that has a pattern, which can only be seen if one looks long enough. She believes that the creatures are attempting to break into the regular world and replace her, and refuses to have any patterned objects in her presence, as patterns are how the beings travel. Mallory believes that these creatures are merely hallucinations and attempts to treat Sharon as such. In the end, Sharon is absorbed into the wall and replaced by one of the creatures, which has taken her form. Mallory notices a crack in Sharon's room caused by a leaking ceiling, and becomes concerned that her fears were justified.
- Decoy Protagonist: Though the opening narration hypes Mallory as being the main character, Sharon clearly takes central focus.
- Downer Ending: Despite all of Sharon's attempts to keep the doppelgangers away from her, a crack in her ceiling caused by a leak allows them to finally get their hands on her and drag her into the walls themselves, with one of them replacing her while she's unable to do anything about it. It's even worse because she told Dr. Craig that she has a husband and young son waiting for her back home, who the doppelganger is no doubt planning to do unspeakable things to.
- Equivalent Exchange: The creatures that live in the walls are able to enter Sharon's room by coming through a crack formed by a leak in the ceiling. They're able to absorb Sharon into the wall as one of them assumes her form, free to take over, and perhaps destroy, her life.
- For Want Of A Nail: Sharon has spent years trying to keep the creatures away by ridding herself of patterned objects. What ends up finally letting the creatures nab her? A small crack on her ceiling caused by a leaky roof. If it hadn't rained, the ending could've been avoided entirely.
- Freak Out: Sharon reacts very violently towards anything with a pattern, which the creatures use as their gateways. She's seen throwing a fit when a nurse brings her a checkered blanket and throws the object out of the room, stomping on it.
- Grand Theft Me: Sharon is dragged into the wall by the creatures, who let one of their own take her appearance.
- Hearing Voices: Sharon claims that the creatures in the walls can be heard whispering and moaning, likely discussing their plans with what they plan to do with her.
- It Kind of Looks Like a Face:
- Sharon shares her belief that every pattern makes a face if anyone looks at it long and hard enough. These faces are the result of creatures pressing themselves against patterned surfaces to make impressions of themselves, trying to enter our world.
- The leak in Sharon's ceiling takes on the appearance of her own face in the end, making it look like she's crying at her final fate.
- It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: Sharon started seeing and hearing the creatures in the walls on such a night, and they manage to get her when another storm causes a crack in her ceiling.
- Poor Communication Kills: After an especially frightening nightmare, Sharon phones Dr. Craig to tell her she already suspects what the otherworldly doppelgangers want, and she was going to tell him the next morning. Unfortunately, that very night, the creatures get her through a crack in the ceiling and replace her, with Dr. Craig none the wiser. Even if it had been at the expense of seeming crazy, one gets the feeling that if Sharon had come forward sooner with her theory that the creatures would try to replace her, Dr. Craig might've felt there was something off about Sharon suddenly wearing patterns and writing off her previous fears about patterns.
- Poorly Lit Pareidolia: Sharon recounts that her first experience with the otherworldly creatures came late at night, where she stared at one of them through the abstract pattern on her wallpaper before it went away.
- Supernatural Repellent: Sharon has deduced that the creatures in the walls can enter from any surface that has a pattern, and has prevented them from coming through by surrounding herself with items that are entirely one color. As such, she paints her room white and covers each crack that appears, and an orderly bringing her a checkered blanket causes her to have a violent freakout. In spite of all her precautions, however, the creatures succeed in coming through a small crack in her leaky ceiling one stormy night, replacing her with one of their own.
- Unmoving Plaid: Sharon keeps the otherworldly doppelgangers at bay by surrounding herself with solid colors, which they can't get in from.
"Next time you're alone, look quickly at the wallpaper. And the ceiling. And the cracks on the sidewalk. Look for the patterns and lines and faces on the wall. Look, if you can, for Sharon Miles, visible only out of the corner of your eye, or — in the Twilight Zone."
