Hector casts a suspicious eye on would-be bank robber
L.J. Smithers (Cyril Delevanti).
L.J. Smithers (Cyril Delevanti).
Rod Serling: Mr. Hector B. Poole, resident of the Twilight Zone. Flip a coin and keep flipping it. What are the odds? Half the time it will come up heads, half the time tails. But in one freakish chance in a million, it'll land on its edge. Mr. Hector B. Poole, a bright human coin - on his way to the bank.
Air date: February 3, 1961
Bank teller Hector B. Poole (Dick York) collects a newspaper on his way to work. Miraculously, the coin he uses to pay for the paper lands right on its edge. After this, Hector begins to hear people speaking, even though their lips aren't moving. When this phenomenon continues while he's on the job, Hector discovers that he's gained the ability to read peoples' minds thanks to his freak coin flip. Hector soon discovers that telepathy isn't the greatest ability to possess, as he learns some scandalous facts about those he considers close acquaintances.
A Penny for Your Tropes:
- Armor-Piercing Response:
- Helen thinks to herself about what a "strange delusion" Hector has for thinking he can read minds. Hector explicitly saying that his ability is not a delusion rattles her.
- Mr. Bagby is firm on refusing Hector a promotion... until Hector starts talking about his wife and his side piece.
- Broken Pedestal: Zigzagged. Hector is disappointed when, upon reading Mr. Smithers' mind, he learns the man he's looked up to for years seemingly intends to rob the bank and flee to Bermuda... only to learn Smithers didn't rob one cent of the bank's money. Though once he learns Mr. Smithers was fantasizing about robbing the bank, it's only because it's a fantasy he constantly daydreams about but never acts on. Hector is nonetheless sympathetic to how tired his mentor is of routine.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Inverted. Although Hector reads Mr. Smithers' thoughts and hears him plotting to rob the bank, the latter wasn't trying to get away with anything at all, nor does he plan to. He explains that it was an escapist fantasy he conjures up all the time and never intends to make reality.
- Conveniently Coherent Thoughts: Hector hears Mr. Smithers, his mentor, mentally planning to rob the bank. After he denounces him, it turns out that Smithers has been idly thinking about robbing the bank for years, but he'd never actually go through with it.
- Cursed with Awesome: Subverted. A freak coin flip gives Hector the power to read minds, and while it does give him some advantages, he doesn't completely enjoy the benefits. When Hector knocks the coin over, he loses the ability and is more relieved than disappointed.
- Dumb Blonde: At one point, while Hector tests his ability to hear the thoughts of everyone near him, he tries to read the mind of a buxom blonde woman in the bank, smiling and eagerly counting stacks of money. He finds that he can't hear anything.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Hector goes from a shy bank clerk to someone with enough self-confidence to blackmail his boss into giving him a well-deserved promotion.
- Exact Eavesdropping: Using his newfound power of Telepathy, Hector hears Mr. Sykes thinking to himself about using his $200,000 loan to bet on race horses so that he can win back money he embezzled. He later learns that Mr. Smithers seemingly plans to rob the bank and escape to Bermuda, though this turns out to be nothing but an escapist fantasy that Smithers plays on an almost daily basis.
- Fatal Flaw: Hector is continually held back in life by his lack of assertiveness. That gradually changes once he can read minds.
- First-Name Basis:Hector: Shall we leave, Miss Turner?
Helen: (thinking) I would go anywhere with you. But I wish you call me Helen.
Hector: May I see you home... Helen?
Helen: Of course you can, Hector. What do you think I waited for? - Genre Blindness: Hector spends half the episode reading peoples' minds before realizing that they're not talking out loud while somehow keeping their mouths closed.
- Happy Ending: Hector loses his mind-reading power, but he gains self-confidence, a promotion, and a new girlfriend in Helen.
- Heads, Tails, Edge: Hector flips a coin to pay for his morning paper. The coin lands on edge, and he later discovers that he's mysteriously become telepathic. At the end of the episode, he knocks the coin over and the telepathy goes away.
- "Hell, Yes!" Moment: Hector, in response to losing his mind-reading. He excitedly checks (clearly confused) passersby and happily tells Helen that he's back to normal.
- Humans Are Bastards: Hector admits that he's troubled to find that a lot of people who seem perfectly normal on the outside can be quite petty, obnoxious, or downright criminal when they think no one is listening. From the sound of it, he's most troubled by how such behavior is more of a random whim than it is premeditated. While not everyone he encounters is a bad person, he says the experience has definitely made him less likely to be as trusting of others as he used to be.
- I Warned You: Hector finds out that Mr. Sykes has been embezzling money from his company and plans to get a $200,000 loan so he can bet on horse races to earn the money back. Hector tries to tell his boss in front of Sykes, scuttling the deal, but also causing his boss to become irate with him. Later in the episode, Hector learns that Sykes was arrested for gambling with company money.
- A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: Hector discovers firsthand how petty and self-centered the people around him can be when he inexplicably becomes a telepath. It's not as bad as some cases (and it helps him get a girlfriend), but he's still relieved when his newfound power vanishes.Hector: Until this morning, everything was normal, I was happy. Well, at least I wasn't unhappy, and now this! It's like seeing people with their clothes off. I never imagine people were like that. You know, we do things without thinking about it at all. We think things without having the slightest intention of doing. At least I learned one thing, people are not like you think they are at all.
- Pet the Dog: In addition to getting a promotion for himself, Hector gets Mr. Bagby to give Smithers a long-overdue vacation.
- Shadow Archetype: Implied with Mr. Smithers. Hector looks up to him as the ideal banker. Later, he learns that he's not happy with his job and even thinks about robbing the bank and fleeing to some place exotic and tropical just to escape his routine. The reason he doesn't, as he tells Hector, is because he's "a coward" who is "set in [his] ways", just like Hector used to be.
- Superpowers For A Day: Hector gains the ability to read minds after he pays for his newspaper and the coin lands on its edge. When he returns to the newstand to buys the afternoon paper, he tosses another coin and knocks over the first one. As a result, his power disappears as quickly as it came.
- Women Are Wiser: Helen has always liked Hector, but she plainly recognizes his self-confidence problems. She also encourages him to fight for his promotion.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Helen urges Hector to fight for his promotion and reminds him that Mr. Bagby needs him way more than the other way around.
Rod Serling: One time in a million, a coin will land on its edge, but all it takes to knock it over is a vagrant breeze, a vibration, or a slight blow. Hector B. Poole, a human coin, on edge for a brief time - in the Twilight Zone.
