DIE AGAIN!"
Air date: May 5, 1961
The nervous and paranoid Adam Grant (Dennis Weaver) is currently in court, where he is found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death by electrocution. Hearing the verdict, Adam starts laughing and screams to the judge that "You can't make me die again!" He starts ranting to everyone in the courtroom, including district attorney Henry Ritchie (Harry Townes) and newspaper editor Paul Carson (Wright King), that none of this is real and they'll die if he's executed. As he's dragged off to death row, Adam screams for everyone to believe him that the whole situation is All Just a Dream.
On death row, Adam's fellow inmate Jiggs advises him not to think about his delusions too hard, lest he go crazy. When Jiggs wonders what his sentence is going to be like, Adam tells him exactly what it's going to be like: a 78-step walk to a green door, where a guard lets him into an empty room that has a lone chair in it. Adam continues by explaining how they strap you into the chair, wire you up to electrodes, and pull that musty mask down over your face. All that's left is the feeling of anticipation when they pull the switch.
Over at Henry's house, his wife Carol (Anne Barton) is preparing dinner. A drunken Paul shows up and advises the Ritchies that they drink and be merry, for they only have a few hours left before the execution. When Henry asks if he really believes Adam's story that the world will end when he dies, Paul admits that he's been talking to Adam and can't help but feel scared that he just might be right. Henry tries to dismiss the theory, but Paul yells to him that part of him that believes their world is just a dream, a part that believes he could never be a successful district attorney or married to a woman like Carol in any "real" world. He begs Henry to go talk to Adam and actually listen to what he has to say, which Henry reluctantly agrees.
In his cell, Adam is expecting Henry to arrive at 9 PM, as he always does. When he enters the cell block, Henry asks Adam about his delusion, prompting Adam to explain it again: when he dies, everyone else in the world dies, because none of it is real. The whole setup is a recurring nightmare that he has been enduring. Sometimes the people get switched around, but the overall scenario happens over and over. Henry is familiar with the idea that the "real world" could just be a dream, but he argues that it makes no logical sense. Adam points how visiting a death row inmate before their execution would only make sense in a dream. When Henry asks him why he cares about dying if he is just in a nightmare, Adam says that the pain and terror still feel real to him, and he keeps waking up every night screaming. As Henry leaves, Adam asks him to go check the steak he has cooking at home, because now it'll be something else. To Henry's shock, when he returns home and opens the oven, it has a roast inside, hinting that Adam may be onto something.
Jiggs asks Adam if he's ever considered telling his story to the Governor, since it might get him sent to the psych ward instead. Adam says that he just can't prove it, but he continues pointing out important questions: How could he be tried, sentenced, and executed on the same day? Why is his cell block packed with stereotypical characters you'd see in a movie? Why is Jiggs allowed to keep his watch while incarcerated? Adam also admits that he's never even been to a cell block before, only knowing about them from movies, which is also where his dream got the idea to have his execution time be midnight.
As his execution approaches, Adam is visited by a priest to have last rites administered. He takes a moment to recognize his face, but he eventually places him as Father Beaman, a real-life priest who died when he was 10. He even remembers attending his funeral and how Beaman was replaced by a younger priest who he recognizes as Paul. As he's marched to the chair, Jiggs calls out for him not to worry, since he's asleep in bed and it's time for him to wake up.
Henry and Paul continue their debate, with Paul asking the former if Adam can be given a stay of execution, only for Henry to ask what good it would do. Whether or not the dream stuff is true, Paul states that it's clear Adam believes it's true, which means that he might not be mentally sound and could potentially be spared from execution. After some contemplation, Henry goes ahead with calling the governor to save Adam. However, just as the call goes through, the switches are flipped and Adam is executed. Immediately, the world and everyone in it fades away.
The dream then starts again. Adam once again finds himself in court, being given his verdict. This time, however, Jiggs is the judge, Paul is the jury foreman, and Henry is his public defender. Once again, he's found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death by electrocution, ranting and raving as the baliffs haul him away.
Shadow Tropes:
- Adaptational Job Change: A slight variation. In the short story "Traumerei" by Charles Beaumont, Henry was the dreamer's defense attorney during his murder trial. In the television adaptation, he was the district attorney.
- Adaptation Name Change: In the original short story, the newspaper editor and his wife are named Max Caplan and Ruth respectively. In the television adaptation, their names are Paul Carson and Carol.
- All Just a Dream: A rare case of the trope being given from the very beginning. Adam tries his damndest to convince everyone around him that they're all just part of his recurring nightmare, but they write him off as delusional. It turns out that he's right.
- Artistic License – Law: Lampshaded. While trying to prove that "reality" is nothing but his dream, Adam points out to Henry how he was convicted and sentenced to death on the same day, which doesn't happen in reality. He is also executed without even having a chance to appeal his sentence, which can't legally happen in the 20th century United States.
- Big Electric Switch: When Adam is executed in the electric chair, a guard throws two switches - one large, one small - to send the current through him.
- But You Were There, and You, and You: The roles of the people Adam knows or previously knew in his waking life are reassigned to different characters whenever the nightmare restarts.
- Captivity Harmonica: Coley, one of Adam's fellow prisoners, plays a harmonica. Adam acknowledges that it's a classic trope, saying that he got Coley and his harmonica from a bad movie he saw once.
- Dream Apocalypse: Henry and Paul become concerned that Adam is telling the truth, and they and the world itself will cease to exist when he is executed, as their reality is nothing more than his dream. It turns out that their fears are justified — kind of. They just have their memories wiped and are given different roles in the cycle.
- Dream People: Adam tries to convince everyone around him that they're such people, with the faces of those he knew growing up. For instance, the priest who visits him before his execution is Father Beaman, an actual priest who died when he was ten years old, and the newspaper editor Paul Carson is the younger priest who replaced him. Adam is uncertain as to where he got District Attorney Henry Ritchie, speculating that he may have been a teacher or a friend of his father's.
- Dream Sequence: The whole episode is one of them.
- Dying to Wake Up: Adam Grant is having a recurring nightmare about being on death row and sent to execution. He knows that when they throw the switch, he'll wake up. But it isn't a pleasant experience for him.
- Here We Go Again!: In the end, Adam finds himself back in court and being sentenced to death, being dragged away for another electrocution.
- Named by the Adaptation: In the short story "Traumerei", the dreamer is not named. In the television adaptation, his name is Adam Grant.
- Plagued by Nightmares: Adam happens to suffer from a recurring nightmare where he is convicted of murder and sent to the electric chair.
- The Remake: This episode was remade for The Twilight Zone (1985).
- Tomato in the Mirror: Paul comes to believe that Adam is telling the truth, and that he and everybody else in reality except for Adam, are Dream People. They are indeed said people since they vanish when Adam is executed.
- When the Clock Strikes Twelve: Adam is scheduled to be executed at midnight every night. He believes that since what he's experiencing is All Just a Dream, the timing is due to the fact that all he knows regarding prison executions is what he sees in the movies, where prisoners are usually executed at midnight.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Adam doesn't die from his dream executions, but the fear and pain that come along with the whole thing feels very real to him, no matter how many times it happens.
