YMMV / The Twilight Zone (1959) S3E17: "One More Pallbearer"

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Radin a pure villain who truly deserved what was coming to him? Is he so trapped in his delusions and detached from reality as to make him unapproachable and beyond help, that he becomes an Unintentionally Sympathetic Jerkass Woobie despite his many despicable acts? Or is he a little of both? Marc Scott Zicree gives his opinion in The Twilight Zone Companion:
  Joseph Wiseman plays his role as the neurotic millionaire with such vulnerability and the others their roles with such unfeeling coldness that we cannot help but feel pity for him and contempt for the others.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Radin appears to suffer from either a Sociopathic/Narcissistic personality disorder, or maybe PTSD (given his background as a former soldier). He may even suffer from Dementia, given he ends up trapped in his own fantasy. Either way, he's definitely messed up in the head in some way.
• Fridge Horror: Just what did Radin do to that girl that was so terrible that it drove her to suicide? While the details are never stated, Reverend Hughes' sheer contempt for Radin and accusations of lacking honor strongly imply that he raped her. Stating this directly in the script would absolutely not have been possible given the strictures of 1960s television — this is probably as far as Serling could have pushed it. But understanding this aspect of the character (as Marc Scott Zicree clearly didn't) certainly removes any sympathy one may have had for Radin.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: While it's clear that we're supposed to side with the authority figure characters and hold sheer contempt for Radin, the actors are misdirected in such a way that it accidentally botches this; while Radin is a complete creep who deserved some form of karma, he's also such a pathetic villain that the heroes abandoning him at the end makes them come off, as Marc Zicree puts it, as the very sanctimonious hypocrites Radin accuses them of being.

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