The Library (The Twilight Zone)
"The Library" is the third segment of the twenty-second episode of the first season (1985–86) of the American television series The Twilight Zone.
| "The Library" | |
|---|---|
| The Twilight Zone episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 22c |
| Directed by | John Hancock |
| Written by | Anne Collins |
| Original air date | March 28, 1986 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
Frances Conroy: Ellen Pendleton | |
Plot
Ellen Pendleton, an aspiring writer who wants to earn additional money, takes a job at a private library run by Gloria. Ellen soon learns that this is no ordinary library: the books in it contain the descriptions of people's lives, accurate to the latest second. When a person dies, that book is to be removed, and Ellen is assigned to collect said books. Gloria warns Ellen not to read the books, as that is something firmly prohibited by her employers. However, temptation gets the better of Ellen when she sees her own book, and opens it to the last page which states exactly what she just did.
Ellen is disturbed by her noisy neighbours, Edwin and Carla, and decides to have a little revenge. She re-writes a chapter in Edwin's book to get him a job as a Catholic priest, rendering him ineligible to have married Carla and preventing all their boisterous lovemaking. When Ellen gets home that night, she finds her sister Lori consoling the now never-married Carla, who is on the verge of nervous breakdown due to loneliness.
To repair the damage done, Ellen rewrites Carla's book to make her happily married to another neighbour, Doug. Now the problem is that Doug is bankrupt from buying gifts for Carla. Ellen then fixes Doug's problems by giving him real estate wealth, but now he is her landlord and her sister is staging a protest against him for raising the rent.
Ellen rewrites her own book so that she and Lori live in a house by the sea instead. She returns home to find that Lori drowned while rescuing a little boy from the ocean. Ellen dashes back to the library and is caught by Gloria, who is incensed when she learns the books have been tampered with. She quickly orders Ellen to gather all the books she rewrote and ushers her out of the library.
Much to her amazement, Ellen is met outside by Lori, alive and well. Ellen rings the doorbell of the library, but the door is answered by a man who claims to have been living there for the past ten years and who knows nothing of a library there. Convinced that things are now in order, Ellen and Lori leave.