"A Message From Charity" | |
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The Twilight Zone episode | |
Scene from "A Message From Charity"
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Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 6b |
Directed by | Paul Lynch |
Written by | Alan Brennert (Based on the short story "A Message from Charity", by William M. Lee. The story was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (November 1967)) |
Original air date | November 1, 1985 |
Guest appearance(s) | |
Kerry Noonan: Charity Payne |
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Kerry Noonan: Charity Payne
(Robert) Duncan McNeill: Peter Wood
Vanessa Brown: Aunt Beulah
Gerald Hiken: Squire Jonas Hacker
James Cromwell: Obadiah Payne
Michael Fox: Tom Carter
Jennifer Parsons: Ursula Miller
Jack Wells: Dr. Maxwell
Phil Proctor: Mr. Wood
Barbara Lindsay: Mrs. Wood
"A Message From Charity" is the second segment of the sixth episode of the first season (1985–86) from the television series The Twilight Zone.
Peter Wood is a teenager sick with a fever that puts him in telepathic contact with Charity Payne, a Puritan girl from Colonial America (specifically 1700), who also has the same type of fever. The two share realistic thought-visions of each other's worlds, and Charity has a glimpse of the world in the year 1985. The teenagers discover they can communicate and form a true friendship.
When Charity is discovered (when she tries to humble a know-it-all neighbor girl), she is branded a witch for her knowledge of future events. Now her friend from the future must help her escape the clutches of her villagers and prove she is not a witch before she is tried and executed.
Peter discovers a historical record that two dead bodies would be discovered near Charity's township, and that her judge would eventually be convicted of murdering them. Charity uses this information to convince the judge that she could expose him, so he drops all charges and releases her. Afterward, Charity tells Peter that they probably should not go on communicating, lest more problems arise. Peter sadly agrees, and they bid each other goodbye.
Approximately one year later, Peter receives one last telepathic call from Charity. She has left him a message at Bear Rock, a local landmark. Peter finds Charity's message: chiseled into Bear Rock is a Valentine-like heart with the initials "PW + CP".
(At this point, Peter is on campus, talking and joking with his friends.)