The Twilight Zone season 1, episode 9 recap: The Blue Scorpion
“The Blue Scorpion” — Pictured (l-r): Chris O’Dowd as Jeffrey Storck; Amy Landecker as Anne Storck of the CBS All Access series THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Photo Cr: Robert Falconer/CBS © 2018 CBS Interactive. All Rights Reserved.
The “Jeff” bullet
Another day, after a brief meeting with a student and his first run in with Attorney Jeff (who had the door shut in his face), Jeff gets another call from Broker Jeff. The price for the gun has gone up to $100,000 and Broker Jeff is begging for the gun to be sold. Interestingly, Jeff is only the 7th (recorded) person to own the gun, so people are dying (no pun intended) to have it.
Jeff, however, isn’t ready to sell, not yet.
That night, a depressed, intoxicated Jeff takes the blue scorpion out of the safe, turns it over in his hands and loads a clip. Rather than do anything else, though, he decides to put it back in the safe.
After he leaves the bedroom, he hears a noise behind him in the room. He goes back to find the blue scorpion on the bed and a mysterious man standing in the corner.
More from CBS
- 5 best new shows premiering in November 2023 on Showtime, Netflix and more
- Yellowstone Season 1 is bringing in millions of new viewers on CBS
- Best Soap Opera couples of 2023: The most sizzling romances on Daytime Television
- Hollywood is putting Soap Operas on blast amid strike
- Survivor 44 episode 9 recap: Under the Wing of a Dragon
Jeff tries to shrug it off as a hallucination brought on by drugs combining with the conversations with the gun broker. But then the mysterious man starts to talk, saying the blue scorpion loves him (Jeff) more than anyone and can help him end all of his troubles. The only thing it needs in return, is light because it’s afraid of the dark.
The Twilight Zone then cuts to Jeff taking the gun to an indoor gun range in an attempt to simply fire the bullet with his name on it, destroying it. (Side note: one of the gun range employees is, of course, named Jeff.)
Inside, Jeff loads the “Jeff” bullet and then fills the rest of the clip with bullets.
He starts off shooting timidly, but slowly he gets into it, enjoying the feeling. He shoots the gun cocked to the side, he shoots behind his back, all the while the bullets easily hit the target, becoming more and more precise as he goes. That is, until the gun clicks, jammed.
There’s one bullet that wouldn’t fire: “Jeff.” Jeff takes it out, looks at it and whispers to it that it’d never hurt him.
There’s a shift in Jeff after this. The gun is now part of his life. He takes it (in a backpack with a flashlight) to a meeting between him, Anne and Attorney Jeff. The blue scorpion has instilled a kind of menacing calm in Jeff.
Well, that’s until Attorney Jeff, while discussing how Jeff and Anne would divide up their possessions, says that Anne wants to take Jeff’s dad’s prized bass guitar.