Original Airdate: November 6, 1959
Plot: A hypochondriac makes a deal with the devil to ensure his safety and immortality. Acting irrationally, he is sentenced to life in prison whereupon he gratefully invokes his escape clause – death.
Not a tremendous episode, but not bad. The Twilight Zone Companion has little to say about it, save for the fact that it was really just "par for the course." The thing I like about Serling's dialogue (actually, by and large it's monologue) is that even when he's telling you an absurd story, you still find yourself drawn in by the clever wording and syntax. I say absurd because none of this story comes across as believable. Even when I'm writing my most outlandish tales, I always strive to inject the action with realistic characters who behave as people do. "Escape Clause" is a pair of stock characters and a doting wife who should really have gotten herself on match.com. I say this because throughout the episode I kept wondering why she would stay with a obviously crazy, disaffected man. But I had to ask myself: don't we all do this? Haven't we all made excuses for our loved ones, and loved unconditionally? So I can make an excuse for the wife character, but there is no way I can explain her husband's utter boredom at her demise. I should like to see the original script for this episode, to read Serling's description of the main character's reaction.
While I didn't care for the acting in this episode (the Devil character was about as menacing as a side of french fries), I was impressed with the long takes and some of the blocking. The scene where the Devil first appears was particularly well done, with characters moving about the room, being shown in the mirror, and acting for long stretches without fail.
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