The Curious Case of Edgar Witherspoon

"The Curious Case of Edgar Witherspoon" is the thirty-sixth episode and the first episode of the third season (1988–89) of the television series The Twilight Zone.

Opening narration[]

One old man in a private world of irrational urgencies. For Dr. Jeremy Sinclair, an all too common sight. But Edgar Witherspoon is a most uncommon old man with a secret that reaches out to the four corners of the Earth, as the good doctor is about to discover.

Plot[]

Dr. Jeremy Sinclair, a psychiatrist at a mental hospital, is visited by the niece and the landlady of Edgar Witherspoon. They are concerned with his increasingly bizarre behavior, namely his obsession with seemingly insignificant items from other people. Edgar has also holed up in his apartment, refusing to let anyone else inside. Sinclair agrees to help Edgar and visits his apartment the next day. He finds Edgar frantically searching for a doll's head, claiming that Santa Barbara will fall into the ocean if it is not found within five minutes. Edgar rushes back into the apartment, but apologizes to the doctor for his rudeness and shuts the door in his face.

Sinclair overhears a radio bulletin about an earthquake in Santa Barbara. He returns to the apartment, forcing Edgar to let him inside. Sinclair discovers that the apartment is filled with a gigantic, intricately designed contraption made up of a huge assortment of odds and ends. Edgar tries to explain his behavior by comparing the world to a clock that needs small adjustments in order to continue; under direction from a mysterious voice only he can hear, Edgar adds items to his "creation" in order to keep the world "from falling off its perch." Sinclair has Edgar taken in for observation, but Witherspoon struggles, claiming that he cannot leave his machine alone or the world will go "poof." During their fight, Sinclair accidentally dislodges a few paper clips from the device and Edgar panics. As mental hospital affiliates lead Edgar away, he shouts back to Sinclair that an island nation in the Pacific has ceased to exist because of the disruption - and Jeremy is to blame.

Though Sinclair ignores this warning at first, he realizes that Edgar has been correct all along when he hears a news bulletin announcing that the Pacific island Witherspoon named was destroyed by a tsunami at the exact moment the paper clips came loose. Jeremy also bolts from the hospital when he remembers that he gave Witherspoon's landlady permission to destroy the device; as he runs out, he gives the order for Edgar to be released. Sinclair arrives just as the landlady is about to take a broom to Edgar's machine, and begs her to let it remain standing by claiming that he needs to observe it to better understand Witherspoon's delusions. The landlady agrees, but only after Sinclair offers to pay double the current rent.

Edgar then returns, and remarks that the voice has spoken to him again: he has been told to travel to Miami to retire. Jeremy protests, claiming that the machine cannot be abandoned again—it already needs adjustments, which he himself makes by adding water to a set of scales. Witherspoon smiles as he realizes that his time protecting the planet has ended, and departs with some advice: "Don't take any wooden nickels ... unless, of course, you need them." Sinclair watches him leave, then begins responding to a voice only he can hear: apparently, a tambourine needs to be added to the device immediately.

Closing narration[]

If, in the next few months, you notice that there's been a spate of catastrophes or things are just not going right, remember that Edgar Witherspoon's replacement is learning how to make some precise adjustments. Don't worry, his education will not last long and then you might give thanks to a physician whose practice extends to the well-being of the entire planet. Dr. Jeremy Sinclair offers a unique form of preventative medicine, found only...in the Twilight Zone.

Production notes[]

This was the first Twilight Zone aired to be shot in Toronto. A close up of a street sign reveals that Edgar Witherspoon lives on Laing Street in Leslieville; Leslieville is actually a neighbourhood in Toronto's east end. Directly across the street from the Witherspoon house on Laing Street is Maple Cottage, where Alexander Muir wrote "The Maple Leaf Forever" in 1867.

External links[]

• "The Curious Case of Edgar Witherspoon" at IMDb