To See the Invisible Man

"To See the Invisible Man"
The Twilight Zone episode
Scene from "To See the Invisible Man"
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 16b
Directed by	Noel Black
Written by	Steven Barnes
Production code	45
Original air date	January 31, 1986 (1986-01-31)
Guest appearances
Cotter Smith as Mitchell Chaplin Whit Hertford as Boy Peter Hobbs as Bennett Gershe (Blind man) Jack Gallagher as Comic as Tough guy as Invisible woman as Businessman as Woman Steve Peterson as Server as Margaret as Guard #1 as Maitre d' as Crying girl
Episode chronology
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List of episodes

"To See the Invisible Man" is the second segment of the sixteenth episode from the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone. It depicts a future society in which certain crimes are punished by strictly enforced social shunning. This segment is based on the short story by Robert Silverberg first published in Worlds of Tomorrow April 1963. In the original short story, the criminal is never named, and his one-year sentence was noted to begin on May 11, 2104.

Plot[]

Mitchell Chaplin is found guilty of not being open enough with his emotions to his family and close associates. He is sentenced to be "invisible" for one year. An implant placed on his forehead warns others not to acknowledge or interact with him in any way lest they be punished in a like manner. Mitchell laughs at the punishment. He takes advantage of his invisible status to visit expensive establishments, take food, and taunt people, since they are forbidden to respond to his actions.

Mitchell's sentence becomes a lesson in humility, compassion, and empathy as he begins to feel the consequences of social isolation. Under the omnipresent eye of floating security drones that monitor their society, even other invisible people shun him under threat of having their sentences extended. Attempts to hide the implant under clothing are useless as the implant immediately senses and burns through anything that covers it. Some drunken men deliberately run him down with their car, knowing that authorities cannot respond to an invisible man's plight. When Mitchell calls a hospital, the nurse refuses to send help once she sees his implant.

On the last day of his sentence two policemen come to his residence and remove the implant on his head. They invite him to have a drink with them in customary gesture of welcoming an invisible man back into society. He returns to his former job and his co-workers affirm that his punishment has changed him for the better.

Four months after completing his sentence, Mitchell is accosted in public by a woman who wears the scar of an implant and recognizes him as a former invisible man. Knowing the law, he initially ignores her but her pleas for him to talk to her move him to hug her. As they are surrounded by drones warning him that his actions are punishable by another year of invisibility, he declares that he can see the woman and that he cares about her suffering.

External links[]

• "To See the Invisible Man" at IMDb
• Postcards from the Zone episode 1.40 To See the Invisible Man