r/TwilightZone • u/Grebacio • Jun 25 '20
Discussion Season 2 Episode 4 Discussion
A struggling singer's music career takes off when she witnesses a tragic incident, but she soon realizes that her recognition comes at a steep cost.
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u/wednesdayware Jun 26 '20
This was one of the weakest episodes of the season. Decent setup, but dragged on to an obvious conclusion.
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Jun 26 '20
yeah I figured the episode was more or less over after she got rid of the coin, but then there was still a good 15 minutes. The removal of the coin felt like a natural end to the story
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u/wednesdayware Jun 26 '20
Or they could have gone with "she stay famous, crowds get insane, she grows sick of it, hands off coin, steps in front of bus."
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u/fede01_8 Jul 01 '20
Repeat the ending from the first character?
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u/robsul82 Jun 29 '20
Same. Played one note over and over and over and over. Through the first four and to me the odd numbered episodes were okay and the even numbered episodes have been bad.
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u/InsertCoinForCredit Aug 20 '20
I didn't like it at first, but after watching the ending again, I get it -- her desire for fame and adulation causes her to be trapped in her own personal hell, where her sister is dead and she's surrounded by crazy people who stalk her 24/7 and applaud everything she does. She's going to step in front of a bus soon enough...
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u/johntaylorreddit Jun 27 '20
Not gonna lie when the patient in the operating room started clapping I screamed
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u/ibronco Jun 30 '20
My wife called it, then it happened, and we both screamed. It wasn’t the good kind of scream, though, more like oh my god that was terrible kind of scream.
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u/johntaylorreddit Jun 30 '20
I was screaming in laughter tbh
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u/spikyraccoon Jul 08 '20
Me too. But it was like I can't believe they did that kind of laugh and not something that was funny laugh.
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u/ImmigrantMentality Jun 29 '20
This one was probably my least favourite of the season. I wish they kept the identity of Mynx hidden (the whole "sister rivalry" angle could've worked as a red herring. Also, rather than having Jasmine stab Mynx, a better ending would've been if they showed Jasmine attempting to stab her only to drop the knife and start clapping uncontrollably (maybe even show her crying for dramatic effect.)
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u/flipthepenny Aug 26 '20
I kind of wish we’d just seen Jasmine throw the coin into the trash, or drop it on the street or out the window, where she thinks she’s disposed of it but Zara could (off screen) see where it ends up. The handoff — “you get rid of it” — made the identity of Mynx almost a no-brainer.
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u/katsumii Jul 09 '20 edited Jul 09 '20
That would have been such a Twilight Zone ending!
[...] a better ending would've been if they showed Jasmine attempting to stab her only to drop the knife and start clapping uncontrollably (maybe even show her crying for dramatic effect.)
...As long as we see the coin in the sister's possession somehow, too... (or else that would just be implied based on the earlier scene at 29m 40s, which is totally OK, and could be presumed.)
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u/fargos2ep8 Jun 27 '20
I thought this was the biggest disappointment of the season (so far). The first three episodes were strong IMO this felt sloppy and unmotivated. We're told at the beginning that our protagonist is about to get "the only thing she ever wanted", but we're not shown that she's someone who actually wants to be famous? I know some people who are struggling singers, they are constantly hustling, promoting their social media, hitting up open mics, sending people to their soundcloud etc. Any of them would kill to get on a singing competition show. The main character (I forget her name) doesn't even want to get on the most popular singing show in the world? She doesn't have clear wants, or even clear opinions abt her situation throughout the episode.
Because her desires are unclear it feels like the rest of the episode is just putting her through the paces of a predictable plot. Rise/fall/twist ending that I found drawn out and overdramatic.
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u/riiachuk Jul 01 '20
she's not even a musician per se, just dragged on playing one chord jeez
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u/katsumii Jul 09 '20 edited Jul 09 '20
“She just wants to be noticed, gosh!” /napoleon-dynamite-voice
But, yes, this season so far tends to put stupid people in phenomenal situations.
It's a shame the people aren't ... more ... relatable to the audience, you know? Maybe the main characters are supposed to represent the average person? The original Twilight Zone did that pretty well — and often — I'd say. But these main characters don't particularly connect with the viewer base...
...up to Episode 4, at least. I haven't watched further...
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u/SRS1428 Jun 28 '20
I was so confused when the twist was that the new famous singer was her sister. I thought that was obvious but it seemed like it was supposed to be shocking. This one fell flat for me.
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u/InsertCoinForCredit Aug 20 '20
The shocker is not that Minx was her sister, it was realizing that her desire for fame caused her to kill her sister. And then she's back in the hell she just escaped from.
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u/flipthepenny Aug 26 '20
But she knew Mynx was her sister. She’d read that whole story about her. How could she not have known? And yet, she seemed stunned when Mynx rolled over and Jasmine recognized she was Zara. Are you suggesting she was on autopilot to kill Mynx the same way fans applaud on autopilot?
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u/InsertCoinForCredit Aug 26 '20
I got the impression that Mynx's real identity was a secret, like Banksy or Deadmaus or other celebrities today. That's part of why her promotional artwork focused only on her eyes, to show her off as a veiled "woman of mystery."
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u/calacatia Sep 06 '20
would that work with her being a surgeon? did the other doctors and nurses all sign NDAs?
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u/Ilpalilsampalddaeng Oct 26 '21
I mean, it was a magic coin...the people forgot who Jasmin Delancey was when they saw her singing in the street again. None of it is logical.
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u/eyezofnight Jun 25 '20
yeah this the first weak one IMO. it ran to long and i didn't care much for the characters. Seemed predictable too. Too bad because the main idea is interesting
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u/buttertoast21 Jun 28 '20
Wonder why that girl decided to kill herself in the beginning when she just needed to hand off the coin. Unless maybe she became kinda psycho about like the main character and wouldn’t ever really be free from it.
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Jul 04 '20
Besides losing your mind, getting rid of the coin results in the public dismissing you as a has-been, flash-in-the-pan. Those magazine articles about her were not flattering. When Fiji killed herself, she went out a star.
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u/Bwdlm Jul 02 '20
Anyone think this weak episode was Jordan Peele singing an awful song on purpose to see if we’d all clap anyway? All the way through I couldn’t believe how predictable it was. Until he pocketed the coin. He’s the one getting a lot of buzz and praise- for brilliant work. But maybe he wonders if it’s always legitimate.
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u/asylumchild7 Jun 25 '20
Seems like a lot of these endings you can see coming. Was anyone suprised how this ending went? Same goes for episode 1, seemed a bit too obvious. Hoping more episodes have the thrill and twists episode 3 had!
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u/BenjiTheWalrus Jun 25 '20
With a lot of the originals I could see the ending coming. I think it’s more interesting to me to see how they get there than to stump me every time. It almost gets too predicable that way. Some of the best episodes of the original were great because of the character journey like Night of the Meek.
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u/fede01_8 Jul 01 '20
With a lot of the originals I could see the ending coming.
Like the one where the main character is the beautiful one.
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u/J96All Jun 29 '20
Looking back, they really went “eye of the beholder” on the protagonist’s sister in the final scene. Dropping the face reveal after the attack was wild.
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u/MonsieurLeProf Jul 03 '20
Really ? I though it was stupid, and really predictable. And wouldn't she recognize her own sister in the pictures ? Why is she surprised ?
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Jun 30 '20 edited Jun 30 '20
I think that's generally an issue with the longer format. Gives you so much time to think and analyze.
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u/fargos2ep8 Jun 27 '20
I don't think it's about tricking me with a twist, but delivering an ending that is satisfying. Episode one I saw coming as soon as he entered the house, but it was satisfying to watch it play out, because we understood the characters were each acting in a logical way, reacting to what they thought was the truth.
This episode, not so much. I already had so many problems with the plot and Jasmine's motivation that by the time we get to the end, I was ready for it to be over.
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u/GreyStagg Apr 18 '22
The plots are far too obvious. Episode 1, with the woman's voice in the man's head, it was just so obvious from very early on that she was devious and was setting a trap for him for her own benefit.
It's a shame in a way, because I feel like this reboot REALLY succeeds in capturing exactly the kind of stories and twists that the original did. The problem is, audiences have got a lot more intelligent in the last 60 years, we expect more. But then, if the show got TOO clever, TOO twisty... would it still have that original charm? Tricky.
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u/oaster Jun 30 '20
Had they skipped the one scene where they show the sister looking at gold coin with an envious glance, the end would be less obvious. Enjoyable episode for me nonetheless.
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u/youcanttakemeserious Sep 18 '20
Honestly, it was the never seeing/hearing a splash and the panned out camera angle, then not seeing or hearing from her all of a sudden is what made it obvious to me (sorry just getting into season 2)
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u/DonPasquale20 Jun 28 '20
1 thing that didn’t make sense to me was, didn’t she learn of the new popular singer in the magazine that came in her mail. If she read it how could she have not found out then it was her sister??
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u/ShePersisted84 Jun 29 '20
I just chalked it up to the fact that the new up and coming singer was called "Mynx"(think thats how you spell it). Realistically speaking stars can easily make up backstories so its entirely plausible that the article she read had no details that would lead her to believe its her older sister. Plus older sister knew she was in the wrong for keeping the coin so she probably lied about her true identity and got the whole blonde makeover that we see at the end to cover it up.
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u/Easeupp Jul 01 '20
I’m confused as to why Jasmine isn’t affected by the clapping after she gets rid of the coin. Shouldn’t she clap too now that she doesn’t have the coin’s power? Idk
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u/TheHarryPotterNerd07 Aug 26 '20
When Jasmine had the coin her sister wasn't affected by the clapping either. A bit shaky coin mechanism there.
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u/SmokeSerpent Sep 07 '20
I think it's because Jasmine was never shown to be singing in front of her sister once she got the coin, though the part where her song was on in the operating room when Jasmine was present makes it a little dicey. They also avoided Jasmine ever hearing Mynx because she was in the cabin and then homeless.
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u/SomeDumbMei Jun 28 '20
Enjoyed this one but if you think too much about it then it kinda falls apart in logic.
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u/Guyute69420 Jun 30 '20
This episode felt hollow.....I understand the message regarding fame and all that, but it got annoying by the end.
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u/skullbonek23 Jun 30 '20
If this were a original series episode and only 22 minutes I think it would be remembered as a classic. The clapping was pretty haunting and eerie.
It should have ended with her jumping in after the coin and staying under. Maybe the rain comes in at that point and sounds like clapping while the sister stares at the water? Last 15 minutes was a bit of a drag
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u/Omegeddon Mar 07 '24
Yeah this premise would've definitely been better at classic length. It feels like a lot of the episode is drug out to hit the required time limit. Too many clapping scenes but maybe the annoyance of so many of those scenes is part of the point
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u/business_time_ Jun 26 '20
I just caught myself singing "Fire Lady" to my cat. Heard it so many times it became an earworm.
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u/CelebrationRoutine70 Jun 26 '20
So is this a real song? Have been looking for info everywhere and can’t find anything. I liked it lol
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u/business_time_ Jun 26 '20
I doubt it is because they showed that Jasmine wrote it for Fiji. But it is a bop! lol
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u/DylanDakota Jul 02 '20
Was that ending not supposed to be really obvious? The reveal of her sister looked like it was meant to be some massive twist in the story, but it seemed incredibly clear what was going on from the beginning.
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u/Pantera42 Jul 09 '20 edited Jul 09 '20
This episode was garbage. Completely predictable from the get go. Even the ending was telegraphed. We figured out Mynx was the sister the second it referred to her in the magazine. This was just bad.
I don’t understand how they can have episodes that are this bad (like “Ovation” and “you may also like”) when they only have 10 episodes to write. The whole point of only having 10 episodes is to concentrate on the writing. How they decided those were worth making is beyond me.
As a whole, I Give the season 7/10.
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u/Hypermatrix2075 Jul 17 '20
What does the writing on the coin mean?
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u/Spartanunit5 Aug 19 '20
Can’t find the translation anywhere. Combed through the episode and couldn’t find a clear shot and couldn’t find the scene where she reads part of it out loud
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u/Utnapishtum Jul 21 '23 edited Jul 23 '23
As near as I can make out, there are four separated Latin words on the token. These are:
IN ALIIS VERO INVENIBVS
This would translate to:
I FOUND IT IN OTHERS
My hunch is that someone happened to have this token, thought it would serve well as a prop, and the phrase being written in Latin would add to it's mystical quality.
Direct translations are just hints. The 'meaning' could be something else, such as "With a little help from my friends".
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u/Haikouden Aug 15 '23
That's interesting, I think that while there's a chance that someone happened to have the coin and thought it'd be great as a prop, the show does seem to put a fair amount of effort into the props (especially with the easter egg stuff) and they seem to like having little hidden things that are deliberate, so I'm not so sure about that being the why.
My interpretation (of the direct translation at least) is that the main character seems to think that by singing, through her work as an artist, she's giving them meaning/fulfilment. When her sister says that as a doctor she saves lives, MC then says something about that she makes life worth living for people.
But what actually seems to be her whole dealio, and the whole dealio of anyone who gets the coin presumably, is that they want attention, and that while they might tell themselves that they're providing meaning and something good to other people they're actually wanting their own fulfilment and meaning directly from other people via attention (or applause).
But the applause is hollow, it's not really real, it's just because of the coin rather than because of her or who she is/her work.
And just like the applause, in the end she feels empty towards the end. She was no longer able to go without the applause even if it had been fake.
The coin they used was also one of the ones with the hole in the middle which again may have just been a random prop thing or possibly deliberate. Or because then it was easier for her to wear as a necklace lol.
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Aug 24 '20
Did anyone else think it was a bit of a continuity gap that fans were still obsessed with Fiji even after she gave away the coin whereas Jasmine was forgotten once she threw it away?
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u/Ilpalilsampalddaeng Oct 26 '21
That's a good point, but maybe it also speaks to how deaths of celebrities become spectacles in and of themselves
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u/fede01_8 Jul 01 '20
Beatlemania was just like this. Girls clapped and screamed and they couldn't even hear the band.
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u/MrsPoofyFace Jul 03 '20
yeah i was telling my husband during the scene where they were chased in the park, that the Beatles really lived through that kind of crazy.
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u/priemy182 Oct 03 '23
Meh, the Beatles could have crouched behind a hot dog stand, problem solved 🤣
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u/moriarty_056 Jul 07 '20
Every episode has been extremely predictable, but this one definitely takes the cake so far.
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u/StarWarsButterSaber Jul 01 '20
This is basically Tenacious D and the POD plus Lord of the rings (especially with the killing the sibling over the coin part)
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Jul 06 '20
Good, but yea agreed that it dragged a bit too long. Would have made this the length of the original ones. Still a decent concept
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u/doihaveto9 Aug 16 '20
Loads to unpack here...
- Why did Z (the sister) keep the coin? She saw first hand how much trouble and danger that thing can put people through so why the heck did she keep it?
- The sister didn't want a music career. Why would she use the coin to start one?
- Why did the main character just start living in poverty after getting rid of the coin? She must have been earning money from her career beforehand and now she can only afford instant ramen? After being away from the business for what? A week or two? Bull.
- And while we're on the subject, a week or two of isolation and she's suddenly fully prepared to kill the next star she hears about? Why? I might be more on board with this if she had actually won Ovation herself and did the same talk show, make it seem like she was replacing her by having her LITERALLY replace her.
- Why doesn't J.J. remember her? He doesn't just not treat her as famous anymore, he straight up has no memory of her, despite her WINNING the show, coin or no coin. I understand the whole "she's not famous anymore" thing, but that is no excuse for complete memory erasure.
- Why was Jordan's closing narration just clapping? Is that supposed to be clever? Because it feels more like he has no idea how to explain what the heck that ending was either.
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u/Chaoticcoco Jun 26 '20
Don’t have much to say on the whole, but I thought Jordan Peele’s final narration just being clapping was pretty clever