The Twilight Zone is memorable, and rightly so, for creating an anthology full of memorable stories, nearly of which have a shocking twist at the end. For me personally, the reason I love this series so much is because Rod Serling proved to be a master of “watch this obnoxious individual get what’s coming to him.”

“Sounds and Silences,” produced late in the 5th and final season, is one such episode. The episode details the demise of Roswell G. Flemington, owner of a model ship company, and described by Serling himself as “two hundred and twenty pounds of gristle, lung tissue and sound decibels.” He’s not the worst character to get his comeuppance on this show, but he comes awfully close through sheer obnoxiousness.

Flemington is a man obsessed with the Navy, to the point that his company office is modeled after the interior of a ship’s cabin. That, in and of itself, wouldn’t be so bad, except Flemington is also obsessed with noise. I’m not just talking about blaring records as loud as he can (which he does throughout the episode), I’m talking about slamming doors, stamping feet, and yelling whenever he talks. One harried staff member mutters aloud that “someday all of that noise is going to come back and bite him” and boy does it ever!

The downward spiral begins when Flemington’s wife of 20 years finally has enough and decides to leave him. The one part of this episode that I find difficult to accept is that a man like Flemington was able to find a wife at all! I absolutely love the scene where she tells Roswell off and proceeds to inform him, in no uncertain terms, that their marriage is over. This is also the scene that completely destroys any final scrap of sympathy you might have for this character, as Flemington describes, in sneering detail, how he had to put up with a hypochondriac mother and THAT is why he’s so obsessed with noise. You might feel bad for him, were it not for the fact that the man is clearly talking down to his soon-to-be-ex-wife. It’s made plain that this guy deserves everything he’s about to get.

It’s after Flemington’s wife leaves that the fun really starts. I have to imagine the sound people had a lot of fun with this episode, when they had to simulate Flemington hearing noises louder than they actually are. It’s slightly surreal, hearing all of the sound effects, but it goes a long way toward showing how Flemington is rapidly losing his grip on reality. In fact, the conclusion comes not long afterward, when Flemington, having convinced himself that all of this is “mind over matter” finds he cannot hear at all.

Now, I have two thoughts on the ending of this episode. On the one hand, it’s implied that Roswell simply took “mind over matter” too far and accidentally made himself deaf. On the other hand, when you spend day after day listening to records at ear-splitting decibel levels…really, he was bound to lose his hearing sooner or later. In either case, this is one of the most suitable punishments presented in the show. Flemington, a man obsessed with noise, is now forced to live in a world with none at all.

Let me know what you think about “Sounds and Silences” in the comments below and have a great day! From now on, I’ll be working in reviews of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes, so I really hope you enjoy them.

See also:

TV Reviews

Become a Patron of the blog at patreon.com/musicgamer460

Check out the YouTube channel (and consider hitting the subscribe button)

Don’t forget to like Film Music Central on Facebook