The Twilight Zone: “The Who of You” is an out-of-body journey of self-discovery

The third episode of The Twilight Zone season 2 offers a desperate actor the role of a lifetime, but it comes at a chilling cost.

Harry Pine is an entitled man who believes he is the center of the universe. But lately, he’s been down on his luck and is pretty much at rock bottom. The struggling actor can’t afford to pay his bills, and his relationship with his more successful girlfriend is in trouble. He decides that robbing a bank will solve his problems.

But something strange happens when he has the teller at gunpoint. Somehow, the two switch bodies, and Harry attempts to escape — with the money in tow — in the body of female bank employee, Jill. A police officer named Luntz tries to stop him, and Harry switches bodies with the officer, and Jill ends up back in her body. The cop somehow ends up in Harry’s body, wondering why he’s in handcuffs and out of uniform.

“The Who Of You” — Pictured: Ethan Embry as Harry of the CBS All Access series THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Photo Cr: Robert Falconer/CBS 2020 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Harry starts to embrace the weird situation he finds himself in. Being an actor, he just has to play a bunch of different characters.

He eventually draws the attention of police who are looking for Luntz and the stolen money. After a few more body switches, Harry ends up at a psychic, hoping to get some answers.

The psychic, Keith, jumps into Harry’s body. When he returns, he unveils where the people he’s switched with have ended up, and that the police have Harry’s original body in custody. Keith also reveals that he is a scam artist like Harry, but Harry is much worse. After he berates Harry for his selfish behavior, Keith locks him out and keeps the money.

After dealing with Harry’s body switch victims, the detective pursuing this investigation — Detective Reece — encounters the child Harry is currently inhabiting at the psychic’s shop, bringing along Harry’s original body along. Instead of going back into his body, Harry jumps into Detective Reece, who is forced into Harry’s body. After Reece disarms Harry and points a gun at him, cops burst in and kill the detective in Harry’s body.

“The Who Of You” — Pictured: Daniel Sunjata as Detective Reece of the CBS All Access series THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Photo Cr: Robert Falconer/CBS 2020 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The twist did feel a bit forced, especially when we learn that Detective Reece is the one Harry’s girlfriend has been having an affair with. That’s way too of a much coincidence, even for The Twilight Zone.

Still, the poetic justice is surprisingly gratifying given the show’s series penchant for sad endings. The way Harry ends up having to give up the one thing he loves more than anything else, himself, in order to score the big break of his career and keep his girlfriend is a fun flip.

“The Who Of You” — Pictured (l-r): Carmel Amit as Morena Brue; Ethan Embry as Harry of the CBS All Access series THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Photo Cr: Dean Buscher/CBS 2020 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Ethan Embree is very impressive as Harry, who has several personalities possessing him over the course of the episode. The Can’t Hardly Wait star has still got it. While his screen time is brief, Billy Porter shines in this episode. Everyone did a superb job, and it was was very entertaining to watch all the actors pulling double duty, performance-wise.

The story is very clever in the way it plays with the idea of people playing roles, with the supernatural element going largely unexplained so it doesn’t distract from the story. Still, it would have been nice to get a better understanding of the body-switching abilities. But leaving us with a little mystery can be effective, too.

Episode Grade: B+

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