The Twilight Zone review: “Among the Trodden” explores the eerie power of friendship

“Among the Trodden” trucks in some mean girls high school cliches, but this new episode of The Twilight Zone still has you guessing until the final twist.

“Among the Trodden” begins with the very familiar scene of an awkward new girl on her first day at school. Her name is Irene, and she’s immediately bullied by Madison, one of the popular students. But this cliché encounter takes a strange turn when a pencil disintegrates after Madison throws it at Irene’s head.

In class, Irene is working on a project that has her classmates taking psychic tests. Madison gets them all wrong, which is impossible, and Irene begins to suspect that she may have supernatural powers. They do some tests in the unused, graffiti-filled girls bathroom and discover Madison can read minds and conjure things like the pencil. However, once that conjured item fulfills its purpose, it disintegrates.

“Among the Untrodden” — Pictured: Abbie Hern as Madison of the CBS All Access series THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Photo Cr: Dean Buscher/CBS 2020 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Madison starts to use her newfound abilities to up her bullying game. Despite this, Irene wants to be friends with the popular girls, so she goes along with it. But things get heated when Madison’s friend makes fun of Irene, and their secret is spilled. Eventually, a somewhat tipsy Irene falls off a balcony.

The fall probably should kill her, but somehow she lives. Irene thinks Madison saved her with some ability they hadn’t figured out yet, but Madison claims she didn’t do anything. Meanwhile, Madison’s friend becomes enamored with Irene after she survives, and they get drunk together. Afterward, Madison tells Irene to stay away from them and ends the friendship.

It turns out Madison’s friends took a video of Irene when she was drunk and used it to make an Anatomy of a Loser science project; it’s Hall of Fame-caliber bullying, the kind of thing you hope only happens on TV.

Irene screams over the betrayal, all the screens on the projects crack, and the girls responsible all fall to the ground and appear to go catatonic. Madison confronts Irene and accuses her of having powers this whole time, and only making Madison think she had them. But it turns out Irene is just a friend Madison conjured up like the pencil. Now that she has served her purpose, she disintegrates, and Madison must come to terms with what has happened.

“Among the Untrodden” — Pictured (l-r): Sophia Macy as Irene; Director, Tayarisha Poe; and Abbie Hern as Madison of the CBS All Access series THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Photo Cr: Robert Falconer/CBS 2020 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This episode didn’t have any big names to speak of, but Abbie Hern and Skylar Radzion still gave solid performances as Madison and Irene. The production design department also delivers for the attention to detail in the bathroom.

The narrative dragged a bit, and the Mean Girls routine was a bit stale. Still, I was definitely compelled by the shifting power dynamics. I was going back and forth trying to decide what was really going on, and the twist at the end really made the whole thing worth it.

We love superhero stories right now, particularly superhero origin stories. Often they end up feeling like carbon copies of one other. “Among the Trodden” was a refreshing take on how someone comes to terms not just with their enhanced abilities, but their inner demons as well.

Episode Grade: B-

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