"Nurse?" "Brought you your sleeping medicine, honey." "Is it night already?" "It's 9:30." "What about the day?" "What about it?" "Was it a beautiful day?" "Was the sun out?" "Was it warm?" "Kind of warm." "Clouds." "Were there clouds in the sky?" "I suppose there were." "I never was much for staring up... at the sky all the time." "I used to look up at the clouds a lot." "If you stare at them long enough... they become things, you know?" "Ships, people..." "Anything you want, really... if you stare at them long enough." "It's time to take your temperature now." "Just one other thing?" "Well?" "When, nurse?" "When will they take the bandages off?" "How long?" "Until, uh..." "Until they decide it's safe for your face." "I know." "It's pretty bad, isn't it?" "I've seen worse." "But it's pretty bad, isn't it?" "I know it's pretty bad." "Ever since I was a little girl... people have always turned away from me." "I can remember a child screaming... when she looked at me." "I never wanted to be beautiful." "I just wanted..." "I just wanted people... not to scream when they looked at me!" "When, nurse?" "When will they take the bandages off?" "Please?" "Easy, easy." "Let me take your temperature." "Maybe tomorrow." "Maybe the next day." "You've been waiting so long now... it really doesn't make that much difference... whether it's 2 days or weeks, now, does it?" "Paging Dr. Stateman." "Dr. Stateman, please." "Dr. Bernardi." "Evening report on patient 307." "Resting comfortably." "No temperature change." "Thank you, nurse." "I'll be right down." "Ever see her face?" "307?" "If it were mine, I'd bury myself... in a grave someplace." "You have been introduced to Miss Janet Tyler... who lives in a very private world of darkness... a universe whose dimensions are the size, thickness... and length of the bandages that cover her face." "In a moment, we'll witness... the removal of those bandages... and we'll see what's under them." "Keeping in mind, of course... that we're not to be surprised by what we see... because this isn't just a hospital... and this patient, Janet Tyler... patient number 307, is not just a woman... because this happens to be... the Twilight Zone." "You're traveling to another dimension... a dimension not only of sight and sound... but of mind." "A journey into a wondrous land... whose boundaries are only that... of the imagination." "You're entering..." "How about her blood pressure?" "120 over 80." "Good." "Any thyroid reaction... since the latest round of injections?" "Nothing out of the ordinary." "All right." "Nurse, you can come back at 11:00... and give her the usual sedative." "All right, Doctor." "Warm this evening, Miss Tyler?" "I thought it was." "Very warm." "You can take my word for it." "We'll have those bandages off you very shortly." "I expect you're uncomfortable." "I'm used to it by now." "I have no doubt." "This is your... ninth?" "Is this your ninth procedure?" "The 11th." "Sometimes I think I've lived my whole life... inside of a dark cave." "There's kind of a comfort, though... living in a cave." "It's so private." "No one can ever see me." "It's hopeless, isn't it, Doctor?" "I'll never look any different." "Well, that's hard to say." "Up until now, you haven't responded... to any of our procedures." "But there's no way of telling... not until we get the wrapping off." "Your 11th visit." "No more after this, either." "No more tries." "I don't know what else we can do... not without endangering your life." "You very well may have responded... to this last treatment." "We just won't know for sure... until I take those wraps off." "But if I haven't responded, then what?" "There are alternatives." "Like?" "Don't you know?" "I know." "You're not alone, Miss Tyler." "You realize that, don't you?" "You're hardly alone." "Many others share your misfortune... people who look much as you do." "Now, one of the alternatives... should this last procedure prove to be unsuccessful... the state will allow you to live comfortably... among those of your own kind." "My own kind?" "It's a haven for people like you." "Now, who knows?" "You might even like it there." "But it's not fair, Doctor!" "I don't want to live among freaks!" "I want to live among normal people." "Look, Miss Tyler, we are not unsympathetic... to your condition." "Your presence here in this hospital attests to that." "We're gonna do everything we can for you... but you're gonna have to be realistic." "I could wear a mask or this bandage." "I wouldn't bother anyone." "I'd just go my own way." "I'd take a job, any job." "Who are you people, anyway?" "And what gives you... the right to decide where I live and how I live?" "I'm just a doctor." "Only the state can determine social policy." "All we can do is follow the rules... that they lay down for us." "But it's not fair, Doctor!" "The people who are different having to stay away... from the people who are normal." "Who decides what's normal?" "The state isn't God, Doctor!" "Miss Tyler, please!" "But the state is not God!" "It hasn't the right to..." "to punish people... for an accident of birth." "It hasn't the right to make ugliness a crime." "Miss Tyler!" "Now, I've gotta ask... that you stop this kind of talk immediately!" "Do you understand me?" "!" "Lmmediately!" "I can feel the night out there." "I can feel the air." "I can smell the flowers." "Mmm." "Please take this off of me." "Please take this off of me!" "Take this off of me!" "Please, take this off of me!" "Miss Tyler." "Nurse!" " No!" " Got her legs!" "No!" "It's all right." "Please!" "The doctor's decided to remove the bandages in 307." "He wants to have the anesthetist stand by." "Anesthesia, please." "Wanted for 307." "Yes, when she sees what she looks like... she may get violent." "You look tired, Doctor." "I suppose I am." "You've been under a great deal of tension." "I know how much it means to you... this case in 307." "Well, you try and be impersonal about these things." "You do everything medically possible... everything humanly possible." "Then in the end, you cross your fingers... and hope for a miracle." "But you know, once in a while... a miracle does happen... just often enough to let you know... that you're not wrong or foolish to hope for one." "But you're destroying yourself... getting so personally involved." "I know." "Don't you think I told myself that?" "I've just seen that woman's real face, nurse... the face of her real self." "It's a good face." "It's a human face." "I understand, but I must confess... it's easier for me to think of her as human... when her face is covered up." "Why?" "Why shouldn't people be allowed to be different?" "Why?" "Doctor, please!" "Be careful." " What you're talking is..." " Is treason?" "This case has upset your balance... your sense of values." "I'll be all right once the wraps are off... once I know one way or the other." "She keeps complaining about her legs." "Yeah, I'll be down to see her soon." "And now, ladies and gentlemen... our leader." "The leader's speech is about to begin." "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen." "Tonight I shall talk to you... about glorious conformity... about the delights and the ultimate pleasure... of our unified society." "You recall, of course... that directionless, unproductive... oversentimentalized era in man's history... when it was assumed that dissent was... a natural and healthy adjunct to society." "You recall that during this period of time... there was a strange, oversentimentalized concept... that it mattered not that people were different... that this world could exist... in some sort of crazy patchwork... glued together in a fragmented society." "We know now that that was wrong." "Now as I unwrap..." "I want you to keep your eyes open." "I want you to describe to me... the different shading of light as you perceive it... as each layer of those bandages come off." "All right." "Now, if you make any movement... or if you start to get emotional on us in any way..." "I'm gonna have the nurses hold you down... and have the anesthetist put you under sedation." "Is that understood?" "I promise..." "I won't." "All right." "Do you see any light now, Miss Tyler?" "Just a little." "It looks..." "It looks gray." "How about now, Miss Tyler?" "It's bright, very bright." "Good." "I'm at the last layer now, Miss Tyler." "I can..." "I can see your outline." "Just vaguely... but I can see you." "Now I'm gonna remove the last bandage, Miss Tyler." "Do you want a mirror?" "No." "No, thank you." "No mirror." "I want you to remember one thing, Miss Tyler." "Are you listening?" "Yes, I'm listening." "We've done all we could." "If we were successful, all well and good... there are no problems." "Lf, however, this final procedure... has not achieved the desired results... keep in mind you can still live... a long and fruitful life... among people of your own kind." "As soon as we discover these results... we can either release you or..." "Doctor?" "Yes?" "Lf... if I'm still..." "if I'm still so ugly... is there any other alternative?" "Could..." "could I be put away?" "Well, under certain circumstances, Miss Tyler... the state does provide for the extermination... of certain undesirables." "There are many factors to be considered, though... that bear on that decision." "And under the circumstances, considering your age... and your general physical condition..." "I doubt very much if we could permit anything... but your transfer to a communal group... of people with your..." "your disability." "You'll make me go, then?" "That'll probably be the case." "All right, Miss Tyler, now remain very quiet, please... and keep your eyes open." "All right, Miss Tyler." "Now here comes the last of it." "I wish you every good luck." "Oh, hideous." "No change." "No change at all!" "Oh, no." "Ahh!" "Poor thing." "No!" "Needle, please." "I knew this would happen." "Turn on the lights!" "Needle, please." "Stop that patient!" "Stop her!" "There must be a single purpose... a single norm... a single approach..." "Aah!" "A single philosophy of government." "That is why we must no longer permit... the ugly to exist within our society!" " They must be removed!" " No!" "It is essential in this society... that we not only have a norm... but that we conform..." "Conformity we must worship and hold sacred." "Conformity is our key to survival." "Don't be afraid, Miss Tyler." "This is a representative of the group... you're to live with." "Oddly enough, you came right to him." "Come on, now." "He won't hurt you." "Janet... this is Mr. Smith." "He's in charge of the village group... you're to live with." "You'll be able to live among your own kind." "Miss Tyler?" "We have a lovely village and wonderful people." "I think you'll like it where I'm gonna take you." "You'll be with your own kind... and after a little while... you'd be amazed at how little a while... you'll feel a sense of great belonging." "You'll feel a sense of being loved." "And you will be loved, Miss Tyler." "Please." "Miss Tyler?" "Would you get your things now?" "We can leave anytime." "Mr. Smith?" "Yes?" "Why are some of us born so ugly?" "I don't know, Miss Tyler." "I really don't know." "But you know something?" "It doesn't really matter." "There's an old saying..." "A very, very old saying." "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." "When we leave here... when we go to the village... keep that in mind." "Try, Miss Tyler." "Say it over and over in your mind." "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." "We'll get your things, and we'll leave." "Good-bye, Miss Tyler." "Now the questions that come to mind:" "Where is this place, and when is it?" "What kind of world is this where ugliness is the norm... and beauty the deviation from that norm?" "You want an answer?" "The answer is it doesn't make any difference... because the old saying happens to be true." "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." "In this year or 100 years hence... on this planet... or wherever there is intelligent life... beauty is in the eye of the beholder." "Lesson to be learned in the Twilight Zone."