Long before the Joker in the Batman movies deeply explored the human psychosis, this episode "Matt Dillon Must Die," embarked deeply upon the examination. Guest star Morgan Woodward made this episode, and was the central character throughout. He managed to stage a master's class of acting, drawing upon starkly disparate emotions within minutes of each other while never once losing the gravitas of the situation, nor sacrificing the mandate of believability.
A man's sense of personal loss drives him to sadism, seeking to extract vengeance upon all others, including his own surviving children, after his wife is brutally murdered. This consumes him, and in this episode, we see his futile attempts at quenching his fire of hatred, destroy everyone around him long after he stopped caring about all people, except for the figments of imagination he crafted around his deceased wife.
To play this role, without for once losing control of the theme, nor for once losing grasp of realism, is a testimonial of the script, but primarily of Woodward's supreme acting skills.
Watching how he crafted the story of a man descending into hell, all of his own making, is haunting and mesmerizing in equal measure. It is a brutal examination, and one marking a powerful message of the dangers of humans wrought with vengeance and blood lust.
This is a special episode that must be watched.