This is another favorite episode from this show. The story is uncannily similar to a Steven King short story which in turn was made into a live action anthology story from the underrated anthology horror film "Cat's Eye"; This episode is sort of a bottle episode as it all takes place really in one area, the monster in this episode is psychological and its name is addiction.
I really like how the episode just has this unsettling feeling of entrapment and oppressiveness, as Joe is literally being watched and monitored by the minute. We see things are just getting worse by the minute for Joe as his apartment becoming more and more barren, making it feel even more like a prison; all because he too stubborn to kick his addiction or just having difficulty in it. We do see a little depth as to how bad Joe's problem really is from the news, he had about his dad dying from lung cancer but we see a picture of him as a kid whom obviously isn't legally aged smoking a cigarette, yeah that doesn't look good.
It's kind of interesting how things in that simulacrum works as things just seem to appear and disappear with no real explanation. From cigarette packs randomly appearing, sort of a form of negative reinforcement as Joe knows the dire consequence if he ever remotely lights one. Another part of the consequence is stuff in his apartment just simply disappears into thin air.
Personally, I'm thinking from some of this happening he must be hooked up to some virtual reality program for those things to of occurred, I don't know you guess is as good as mine.
The prison Joe is in and everything happening are really a metaphor about how addiction destroys one's life, addition can give us what we want but not what we really need out of life. Sadly, Joe is not worried about everything he's lost or going outside, except being hung up on having one smoke which was exactly what got him there in the first place.
Beware of addiction, it will put you someplace you don't want to be.
Rating: 4 stars