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smrozinski13
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Tales from the Darkside: The New Man (1984)
Obvious Twist Not Interpreted Properly By Others
I love how this was written...
After reading some reviews it becomes apparent to me that many did not interpret the twist correctly. Alan Coombs is a recovering alcoholic who is visited at his office by a young boy named Jerry, who claims to be his son. Throughout the entire episode Coombs does not believe that the boy is his son and his family claims that he must have started drinking again. Coombs repeatedly states that he has not had a drink in a year, and that the boy is not his son.
The Key: Right before the boy shows up, the boss offers Coombs a drink. Coombs refuses since he is a recovering alcoholic, and the boss ends up finishing both whiskeys. The boss leaves, and the boy shows up.
My thought is that the boy is a manifestation of Coombs' drinking problem. Either he shared drinks with his boss or drank after the boss left, which was not shown in the episode.
The rest of the episode the viewer is left fending for Coombs, especially when his family thinks he has been drinking. They also cannot understand why he does not know Jerry is his son. The point is that Jerry is an illusion created in Coombs' mind throughout the episode.
After Coombs' family (his wife and real son) leaves him, he is now shown drinking and the twist is confirmed. Where did he find the booze? After going through Jerry's room, which is really his real son's room, he finds a bottle of booze right next to a bunch of tee-shirts marked "Jerry".
Jerry is the booze. The boy is even shown sleeping in his real son's bed earlier in the episode. However, his real son left to stay at a friends house that night. You constantly wonder why his family thinks he has been drinking when he was never shown to be drinking. The key is that he was drunk the whole episode, but in his mind he was only denying it.
The episode ends with another man in the office (Coombs was obviously fired). The same boss offers this man a drink and since this man is conveniently a recovering alcoholic, he refuses. Of course the episode ends with the boss downing his drinks and Jerry showing up.
The boss almost embodies the nature of the addiction. The need to drink or possibly just the influence to drink. Once that takes place Jerry (the booze) shows up knocking. The rest of the episode is just the drunk man trying to hide the fact that he has been drinking. Jerry is not his real son. I do not believe he is since Coombs clearly recognizes his other son. It is just set up in this fashion to draw the viewer's attention away from the real point of the episode. You want to know whether or not the boy is his son when the actual boy does not even exist (especially when it's only a two bedroom home).