Episode #31 - The Road Less Traveled

#31: THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED (episode #7 of 2nd season)
written by George R.R.Martin    Directed by Wes Craven

A slice of fantasy about war again - the Vietnam War in this case (the old show had episodes about the Korean War and WW2). An average suburban couple (Cliff DeYoung, Margaret Clenck) are told by their young daughter that a man is in her room; this seems like the old thing about a child with too much imagination at night, but there is indeed a bearded man in  a wheelchair creeping around. It turns out that the hubby has guilt issues about avoiding the war back in '71 by going to Canada; the crippled man is what the husband would be if he had gone to Vietnam.

This is the old tale of coming to two forks in a road; it's about making choices in life. When this theme concerns alternate Earths - the theory in quantum mechanics that the results of any & all decisions exist in a multiverse - then we are able to see the results of both choices, of taking both paths. I'm not sure if there is a message in the end - it boils down to the two versions of one man sharing all their experiences. It's kind of banal. And, how or why this happened gets a vague explanation - an allusion to acid trips? Yet, the sight of a vet in a wheelchair is still guaranteed to depress. It's just that there's nothing beyond that. BoG's Score: 5 out of 10