One for the Angels
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Twilight Zone
playground_swing — 9 years ago(September 30, 2016 10:12 PM)
Just watched this episode for the first time. Very subtle and heartwarming. Bookman doesn't want to die. Death acts as though he is a jerk. While it is not explicit, it became clear after watching it that Death is only pretending to be cruel to make Bookman's passing easier. By pretending to be cruel and heartless and then pretending to be tricked by Bookman, he coldly tells Bookman that he will take a little girl's life instead. Bookman thinks he will fool death again by making him late for his appointment to bring death to the girl. The satisfaction Bookman gets at "fooling" death with his pitch and saving the girl's life makes him go willingly and contentedly with death. The fact that Mr. Death is actually compassionate becomes clear when he assures Bookman that he will be going "up" to heaven and smiles. No one would have fallen for the poor pitch Bookman gave. This makes the episode even sweeter. Bookman was horrible as a pitchman, but excelled at compassion.I have to admit that this enlightenment came to me after reading one of the comments to the article and it made me like the episode even more.