Eye of the Beholder | Why Viewers Still Can't Forget It

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]Well, hello everybody and welcome back to the channel. Excellent news, my friends, because today we'll be watching the tense, terrifying, yet always terrific world of Rod Surling's Twilight Zone. Specifically, season 2, episode 6, Eye of the Beholder. Now friends, full disclosure, I have a buddy who knew that I was starting to watch The Twilight Zone for the first time and before I could stop them started to give me a list of titles of episodes that once I watched them, I was to contact him. And the very first one before I had a chance to stop him, he said, "Whenever you see Eye of the Beholder and" and I stop, no, I don't want to poison the well. If I know you like it, then I'll, you know, Mike try to flavor it so I like it. So friends, I do know this one of my buddies abs. This was the number one episode that he mentioned before I could stop him. So I'm very hopeful to get into this one, but I just want to warn everybody that if I don't like it or or there's something that you know I'm not going to just wholeheartedly agree with my buddy much to his dismay and u you know I'm going to formulate my own opinion just so you know. I want full disclosure so that I have name recognition with this and that's it. But I cannot wait to get in here and basically see what all the hubs about.

[00:01:15]So wait no longer, we shall. If you could do me a quick favor though and hit that like button, smash that subscribe, ring that bell for notifications, it greatly helps out a small channel and it allows me to alert you next time it's time for the Twilight Zone or any of our sci-fi fair. And of course, if there's anything that we do that you would like early or in its full length format, the link to our Patreon is in the description. And if you're not a fan of Patreon, consider YouTube memberships.

[00:01:40]You'll get all of our episodes at least a day early. But my dear, dear friends, all that is then and this is now. And what is now? Now is the highly recommended from my buddy episode of The Twilight Zone, season 2, episode 6, Eye of the Beholder.

[00:01:57]Prepare to engage Maximum Warp Reaction.

[00:02:01]And away we go.

[00:02:12]It's 9:30.

[00:02:15]Oh, >> what about the day?

[00:02:18]>> Well, what about it?

[00:02:19]>> Well, was it a beautiful day? Was it warm? Was the sun out?

[00:02:24]>> It was kind of warm.

[00:02:25]>> Yes. And clouds.

[00:02:28]Were there clouds in the sky?

[00:02:30]>> I suppose there were. I never was much for staring up at the sky.

[00:02:34]>> No.

[00:02:35]>> Very interesting. You can't see anybody talking.

[00:02:38]>> When will they take the bandages off?

[00:02:42]How long, nurse?

[00:02:45]>> Until they decide whether or not they can fix your face.

[00:02:49]>> Pretty bad, isn't it?

[00:02:50]>> I've seen worse.

[00:02:52]>> Well, yes, but it's pretty bad, isn't it? Oh, I know.

[00:02:56]It's pretty bad.

[00:02:59]Ever since I was a little girl, people have turned away when they looked at me.

[00:03:03]Oh, I thought she was injured like in an accident.

[00:03:06]>> There's another little child screaming when she looked at me.

[00:03:12]I never really wanted to be beautiful. I just wanted people not to scream when they looked at me. When, nurse, when when when will they take the bandages off?

[00:03:23]>> Maybe tomorrow. Maybe the next day.

[00:03:25]>> Okay, so it's just whatever it is. I mean, is she injured? Evening report on patient 307. No temperature change.

[00:03:35]Resting comfortably.

[00:03:37]>> Thank you, nurse. I'll be down later.

[00:03:39]>> I'm a little confused because she's in there >> 307.

[00:03:45]>> Indeed, I have. If it were mine, I'd bury myself in a grave someplace.

[00:03:50]>> Jesus.

[00:03:52]>> Some people want to live no matter what.

[00:03:56]>> Cigarette. They're literally saying that she'd be better off dead. Some people want to live no matter what.

[00:04:04]>> Hey, Rod.

[00:04:05]>> Your introduction to Miss Janet Tyler, who lives in a very private world of darkness. In a moment, we'll go back into this room. And also, in a moment, we'll look under those bandages. Keeping in mind, of course, that we're not to be surprised by what we see because this isn't just a hospital. This happens to be the Twilight Zone. And Miss Janet Tyler with you is about to enter it.

[00:04:28]>> With us? That's one of the first time he's included us into the journey. We're usually observers.

[00:04:35]>> Well, it's warm this evening, Miss Tyler.

[00:04:37]>> They're not showing us anybody's faces.

[00:04:39]>> We'll have those bandages off you very soon. I expect you're pretty uncomfortable.

[00:04:43]>> Well, I'm used to bandages on my face.

[00:04:45]>> I have no doubt. It's your ninth visit here.

[00:04:48]>> Ninth?

[00:04:49]>> I think I've lived my whole life inside of a dark cave. The walls are gauze >> and she's really quiet.

[00:04:55]>> There's a kind of a comfort living inside this cave. It's wonderfully private.

[00:05:01]>> I can't even tell how old she is.

[00:05:04]>> It's hopeless, isn't it, doctor? I'll never look any differently.

[00:05:08]>> Well, that's hard to say.

[00:05:10]>> It almost looks like there's something with her neck.

[00:05:12]>> Frankly, you've stumped us, Miss Tyler.

[00:05:14]Nothing we've done so far has made any difference at all.

[00:05:19]We're very hopeful for what this last treatment may have accomplished. There's no telling, of course, till we get the bandages off.

[00:05:25]>> When's that?

[00:05:26]>> Case is not one that we could have handled with plastic surgery. But your bone structure, flesh type, many factors prohibit the surgical approach.

[00:05:36]11 is the mandatory number of experiments. We're not permitted to do anymore after 11.

[00:05:41]>> Wow. Okay. 11's the max. We have no reference either to where we are.

[00:05:46]>> And if I haven't responded, then what?

[00:05:48]or even what planet we're on.

[00:05:50]>> Think of the time and money and the effort expended to make you look >> look like what doctor?

[00:05:57]>> Normal the way you'd like to look.

[00:05:59]>> Doctor, may I walk outside?

[00:06:03]>> Yeah, there's something with her neck.

[00:06:05]>> Just a feel just just to smell the flowers.

[00:06:09]>> This is so heartbreaking. If I sit out there in the darkness, then the whole world is dark and I'm more a part of it like that, not just >> Yeah, there's I don't know what it is, but it looks like there's like >> I want to belong.

[00:06:25]I want to be like everybody.

[00:06:28]>> Oh my god, this is horrific.

[00:06:30]>> Please help me.

[00:06:33]>> There are many others who share your misfortune.

[00:06:37]people who look much as you do.

[00:06:40]>> Really? Okay. So, I'm starting to think we're not on Earth.

[00:06:44]>> Allow you to move into a special area in which people of your kind have been congregated.

[00:06:51]>> Okay. Her kind.

[00:06:53]>> Congregated.

[00:06:56]Oh, you mean segregated?

[00:07:00]You mean imprisoned, don't you, doctor?

[00:07:02]YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT A GHETTO, aren't you? A ghetto designed for freaks. Miss Tyler is doing all it can for you.

[00:07:10]>> You're not being rational, Miss Tiner.

[00:07:12]>> Oh my god.

[00:07:13]>> I could wear a mask or or this bandage or I wouldn't bother anybody. I'd just go my own way. I'd get a job. Any job.

[00:07:22]Who are you people anyway? What is this state?

[00:07:26]Who makes all these rules? And >> wait, I think that's a bandage around her neck, like across her chin. I thought it was like flesh.

[00:07:35]>> Please. FATE IS NOT GOD. IT HASN'T THE RIGHT TO PENALIZE SOMEBODY FOR AN ACCIDENT OF BIRTH. It hasn't the right TO MAKE UGLINESS A CRIME.

[00:07:43]>> TYLER, >> I feel the night out there. I feel the air. I can smell the flowers.

[00:07:49]>> Is she not allowed to go out? People of her kind. This is going to be very interesting when this comes off. If they if they even take it off, that'd be just leaves our imaginations run wild.

[00:08:00]>> Take it OFF ME. TAKE IT OFF ME.

[00:08:06]OH MY GOD. I mean, the acting underneath all of that.

[00:08:10]>> Please let me go. Let me go. Please.

[00:08:12]Please let me go. Please. Please let me.

[00:08:16]>> I'm trying to get a peek under there.

[00:08:18]>> Get the anesthetist.

[00:08:20]>> Oh, they're going to drug her. Oh boy.

[00:08:23]All right.

[00:08:25]You have got to be me. We are halfway through this already. Oh my god.

[00:08:31]Jesus. Is this tense? Okay, so we have like a segregated populace. She's not alone.

[00:08:38]>> I know how much it means to you, this case in 307.

[00:08:43]>> Well, you try to be impersonal about these things. You do everything medically possible, everything humanly possible, and then in the end, you cross your fingers.

[00:08:52]>> Humanly possible.

[00:08:53]>> But you're destroying yourself this way.

[00:08:56]>> So presumably we're on an Earth or Earth variant or Earth or the future maybe.

[00:09:01]>> Just seen nurse. I I >> trying to see something outside.

[00:09:04]>> Deeper than that pitiful twisted lump of flesh. Deeper even than that misshapen skeletal mask.

[00:09:12]I've seen that woman's real face, nurse.

[00:09:16]It's a good face.

[00:09:19]It's a human face.

[00:09:20]>> I understand.

[00:09:22]>> Human. Okay.

[00:09:23]>> It's easier for me to think of her as as human when her face is covered up.

[00:09:28]>> But why?

[00:09:30]Why must we feel that way, nurse?

[00:09:34]>> What is the dimensional difference between beauty and something repellent?

[00:09:37]>> It's very interesting. It's like it's like they don't even want comparative faces at all. Like we our imagination is just going to go crazy with like what everyone looks like, but we know that she has something like seriously wrong with her or different. I shouldn't say wrong. Something different.

[00:09:52]>> Don't be concerned, nurse. I'll be all right once the bandages are off. Once I know one way or the other. Hey, I was going to say, what's going on there?

[00:09:59]Doctor and nurse getting very familiar.

[00:10:04]>> And now, ladies and gentlemen, our leader.

[00:10:07]>> Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

[00:10:10]Tonight, I shall talk to you about glorious conformity, above the delight and the ultimate pleasure of our unified society.

[00:10:21]No tantrums, no temperament, no violence.

[00:10:25]>> Okay. Okay. So, we're this is an future alternate Earth.

[00:10:29]>> I'm going to cut the bandages a section at a time >> or another planet that just using using human. So, >> as I unwrap, I want you to keep your eyes open and I want you to describe to me the various shadings of light as you perceive it.

[00:10:42]>> So, did they do work on her eyes too?

[00:10:45]>> Have the neessus put you under sedation.

[00:10:47]You understand?

[00:10:48]>> I promise I won't.

[00:10:50]>> Jesus. My god, my back hurts.

[00:10:56]attention to make that clear.

[00:10:59]>> Just be very quiet.

[00:11:03]>> Is there like a plaster thing under there? Jesus, that's a lot of gauze.

[00:11:10]>> Is there like skin like weeping? Is that why they have that on there?

[00:11:13]>> Good. Good. Look, look up toward the light.

[00:11:17]>> Great shot. Great shot.

[00:11:21]Awesome. Great POV.

[00:11:27]I guess that could just be from, you know, being in darkness, too. I mean, something really nefarious about that to explain the different shading. That's like what colors you see in hues. That's That's odd. Unless they did work on her eyes.

[00:11:42]>> I'm at the last layer of bandages.

[00:11:45]>> That's awesome.

[00:11:46]>> I can just see you. I can just distinguish your outline vaguely, but I can just see you. Yeah, it's so good.

[00:11:54]>> Would you like a mirror?

[00:11:57]>> No.

[00:11:58]No thank you. No mirror.

[00:12:02]>> Now we have done all we could do.

[00:12:05]>> You can't have more. Only 11.

[00:12:06]>> If on the other hand, this final treatment has not achieved the desired result. Please remember, Miss Tyler, that you can still live a long and fruitful life among people of your own kind.

[00:12:19]>> Your own kind? What is going on here?

[00:12:22]>> If I'm still terribly ugly, well, is there any other alternative?

[00:12:27]Could I please be put away?

[00:12:31]>> Well, under certain circumstances, Miss China, the state does provide for the extermination of undesirabs. However, there are many factors to be considered in the decision.

[00:12:40]Under the present circumstances, I I doubt very much whether we would be permitted to do anything but transfer you to a communal group of people with your >> Oh my god. So, she's asking them to kill her. Oh my god. But there's there's ways that the state will exterminate you.

[00:12:59]Where the are we, man?

[00:13:00]>> All right, Mr. Tyler.

[00:13:02]>> This is already a fantastic episode.

[00:13:03]This is utterly amazing. even before whatever the hell this is going to be under here. I I I'm waiting for it to be something like a freckle, you know, or or a blue eyes instead of brown or something like that.

[00:13:19]God, that's such a cool shot.

[00:13:21]>> No change.

[00:13:23]>> Oh god, >> I can't tell. Is it a different color?

[00:13:32]Like is Needle, please.

[00:13:53]>> They're talking about Earth. Where the are we?

[00:13:56]>> Single morality, a single president, a single philosophy of government.

[00:14:01]>> The best thing is too, she's beautiful, right?

[00:14:04]classically whatever.

[00:14:10]>> How did they hide that? I bet you I I swear to you I bet you if we go back and look at the silhouettes, they didn't have any of the makeup on.

[00:14:18]>> Miss Tyler, don't be afraid.

[00:14:21]>> He's He's only a representative from the group you're going to live with. Don't be afraid.

[00:14:26]>> I'm at a loss for words. I do think I've seen a meme somewhere with those now that I'm thinking about it because they were doctors.

[00:14:35]>> Now, this is Mr. Smith.

[00:14:37]Mr. Walder Smith.

[00:14:40]Mr. Smith is in charge of >> Mr. Smith. Fantastically good-looking.

[00:14:45]>> I think you're going to like it where I'm going to take you.

[00:14:48]You'll uh you'll be with your own kind.

[00:14:52]>> This is insanity.

[00:14:54]>> You'll feel a sense of great belonging.

[00:14:57]I think it's the best twist yet. I think it's the best twist yet.

[00:15:01]>> And you will be loved, Miss Tyler.

[00:15:03]>> Well, could you be less creepy? I mean, don't rely on your good looks there, Warren Batty.

[00:15:08]>> Why do we have to look like this?

[00:15:12]>> I don't know, Miss Tyler. I really don't know. There's an old saying.

[00:15:17]A very, very old saying.

[00:15:18]>> This must be the future.

[00:15:20]>> Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[00:15:23]>> I mean, you'll be outside. You were talking about that. You won't be in the hospital anymore. You don't have people screaming.

[00:15:34]>> Hey everybody.

[00:15:35]>> Goodbye, Miss Tyler.

[00:15:37]>> That's some pretty damn good makeup.

[00:15:39]>> Now, the questions that come to mind.

[00:15:41]Where is this place and when is it?

[00:15:43]>> Right. You're right. Right.

[00:15:44]>> You want an answer? The answer is it doesn't make any difference.

[00:15:48]>> That's right.

[00:15:48]>> Because the old saying happens to be true. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In this year or a hundred years hence on this planet or wherever there is human life, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Lesson to be learned in the Twilight Zone.

[00:16:05]>> Oh my lord. I'm I I actually feel like weird. All right, everybody. We just finished The Twilight Zone season 2, episode 6, Eye of the Beholder, and the only thing left to do is talk about it.

[00:16:18]All right, everybody. Hey, we just finished Eye of the Beholder, the sixth episode of the second season of the Twilight Zone. We're kick we're we're off and running now. It's on and popping. The last episode and this episode, The Howling Man and Eye of the Beholder have been two bangers here in season 2. So, um again, I just was looking for business to pick up and business is now officially a booming here in the Twilight Zone season 2.

[00:16:44]Okay, so um I do think that I have seen something like that before. I had absolutely no reference for it. I I remember seeing really it was kind of like the the pig nose and people dressed as doctors. I didn't realize that was the Twilight Zone. Oh my god, that is so good. Okay, so here's my thing. Very, very, you know, again, much like the howling man when we talked about the camera work sort of taking center stage in that one. I can't quite say that for Eye of the Beholder because um our Janet uh Janet Tyler, the actress that was doing that work. Unreal. Unreal. You know what? To be very fair, I'm assuming that the actress that we saw at the end was Janet Tyler underneath. I mean, presumably they had somebody else that was doing the acting and they just, you know, uh pulled out, you know, there's somebody else to be the reveal. I mean, that could potentially be it. Um I would have to I mean, you know what? I'm gonna hold please. I'm gonna check. Okay. So, I just went back and checked everybody and it was in fact two different actresses. One provided the voice and one provided the look of whenever the uh bandages were removed. And when the bandages were removed, it was Donna Douglas and when the bandages were on and voice, the voice was provided by uh an actress by the name of Maxine Stewart. So, I thought that was very interesting. It seemed like that, but it seemed I thought I caught a little ADR at one point. So, here's what initially kind of queued me in on the idea that there might be two different actresses.

[00:18:12]Whenever she's under all the bandages, that actress, whoever was underneath there, couldn't be doing those line deliveries. They would have sounded incredibly muffled, even with that kind of area that they had uh left open. It would have been really hard for pickup mics and things like that to be able to capture that. So, most of that was probably recorded simply because her mouth was obscured. And um I mean, it would provide itself for that. You can't really show any part of it because it gives it away. Oh, really well done.

[00:18:40]But, you know, I think the idea really hearkening back to the title of the episode, Eye of the Beholder. This is Rod Serling kind of pushing a back against societal norms. You know, what exactly is beauty? And he uh subverted that expectation. This was probably the best twist that they had. I can't think of another twist that was quite so profound and so uh uh expertly executed as this one. I was wondering I thought they were making some type of almost like an artistic statement by not showing the faces of the doctors and the nurses. I thought it was supposed to be like they were trying to draw focus all they were all in shadow and she was in white in the bandages or lighter color presumably white in the bandages and I thought that was that was to make her even more separate than everybody else you know what I mean everybody else even with the bandages on or I thought they were kind of giving us a mirror of what she was experiencing you know she couldn't see them she could feel them so they show you know when they were touching her and things like that and she couldn't make out features and she couldn't didn't make out when they were around. So, I thought that maybe we were supposed to be provided almost a sympathetic sort of stance with our narrator to be a or our protagonist really to be able to kind of experience what she was experiencing. This world of darkness, this world of, you know, the other, this world of, you know, they're there, I'm separate from everything else and that hopelessness. And I thought that was expertly conveyed. It was heart-wrenching, you know, when she's sitting there just pleading to the doctor to just do anything to make her look normal. And um I think that that is so again, it just so incredibly sad because the the parallels there are just like Rod said, you know, when this is or what planet this is on, it doesn't matter, you know, or what time it is, it doesn't matter because these things are occurring at all points at all times.

[00:20:34]There is a definition of beauty that is accepted by more people than not. And so that ideal of beauty becomes the standard. And when something becomes the standard, any deviation from that, especially in what looked like some type of like dictatorship, you know, we had like the leader who was sitting there, conformity is to conform or normaly is to conform or whatever the the slogan was that he was kind of repeating. Um, and again I it really speaks to a much broader issue, not necessarily just beauty, but whatever society deems the standard, there in lies the problem. Because as soon as we have somebody that doesn't conform to whatever it might be, whether it be like physical ability, you know, like physical athletic ability or or talent or, you know, uh, intelligence or whatever any then of course beauty. When the majority of people say that right there, that's what we mean by perfection, by excellence, by the best, then as soon as there is the majority that feels that way, then there's going to be a minority that suffers because they don't have those same characteristics or have the ability to assume those characteristics. And so, boy, just multi-layered in this one. I mean, it it you everything this could go absolutely through. You could apply this to every sort of like societal pigeon holing, societal suppression, all of those things, you know, subjugation even. You could get so far. I mean, you could be race relations. You could throw everything into this one. This this is something very, very interesting. It's a special episode. It really I can see now my buddy's going to watch this and be like, "Dickhead, I told you." Yeah, it was really good, bud. Um, you know, it it's just it's so good. It uh wow, this is one of the this is a thanker. I love these episodes, too, because I know now I'm going to be thinking about Eye of the Beholder, you know, quite a bit.

[00:22:36]There are so many and I'll tell you this a little bit, but I'm going to leave.

[00:22:39]I'm going to end on this one, friends.

[00:22:41]I'm going to end on this one. Whenever I do a Twilight Zone thought section, whenever we sit down and talk about it, I inevitably continue to think about the Twilight Zone after, you know, I've moved on a couple more episodes and I'll go back and think about some of the other ones and I'll come up with these what I think are these really profound statements and boy, I wish I would have said this, that, or the other thing. And um again, I just think that it's it's a testament to the excellence of the creative Rod Serling, the creative team, Mat, all of our writers who come in and do these that it's just so well constructed. Whether it be the camera work with the obscuring of the faces, the feeling of that separateness that we are given, gifted like Janet Tyler had.

[00:23:22]All of these elements are rolled into a suspense and tension that in 20 minutes made my back start to kill me as I'm sitting there watching it. I mean, it's just so well done. But I think beneath this, and this isn't a like a profound statement, you know, by any stretch of the imagination. I think I'm just realizing that there are so many layers of actual realistic current issues current for the day and really current for us right now in 2025 that Sterling is addressing through the use of the fantastical. And this episode, Eye of the Beholder, is probably the one that's at the forefront. This is the one that I feel he has been the most overt with being you know hey let's check this out apply take this out take beauty out of the equation throw in something else take that out of the equation throw in some other societal norm norm wow just so excellently well done and such a really it's a visual shock to see that and then realize that everything that you've heard up to that point has been this skewed skewed almost, you know, not almost for our interpretation, an incredibly skewed and twisted version of events. But the thing is that's how the other feels about whatever the sta societal standard happens to be, that it's twisted, that it's just not right.

[00:24:44]There's just something wrong. Why am I not like that? Oh my god, the questions.

[00:24:49]The questions that I am going to be asking myself and the my buddy is going to rub this in my face, everybody. And uh I should just probably I'm gonna go ahead and text him after this is over and just take my medicine. Oh, everybody, the Twilight Zone, when you absolutely positively need the very best accept no substitute. If you could do me a favor, hit that like button, smash that subscribe, ring that bell for notifications. It greatly helps out a small channel and it allows me to alert you next time it's time for the Twilight Zone or any of our sci-fi fair. And of course, if there's anything that we're doing that you would like early or in its full length format, the link to our Patreon is in the description. If you're not a fan of Patreon, consider YouTube memberships. You'll get all of our episodes at least a day early. Ah, but all that is then and this is now, my friends. And now, unfortunately, unfortunately, it's time to say goodbye from this, the sixth episode of the second season of The Twilight Zone, the never to be forgotten title, Eye of the Beholder. Unfortunately, we have to say goodbye, friends. And normally with our other series, what we do because we're the Greek course, we're the ones that continue to spread the tales started by the storytellers to tell people that haven't seen it before, you really need to check out Eye of the Beholder, as my buddy told me. Because of that, our reward is to then watch the episode and jump back into a favored scene. We're part of the story. We might as well place ourselves in the story. But with the Twilight Zone, we do something a little bit different, my friends. With the Twilight Zone, what we do is we say goodbye as a result of the episode. So, friends, you know where I'm going to put us.

[00:26:25]The gauze is itchy across our face. We can barely smell the flowers that are blowing in through the open window. One of the nurses must have been nice enough to leave it open for us. But as we are all sitting there in our ward being told by the doctor, "It'll be okay. It'll be okay." We can't see anything. We don't know what the world around us is like.

[00:26:45]We don't even know why we're here or what they're fixing or how they're going to make us normal. And friends, what's scarier? Knowing that you're not normal or that you're not normal enough?

[00:26:58]Friends, until we get a chance to continue this journey through the Twilight Zone, Vulcan Rome and I'll see you.