The Beacon (The Twilight Zone)
Encyclopedia
"The Beacon" is the first segment of the eleventh episode from the first season (1985-1986) of the television series The Twilight Zone.
Dennis stumbles into a strange town on the coast with a lighthouse
. By this time, it is dark and the town seems deserted with only the sound of a barking dog in the distance. Desperate, he awakens the proprietor of the general store, who promptly tells him that they have no phone and no way to help him.
After introducing himself, a boy asks "what's a doctor?" Confused, Dennis listens to their odd conversation about the boy's sick sister. The boy then offers their spare room to Dennis for the night, although the proprietor and his mother are both wary of it. Dennis offers to help the sick girl, but the mother refuses. Suddenly, the lighthouse, seemingly with a mind of its own, starts lighting up the town and focuses on the girl's bedroom. This makes the mother and the boy terribly upset.
The boy, Teddy, asks to talk to Dennis. He explains that his sister may die, since the light picked her room and begs Dennis to help. Dennis gives her medicine, but Teddy claims that the beacon might take his sister anyway. Teddy explains that whenever the beacon, as he calls the lighthouse, picks someone to sacrifice, it takes them. Dennis begs Teddy to take him to the beacon in order to reason with Seth, the one who runs the lighthouse.
The townspeople find out that Dennis made the girl well, but they feel that she still needs to be sacrificed. The proprietor and Teddy's mother find Dennis and Teddy at the lighthouse. The mother and Teddy leave while the proprietor tells the story of how Seth's spirit controls the lighthouse and how it protects the town and the town does what it is told to do. The proprietor explains that once before a person chosen to be sacrifed was spared and the town fell on hard times. So now the lighthouse wants a substitute or the hard times will come again. The townspeople then crowd around Dennis as he screams for help...and the lighthouse goes dark.
Opening narration
Synopsis
The story opens on the aftermath of an automobile accident, which apparently resulted in a death. The young doctor, Dennis Barrows, who looks after the fatality oddly enough was involved in the accident, but was not at fault. The police advise him he should have stayed on main roads, but he insists on continuing on. As he makes his way down a dusty road, his car breaks down and he decides to walk to the nearest town. He finds a barbed wire fence blocking the road with a big sign that says "Private Property - Keep Out". Dennis crosses it anyway.Dennis stumbles into a strange town on the coast with a lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
. By this time, it is dark and the town seems deserted with only the sound of a barking dog in the distance. Desperate, he awakens the proprietor of the general store, who promptly tells him that they have no phone and no way to help him.
After introducing himself, a boy asks "what's a doctor?" Confused, Dennis listens to their odd conversation about the boy's sick sister. The boy then offers their spare room to Dennis for the night, although the proprietor and his mother are both wary of it. Dennis offers to help the sick girl, but the mother refuses. Suddenly, the lighthouse, seemingly with a mind of its own, starts lighting up the town and focuses on the girl's bedroom. This makes the mother and the boy terribly upset.
The boy, Teddy, asks to talk to Dennis. He explains that his sister may die, since the light picked her room and begs Dennis to help. Dennis gives her medicine, but Teddy claims that the beacon might take his sister anyway. Teddy explains that whenever the beacon, as he calls the lighthouse, picks someone to sacrifice, it takes them. Dennis begs Teddy to take him to the beacon in order to reason with Seth, the one who runs the lighthouse.
The townspeople find out that Dennis made the girl well, but they feel that she still needs to be sacrificed. The proprietor and Teddy's mother find Dennis and Teddy at the lighthouse. The mother and Teddy leave while the proprietor tells the story of how Seth's spirit controls the lighthouse and how it protects the town and the town does what it is told to do. The proprietor explains that once before a person chosen to be sacrifed was spared and the town fell on hard times. So now the lighthouse wants a substitute or the hard times will come again. The townspeople then crowd around Dennis as he screams for help...and the lighthouse goes dark.