To quote Rod Serling, “There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.” Why quote Serling (creator of THE TWILIGHT ZONE and one of television’s most prolific talents) when previewing tonight’s NCIS: NEW ORLEANS episode, “The Terminator Conundrum”? Possibly because Dwayne Pride must feel like he may be trapped there.
Not only did he trade his cushy SAC office to return to NCIS: NEW ORLEANS headquarters to save Khoury’s (Necar Zedegan) job, Pride still suffers from hallucinations, insomnia and nightmares from the traumatic events of last season. Dwayne faces “the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge” as the effects of the high-tech Apollyon project continue to plague him like locusts (pun intended. The mythical Apollyon was a destroyer, the name given to the king of the hosts represented by the locusts.) If those events, the murder of his father and his mother’s dementia were not enough to make Pride worry about his sanity, throw aliens into the mix. Aliens?
Yes, aliens. When NCIS: NEW ORLEANS investigates a private plane crash in which a Navy pilot says she saw an unidentified object prior to the crash, Sebastian (Rob Kerkovich) finds an unusual clear metal in the wreckage. Positing that it could be from a UFO, one almost expects William Shatner to break in with an order to describe a starship’s cloaking device. Does this conundrum inhabit the line of the middle ground between light and shadow? Possibly. According to NOAA, the line that separates day and night is called the “terminator” or the “twilight zone.”
(NOAA is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA scientists study the skies and the oceans.)
Tonight’s episode, “The Terminator Conundrum” was written by Jan Nash and directed by Ed Ornelas. Guest cast on “The Terminator Conundrum are Alex Beh, Elizabeth Faith Ludlow, Kristin Carey, Lindsay Pulsipher, Wyatt Walter, Caroline Cole, Jeff Robins, Leslie Nipkow, Trazi Lashawn and Cory Hart in a nice hat-tip to SUPERNATURAL as “Agent Winchester.”
Somewhere from the distance, those musical notes from THE TWILIGHT ZONE waft by…
NCIS: NEW ORLEANS airs tonight (October 1) at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS in the U.S. and at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT on Global TV in Canada.
