darkest most disturbing episodes?

"The Bewitchin' Pool," much like "A Stop At Willoughby," is about the price a person pays to achieve paradise (or at least one's personal version of paradise). Jeb, Sport and Gart have to ostensibly commit suicide in order to gain access to Aunt T. and Willoughby respectively. And I agree with you: Aunt T and her idyllic play land would become a hellish horror the more prolonged a person's exposure was to it. Willoughby, for me anyway, would also become a nightmare since I have little patience for fishing or those bicycles with the big wheel and the little wheel (I think they're called "velocipedes").

telegonus- It definitely is a downer for the divorcing couple in The Bewitchin' Pool! Even though they seemed to be uncaring at the time, they probably loved their kids. And now they have to explain to the authorities how both children have disappeared. Not a good situation. When children go missing, the first people the police look at are the parents. Even if they didn't go to prison, both parents were probably looking at a future like John and Patsy Ramsey, hounded and trying to prove their innocence for the rest of their lives.

Interesting that you see a forever childhood, even a happy one, as a living hell. I think a lot of people would like it though! This episode reminds me a bit of the Peter Pan Syndrome, the forever boy, the boy who refused to grow up.

That's a fairly common syndrome these days with some young adults not leaving home, even nto their thirties. I had a boyfriend who was a bit of a Peter Pan type. He lived with his grandparents into his thirties even though his job was almost fifty miles away. When they died he stayed in their house (it was old and falling apart) with all their old decrepit furniture. I used to ask him why he didn't get his own place and furniture. He used to say "Home is where the heart is". He spoke of his grandparents constantly and they'd passed away long before I met him. He reminisced about grandma's cooking all the time. It was as though he couldn't give up his childhood.

While we were dating (he was forty), his mother brought food and homemade desserts over for him every week because he refused to learn to cook. She used to do his laundry. He stopped by her house every Sunday after church with his insulated food bags to pick up Sunday dinner.

Just saying that what would be a hellish existence for you might be heaven for someone else. No cares, no chores, Aunt T doing all the cooking. lol

There are so many dark and disturbing episodes. It's hard to pick just a few. For me 'The Masks' is very disturbing. Jason Foster's greedy family had it coming. They only showed up for a "death watch", hoping to inherit his wealth. I wouldn't have blamed him if he took them to task for their terrible behavior.

A normal drama might have ended with them finding out that he gave away most of his fortune and they were only going to receive a pittance. But in this case, they got all his money and property, but now they had to wear the faces of those ugly masks. They HAD the wealth but how could they enjoy it condemned to live in the shadows for the rest of their lives? They were doomed to a sort of living hell.

I agree with that. He's alive and obsolete Man are two that come to mind.

Peter saying to Helen he had a crush on her when she was a child is enough to put this episode up there with the darkest ones in "TZ," especially since he would have well been into adulthood when she was a child.

I don't blame you. I always feel dread as those passengers die and her dreams came true. I tell you margo that is another good choice.

I'd say that and Night Call are the two that creep me out.

One theme which was very dark and disturbing was the power of nightmares to dominate one's life. Perchance to Dream and SHoadow Play.