The beard is the key.
There’s a lot about The Twilight Zone episode “The Who of You” that works remarkably well; and there’s maybe a bit too much that lands with the kind of frustratingly heavy thud we’ve experienced all too often with this new generation Twilight Zone. But the beard? The one that Ethan Embry sports as the arrogant, unsuccessful actor Harry Pine? That’s unimpeachable.
The beard serves two purposes. First off, it makes Embry practically unrecognizable at first glance. He may not have the most famous face in Hollywood, but Embry’s been an in-demand character actor for nearly 30 years, ever since he was a teenager (working back then under his birth name Ethan Randall). Embry’s the very model of a “that guy”—someone whose screen presence is familiar even when it’s hard to remember exactly what he’s been in. But with that big, bushy beard? Embry becomes anonymous again.
The beard is also a sly visual cue to what’s actually happening in this episode. At the start of “The Who Of You”—after getting bounced from another failed audition, and after getting yelled at by his girlfriend Morena (Carmel Amit) for failing to pay the power bill—Harry decides to get into character as a bandit, robbing a bank. His heist quickly goes south, but as Harry stares into the eyes of a teller named Jill (Veena Sood), who just pushed the silent alarm, he suddenly, inexplicably swaps bodies with her.
How do we know this? Because in the body of the teller, Harry reflexively reaches up to stroke his now non-existent whiskers.
This quickly becomes a motif. While being pursued by a police detective named Reece (played by Daniel Sunjata), Harry keeps jumping from body to body, becoming a beat-cop named Luntz (Mel Rodriguez), a barista, a jogger, a punk rocker, an old man, a little kid, and—in an especially weird trip—a psychic named Keith (Billy Porter). In nearly every case, one of the first things Harry does in his new physical shell is to reach for the beard. That’s our signal that the switch is a go.
“The Who Of You” is credited to screenwriter Win Rosenfeld, a producer whose only other IMDb writing credit up until now is for the upcoming Candyman remake (which he’s listed has having co-written with Jordan Peele and the film’s director Nia DaCosta). The director is Peter Atencio, who worked on Key and Peele and directed Peele’s Keanu. There’s an appealing confidence to their work, perhaps because they’re familiar colleagues. The story moves briskly, with plenty of wit and tension. And the cast—heavy on great character actors, perhaps not coincidentally—really throws itself into the challenges of roles that often see them imitating other people.
Less successful? Well, not to sound like a broken record, but as with so many of these new-generation Twilight Zones, whenever a character (including Peele’s narrator) underlines the story’s moral, the narrative momentum flags. At the start of the episode, introducing the self-absorbed, perpetually aggrieved Harry, Peele says, “Up until now he’s failed to realize that he’s not the center of the world,” which… yeah, obviously. And when Harry meets Keith, the psychic asks him, “Are you being generous with your empathy?” It’s all a bit much.
It’s much more effective when “The Who Of You” scores its points about Harry’s egotism and insensitivity more subtly. For example: Harry hardly ever seems to know the names or the ultimate fates of the people he’s jumping into. (“I’ve never really thought about it,” he tells Keith, unapologetically.) And while the people he displaces sometimes prove who they are by sharing personal details that only the people they’re talking to would know, when Harry’s in Patrolman Luntz’s body he can’t even persuade Morena of his true identity. He doesn’t know what to say.
Even if it weren’t a character study about a vain, arrogant man, “The Who Of You” would still be plenty gripping. The real pleasures of the episode are in its thoughtful plotting—including in the way Rosenfeld and Atencio hide their final twist. Early on, when Luntz is in Harry’s body, he proves who he is by telling Reece, “I know your secret.” The episode then lets that tidbit drop until the ending, when in a final switcheroo Harry jumps into Reece’s body, then shoots the new Reece-inhabited Harry. That’s when he finds out Reece’s secret: that the detective’s been having an affair with Morena. “The Who Of You” ends with Harry back with his own girlfriend, in a new, more successful persona.
That’s a clever stinger. But it’s in keeping with the episode as a whole, which generates a lot of good moments from the idea that this extraordinary power of body-switching has been granted to a man who rarely looks beyond himself.
Stray observations
- Harry is the first TV character I’ve seen in a mask since the pandemic began. Granted, he’s robbing a bank, but still!
- I confess I didn’t recognize the slimmed-down Mel Rodriguez at first. I started Googling to see if his name was listed in the episode’s credits, and the first suggestion that came up was “Mel Rodriguez weight loss,” and I went, “Ohhh…”
- A lot of funny throwaway lines in this episode, but my favorite may be Jill’s, “Charge him with criminal hypnosis!”
- Also funny (and thematically on-point):when Harry jumps into the barista and tries to run from the cops, only to realize that the guy’s legs are too short for him to get a good stride going.
- This episode’s easter egg hint from the Twilight Zone press kit/snack box I received suggests that this episode has a nod to “The Invaders.” (The hint: “The invaders who found out that a one-way ticket to the stars beyond has the ultimate price tag.”) This isn’t evident at all in the story itself. Maybe there’s a particular image that recurs between these episodes?
- Next up: “You Might Also Like.”
41 Comments
Plot reminds me of the “The Four of Us Are Dying.”
So odd that the press kit mentions “The Invaders,” when clearly that was the inspiration
Right? Like if you’re going to promote this new season based entirely on references to older stuff…the people you’re teasing are going to likely know their shit.
I also thought of Dead Man’s Shoes.
Speaking of shoes, Harry’s difficulting with running in the barista’s body isn’t because the barista’s legs are too short. The barista is wearing an orthopedic boot on his right foot, presumably because of a fracture or other injury, and literally says “Ow, my foot” when running away.
Thank you! I hate it when a reviewer misses such obvious things. I mean, watch it more than once. It’s kinda your job.
And it would probably help to watch with captions (if available), which is what confirmed it for me even more. I could still see that he had some kind of cast or boot on his right leg even before reading “Ow, my foot,” though.
Yeah, although it was quick, they panned down to show it. It probably wouldn’t bother me as much if they weren’t getting paid to do this.
It reminds me of Ethan Embry’s 2002 Twilight Zone episode which…is also about Ethan Embry body hopping..
Ethan Embry’s 1995-98 run was epic: Empire Records, That Thing You Do, White Squall, Dancer Texas Pop. 81 (HIGHLY underrated), Can’t Hardly Wait… heck, I’d even throw in Vegas Vacation (rewatchable on cable) and Disturbing Behavior.
he was also almost nightcrawler in x2
He would have attempted a German accent?
I think Blindspotting was the first thing I saw him in since his little Embrenaissance started and I was really surprised to see him beefed up and stressed out.
He and Matthew Lillard dominated earnest goofiness in the 90s.
what’s the name of that TV show that was inspired by the Blair Witch and The X-Files? loved that one as a young teen.
FreakyLinks?
I like him on Sneaky Pete
Pres-TONE!! He’s tall…. with hair… and wears T-shirts sometimes.
You know who else I like that didn’t get much play? Velma from Scooby-Doo. She was cool. She was a hip, hip lady.
it’s funny, when they cut to the closeup of him i instantly realized it was embry and was so stoked he had a meaty role in this episode.
Hi– Episode 2 that’s playing for me right now is called “Downtime.” I’m not watching on CBS, but another venue. Wiki lists Downtime as ep 2. Did CBS scramble the order?
Is it the little space figurine under the dome in his office?
Nope, for some reason my episode two was Down Time .
Are these not being reviewed in order? My second episode is called Downtime.
The listing on the AVC main site doesn’t line up with what’s been reviewed so far either, something has clearly gone weird:For what it’s worth, Downtime is my #2 episode as well. “The Who of You” is my #3.Also whoever chose the font for these comments picked one with a weird hash symbol.
I think they sent the media the season before they released it and changed the order in between.
Yeah, Downtime is episode 2.
Episodes 1, 3 & 10 were sent to critics pre-release, I assume that’s why AV Club is treating them as the first 3 episodes:
Next up: “You Might Also Like.”
They also list the episodes in the wrong order, as “8′ is NOT episode 1.
I dunno.It felt like this was the type of episode that sort of needed to end with the protagonist falling out of a conveniently-open window.Learning that his girlfriend was cheating on him was an okay kicker, I guess. But I don’t know that the 2nd kicker of him successfully auditioning actually added much? Isn’t the fact that now his whole life is a role enough?
It was my least favorite of the first 3, but was still probably a more successful episode than most of the 1st season.
Seems like most of this season’s episodes follow the theme “Identity: What is it?”
Ok wait a minute wait a minute… I already felt like his obsession with the bag of cash seemed bizarre considering his insane new super power, but why in the world would he call the cops (after finding out his original body is arrested and with the cops) to… make them open Billy Porter’s psychic shop to retrieve his stolen bag of cash??
This is where Peele’s narration really needs to be a little bit meaner like Serling’s could be.
“His name is Harry Pine, he’s 36 years old. He thinks of himself as an actor, but he’s been a salesman, a dispatcher, a truck driver, a con man, a bookie, and a part-time bartender. This is a cheap man, a nickel-and-dime man, with a cheapness that goes past the suit and the shirt; a cheapness of mind, a cheapness of taste, a tawdry little shine on the seat of his conscience, and a dark-room squint at a world whose sunlight has never gotten through to him. But Mr. Pine has a talent. This much he does have. He can make his face change. He can concentrate with the cast of his eyes, and he can change his face. He can change it into anyone he wants. Mr. Harry Pine, jack-of-all-trades and master of none, has a bag, a most odd talent, and a plan to destroy some lives.” That’s all borrowed stolen from “The Four of Us Are Dying” but if they’re telling a story about a loser they really need to dive in with gusto.
Wait, but he said he didn’t know how he had that superpower. I thought he acquired it that morning.
Why am I’m not allowed to comment? I made the first comment this afternoon about the scrambling of the order. It’s not even pending? Why, after all my years of being here, do I get relegated to the grays and need to be approved for EVERY SINGLE COMMENT?!?!
This episode made me think of the movie “Fallen” with Denzel Washington and John Goodman, only all you need to jump into someone’s body is to look them in the eye, rather than touching them.
Yeah, when he’s on the street with the 2 female cops and switching bodies 3-4 times, I also thought of Fallen.
“Also funny (and thematically on-point):when Harry jumps into the barista and tries to run from the cops, only to realize that the guy’s legs are too short for him to get a good stride going.”I’m guessing you missed that the barista had a cast on his leg. So his leg was broken, not that they were too short.
Harry is the first TV character I’ve seen in a mask since the pandemic began. Granted, he’s robbing a bank, but still!See the first minute of the pilot of Upload.
There’s actually a body swap episode they could’ve used for their comparison note for this, forget what it’s called but it’s the one where the guy wears the shoes and becomes so the dead guy.
Freaking detective was cucking the guy the whole time 🙁
“when in a final switcheroo Harry jumps into Reece’s body, then shoots the new Reece-inhabited Harry.”Um, no. The other cops came in and *they* shot Harry’s body because (from their perspective) he was pointing a gun at Reece, a cop. At that point Harry in Reece’s body didn’t have a gun. Reece in Harry’s body had the gun.
This kind of reminded me of the character Jericho from the New Teen Titans, who could possess other people (not body-swapping) by locking eyes with them.