Only once in a blue moon does one see a television episode that is as creative and daring as Sunday night's innovative episode of "Felicity." An homage to the popular and long-running show, "The Twilight Zone," the episode was shot entirely in black and white. The tribute is made complete by the inclusion of former "Twilight Zone" director Lamont Johnson.
Felicity has sure had a rough year. Who can blame the lovesick girl? First, she has a falling out with the handsome Noel, then her relationship with Ben, the boy she followed all the way to New York, falls to pieces. And of course, everywhere she goes she sees her two ex-lovebirds. Noel lives with her best friend Elaina, and Felicity works with Ben at Dean & DeLuca, the oh-so trendy supermarket/coffee shop in New York City. Then there's that terrible, new, cropped haircut. No wonder the girl's feeling a bit under the weather.
The show starts out with a morose Felicity looking out her dorm window, as the eerie "Twilight Zone" music plays in the background. Her weirdo roommate asks Felicity what's wrong. Felicity responds blandly, "It's just such a gray day." Felicity than asks Meghan what she has in that bizarre box she is always playing with. Meghan coyly responds with a terse, "Oh, you'll find out soon enough."
Our little yuppie Felicity then heads off to Dean & DeLuca for her shift, only to find herself in the "Twilight Zone" version of the coffee shop, which only serves a good old cup of Joe. Once again, our lovesick Felicity ends up getting depressed when Noel comes in for a cup of coffee while Ben is cleaning the tables in the shop. Suddenly a bizarre lady walks into the shop and comments on how "lovesick" Felicity looks. She tells Felicity that she might be able to help her and hands her a card for the Love Clinic. She tells her, "For the incurable romantic, the clinic is the cure."
Intrigued by this strange encounter, Felicity decides to give this Love Clinic a try. An omniscient narrator voice says, "Felicity Porter, making a phone call that will change her life forever." Felicity heads down to the clinic for what she thinks will be a consultation. She explains to the nurse in the reception room, "For some horrible, annoying reason, love matters to me. I just want this feeling to go away." The nurse leads Felicity into the doctor's office, where he proceeds to give her a physical examination and also makes her drink a cup of water. When he reaches down to draw blood, Felicity realizes that this is going too far and runs away as the doctors shout, "There's no need to be afraid!" Of course not. This is only the "Twilight Zone," we're talking about.
While talking to her friend Elena in the library, Felicity starts to think she's going crazy when she sees a dead man. He tells her, "It's too late for me, but you still have a chance."
Now Felicity's friends start surprising her. She confides in her friend Julie about the love clinic episode. Julie encourages her to revisit the clinic, responding by asking, "How do you think I got over Ben and you stealing him from me?"
Determined to put an end to this craziness, Felicity pays another visit to the doctor. She accuses him of harassing her and disrupting her life. He tells her she sounds crazy (maybe he's not so off target, she did dump Noel after all!), and accusingly asks, "How do you know where truth ends and fantasy begins?"
Confused, Felicity heads over to Noel's place for some comfort (and perhaps a little something more?). She asks him, "What if I am losing my mind?" With puppy-dog eyes she says, "I just wanted to feel better, to lose this emptiness in my heart." After pouring out her "heart" to him, she decides that she is going to report the clinic to the police. Noel agrees to go with her, but first heads off to the bathroom to change. As he takes off his shirt, Felicity sees that he has stitch marks where his heart used to be. Apparently, he has been to this love clinic also. Noel casually tells her, "This is the only way we're going to survive. Love, incredibly overrated."
Suddenly, Felicity finds herself on the operating table where the doctor is making preparations to tear out her heart. They thrust her into a windowless, empty room, with Elena, Ben, Noel, and Julie. Felicity, a tad bit confused (wouldn't you be?), says, "But there must be some explanation." Ben replies, "Normal logic doesn't work here." Well, duh! Noel tries to be really deep and says, "What if we were never really people to begin with?" And Felicity, ever anxious to show off her intelligence, says, "All that we thought was normal before, maybe that was the dream." So, is this Philosophy 101 or a WB show?
Felicity then proceeds to climb on her friend's shoulders, realizes the room was actually a box, and jumps out into the world beyond. It turns out that her creepy roommate Meghan is a witch, and she has somehow managed to shrink Felicity and all of her friends into miniatures and stick them inside her magical box. The narrator then says, "Not just any kind of box, a strange gray area, where what you want, what you need and what you'll be are forever in question. Felicity Porter in a place called college."
Kudos to the producers of "Felicity" for creating an episode that actually has a message beyond the usual themes of these teen-oriented shows on the WB like "Dawson's Creek," and "Charmed." Even though the show can be cheesy and unrealistic at times (after all, what college student can afford a loft in Soho?), this fun and entertaining episode demonstrated the show has a clear direction and an original vision.
