The Twilight Zone: “The Gift”

Excerpt: Jenny, the girl featured in “The Fugitive,” is not the only child who befriends a space alien compliments of The Twilight Zone. “The Gift,” another show from season three (original airdate: April 27, 1962; episode thirty-two), introduces Pedro (Edmund Vargas), an orphaned Mexican boy with a big heart who lives to tell his own story of interplanetary friendship. This tale has no happy ending, yet it does give Pedro a chance to further develop his uncanny powers of empathy after a visitor from outer space lands in his remote Mexican mountain village. The nine-year-old’s life will be changed forever. . . .