Episode no. Season 2
Episode 33c Written by Edward Redlich Episode number 2 Director Peter Medak | Directed by Peter Medak Original air date May 21, 1987 Air date May 21, 1987 | |
"Private Channel" is the third segment of the thirty-third episode and the ninth episode of the second season (1986–87) of the television series The Twilight Zone.
Plot
Keith Barnes is an obnoxious teenager aboard an airplane, whose love of his radio annoys those around him. A lightning storm, however, transforms his Walkman into a telepathic tuning device. He begins to hear the voices of all the people around him in the plane. And then he finds out that the man sitting next to him, a Mr. Williams, may be carrying a bomb.
It turns out that Mr. Williams is distraught over the death of his wife and child in a similar airplane, due to the negligence of an indifferent airline. As revenge, and a way of teaching the airline how to be more careful, he intends to destroy the plane with a bomb. Keith, knowing his plan after reading his mind, tries to talk him out of it. Mr. Williams cannot understand how Keith knows his plot, but is still determined to go through with it.
Mr. Williams tries to put his plan into effect, frightening the passengers. Keith manages to sneak up behind him and put the headphones over his ears. Hearing the pleading thoughts of the other passengers, especially one those of a young man who has a daughter about his daughter's age when she died, Mr. Williams is filled with remorse and he relents. As Mr. Williams is taken away, however, he accidentally steps on Keith's radio and crushes it.