"The After Hours" is the 34th episode of The Twilight Zone, first broadcast in June of 1960. It starred Anne Francis as confused department store customer Marsha White, and featured Elizabeth Allen and James Millhollin as unhelpful salespeople.

Marsha White goes to an urban department store to buy a present for her mother, a gold thimble. The elevator operator takes her to "specialities", on the ninth floor, where an unusual saleswoman (Allen), sells her the thimble, but only after asking some invasive questions. White complains to the management, but is interrupted in her sudden complaint by an unusual surprise. She is laid on a couch, and wakes up after closing time, to find herself in an empty department store, with mannequins all around her. Waking up in an empty department store makes her panic, but she (and the audience) have one more twist to experience.

This is another Twilight Zone episode featuring a female lead, and another one that passes the Bechdel Test. It doesn't just pass it incidentally, either: almost all the conversation, and all the significant conversation, is between two female characters. And much like "Nightmare as a Child", it is one of the scarier episodes of the first season. Part of this fear can perhaps be attributed to the more emotional and personal form the fear can take. One of the more obviously unusual incidents is when the saleslady asks Marsha whether she is happy--- an intrusion that might be more disconcerting than a threat of violence. Although the central premise of this episode might seem corny (like in so many Twilight Zone episode), the slow simmer of tension and suspense, as well as the questions of identity, make this a scary episode.

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