In my review of an earlier Twilight Zone episode, #1.24 "Long Live Walter Jameson", I put forth the idea that one of the unintended consequences of immortality might be the inability to mentally process the advanced technology of future generations. That idea is put to the test here with Joe Caswell (Albert Salmi), an 1880's cowhand at the end of his rope suddenly transported to the once future world of 1960. It doesn't take long for Caswell to literally go out of his mind in reaction to juke box tunes and Manhattan street noise, even if he's a 'free' man. An alternate twist ending here could have had Caswell committing suicide in response to that sensory overload, the same deathly fate he faced before his time travel experience. Instead the tables were turned on an equally culpable victim, the type of justice summarily meted out in the surreal confines of the Twilight Zone.
Review of Execution
