Original Story by James Crocker
 
Directed by Wes Craven
 
Original Airdate - October 4, 1985
 
Starring:    
 
Eric Bogosian - Jackie Thompson
Vincent Gardenia - Henry Faulk
Robert Costanzo - Joe Rubello
Joaquin Martinez - Duende
Adam Ferris - Deaf Boy
Joy Pankin - Deaf Boy's Mother
Ed Levey - 1st Neighbor
Vivian Donnell - Black Woman
Anthony Johnson - Guard
Lauren Levian - Amanda's Mom

 

  
Story:
 

Ahh, Jackie, Jackie, you're a small-timer. A roof crawler, a poke pincher, a nickel and dime drifter with salt in your dreams and ashes in your pocket. Don't cut that wire...Jackie, don't open that window. You won't be able to jimmy yourself out as easily as you got in. That's not the big score in there. It's the Twilight Zone.

A down-on-his-luck thief breaks into a museum and steals a strange crystal, and is shot in the process. He discovers that the stone will heal people, when his wound magically disappears. After bringing an old friend back from death he becomes a faith healer, making a lot of money in return. An indian wise man comes to the show to get him to give the stone back, but he doesn't listen. When he refuses to help a man who once betrayed him, the stone stops working. He also finds that his own gunshot wound has reopened, and he relies on a young deaf boy to heal him. He then heals the deaf boy, and gives the stone back to the wise man. He walks away from the faith healing business, much wiser.

Now, he is John...no longer Jackie. Perhaps not Brother John, brother to all men, but at least fit to walk among men who care. Because caring is part of the secret, the secret we all learn, that the heart cannot heal what the eye cannot see. Not even, in the Twilight Zone.

  

 

"Healer" is in the third hour of the series, and it was still trying to find its footing. This is a rather pedestrian episode, which bears some resemblance to the plot in the second Indiana Jones movie, where sacred Indian stones have the ability to heal people, except in this case it's an American Indian stone. It also seems to resemble the old story of misuse of powers and how it can turn on the person who misued them.

Eric Bogosian is much better than the performance he gives here, which is flat and unconvincing. Vincent Gardenia's a consummate actor, but his character has no redeeming features...he's petty and vicious, and determined to ruin everyone. While I realize there are people like this in the world, he might have been a bit more nuanced. All-in-all a joyless exercise and not really worthy of the Twilight Zone name.