Grace Note (The Twilight Zone)

"Grace Note" is the second segment of the twenty-third episode of the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone.

Opening narration

Plot

It is March 1966 and Rosemarie Miletti is hurrying to her singing lesson. Her teacher, Maestro Barbieri, tries to encourage her more as she tries to break into opera. However, he must comfort her as she explains how, as the oldest child, she must put her family's needs before her own and her sister Mary's leukemia is out of remission. After her lesson and a day of work, Rosemarie comes home to her mother's incessant chatter, getting the family ready for dinner, and checking on Mary.

Mary makes Rosemarie promise that when she becomes a big opera star that she won't forget about her, after she's gone. Rosemarie denies she'll become an opera star but Mary is insistent. At the bedroom window, Mary sees a shooting star and quickly makes a wish for Rosemarie.

After coming home on a stormy day, Rosemarie finds the house empty and a note to come to the hospital. It's Mary and she's been calling for Rosemarie. Mary awakens and tells Rosemarie she wants to show her something. Mary tells her to follow the music and she'll see. Rosemarie walks out the door and down the hall until she finds herself still in the hospital, but so different. She walks outside and sees the date on the newspaper as Saturday, March 22, 1986. She hails a cab and asks to go to the Met. She finds the performance sold out but manages to buy a ticket from a middle-aged woman who had an extra. Arriving at her balcony seat Rosemarie discovers that she is the one singing onstage, to an audience who loves her.

After the performance, there is a huge crowd wanting to see the opera singer but no one is allowed backstage. As Rosemarie ponders how to get in, her other sister, Dorothy, walks up and tells the security guard she is "on the list" and he lets her in. Rosemarie on a hunch then tells the guard she's Mary Miletti and she thinks she's on the list. He confirms she is and lets her in.

Rosemarie stands at the dressing room door listening to her future self and Dorothy discuss her upcoming birthday party. Although she cannot see her younger self, the future Rosemarie instructs Dorothy to leave the door open. As she puts on a pendant with Mary's picture in it, and looks back at the open doorway, the future Rosemarie remembers...

Rosemarie, from 1966, hears Mary's voice calling her, and hurries back to the hospital and her own time. Mary gives her a present for her upcoming birthday: a pendant with Mary's picture in it—the same one that Rosemarie saw her future self wearing. Mary says that it was her wish to see that Rosemarie would be the big opera star and to never forget her, after she's gone. Mary dies, and Rosemarie mourns with the rest of the family, but knows her destiny of becoming an opera star awaits.

Closing narration

External links

• "Grace Note" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Grace Note" at TV.com
• Postcards from the Zone episode Grace Note