The Misfortune Cookie

"Misfortune Cookie" redirects here. For the episode of The Penguins of Madagascar, see List of The Penguins of Madagascar episodes.

"The Misfortune Cookie"
The Twilight Zone episode
Scene from The Misfortune Cookie
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 14c
Directed by	Allan Arkush
Written by	Charles E. Fritch: Screenplay by Steven Rae aka Rockne S. O'Bannon
Original air date	January 3, 1986
Guest appearance(s)
Elliott Gould: Harry Folger Bennett Ohta: Mr. Lee Caroline Lagerfelt: April Hamilton Frederick Coffin: Max Claire Carter: Glamorous Gourmette John G. Scanlon: O'Malley Elven Harvard: Guard Al Leong: Proprietor

"The Misfortune Cookie" is the third segment of the fourteenth episode from the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone.

Plot

Harry Folger is a snobby and arrogant food critic for a major newspaper. Restaurants live or die by his reviews, which are often nasty. Folger's hobby is to collect matchbooks of restaurants he's destroyed, displaying them as tombstones in a graveyard scene. One day he hears about a mysterious new Chinese restaurant, "Mr. Lee's Chinese Cuisine", and—without ever visiting the place—immediately begins typing a review: "If you love your Pekingese, don't ask for a doggie bag..." However, being the gourmand he is and urged by his boss, Harry decides he simply must visit the establishment in person. When he enters the restaurant, he orders a massive amount of food, then immediately asks for the check before trying any of his meal. Though disappointed, the owner, Mr. Lee, presents Harry with a fortune cookie. Harry reads the fortune: "A grand reward awaits you just around the corner," and exits.

As Harry is walking through the alley, a bank robber knocks him down and drops $100,000 in diamonds before running away. The jeweler says that Harry deserves $1,000—that was supposed to be a bonus for the security guards who failed to catch the crook—as a reward. Realizing the fortune cookies are indeed magical, Harry returns for more. He promises to change his review, but then at lunch he receives a fortune that says: "April arrives today bringing romance." Harry knows it is September, so he storms out and goes back on his promise. But before he can get to his office, he meets a woman asking for directions. He shows her the way, and asks her out for dinner. When he asks her name, she replies, "April."

At their dinner, April's fortune tells her that she will soon recognize a grievous error in judgment. Harry's message says "You're going to die". Outraged, Harry swears at Mr. Lee, causing a scene. April, seeing him for who he truly is, leaves him behind. Mr. Lee tells him the fortune cookie delivers due fortune. As he exits the restaurant, Harry is overcome with massive hunger pangs. He looks up and finds that he is surrounded by Chinese restaurants that were not there before. Not thinking anything of it, he goes into one restaurant, and finds himself being served by figures with pale faces, but no matter how much he eats, he can't seem to satisfy his hunger. As he continues to eat, he receives a fortune that informs him why he is perpetually hungry: "You're dead." The last scene shows Folger's matchbook graveyard-the latest "tombstone" has Folger's name on it.

Closing narration

“

Check please, for Mr. Harry Folger. For whom the phrase "dim sum" is not merely a description, but a damnation. A man who finds himself sitting down to a single, neverending course of just desserts. Prepared for him in the kitchens of the Twilight Zone.

”

External links

"The Misfortune Cookie" at the Internet Movie Database
"The Misfortune Cookie" at TV.com

The Twilight Zone (1985) episodes

Season 1	"Shatterday" "A Little Peace and Quiet" "Wordplay" "Dreams for Sale" "Chameleon" "Healer" "Children's Zoo" "Kentucky Rye" "Little Boy Lost" "Wish Bank" "Nightcrawlers" "If She Dies" "Ye Gods" "Examination Day" "A Message from Charity" "Teacher's Aide" "Paladin of the Lost Hour" "Act Break" "The Burning Man" "Dealer's Choice" "Dead Woman's Shoes" "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium" "The Shadow Man" "The Uncle Devil Show" "Opening Day" "The Beacon" "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" "Her Pilgrim Soul" "I of Newton" "Night of the Meek" "But Can She Type?" "The Star" "Still Life" "The Little People of Killany Woods" "The Misfortune Cookie" "Monsters!" "A Small Talent for War" "A Matter of Minutes" "The Elevator" "To See the Invisible Man" "Tooth and Consequences" "Welcome to Winfield" "Quarantine" "Gramma" "Personal Demons" "Cold Reading" "The Leprechaun-Artist" "Dead Run" "Profile in Silver" "Button, Button" "Need to Know" "Red Snow" "Take My Life...Please!" "Devil's Alphabet" "The Library" "Shadow Play" "Grace Note" "A Day in Beaumont" "The Last Defender of Camelot"

Season 2	"The Once and Future King" "A Saucer of Loneliness" "What Are Friends For?" "Aqua Vita" "The Storyteller" "Nightsong" "The After Hours" "Lost and Found" "The World Next Door" "The Toys of Caliban" "The Convict's Piano" "The Road Less Traveled" "The Card" "The Junction" "Joy Ride" "Shelter Skelter" "Private Channel" "Time and Teresa Golowitz" "Voices in the Earth" "Song of the Younger World" "The Girl I Married"

Season 3	"The Curious Case of Edgar Witherspoon" "Extra Innings" "The Crossing" "The Hunters" "Dream Me a Life" "Memories" "The Hellgramite Method" "Our Selena Is Dying" "The Call" "The Trance" "Acts of Terror" "20/20 Vision" "There Was an Old Woman" "The Trunk" "Appointment on Route 17" "The Cold Equations" "Stranger in Possum Meadows" "Street of Shadows" "Something in the Walls" "A Game of Pool" "Room 2426" "The Mind of Simon Foster" "The Wall" "Cat and Mouse" "Rendezvous in a Dark Place" "Many, Many Monkeys" "Love is Blind" "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich" "Special Service" "Father and Son Game"

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