Guys, guys...bingeing past epis and am stuck on #24, "Come Wander With Me"...just so many things I wish I could educate you about this, one of my five favorite TZ's. Being the hipster millennials you are (and I mean that in the most positive way possible) you missed many nuances and cultural references that may have altered your judgment on the merits of the story itself. Being an Appalachia-born Boomer who saw TZ in its first run and many times since (and I mean that in the most modest way possible) I have perhaps a more multifaceted perspective on CWWM. I find it haunting and layered; evocative of not only mountain folk songs and tales, but of ancient Greek drama. It was completely relevant to the time it was written, when rockabilly was being overtaken by folk-rock. There's much, much more to it than that, though. It's difficult to express from a completely diverse generational viewpoint, but I'll give it my best.
I get that the dialogue, especially Floyd Burney's slang, has not aged well for the average 21st century viewer--but that's kind of the point. Did it occur to you that Floyd was also washed up and irrelevant for 1964? All that Jerry Lee Lewis "Daddy-o" stuff was already passe. The Beatles had burst on the scene, the British Invasion was happening. Peter, Paul, and Mary (Google 'em, youngsters) were big. Everyone was searching for the NBT in pop. Showing Burney as an ageing 50's leftover was perfect. Having him combing desperately through the backroads of rural Virginia looking for something, anything, to revive his tired career, callously ripping off the locals while seducing the sweet and naive Mary Rachel--just the right note. He would have done precisely that.
A few more thoughts: Floyd is caught in a time loop from which he cannot escape. He is Sisyphus, endlessly pushing the rock up the hill. The old man in the store is the gatekeeper to Hades. Replace the Sticks in "Stickskville" with "Styx" and you'll begin to see. Billy Rayford died easily because the scene they showed was not his actual murder, which had already taken place long before. The avenging brothers are shadow wraiths because Floyd is, in fact, in Hell. The black-draped Mary Rachel is doomed to endlessly mourn both the dead young men, watching her younger self fall into the same trap again and again but unable to effect any change.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, rockabilly is dead, as evidenced by the tombstone. The strong folk movement which also took place during the same era is giving way, too. However, in the Twilight Zone, Floyd Burney will keep reliving his pathetic, last-ditch grasp at stardom; while Mary Rachel will forever reap the consequences of her desperate attempt at fleeing her circumstances.
