This was the only Western-themed episode not written by Rod Serling.And for any further research, check under ‘G’ for ghosts…in the Twilight Zone.” “Final Comment: you can take this with a grain of salt or a shovel of Earth, as shadow or substance. The men attempt to rationalize what happened, attributing it to the direction of the wind, but Ione corrects them as the wind blows her cloak near the grave and the episode ends on a characteristically atmospheric note as she chillingly laughs at the men. The next morning Miller is found dead in the cemetery on top of Sykes’s grave with a knife stuck in him. As the wind howls Miller is suddenly pulled down on top of the grave. There he finds Ione who tries to offer him some alcohol before laughing and walking away. That night at midnight, Miller makes the cold journey up to the cemetery. Shortly thereafter, Miller accepts a bar bet to visit Pinto’s grave and stick a knife in it to prove he is no coward.

Sykes’s widow named Ione (played by Elen Willard) reiterates this curse. The curse is as follows: if Conny Miller ever comes near his grave, Pinto Sykes will return and pull Miller downward to death.

Before he died, Pinto Sykes said Conny Miller deliberately stayed a day behind out of fear, with his final words Sykes cursed if Conny Miller should ever come near it. He was sent to kill Pinto Sykes (played by Dick Geary), but the townsfolk (played by James Best, Lee Van Cleef, Strother Martin, and others) suggest Miller might have been a coward. The next day a hired gun named Conny Miller (played by Lee Marvin) arrives in town. And shortly, we’ll see how he introduces the town, and a man named Conny Miller in particular…to the Twilight Zone.” The outlaw and killer, Pinto Sykes, was such a person. But some men of legend and folk tale have been known to continue having their way even after death. We’ve had the traditional shoot-out on the street, and the bad man will soon be dead. An old man says, “… and that is the end of that!” A group of vigilantes gun down a notorious outlaw named Pinto Sykes. In “The Grave” The Twilight Zone returns to the Old West with a traditional ghostly folktale.

Twilight zone the grave