The Twilight Zone: Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room

John "Jackie" Rhoades is a small time crook, doing odd jobs for the slick George. Here he paces a small room, biting his nail, waiting for George to call about the next assignment. When George does call and Jackie cannot get any details out of him over the phone, it only makes him more nervous.

Eventually, George drops by and tells Jackie that he has to man up and kill a man, something Jackie has never done before and obviously does not have the guts to do. He describes himself as "nickels and dimes". But he is left with the choice to kill or be killed. They set to meet again in the room at 2.30 a.m., at which time the hit should have been done.

When he is alone again, Jackie tries to get his courage up by talking himself up in the mirror. But then his mirror image starts talking back. The two Jackies start fighting over their life of petty crime and occasional stints in prison. This other half of him wants Jackie to get his life on track.

George calls again to check on whether or not Jackie is actually going to do as he is told. When he comes at the agreed time, however, Jackie has not even left the room and the target is alive and well. What George didn't see coming is that this "nickels and dimes" guy is not going to take any shit anymore and knocks George down before chasing him out the door.

In the last scene we see that Jackie has traded places with his former mirror image.

Wonderful acting by Joe Mantell, who later appeared in another episode of The Twilight Zone.

8/10