What Are Friends For?

"What Are Friends For?"
The New Twilight Zone episode
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 26a
Directed by	Gus Trikonis
Written by	J. Michael Straczynski
Original air date	October 4, 1986
Guest appearance(s)
Tom Skerritt: Alex Fred Savage: Jeff Lukas Haas: Mike
Episode chronology

"What Are Friends For?" is the first segment of the twenty-sixth episode (the second episode of the second season (1986–87)) of the television series The Twilight Zone.

Opening narration

“

Old friends have a way of being there when you need them and sometimes when you don't, as Alex Mattingly and his son Jeff are about to learn, courtesy of a very special friend from the Twilight Zone.

”

Plot

Alex Mattingly and his young son Jeff move to a remote cabin in the woods following Alex's divorce from Jeff's mother. Jeff is lonely and unhappy because he has no one of his age for companionship.

Jeff awakens in the middle of the night and sees a boy playing in the woods. The boy disappears before Jeff can speak to him. One day Jeff meets the boy, Mike, and makes a new friend. They have fun exploring the woods and playing together. Mike is upset by the idea that Jeff may have told someone about him. Mike convinces Jeff to follow him into a makeshift fort in the woods. The fort collapses on Jeff, but Mike disappears. Alex finds and rescues Jeff.

Some time later, Alex discovers Mike out in the woods. Alex realizes that Mike was his imaginary friend in childhood. Mike says that he has been waiting for a long time for Alex to come back and play with him. Realizing that Mike isn't imaginary and is not normal, Alex instructs Mike to not play with Jeff any more.

During a cook-out, Jeff gets into a fight with other children. He runs to find Mike in the woods. Mike tells Jeff that he does not want to be his friend any more. Alex finds Jeff and tells him about the value of real friends. Mike, realizing he is no longer needed, transforms into a being of light. Alex asks Mike who he really is. Mike says he is a being who has lived there since the Earth was created. Alex and Mike reminisce about their friendship, and then say goodbye. Alex returns to the cook-out and is glad to see his son making new friends with other children.

Closing narration

“

For Alex and Jeff Mattingly there will always be one special friend, one who loved them both enough to vanish when the time was right, but after all, that's what friends are for. Especially a friend from...the Twilight Zone.

”

External links

"What Are Friends For?" at the Internet Movie Database
"What Are Friends For?" 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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