The Merciful story

nightgallery2x02b · 1971-09-22

A woman's (Imogene Coca) effort to end her husband's (King Donovan) misery is not what it seems at first. Note: Based on a short story of the same name by Charles L. Sweeney, Jr.; twist on "The Cask of Amontillado" Directed by: Jeannot Szwarc. Story by: Jack Laird.

4 total · 4 major

ThemeLevelMotivation
coping with a terminal illness major The husband apparently had some troublesome untreatable condition.
euthanasia major We are perhaps led to think that the wife was mercy killing her husband.
husband and wife major A wife bricked herself up in basement a alcove, with the implication that she would died in there, to put her husband out of his misery.
suicide major Husband seemed to consent so it was akin to suicide, and at the end it appears woman had killed herself although possibly it was just a mistake because they were old and distracted.