The Misfortune Cookie

"The Misfortune Cookie"
	The Twilight Zone episode
	Scene from The Misfortune Cookie
Episode no.	Season 1; Episode 14c
Directed by	Allan Arkush
Written by	Rockne S. O'Bannon (credited as Steven Rae)
Based on	"The Misfortune Cookie" by Charles E. Fritch
Original air date	January 3, 1986
Guest appearance(s)
	Elliott Gould: Harry Folger ; Bennett Ohta: Mr. Lee ; Caroline Lagerfelt: April Hamilton ; Frederick Coffin: Max ; Claire Carter: Glamorous Gourmette ; John G. Scanlon: O'Malley ; Elven Harvard: Guard ; Al Leong: Proprietor

"The Misfortune Cookie" is the third segment of the fourteenth episode from the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone.

Plot

Harry Folger is a snobby and arrogant food critic for a major newspaper. Restaurants live or die by his reviews which are often nasty. Folger's hobby is to collect matchbooks of restaurants he's destroyed and he displays them as tombstones in a graveyard scene at his office. One day, he hears about a mysterious new Chinese restaurant called "Mr. Lee's Chinese Cuisine" and immediately begins typing a review even though he had not visited the restaurant. "If you love your Pekingese don't ask for a doggie bag," he writes.

Harry grudgingly agrees to visit the establishment in person after being urged by his boss. When he enters, he orders a massive amount of food and then immediately asks for the check before trying any of his meal. Though disappointed, the owner Mr. Lee presents Harry with a fortune cookie. The fortune reads "A grand reward awaits you just around the corner."

As Harry is walking through the alley outside the restaurant, a bank robber knocks him down and drops $100,000 in diamonds before running away. The grateful jewelry store owner gives Harry $1,000 as a reward. Realizing the fortune cookies are indeed magical, Harry returns for more. He promises to change his review, but then receives a fortune that says "April arrives today bringing romance." As it is September, an angry Harry storms out, intending to go back on his promise. Before he can get to his office, he meets a woman asking for directions. He shows her the way and asks her out for dinner. When he asks her name she replies that her name is April.

At dinner, April's fortune tells her that she will soon recognize a grievous error in judgment, while Harry's message says "You're going to die." Outraged, Harry swears at Mr. Lee and causes a scene. April, seeing him for who he truly is, leaves. Mr. Lee tells him the cookie only delivers true fortunes. As he exits the restaurant, Harry is overcome with massive hunger pangs. He finds that he is on a seemingly never-ending street of Chinese restaurants that were not there before. He wanders into one restaurant after another, but is unable to satisfy his hunger. As he continues to endlessly eat, he receives a fortune that informs him why he is perpetually hungry: "You're dead." The last scene shows Folger's matchbook graveyard. The latest tombstone has Folger's name on it.

Closing narration

Check please, for Mr. Harry Folger. For whom the phrase "dim sum" is not merely a description, but a damnation. A man who finds himself sitting down to a single, neverending course of just desserts. Prepared for him in the kitchens of the Twilight Zone.

External links

"The Misfortune Cookie" on IMDb
"The Misfortune Cookie" at TV.com

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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"