The Little People of Killany Woods
"The Little People of Killany Woods" is the second segment of the fourteenth episode from the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone.
| "The Little People of Killany Woods" | |
|---|---|
| The Twilight Zone episode | |
 Scene from "The Little People of Killany Woods" | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 14b |
| Directed by | J.D. Feigelson |
| Written by | J.D. Feigelson |
| Original air date | January 3, 1986 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
Hamilton Camp: Liam O'Shaughnessey | |
Plot
In a small Irish town a frantic man named O'Shaughnessy (Hamilton Camp) dashes into a local pub called "Kelly's." He demands a drink in return for bringing the town the news of what he saw in Killany Woods: He claims to have seen the little people. Although the entire bar erupts in laughter and disbelief, one man named Mulvaney angrily scolds O'Shaughnessy for telling foolish stories while the whole town is out of work and no one is happy. He tells O'Shaughnessy never to return to Kelly's. O'Shaughnessy sulks away.
Not long after, Mulvaney sees O'Shaughnessy emerge from the hardware store after closing holding a box. Mulvaney questions the hardware store owner about it, and is told the "little people" gave O'Shaughnessy gold to pay for tools to help them. Mulvaney also discovers O'Shaughnessy has paid up his landlady and gathered his belongings and left. When Mulvaney confronts O'Shaughnessy, O'Shaughnessy gives him a triangular gold piece to settle an old debt identical to the ones he gave the landlady and hardware store owner, but warns that it quickly leaves sinful men. When Mulvaney demands the rest of the gold, O'Shaughnessy says that is all he had and the rest is not his to give. Mulvaney insists but O'Shaughnessy hits him over the head with the box and runs into the woods. Mulvaney follows him and discovers the "little people", who are small-statured aliens who arrived in a mushroom shaped spaceship. While O'Shaughnessy laughs and enjoys Mulvaney's predicament, Mulvaney runs back to town and attempts to tell everyone at the pub about what he saw. To his horror, they simply laugh at his claim, and when he uses O'Shaughnessy's gold triangle to buy drinks for the house, the bartender notes it has turned to ordinary lead.
Closing narration
In the days to come, when human beings navigate the great depths of space, they'll eventually come to a small planet in a distant galaxy. It's a pleasant place, but quite unlike the Earth. There's one unusual similarity, however: shamrocks grow there in great profusion. Brought they say by one Liam O'Shaughnessy, lately of Earth and now residing in one of the greener corners...of the Twilight Zone.
Themes
This episode is similar to the original series episode "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" where a man who tells tall tales gets abducted by aliens.