Samir is a very Seinfeldesque style comedian but is not getting a lot of laughs for his spiel on the 2nd Amendment and the LRA. He is getting advice from a female comedian about lightening his act. In walks Tracey Morgan, who is playing a famous comedian Jacey Wheeler, go figure. Mr. Wheeler reinforces the idea that Samir needs to dumb his act down to be a successful act. Mr. Wheeler appears to be the devil in his advice like a salesman for fame. Their toast appears to be a signing of a pact.

Samir is back on stage and starts off with the same act. He quickly realizes that the audience is not warming up. He applies the advice he got from Mr. Wheeler. The audience is loving his bit about his dog named Cat-er-pillar.
Samir goes home and calls for his dog and there’s no response. He goes to his bedroom and his wife is asleep. He wakes her to tell her about his success during his stand-up act. She tells him they dont have a dog and goes back to sleep. Samir is visibly confused and we get Jordan Peele with the signature Twilight Zone voice over, #nostalgia.
Peele says that Samir is a man who doesn’t typically compromise his integrity for a cheap joke but did so tonight. Peele appears and we move into the opening credits. The opening is pretty amazing.

Samir is putting up posters with a his wife’s 10 year old nephew Devin. Devin also disagrees that Samir owned a dog. There is a quick scene with Samir, Devin and the female comedian we were introduced to earlier. The two make fun of Samir’s stand-up act right before the show.

As Samir returns to the stage we get the same situation, his act starts out poor with the 2nd amendment bit but as the audience does not respond, Samir quickly changes pace and begins doing a bit about his nephew. The audience response with cheer and laughter and as Samir wraps it up he realizes his nephew has disappeared from the audience. Devin has vanished from existence like his dog named Cat.
Samir immediately starts to look for Devin and asks the female comedian from earlier who doesn’t know who Samir is talking about. Samir reminds her that Devin was the young boy she made fun of Samir with and she thinks he is insane. She has never met Devin before. After she dismisses him, Samir continues his search. He attempts to call him and there’s no Devin in his contacts.

Samir goes home and his wife has company. He tells her he needs to talk to her about her sister’s son Devin. She also has no clue who he is talking about as her sister can’t have kids. Samir now is convincing himself that he didn’t kill Devin if Devin never existed. As Samir worries that he is losing his mind, he starts making the connections between his current situation and the conversation with Jacey Wheeler. His wife, and oddly her dinner guest, encourages him to embrace his success.
Again, Samir tries his old act to a response of crickets. He even tries to recycle the joke about Devin but since he no longer exists, the audience does not respond with laughter. Samir sets his sights on the comedian who was on stage before him. He uses his new pseudo power to write his competition out of existence through some jokes about him being a drunk driver smashing into a bus stop. The audience eats is up and the comedian disappears. Samir goes outside and the bus stop is in great shape.

Samir is now looking through criminals online to work them into his show. He is justifying eliminating people by targeting evildoers. The act is getting great responses from his audience and Samir is reveling in his success. He is extremely proud of himself as he is crossing the villains off his list.
Samir has finished his list and now wants to get access to a legal list as his wife is a lawyer. As she turns him down for confidentiality reasons, he becomes jealous of his wife’s mentor David. The two argue and she leaves without giving him the name of the criminal he wanted.

The following night Samir is on stage and attempts to do his act without the name and the audience does not respond because he uses a fake name. He quickly understands that he needs to change his path and he targets his wife’s mentor David. David is gone and so is his wife’s law career, she is now a waitress and their lives have been rewritten and not for the better. At this point I’m getting Butterfly Effect vibes.
Samir sulks at his unhappy success right before his next performance. His boss comes in and announces that there was one spot for a new opportunity and it was between Samir and the female comedian.

As he graces the stage and the audience is nonresponsive, Samir asks a heckler his name. The audience loves his attack on the heckler and disappears. Samir continues to sulk following his act. The female comedian is on stage for the opportunity audition and Samir is backstage losing his mind. Jacey Wheeler returns and reminds him that he is not hurting people that never existed in a strange pregame pep talk.
Samir takes the stage and has the audience in stitches as he manically goes through a list of names until his wife comes into the club and calls Samir out on his list. She dares him to turn his act on her to gain ultimate success by pretending his superior to all he uses in his act. Samir cannot do it, instead he goes on a rampage ripping on himself…mic drop. Samir disappears from existence and Devin returns. I assume all the others return as well. Deedee, the female comedian, is now sitting and talking with Jacey Wheeler at the bar, much like Samir did.

As the episode goes off we get Mr. Peele with the moral of the story moment brought to you by The Twilight Zone – sometimes to get everything you want, you sacrifice everything you have.

Kudos to Mr. Peele, episode 1 come off in true Twilight Zone style, just a bit of creepy, a bit of mystery and whole lot of mind blowing.