"Going Native" means "to adopt the lifestyle or outlook of local inhabitants of a place or country, especially when dwelling in a colonial region; to become less refined under the influence of a less cultured, more primitive, or simpler social environment."
If a person who is in a foreign country goes native, they begin to live and/or dress like the people who live there.
"Going Native" is my favorite Tales From the Darkside ever.
I think those humans who don't like the episode have never known what it is to feel like an alien and a complete outsider to his or her own species, to try to fit in while not even being sure that it is even a desirable thing to do... to feel the intense need to constantly observe to learn and try to mimic one's fellow human beings in order to be accepted and to belong... while holding oneself apart to maintain that self, to keep one's own being sacrosanct and inviolate and the pain which comes with either choice..
Kim Greist as the character Claire demonstrates this so well, making us, the audience, see and feel all the things she is going through, all the things she thinks and feels and keeps a running critique of what she thinks and feels about all this, dialoguing with herself as she records and documents the images of everything around her and keeps track of them in order to make her report on the human race...
I love the story so much that even after not seeing it for long periods of time, I can go back and watch and recite the dialogue along with the characters.
I find it to be intense, moving and meaningful theater.
It may be difficult for a lot of people to watch because it pulls no punches and lays out a lot of bare unvarnished truth about humans, which may be hard to hear and absorb...
But I love it.