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Plot

While waiting in a lonely bus station, Millicent Barnes (Vera Miles) is startled to discover that everyone in the station seems to know her. She is further amazed when, peering into the window of a passing bus, she spots a young woman who looks exactly like her. Figuring that Millicent is a mental case, Paul Grinstead (Martin Milner) humors her until the men in the white coats show up -- only to find out that the girl was telling the truth all along. A neat "matte shot" caps this eerie Rod Serling-scripted entry, based, believe it or not, on one of Serling's real-life experiences. First telecast February 26, 1960, "Mirror Image" was the 26th Twilight Zone episode to be filmed, but the 21st to be shown. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Review

One of the most memorable episodes of the first season, Mirror Image is a lovely, haunting little gem. As is almost always the case with the Rod Serling-scripted shows, the structure of the piece is simply superb. All of the pieces fit together in exactly the right way. In some of Serling's lesser scripts, this can come across as a bit mechanical; in Image, however, it all fits together so that each plot points seems refreshing inevitable, even when one can see it coming. Image provokes a sense of "inner eeriness" -- a reaction in the viewer that somehow this same thing could happen to him if he happened to show up in the wrong bus stop on the wrong night. Serling's screenplay benefits from expert direction from John Brahm, who strikes just the right tone throughout to maximize the piece's effectiveness. The shots of the doppelganger in the mirror and on the bus bring chills, and there's an excellent sequence at the end when Brahm makes Martin Milner's briefcase disappear without cutting away from the action. Vera Miles does a very good job projecting the character's confusion, desperation and fear, and Martin Milner is surprisingly good as the man who wants to help her but isn't sure of her sanity. That sense of questioning sanity- one's own or another's -- is a hallmark of Twilight Zone, and Image plays with the idea most effectively. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

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