Mirror Image

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"Mirror Image"
The Twilight Zone episode
Vera Miles as Millicent in Mirror Image
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 21
Directed by	John Brahm
Written by	Rod Serling
Production code	173-3623
Original air date	February 26, 1960
Guest actors
Vera Miles: Millicent Barnes Martin Milner: Paul Grinstead Joe Hamilton: Ticket agent Naomi Stevens: Washroom Attendant
Episode chronology
← Previous "Elegy" Next → "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"
List of Twilight Zone episodes

"Mirror Image" is an episode of the television series The Twilight Zone.

Plot

A young woman named Millicent Barnes is waiting in a bus depot, apparently in Ithaca, New York, for a bus to Cortland, en route to start a new job in Buffalo, New York. Upon looking at a wall clock she notices the bus is late. She walks up to the ticket counter to ask the ticket agent when the bus will arrive, and he gruffly replies that this is her third time there. Millicent denies this. While speaking with the ticket agent, she notices a bag just like hers in the luggage pile behind her. She mentions this to the ticket agent, who says it's her bag. She doesn't believe this until she notices her bag is not beside the bench anymore. Later she goes into the restroom to wash her hands and the cleaning lady there insists this is her second time there. Again, Millicent denies this. Upon leaving the restroom, she glances in the mirror and sees, in addition to her reflection, an exact copy of herself sitting on the bench outside.

A few moments later she meets a young man from Binghamton named Paul Grinstead, who is waiting for the same bus. They talk about the phenomenon. Paul, attempting to calm Millicent, says it is either a joke or a misunderstanding caused by a look-alike. Just then the bus arrives and the two prepare to board it, but just as they start to, Millicent looks in the window and sees the copy of herself, seated already upon the bus. Shocked, she runs back into the depot while her identical counterpart has a facial expression of malicious indifference and something of enjoyment.

Millicent lies unconscious on a bench inside the depot while Paul and the cleaning lady attend to her. Paul agrees to wait for the 7:00 bus. While they wait, Millicent, now coming to, insists the strange events are caused by an evil double from a parallel world - a nearby, yet distant alternate plane of existence that comes into convergence with this world by powerful forces, or unnatural, unknown events. When this happens, the malevolent impostors enter this realm. Millicent's doppelgänger, evil in nature, can survive in this world only by eliminating and replacing its good counterpart - Millicent herself.

Paul says the explanation is "a little metaphysical" for him, and believes that Millicent's sanity is beginning to unravel. Paul tells Millicent he'll call a friend in Tully who has a car and may be able to drive them to Syracuse, but, in reality, he calls the police. After Millicent is taken away, in an overly direct and presumptive style by two policemen, Paul begins to settle himself. After drinking from a water fountain, Paul notices that his valise is missing. Looking up towards the main doors, Paul notices another man running through them and away from the bus depot. Pursuing this individual down the street, Paul discovers, to his absolute horror, that he is chasing his own copy, its face a mask of excited, evil delight.

As his evil copy runs away and vanishes, Paul now begins his own descent into a Hellish combination of madness, wonder and uncertainty.

Episode Notes

In a short film pitching the Twilight Zone series to a Dutch television station, creator Rod Serling claimed to have gotten the idea for "Mirror Image" following an encounter at an airport. Serling noticed a man at the other side of the terminal who wore the same clothes and carried the same suitcase as himself; Serling considered what would happen if the man turned around and was revealed to be a duplicate of himself. However, the man turned out to be younger and "more attractive".

This is one of several episodes from Season One with its opening title sequence plastered over with the opening for Season Two. This was done during the Summer of 1961 as to help the season one shows fit in with the new look the show had taken during the following season.

Further readings

• DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
• Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0

External links

• "Mirror Image" at the Internet Movie Database