The Twilight Zone: Mirror Image | Episode Analysis

Millicent Barnes, age twenty-five, young woman waiting for a bus on a rainy November night. Not a very imaginative type is Miss Barnes: not given to undue anxiety, or fears, or for that matter even the most temporal flights of fantasy. Like most young career women, she has a generic classification as a, quote, girl with a head on her shoulders, end of quote. All of which is mentioned now because, in just a moment, the head on Miss Barnes' shoulders will be put to a test. Circumstances will assault her sense of reality and a chain of nightmares will put her sanity on a block. Millicent Barnes, who, in one minute, will wonder if she's going mad. - Rod Serling.
This is an episode analysis of
"Mirror Image" first aired on February 26, 1960.
Chapters:
0:00 Mirror Image (Intro)
0:54 The Dangers of Public Restrooms (Synopsis)
4:09 Don’t Leave Bags Unattended (Twist)
4:31 Talking to Yourself (Analysis)
10:27 Identity Theft (Retrospective)
Written by Rod Serling
Directed by John Brahm
Starring:
Vera Miles as Millicent Barnes
Martin Milner as Paul Grinstead
Joe Hamilton as Ticket agent
Naomi Stevens as Washroom attendant
#thetwilightzone
Music credits:
Tempting Secrets by Kevin MacLeod

[@Blueskybuffalo]

I wish this episode did more to establish a motive for the doppelgänger. Instead of menacing they come off as pranksters. Millicent gets sent to the big house but it’s not as if she’s going to be fitted with a straight jacket just yet. Still a fun episode.

[@katrb5537]

You gave me some interesting things to think about next time I watch this episode.

[@heyheyhey121121]

the use of a bus terminal for the episode is a great choice. transit is about literally displacing oneself, here we have identities displaced. in modernity, we have become increasingly estranged from our context, instead focusing on our self/identity, but an identity can only exist within its context. a ticket is a great way of grounding oneself in place: a literal token signifying where one ought to be. here the tickets of the originals are unused, instead signifying where their double will be and they will not. completely eerie episode. I appreciate your insights, very interesting stuff. for me personally however, the inconsistency heightens the eerie feelings. consider that an 'identity' can only be established if there exists some consistency, if the universe is truly random junk with no basis then what we consider 'identity' is just a fiction, a false pattern overlaid meaningless noise. if she could only make sense of her environment, she could establish her relationship to it, but her circumstance is always changing and shifting beyond her capability to understand it causing the horrible schism and ultimate loss of self.

[@user-ev7vj8dt1m]

This episode seemingly reveals the havoc which ensues when parallel universes intersect, but I share in the head scratching of why events unfolded as they did. Namely, why are the mysterious doppelgangers so cruel toward their counterparts? In particular why do they both taunt then smirk over their freaked out selves? I don't believe in the concept of the "multiverse" that is in popular culture and sci-fi these days, but if it really existed I doubt very much if I encountered my double from a parallel universe that I would act cruelly towards my "self" But perhaps this story fulfilled Rod's objective: here we are decades later... and we are still wondering it's meaning.

[@GiantBoarMonster]

One of my favorite episodes. Seriously creeped me out on first viewing. No explanation, no rhyme or reason. And it's not some surface level morality tale snooze fest. Dopplegangers are rather disturbing to me. It's an allegedly real but rare phenomenon. There were some cases in the past in which many witnesses testified they saw a doppleganger of someone, sometimes even in the presence of the real person. There was an entire school that witnessed a female teacher's doppleganger and it was more than a few times it happened as I recall. They'd be in the same dang classroom even with students watching in utter shock and amazement. And dopplegangers never speak according to witnesses, so the writers were heeding the known lore. Our knowledge of the universe is extremely limited. It wouldn't shock me if it were real.

[@steamedhamlet]

Definitely. I guess skinwalkers are kind of adhering to the same lore. I wouldn't dismiss anything in this world. You're absolutely right. Even what we think we know of the universe is just theories

[@zegrasisinnocent]

Nice breakdown bro

[@CineG]

My voice 9 weeks in recovery.

[@CorbCorbin]

Sounds a bit better than the last. Fun video. It gave me a memory of when I was a kid, watching Twilight Zone, and I always thought it was odd, how a man could just call and have the cops pick her up.

[@CM-bk8lo]

Did you get karate chopped to the throat?

[@jamesdrynan]

I have noticed that the washroom attendant is not reflected in the mirror at 2:09 but is earlier.

[@lincbond442]

The doppelganger's smirky looks have always gotten on my nerves.

[@amrtarek5896]

great episode, get well soon.

[@damianstarks3338]

Great new twilight zone episode breakdown.