The 25 Best Twilight Zone Episodes...#14 - "Mirror Image"

Ticket Agent: "What about it?

Millicent Barnes: "It was due a half an hour ago."

Ticket Agent: "Yup, half hour ago."

Millicent Barnes: "When will it be in?

Ticket Agent: "Hard to say...rainin' hard...roads slick...maybe a bridge or two out...that'll play hard with the schedule."

Millicent Barnes: "When do you THINK it will be in?

Ticket Agent: "She'll be in when she'll be in, that's all. I told you that the last time you asked, Miss."

Millicent Barnes: "The last time I asked...the last time I asked was right now. Look, all I want from you is a civil answer.

Ticket Agent: "You're getting' a civil answer...trouble is, every 10 minutes you're up here requirin' one. Situations just don't change that rapidly. You wanna know about the Cortland bus? It's late. It was late when you asked a half hour ago, late when you were up here 15 minutes ago, and it's late now...and all the askin' in the world ain't gonna push it none."

So begins the wonderfully creepy, spine-tingling, richly textured "Mirror Image," number 14 on the list of the 25 best Twilight Zone episodes of all time. This offering contains all the elements of a classic Twilight Zone...a compelling script, provocative subject matter, and truly gifted performances. The latter features Vera Miles, who in that same year of 1960 would play a key role in one of the most memorable films in movie history, "Psycho," as well as several other high-profile Hollywood titles.

The repartee between the ticket agent and Vera Miles' character sets the stage for "Mirror Image," in which Millicent Barnes encounters her equal, another Millicent from a parallel universe trying to crowbar her way into this one. At first, it seems a preposterous story line, even with an expanded imagination. But in the hands of Rod Serling, even the most absurd-at-first-glance plots can be mesmerizing. Consider also that, as legend has it, Serling drafted this idea from his own experience when encountering a person that eerily resembled him in an airport. Later, in Twilight Zone's fourth season, Serling again tackles the parallel plane dilemma in a one-hour episode "Parallel," in which an astronaut returns to Earth after experiencing a disruption in space, and finds that he and his "counterpart" have exchanged "universes."

"Millicent Barnes, age twenty-five, young woman waiting for a bus on a rainy November night," begins Serling's opening narration. "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 fancy. 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's 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."

So, was that Ms. Barnes suitcase, the one with the broken handle, checked in and stationed behind the ticket agent in "Mirror Image?" Or was that simply a coincidence that it looked exactly like hers, resting beside the bench on which she was waiting? Wait...where did that one go? And why was the bathroom attendant as insistent as the ticket agent that she had seen her a few minutes ago? She hadn't just visited the ladies' room, had she? The door opens and Millicent catches a glimpse of the entire waiting room from the lavatory's mirror. It is then her problem magnifies considerably. There she is, sitting patiently on the bench. And then she isn't.

A youthful Martin Milner, who went on to a magnificent television career with 116 episodes of "Route 66" from 1960 to 1964, 174 episodes of "Adam 12" from 1968 to 1975, and a host of other roles into the late '90's, is introduced and tries dutifully to help Millicent, though her credibility is less than secure. Ultimately, the bus does arrive, but as she readies to board, she notices the other Millicent has apparently beat her to it. Her fainting reaction, and subsequent "parallel universe" explanation to Milner's Paul Grinstead, convinces him she needs help. In short order, there's a call to the police and Millicent is whisked away. But wait, where is Paul's briefcase now? He had placed it right there, but...its whereabouts is a mystery until he sees HIS double hurrying out the door with it. Chasing this mystery man or apparition, he is confronted with the unlikely truth that Millicent wasn't insane at all.

In addition to the Serling's script and the performances, the tone of this Hitchcockian suspense-builder is skillfully managed through a score by Bernard Herrman that pulls you toward the edge of your seat, and the direction by John Brahm that features a nearly vacant bus station in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a stormy night. It is enhanced by the realization during the episode that, at some point, we've all seen or met someone that looked just like us, and that's just in our limited travels. How many more are there, and how much more like us might those people be?

As Serling concludes - "Obscure metaphysical explanation to cover a phenomenon, reasons dredged out of the shadows to explain away that which cannot be explained. Call it parallel planes or just insanity. Whatever it is, you find it in the Twilight Zone."

To best chronicle and commemorate this television institution, an unscientific poll of 250 people in the New York metropolitan area gave rise to the best 25 Twilight Zone episodes of all time. In order of importance, criteria included writing, performance, and compelling subject matter. "Mirror Image" is number 14.