There are few directors working today who are as exciting asJordan Peele. After three slam dunks in a row within five years —Get Out,Us, andNope— he has solidified himself as not only a stellar modern auteur but has also proven to be one who effectively finds new ways tospin the works of iconic artists. WithGet Out, he applied modern social commentary to thesatirical tone ofThe Stepford Wives.Nope, on the other hand,is a horror-tinged throwbackto Spielbergian pictures of the ’70s and ’80s likeClose Encounters of the Third KindandE.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.Us, as well as the aforementioned films, is essentially a modernization of the kinds of stories that appeared inRod Serling’s seminal series,The Twilight Zone. However,Usis paying some much deeper dues to Serling than just carrying his storytelling tone and social commentary.
While Jordan Peele pulled from a couple of different influences for his sophomore feature, one of the most obscure, yet immediately obvious isThe Twilight Zoneepisode “Mirror Image,“he toldRolling Stonein a 2019 interview. This underrated Season 1 pick follows a woman at a bus stop who claims that her doppelgänger is trying to take over her life. It might not be the first doppelgänger story ever, but the way that Serling builds tension in this episode by isolating its characters couldn’tmore obviously have informed Peele’s film. Aside from having paved the way for one of the best horror movies of the 2010s,“Mirror Image” ought to be celebrated as one of the most effectiveTwilight Zoneepisodes ever. It’s a simple one, but that’s what makes it so dang spooky.
The Twilight Zone (1959)
Ordinary people find themselves in extraordinarily astounding situations, which they each try to solve in a remarkable manner.
“Mirror Image” is an Incredibly Underrated Episode of the Original ‘Twilight Zone’ Series
“Mirror Image” is one of thoseTwilight Zonecorners that seems to slip by long-time fans. Everyone has seen heavy hitters like “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” “Living Doll,” and"Time Enough at Last,“but this series is so much more than its most iconic images. Rod Serling had a hand in a large chunkof the original series'156 episodes, ensuring that most, if not all of them, carried a uniform sense of dread, while also having something to say about society.
“Mirror Image,” unfortunately, is a bit different in terms of that latter part. This one isn’t as overtly thematically resonant in the way that episodes like “The Eye of the Beholder” or “The Masks” are. There is a general surface-level commentary on how men often don’t listen to women. No matter what Millicent Barnes (Psycho’sVera Miles) says, no one takes her seriously. However, Serling doesn’t spend that much time exploring this idea. While these instances could be played for social commentary, they could also just be typical horror tropes at hand. There’s nothing wrong with having a little bit of both, though.
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Speaking of which, it is one of the more horror-heavy stories that Serling wrote. One of the things that makes going into aTwilight Zoneepisode exciting is that you’ll have to look out for the deeper meaning behind the story. With “Mirror Image,” the idea of doppelgänger horror is complicated and takes more explaining than most of this series' concepts. Because of this, it seems like Serling got lost in the weeds of explaining this otherworldly idea, and trailed away from crafting a clever allegory. That being said, “Mirror Image” is still effective. It might be a bit dialogue-heavy for some, but in the same way thatH.P. Lovecraftstories pay off by sticking with them,the few scares that we getare some of the best that you’ll findacross the Fifth Dimension.
“Mirror Image” Takes a Minimalist, Exposition-Heavy Approach Doppelgänger Horror
This episode kicks off with Millicent Barnes waiting in a New York bus station as she plans to leave for Cortland, NY, where she will start a new job. After a few strange happenings around the premises,she sees a woman who is identical to herself sitting just outside the building. Millicent tries to tell a man that she meets named Paul (played byMartin Milner) that she saw this copy of herself,only for him to laugh and not believe her— a common occurrence in horror stories, andTwilight Zoneepisodes in general.
Soon after, she spots her copy getting on the shuttle that she was supposed to board. This is where the episode starts to take a sinister turn. Her doppelgänger has a devilish look on her face as the original Millicent spots her sitting on the shuttle. “Mirror Image” doesn’t even have to try that hard. The simple black-and-white, nighttime image of Millicent being mocked by her copy is enough to send chills down your spine. The musical stinger isn’t beating you over the head like in most other episodes. It’s perfectly effective in this quiet, chilling reveal.
Millicent faints at the sight of this and wakes back up at the bus station later on. She tells Paul that this mysterious identical woman has to be from some other plane of existence where exact copies of ourselves live and that they have arrived in our dimension byan act of unknown supernatural forces.Not only do these duplicates exist, but to live in our world, they have to get rid of and replace us. The episode enters into a different kind ofTwilight Zoneset piece than usual. Millicent and Paul lock in for a long conversation in which she tries to figure out the rules of these copies. Essentially, we’re just made to go with her beliefs as the series' set rules for doppelgängers. This kind of passage might normally annoy certain viewers as spelling the horror out too clearly, but Serling’s powers as a screenwriter make this way more enjoyable than most others could convey through simple conversation. While “Mirror Image” has plenty of great imagery, this exchange is one of the few examples of how telling can sometimes outshine showing.
Paul follows all of this up by calling the police, and Millicent is taken away. Soon after, he sees a man running out of the bus station. Paul chases him down and, in one ofthe trippiest, most surreal shotsin all ofThe Twilight Zone, he realizes that he’s pursuing his own doppelgänger. His copy glides across the screen in a bizarre and otherworldy fashion, while showing a similar gleefully conniving expression to Millicent’s copy. The episode ends with Paul standing alone in the middle of the street, terrified by this cosmic, unfathomable sight that has just appeared before him.
It might just be the fact that many of the series' most famous images have grown familiar to me by now, butthis genuinely has to be one of the most chilling scenes in all ofThe Twilight Zone. This ending feels less Serling and moreDavid Lynch, with an unexplainable finalitythat will stick with youin the same way as the final moments ofTwin Peaks: The Return.The Twilight Zonemost oftenresides in science fiction and horrorlanes, but rarely ever does it dabble in the surreal. If “Mirror Image” feels a bit too much like a slow burn for you, then certainly the ending will make it all worth it.
The Influence of “Mirror Image” Can Be Felt Most in the Quieter Moments of ‘Us’
After watching “Mirror Image,“its influence onUsbecomes crystal clear. Peele’s film, like this episode, follows a family who are being pursued by otherswho look identical to them. It’s less subtle in its horrific moments than “Mirror Image,” and does carry more social commentary (particularly exploring class systems and American privilege). This shouldn’t surprise anyone, though. So far, all three of Peele’s features have a larger message behind the guise of their genre stories. The only difference is that Peele can concentrate his visions with focused feature films. Serling was spread thinner with large episode orders per season. He couldn’t dive into his screenplays with the same attention that one does while making a feature.
Despite all of this,Usdoes mirror (apologies for the pun) the quieter stretches of its inspiration. BothUsand “Mirror Image” find terror in silence, revel in building tension with bizarre doppelgänger imagery, and carry an identical ominous tone that leaves you unable to predict anything.Usis bound to stick with modern audiences more than thisTwilight Zoneepisode for its bloody21st-century horror sensibilitiesalone. “Mirror Image,” on the other hand, will mainly work best with fans of black-and-white chillers.
In the 2019 interview withRolling Stone, Peele spoke of the episode’s inspiration onUsby saying, “It’s terrifying, beautiful, really elegant storytelling, and it opens up a world. It opens up your imagination.“Usisn’t quite as ambiguous as “Mirror Image” in the doppelgängers rules that it establishes, but ifThe Twilight Zonehad nearly as big of a budget or as great of a runtime as a 2019 feature film, then maybe it wouldn’t have been so exposition heavy. Some might appreciate howUsisn’t so vague, asthat choice allows it to go down more thematic roads, but that’s also what makes the film less scary as it goes on.The less we know, the better.
Doppelgänger horror is all the rage withInstagram Reels and TikToksthese days, so maybe these two titles are due for people to give them double-feature treatment.Usmight not be everyone’s favorite Jordan Peele movie, but perhaps it will grow in people’s estimations of it, much like “Mirror Image” has recently forTwilight Zonebuffs. And hey, if it doesn’t for you, then that’s okay! Maybe it will be for your doppelgänger.
The Twilight Zone is available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.
