Main cast: Miriam Zucker (Edith), Bobby Troka (Victoria Morgan), Frank Lewallen (Douglas), and Rip Torn (Narrator)
Director: Stuart Taylor

For over twenty years, dowdy orphan Edith has played Cinderella for her aunt, the wealthy and vain Victoria Morgan. Victoria lives in a big house full of mirrors, because she sees the young her in the mirror each time she looks into one—still beautiful, still youthful—and she likes looking at that “reflection” a lot. She treats Edith with utter contempt, while enjoying the amorous attentions of her younger boyfriend, Douglas. Well, maybe it’s karma that Douglas and Edith are secretly lovers, plotting to kill Victoria in order for Edith to inherit all that money.

Well, folks that are expecting something like a retributive twist or karmic justice in Mirror, Mirror are going to be super disappointed, because after all that build up suggesting that Victoria has come back to haunt the treacherous lovebirds, the “twist” turns out to be that all women are pathologically self-absorbed, vain, and nasty. Shame, really, as given what a vile cretin Victoria is, this episode actually has a pretty sympathetic anti-heroine in Edith. I guess this episode decides to subvert expectations or something, because in the end, it settles on the “twist” of telling me that men are better off going their own way instead of wasting their affections on women—those selfish, vindictive, petty creatures.

Now, I am not against this take-home message if it was done well. However, the lady playing Edith is from the malfunctioning, monotone-speaking assembly line. Her incredibly one-note style of acting makes Edith resemble a talking zombie more than anything. Since this character is the main protagonist, nothing here works. When Edith is supposed to be scared, she is instead talking in a monotone. When she is supposed to be conflicted, she just looks like she is staring blankly ahead, hoping that the pain would end soon.

The twist could raise many interesting questions. For example, is Edith just showing her true colors, or has she been possessed somehow by Victoria? Because Edith comes off so much like a walking case of insomnia, though, this episode is an eye-rolling affair.