The Mirror

Peter Falk in this episode of the Twilight Zone showed another facet of his talent in playing a Castro like new dictator of an unnamed South American country. The fatigues and beard that Falk wore made him rather unmistakable. Castro is quite a bit taller though.

In any event Falk has led a peasant revolt and he's newly arrived in power and now in the presidential palace he's hearing the ever present sound of firing squad. Sending for his predecessor Will Kulava he wants to do a bit of gloating. Instead Kulava goes bravely to his demise, but not before willing to Falk the mirror in his presidential office which he says will reveal your enemies, real and potential before they strike.

The mirror does show some interesting things to Falk, but as this is the Twilight Zone is it real or is Falk's conscience playing tricks on him.

We never really know, but that's the beauty of this Twilight Zone episode. Very Edgar Allan Poe like, a tell tale heart or a tell tale mirror.

When the peasant Ramos Clemente (Peter Falk) leads a successful revolution in his undefined country, the former dictator General De Cruz (Will Kuluva) advises that his mirror is magic and can anticipate who will murder him. Clement becomes paranoid and kills each one of his revolutionary comrades believing that they want to murder him.

"The Mirror" is a predictable episode based on the paranoid behavior of a man unprepared to lead a nation. The despicable analogy to the charismatic leader Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution is not a subtle, but a direct message; but the story of the corruption of the absolute power of a tyrant is reasonable. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Espelho" ("The Mirror")

Note: On 13 July 2023, I saw this episode again.

As a story, this episode doesn't seem to go anywhere. It's predictable and the Castro comparisons and Sterling's prediction of his demise did not age as well as Castro himself, who showed us that dictators indeed can hold onto power for a very long time.

As a Latino, the dirty make-up, fake beards, and crappy accents are hard to overlook. But the mirror that shows one's would-be assassins and feeds the paranoia of the powerful is a great science fiction concept, one that--in my opinion--saves this episode.

In short, this is not Sterling's best, but I like that he appears to be using current events to spice up these episodes. At the time, audiences probably really enjoyed this condemnation of Castro (that reinforced all of their stereotypes about Latino politics). In our time, we can appreciate it as a reflection of the fears of the past, fears that turned out to be well-founded.

There's no suspense. It's another one of those stories where the absolute power corrupts. Castro (or whomever) is given a chance to correct the evils of his predecessor. Of course, he betrays everyone. He has a magic mirror that shows people betraying him and he strikes out at them. It turns out that the mirror is a means to an end that was already there. He is paranoid from day one and begins to insulate himself immediately. He is harsh and a pure jerk within minutes of taking power. The sad thing is that the episode is so doggone dull that it goes nowhere and has no insights for us. One of Serling's weakest outings. Peter Falk is OK but he has nothing to work with.

This is one of those episodes that you really have to think about the time in which it was shown in order to appreciate why it was relevant. The scene presented was reminiscent to its audience of more than just Cuba -- this was an era of frequent "revolutions" and military-style commanders: Castro, the Perons, Pinochet... but with a change of clothes and accents, this could become Burma or the Middle East or somewhere in Eastern Europe or Africa today, and maybe that consideration will help others appreciate this episode. The only problem I had with the story was the ending, which I didn't understand and didn't feel that it "fit" with the character. This episode is no more "preachy" than any of the Twilight Zone, and if such bothers you, it's not really a series you will ever appreciate, let alone enjoy.