This is the first episode of the show and it's one of my favorites in my book. It's also a different kind as most first episodes these days are most of the time pilots/origin stories which can sometimes be troublesome because it takes too long to establish who's who before getting down to business.
This episode just thrust you right into the action and I like that because it allows the audience to figure out who's who naturally, and most importantly see them work.
The investigation is handled well, really like that we're in the same boat as the two leads as we're trying to figure out what the heck is going on.
We sort of do as we see the person/dilemma of the week go straight into the mirror, really like how that sequence is handled, I remember thinking "what the hell?" Once we see that happens that's when the questions on how and why pour in.
Really like Nicole De Boer in this episode, of course I remember her from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine". This episode was one of her debuts and it was one heck of a start for her.
Really like her performance you really bought into her in the role, it's a different kind of role for her because her she plays Anna who is no doubt highly intelligent but as we see she is shy, introverted which aren't bad things at all. But her really problem is that she suffers from low self-esteem, just doesn't have a good outlook on herself and worst of all reality.
From this you really feel a sense of pathos for her, and I'll admit it really makes you think about a lot of other people that you seen but never gave a second thought or might have passed your sight.
I really like how psychological this episode, from her room at her home which has that pristine white texture. It really tells you a lot about her from the collection of books, certain nice things in her room and how clean it is, that this is a really a beautiful soul. But from the amount of white we see is incomplete or empty in a way, at least from her perspective.
We figure out that this mirror world she gets lost in is the astral plane. According to dream logic, part of the function of the astral plane is a place where you can make anything from you mind become actuality though not reality; the mirror was just a tool and conduit for her to enter and exit. You could say in almost like the holodeck from "Star Trek" lore.
We see the stakes get high, once the mirror gets cracked, Anna desperately trying to reenter that world and she ends up cutting up her hands. I'll admit seeing that made me highly concerned for her because we see how dangerous her journeys into the world of illusion have become, we see she acts almost like a drug addict completely dependent on it as she very badly wants that world to be reality.
Things like this just shows the importance of the function of reality, much like with the movie "Ready Player One" there's nothing wrong with diving into the world of fantasy and imagination. But we can never live there because their not real and we have to sooner or later unplug and come back to reality. And try your very best in making certain desires and dreams we have a reality, for that is the true value of what dreams are.
Will JJ be able to save Anna from world of illusion, you'll have to wait and see.
Rating: 3 and a half stars.