So good to hear that theme song again! It’s one of the best theme songs ever and that is not up for discussion xx.
We begin with protagonist Max Thompson [Played by Jonathan Schwartz, who has forged a career as a producer rather than an actor, including producing my favourite shark movie, ‘Deep Blue Sea’!] and his friend Erin are searching for goodies in his attic to sell at ‘”the school rummage sale”‘. They hear a noise coming from a cupboard, but it turns out to be Max’s younger brother, Noah, being annoying [And Noah is played by a young Kevin Zegers, who you may know from ‘Wrong Turn’ and/or ‘Gossip Girl’, among lots of other things].
Noah accuses them of wanting to be alone so they can smooch [Ooh, do they like each other?], prompting Max to throw a shoe at him. Noah catches it with his left hand and declares ‘”Left-handers rule!”‘ [As a fellow lefty, I can confirm this]. Noah hurls the shoe back at him, causing Max to bump into a stack of junk including a coat rack which topples over and uncovers a boarded up hole in the wall.
Inspecting the hole, they find a secret room, empty apart from a giant mirror standing in the centre of it [This secret room is huge… how did no-one realise the attic should be bigger?]. Noticing a light on top of the mirror, Max yanks the chain to turn it on, illuminating the trio in a blinding light.
The light dims, and when Erin and Noah uncover their eyes, Max has completely disappeared [!!!]. They call out to him, and his disembodied voice insists he’s still there, right in front of them. After pulling the chain again, Max suddenly appears and quickly believes Erin and Noah’s claims that he was invisible. Max decides the room will be their ‘”super secret hideout” and makes them swear not to tell anyone. Erin and Noah place their hand on their heart, but Noah uses his left hand, which apparently doesn’t count according to Max [What the hell is this discrimination, Max?!]. Noah argues that it does count for him, because he’s left-handed [I wonder how often Noah being left-handed will be brought up in the space of this 22-minute episode? (:]. As they leave the room, Max dawdles behind and notices the mirror’s power cord isn’t even connected [Suspicious! I also feel like these kids are way too under-excited about the fact they just found a mirror that turns you invisible], and once he’s gone, the mirror’s surface illuminates.
That night when everyone’s in bed, Max sneaks up to the secret room and threatens to pound Noah [The word ‘pound’ just makes me think of sex], who pops up behind him for a jump scare. The boys pull the chain together and both turn invisible, making their flashlights look like they’re floating [So how come Max can tell that he doesn’t have a reflection now, but he didn’t notice he was invisible earlier when he was also directly in front of the mirror?].
They think invisibility is super cool, and Max is excited to be able to ‘”sneak into the movies for free”‘ while Noah’s keen to scare everyone. The boys start feeling dizzy, so Max pulls the chain to make them visible again. Max wants to tell Mum and Dad about their find, but Noah insists they have ‘”the chance of a lifetime”‘ and should have some fun first, to which Max agrees as long as they tell their parents eventually.
The next day, Max’s other friend Zack is over, showing of his brand pierced ear [Oooh, he’s a bad boy!], which Max’s mother isn’t keen on, telling Max not to even think about getting one [OK, Boomer]. Erin soon arrives too, and the gang shows Zack their recent find, with Max and Erin going invisible this time. Max and Erin start to feel unwell and ask Noah to turn the light off, but when Noah pulls the chain, they don’t reappear [!!!!].
They slowly materialise after a few seconds, and everyone gushes over how cool it is while Max warns ‘”we have to be scientific about it”‘ [Whatever that means]. Realising it takes longer to come back from invisibility with each use, the gang decides to experiment with it and start timing it. Erin isn’t so sure because it made her feel weird, ‘”sort of cold”‘, but Max yanks the chain again while Zack times it. Max complains that he feels as if he’s drifting while his voice starts sounding like ‘”he’s in a cave”‘. Soon, Max stops replying, and when Noah tries to turn the light off, the chain breaks in half [!!!].
The still-attached part of the chain is too high for any of them to reach, but Erin manages to hook it with the string necklace she’s wearing that has a key attached [She manages to snag it in one go, which would never happen in real life] and successfully turns the light off. It takes longer than before, but Max reappears again, shivering in the fetal position on the floor.
They sit him down on a chair [Why didn’t they just stand on the chair to reach the chain lol?], noticing that he’s freezing cold to the touch. They question where he went, and Max insists he was right here but also wasn’t at the same time – it was like a strange dream with ‘”all these bright colours”‘. He doesn’t think they should play with the mirror anymore, but Noah doesn’t want a bar of that since Max just got two turns in a row [Selfish, Max!]. Zack also wants a turn but Erin backs Max up, realising how risky it is. Upon Max’s insistence, they promise not to use it anymore, but no-one realises Noah’s got his fingers crossed behind his back [He’s standing in front of the mirror, so surely they would have seen in his reflection?].
While waiting for Noah to join them at the dinner table later, Max asks Mum and Dad if they noticed anything strange about the house while growing up here [Wait, they both grew up here? Are Mum and Dad siblings?!?].
They decide to start eating without Noah, and conversation turns to Zack’s earring, with both parents making it clear that Max will never be allowed to get one [What’s the big deal? Why so strict?]. As Mum concentrates on her food and Dad reads at the table, only Max sees the glass of milk and a bread roll floating around [That pesky Noah used the mirror!]. Max wrangles the invisible Noah up and marches him upstairs, and Noah reveals he had his fingers crossed. He soon stops replying though, so Max heads up to the secret room to turn the light off.
He finds Noah already up there and visible again, but he’s suddenly very monotonous and his eyes stay on his reflection as he agrees to leave the mirror alone. As Noah leaves, Max hears what sounds like his own voice coming from the mirror and runs off, scared.
The next day, Max gets home from baseball practice to find Erin and Zack in the secret room, with Zack now invisible. Zack wanted to try it since he never got a turn [That’s fair], and Erin couldn’t talk him out of it. Max insists the mirror is dangerous and thinks they should break it, and Zack’s voice starts getting weird as he complains of the coldness. Max pulls the chain, bringing Zack back, but he’s acting weird super weird now, urging Max to give it one last try. He ends up forcing Max in front of the mirror and pulling the chain, which I guess sends Max inside the mirror [It’s a bright blue green screen effect, but definitely not the worst one we’ve seen from the series] where he meets his reflection [I guess it’s the other side of the mirror?]. Erin gets worried when Max doesn’t answer her before wearily noticing that Zack’s earring is now in the opposite ear [Oooh, so Noah and Zack have been replaced by their reflections!].
Inside the mirror, Reflection Max explains he’s been waiting to trade places since Max first turned on the light, declaring that he’ll be the one to leave, not Max. He encourages Max to ‘”give into the cold”‘ where he’ll have ‘”no cares, no worries, no feelings”‘ [Sounds nice]. Max runs away, passing a bunch of random objects like a rocking horse, a floating umbrella, a clock and a hat [I’m not sure what is going on but I definitely spoke too soon about the quality of these green screen effects]. He eventually opens a door that reveals several floating mirrors, with other poor unfortunate souls trapped inside them, including Zack.
Reflection Max catches up to Max and they start wrestling as Erin manages to turn the light off outside the mirror. Max returns, covered in frost and urging Erin to break the mirror. She throws a baseball at it, smashing the glass and sucking Reflection Zack back inside the mirror world. Original Zack appears again, safe and sound although very cold [Why isn’t he covered in frost like Max is?]. The trio then flees the attic, oblivious to the mirror magically repairing itself behind them [In a very obvious footage reversal].
Sometime later, Max and Noah are putting dishes away, discussing how they’re gonna seal up the secret room again. Dad comes in for a refreshing drink, and asks Noah to toss him a cup, and surprise surprise, he throws it with his right hand [I guess Reflection Max wasn’t sucked back into the mirror because he wasn’t in front of it when it was smashed?]! Max questions him on this, and Noah looks into the camera and smirks [Hahaha why is this so funny] before we cut to the mirror, now whole again as the episode ends.
Final thoughts
I liked this one! The special effects weren’t as bad as we’ve seen in past episodes, and the story was pretty scary in its own way. Like, the idea of your reflection being alive and wanting to take over your life is pretty creepy. I don’t understand why Mum and Dad were so against Max getting his ear pierced though, that was super random and weird. Were ’90s parents really against that sort of thing?
Anyway, 70 fourth wall-breaking smirks out of 88!
