‘Dead Ringers’ Recap: ‘One’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the Series Premiere of ‘Dead Ringers’.
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We are taught from a very young age, that nothing is as sacred as childbirth. For it is the beginning of a new generation, one that could very well change the world for the better from top to bottom. So, we cherish motherhood and those expectant mothers preparing to bring a life into the world, and we firmly believe that the day they give birth, is a moment of true beauty. Wherein majesty and wonder take place as that child arrives and gasps forth a powerful breath. One that signals the cycle begins anew, and reminds women everywhere that this is something they should all take part in. But alas, while there is some magic to be found in childbirth and the reality that a new life has arrived… there’s actually quite a lot that isn’t all that pretty about the process. For it is, violent in nature and there is indeed pain and there is a business side to it, one that fits in with modern medicine’s mantra of churn and burn. 
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But we don’t talk about that… so as to not disrupt the mantra surrounding the magic of childbirth. But it wouldn’t be a bad thing to start removing that mystique. Not for negative reasons mind you, or to ruin the hope that children bring. But to enact change. So that people, understand what this decision means and its physical sacrifices and so that the choice to not have children isn’t seen as something ludicrous, and above all… so it’s less about business and more about care and oddly enough… there is a new show on television that works to do just that. For the new Prime Video series, Dead Ringers, speaks to those points in a supremely creative manner. First, by updating the story that David Cronenberg brought to life on the silver screen in 1988, and that Bari Wood and Jack Geasland brought to life in novelized form in 1977 under the title of Twins.

First… by flipping the gender of Beverly and Elliot Mantle to female from male in this story. Giving the story a true female perspective and since the Mantle twins work in the maternity wing of a bustling hospital… the story allows for us to see the horrors and darker side of childbirth through their eyes. Such as how the miracle only applies to the patient since Beverly and Elliot are forced to crank through deliveries all day long and see endless babies, and sometimes sit through the ugly stuff we don’t talk about. Such as how not every baby makes it through the birthing process or how violent the process can be via C-section and instruments needed to swiftly bring a baby into the world. Or how mothers don’t always survive childbirth in this day and age, alongside featuring some fascinating observations about how we view childbirth in our modern world.

Such as how the expectation for a woman to give birth, regardless of whether or not they want to, is alive and well in the progressive second decade of the twenty-first century, and how hard that is for a woman to navigate. Not to mention, how women who cannot conceive are perceived and the pressure that too creates. All of which makes this a powerful opening chapter to a grand and sweeping story, that holds a mirror up to the realities of childbirth in our world and how women do need more care and nurturing regarding this process if we do indeed want this to be a miracle of sorts. Which is why the Mantle twins are eager to open their own facility, to make that happen. Provided of course, they can get out of the way of their own neuroses, and that… is where this story sticks close to the original source material regarding these enigmatic twins.

For they have seen a lot of horrors in the hospital, a lot of loss and a lot of suffering and that, and their standing has allowed for both of them to detach from the real world and its ugliness in many ways. Which in turn pushes them to do things that aren’t normal to feel some level of emotion, and it has also given rise to an unhealthy codependency between the two of them. One that could undo them if the inferences at the end of this episode play out as truth. Which means… we are going to be in for one unsettling ride. One that will say plenty about modern healthcare and modern childbirth, all while offering up a psychological thriller about a pair of broken twins that mean well, and it will be fascinating to see where both of those components take us in future episodes, and what they teach us, as this brilliant and poignant… and unsettling… story continues along. Until next time.  

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