HeWhoPostsStuff: Shinji's face here is much the same as when he has Gendo's glasses on and turns around to (really, really) see Rei in her apartment (episode #05).
Reichu: Considering all of the times we see "mirrored" (or identical, for that matter) scenes in this series, I have to wonder… Is this NGE's inherent cheapness at work, Anno's intention — or perhaps a little bit of both?
Shin-seiki: I would say that it's probably both. NGE being the relatively low-budget production that it was, I believe that Anno, "making a virtue of necessity" (as the saying goes), decided to utilize the recycling of images as an integral part of of his technique as a director and storyteller: He tightly weaves the whole series together through the thematic linkage of scenes via visual (and occasionally aural) means.
Reichu: This is one of the stylistic aspects of NGE that I think make it much more interesting. If nothing else, it increases the series' "replay value" by quite a bit, in that you are constantly making connections that you had missed before.
