The Blessing Way written by Chris Carter and directed by
R.W. Goodwin
What’s it about: Mulder is off on the astral plane to see
some old faces…
Trust No-One: Every time we cut back to Mulder on his
blessing way ritual the episode crawls to a halt. These scenes are the literal
interpretation of watching paint dry metaphorically. Or something.
Brains’n’Beauty: Duchovny was disappointed with this episode
and wished they could have gone back and tweaked it. Of course he is – all the
dramatic opportunities here are given to Scully! It can’t always be
about Mulder, despite Duchovny’s efforts to doctor scripts. That’s one of the
reasons I found season eight something of a renaissance for the show because
Scully could finally claim the show completely and show us what she is capable
of. It is long past time that Gillian Anderson was given the sort of
opportunities this three parter affords her and if Mulder has to be shunted off
in some symbolic dreamscape in order for that to happen then so be it. It turns
out Scully was right to question Mulder in Anasazi because here she is
suspended without pay or benefits for her insubordination. Scully turns to her
mother for support when her world turns upside down and Gillian Anderson gives
a passionate portrayal of a woman that has lost everything that was ever
important to her. Like Mulder during her abduction, it is amazing how these
characters come alive when they are separated like this. Scully learns that she
has a metal chip embedded in her neck, an identification marker. Melissa Scully
is a character that feels as though she should have had a larger role in this
series than she did. I like how Carter mirrors her scene in One Breath,
questioning Scully’s rigid scientific view in the same way she questioned
Mulder’s faith. The hypnosis sequence is a rare off moment for Gillian Anderson
though, where she wanders off on some other plane rather than capturing my
attention (compare to a similar scene in season five’s The Red and the Black
where Anderson is riveting as Scully is put under again).
Assistant Director: In a moment of stubborn mutiny Scully
informs Skinner that he overestimates his position in the chain of command.
This is her version of the scene that played out in Anasazi with Mulder pulling
his fists out to remonstrate with the Assistant Director. No matter what his
place in the hierarchy of this conspiracy is they would both do well to
remember that he is still the AS of the building that they work in. Finally the
question of where Skinner’s loyalties lie is being addressed but we have to
take one more paranoid waltz before we can be entirely sure.
Smoking Man: Isn’t it fantastic how the Smoking Man is now
an active player rather than somebody who sits around in the background of
scenes puffing away. He’s a brutal and desperate man and far more interesting
to watch as such. The way he has gone from being a formidable thorn in
Skinner’s side to a desperate stooge of the Syndicate is one of the best
aspects of this trilogy.
Dreadful Dialogue: ‘I have been on the bridge that spans two
worlds, the link between all souls by which we cross into our own true nature…’
I honestly have no idea what Mulder is talking about here. Its probably meant
to sound really meaningful but actually sounds meaningless.
The Good: Start as you mean to go on – The X-Files is back
and its more cinematic than ever and straight after the pre-credits we are
straight into an impressive sequence where Scully’s motor is pursued by a
helicopter. After their brief exposure in Anasazi Carter follows that up
immediately with the introduction of the American arm of the Syndicate, a bunch
of old men sitting in a dark room pontificating about what is transpiring.
We’ll be seeing a lot of them now and its great for the enemy to have a proper
face at last. The gassing of the hybrids is shown briefly (and shoved between
two of Mulder’s dull visions as if there is a connection there that I jut
couldn’t fathom) and I would have like to have learnt more about that than more
vision quest nonsense. John Neville proves to be a fine addition to the show,
the Well-Manicured Man (how do they think up these names…couldn’t he have just
been Arthur or something?) coming out of the woodwork to clear up the mess left
by the Smoking Man. ‘We predict the future and the best way to predict the
future is to invent it’ Brilliantly he finds the best way to manipulate
Scully is to be entirely honest with her. Let’s hope we get to see lots more of
him. Scully is going to Melissa’s but is intercepted by Skinner and Melissa is
going to Scully’s and she has been warned that an assassin is out to kill her –
this all plays out with such tragic inevitability its painful to watch. Scully
holds her superior hostage whilst her sister is murdered in her place. It works
so well because it could have so easily have been avoided and Krychek is such
an enjoyably hissable villain.
The Bad: To open the series on a flaming boxcar with the now
obligatory ‘previously on…’ is to assume that everybody was around for the
finale last year. I can tell you that nearly nine million people showed up
between seasons who would be baffled by the lack of explanation. Its lovely
that Carter holds the Navajo Indians in such esteem but why does he insist on
filling their mouths full of his incomprehensible poetic dialogue that makes
them all sound like pubescent teenagers spouting philosophy to impress the
girls? Mulder managed to escape the cliffhanger by crawling along a tunnel of
rock, a route that was taken by one of the hybrids when they were gassed to
death. It makes sense as presented but it’s hardly the clever ‘rabbit out of a
hat’ answer I was expecting. The Blessing Way ritual was not what I was
expecting when I turned up at the start of the third series of this horror
anthology show and it goes to show how much confidence that Carter has in his
series to kick start a season on such an unusual note. It feels like it is
trying to capture the same beguiling atmosphere of One Breath but the
interminably dull voiceover and dodgy effects work puts paid to that. CGI will
never top a physical effect and Mulder floating amongst the stars on a bed of
leaves looks decidedly ropey against the much simpler imagery of Scully sitting
in a boat on a foggy lake. What the hell is Deep Throat talking about when he
steps forward from the sea of faces to address Mulder? It would appear that
even in death he can spout nothing but inane obscurities. I rewound the DVD
three times to try and decipher his dialogue but gave up figuring that it was
only self-reflective bollocks. I’m not complaining about the material because
its always great when a show chooses to deal with consequences but why did they
wait an entire half season to start dealing with the fallout from Scully’s
abduction? Rebecca Toolan is back as
Teena Mulder and there aren’t words to describe how wooden she is (‘oh my
goodness gracious!’ she declares like a malfunctioning robot as she learns
that Mulder is alive). Bill Mulder’s funeral is strangely unaffecting (remember
how low key and devastating Scully’s fathers was in Beyond the Sea?) – perhaps
its because we barely got as chance to get to know the character, perhaps it is
because Rebecca Toolan is such a dreadful actress or perhaps its because Mulder
isn’t there to see him off.
Moment to Watch Out For: The cliffhanger, which after
Anasazi is a real letdown. The shooting of Melissa would have been a much more
effective place to take a pause in the action rather than Scully and Skinner
pointing guns at each other.
Result: Slow, reflective and underwhelming after such
incredible build up, The Blessing Way offers little more than scraps to be
going along with and only really comes alive when it centres on Scully. I don’t
want to blame the actor for the words that are put into his mouth but Albert
Holsteen is one of the most tedious characters ever to have appeared on this
show and his ponderous monologues are a real chore to endure. Any show that
starts bringing back dead characters in dream sequences is usually in a lot of trouble
and the appearance of Deep Throat and Bill Mulder feels more like trying to
please the fans than a worthy storytelling function. Its useful then that
Gillian Anderson is better than ever here, given the chance to go solo and play
the paranoia game as she starts to realise just how much the government had a
hand in her abduction last year. It seems whenever one of the leads is
sidelined (you can feel Duchovny’s disapproval in his performance) the semi
regulars are pushed to forefront and more than make up for their absence. The
Smoking Man and Skinner are more interesting than ever and I’m pleased there is
one more episode to this mini arc in their company. However much of this
indulgent episode could have been excised, it’s the hollow filling in what is
ultimately a satisfying sandwich: 5/10
Paper Clip written by Chris Carter and directed by Rob
Bowman
What’s it about: Revelations galore as Carter finally spills
the beans. A bit…
Trust No-One: ‘I was a dead man. Now I’m back!’ I was
wondering how Carter was going to shoehorn a mention of Samantha into this
sequence of episodes (she is the only part of the mythology that has been
missing so far). To his credit he pulls out a humdinger of a twist that reveals
that it was Mulder who was supposed to be taken and there was a last minute
decision made for Samantha to be abducted in his place. One of Bill Mulder’s
children was going to be taken as insurance because he was planning on exposing
the project and the tests being carried out on American citizens. In Rebecca
Toolan’s best scene yet as Teena, Mulder asks his mother if she ever had to
make a choice of which child was her favourite. She admits she couldn’t and
that Bill ultimately made the choice and she hate him for it. Its proof that
she knew that Melissa’s abduction was deliberate and I hope they return
to deal with this revelation at a later date. Am I the only person who loves
the idea of Mulder and Scully being on the run as they are here, without access
or protection. I could see half a season or so playing out with the pair of
them moving from state to state and unearthing supernatural mysteries, Sam and
Dean Winchester style, with their former employers always a menacing background
presence as they are here. Perhaps I’m just chasing that Blakes’ 7 vibe
that they so successfully conjour up for a handful of scenes here. Mulder has
become his father now, threatening to bring down the project and he needs to
find his own insurance to ensure that his life and that of those around him is
spared.
Brains’n’Beauty: Sheila Larkin is much superior actress to
Rebecca Toolan, both Mulder and Scully’s respective mothers suffer terrible
losses over this trilogy but only one of them moved me to tears. ‘That
bullet was meant for me!’ How much worse can Scully be made to feel? With
her sister in critical care and her file turning up in a secret government
filing facility, there has never been more of a reason for Scully to step out
of this world that seems to be destroying her life. Surely losing a relative is
thanks to your work that is a price too high to pay? Melissa’s death seems to have the reverse effect, strengthening
her commitment to Mulder and determined to make that death count for something
by bringing the men to justice. Albert gently comforting Scully’s mother is the
best use of his character yet. The recent tissue sample in Scully’s file is the
proof that she needs that the government has had a hand in her abduction. The
two movie length conspiracy tales this season deal with both the fallout from what
she learns here about her abduction and her revenge on her sisters killer.
Expect fireworks.
Assistant Director: ‘This is where you pucker up and kiss
my ass’ I’m so glad it was Skinner that got the opportunity to wipe the
smile so spectacularly off of the Smoking Man’s face at the climax. Especially
after how he has been pulling his strings for so long and treating him so
discourteously.
Smoking Man: ‘You can’t play poker if you’re not holding
any cards…’ More phenomenal scenes from the Smoking Man who faces
the inquisition for Krychek’s mistakes and starts promising far more than he
can deliver (Mulder’s death and the return of the tape). The way these three
episodes have subtly transformed him from a mysterious background player who
appeared to be in charge of the conspiracy to a victim of his own
overcomplicated schemes has been inspired. William B. Davis deserves massive
kudos for making that transformation so convincingly and for throwing himself
into his new role so fulsomely. Its easy to see why he is such a fan favourite.
There’s nothing more delicious than watching the bad guys squirm. ‘Do you
have the damn tape?’ – he works so well as a desperate man. Krychek
swearing bloody vengeance on his former employer (and the Smoking Man’s non
reaction to this call is fantastic) is great set up for future episodes.
The Good: Where do they find these fantastic locations on
this show? The enormous derelict warehouse is one of the most impressive yet.
The extensive filing system is just as jaw dropping (with a handy railroad
through the middle to make searching for files less arduous!) and reveals the
scale of the testing performed on the American population. The rising lighting
rig posing as an alien spacecraft is a unparalleled physical special
effect (leagues away from the dreadful CGI dreamscape stuff in the last
episode) but there is no need whatsoever for this appearance of a ship to occur
(despite the Syndicate stating that they are going to turn to ‘old friends’ to
find Mulder and Scully. Its momentously realised but needlessly complicates the
episode which was getting along very well without an alien presence. Who would
have thought that the digital tape would have been such a successful McGuffin,
driving all the characters of these three episodes in such a frenzy. Krychek
has been treated to very little screen time but Carter has ensured that his
character is beyond redemption now, murdering Mulder’s father and Scully’s
sister and kicking the crap out of Skinner (even after he obtains the tape he enjoys
one last punch like a good nasty). How spectacular is the moment when the
Smoking Man tries to wipe his hands of him? This show stages action brilliantly
and the low angle pull back as the car explodes is spectacular. John Neville’s
Well Manicured Man can turn up anytime he damn well likes because he’s not only
a smooth talking bad guy played by a strong actor but he has a habit of giving
us much sought after answers every time he opens his mouth! I love it when this
show integrates real life atrocities into its mythology to give it some
gravitas. It takes nothing away from the horror of what the Jews experienced
during the Second World War to mention them in relation to the alien/human
hybrid programme that the government was running at the same time. Even Albert
is given a great role by the end of the episode, memorising the information on
the digital tape and sharing it with 20 other members of his tribe. Now that
information is available through anonymous source the Smoking Man cannot touch
Mulder and Scully or their families. This word of mouth high technology is an
ingenious idea.
The Bad: Its another cliffhanger answered with crushing
inevitability – given we have already seen that Mulder has survived his ordeals
in the boxcar who else would it be but him coming to his door? Everybody is
waving guns and screaming as though testosterone is being pumped into the room
by the gallon and it doesn’t make for very effective drama especially when
Mulder, Scully and Skinner are ultimately all on the same side. If this was
Buffy they would have all caught their breath and looked at each other,
awkwardly and someone would have said ‘well, this is embarrassing…’
You’ve got to wonder about the subtlety of a show that will flaunt a clearly
photoshopped black and white image of its evil Syndicate hanging out with Nazi
war criminals. If they needed evidence that Mulder’s father had a shady past
this about as blatant as they could have been. Its unbelievable that
after everything the characters have been through to obtain its secrets that we
still don’t get to find out what was on the digital tape.
Pre Titles Sequence: Is this the least compelling pre-titles
sequence ever? It’s a montage of beautiful images spoilt by another
interminable monologue from Albert Holsteen. I honestly don’t give a damn about
the omen of white buffalo, I just wish the series would dump the Indian
mysticism and get back to telling good stories.
Moment to Watch Out For & Mythology: ‘In 1947 a
spacecraft was reportedly recovered in New Mexico. No doubt you know of this,
and of the body reportedly recovered at the site. There incidents co-incided
with not only the end of World War II but an ignominious project which brought
Nazi scientists and war criminals to this country to exploit their knowledge’
‘Operation Paper Clip?’ ‘Yes, you know of it already. And you must also know of
the work of Dr Josef Mengele, the so called “Angel of Death.” ‘Mengale thought
he could produce a super race through genetic engineering’ As did many of his
colleagues at the Institute of Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene’ ‘Like
Victor Klemper?’ ‘Poor Victor. He loved his orchids. Did you know he was able
to create some of the most beautiful hybrids’ ‘Klemper was trying to create an
alien/human hybrids. He was using human test subjects. My father was involved
in this?’ ‘When you father realised what the medical data was being used for he
objected strenuously. With the threat of nuclear holocaust in the 1950s, the
government instructed men like your father to gather genetic data on the
general populace for the purposes of post apocalyptic identification’ ‘They
took tissue from everybody who had a small pox inoculation!’ ‘Hundreds of
Americans…’ ‘So that Victor Klemper had access to a DNA database of nearly
everyone who was born since 1950…’ Look at that! Actual answers!
Let joy be uncontained! It doesn’t explain why there was a project to turn
humanity into a race of alien/human hybrids but it does tie a neat bow around
everything that has been introduced in this trilogy and apply to the arc
storyline that is already in place. It’s a very satisfying scene.
Result: Paper Clip pulls off a massive coup in the last
fifteen minutes and Carter really surprised me by managing to pull together all
of elements of this trilogy into a satisfying whole. Its nowhere near as epic
as Carter seems to think it is (the inappropriate appearance of a spaceship
seems to be there just to make what is an exercise is card shuffling feel much
more ambitious) and could happily have played over two episodes, cutting out
all the mystical bollocks from the middle instalment. What is achieved (and
brilliantly)
is shift in the emphasis of all the regular cast; Mulder and Scully have both
suffered personal losses and now have to justify them, Skinner has emerged as a
hero, the Smoking Man is now a desperate player and Krychek has gone rogue. Its
been an invaluable shake up that has made all these characters prominent again.
It also leaves the conspiracy arc in a great place to be picked up again with
the introduction of the Well Manicured Man (expertly played by John Neville)
and the Syndicate, Krychek promising bloody vengeance and with much more to
learn about the international players. If we still haven’t got all the answers
(there’s so much emphasis placed on creating alien/human hybrids with no
explanation for
why) then this episode at least ties up everything that
has taken place over the last three episodes in a nice little package in a way
that feels as if the arc is moving forwards in a positive direction. With some
judicious pruning Anasazi and Paper Clip would have made an impressive and
packed two parter. Shoving The Blessing Way in between them blunts the impact
of the (genuinely surprising) revelations and makes this far more bloated than
it needed to be. Cut down on the indulgences, Carter and concentrate on telling
a good story. You have proven with this conclusion that you are more than up to
the task:
8/10
D.P.O. written by Howard Gordon and directed by Kim Manners
What’s it about: A kid that can strike like lightning…
Trust No-One: There’s no hanging around in D.P.O. Mulder and
Scully get on the trail of their suspect in record time so the episode can
dispense with the usual investigative platitudes and concentrate solely on
Darin.
Brains’n’Beauty: Whilst it is nice for Scully to bring up
what they have just through in the past three episodes she also states
categorically that this isn’t the work o aliens or government conspiracies. For
once Mulder concurs and there is a visible smile of relief on his face, its
time to get back to some good old fashioned standalone adventures.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘I’m saying he is lightning and
we’ve got to find him before he strikes again…’ – kudos to David Duchovny for
getting that line out with a straight face.
Ugh: ‘It looks like his heart was cooked right in his
chest!’ – you could almost believe that the image of the chargrilled heart
in the evidence bag was where this episode was conceived. It’s the sort of
concept that is unique to The X-Files.
The Good: You’ve got to hand it to casting director that
manages to draw Jack Black and Giovanni Ribisi from a pack to star in the same
episode. It may have taken Carter a couple of audition to be convinced that
Ribisi was right for the titular role of Darin but it was definitely the right
call, he’s superb. The X-Files never has much but condemnation for
‘yoof’ culture and it can get a little wearying at times but there is something
strangely sympathetic about Darin despite his how angry and unpredictable
appetite for destruction and that all comes down to the way he is portrayed. I
love how the director gets right in the face of the hideous mother, vegetating
in from of the TV, exposing the ugly existence she has brewed up for Darin.
When she is seen later in a coloured shell suit and walking through her wall of
hideously patterned wallpaper I could see precisely why Darin turned out no
good. Darin will summon the heavens and murder cows just to release some of
that angst that is bottled up inside of him and change traffic lights at whim
to get cars to smash into each other. The metaphor for out of control hormones
is clear and as channelled through this character is pretty scary. Darin isn’t
the brightest lad in the book and is willing to save Mr Kiveat despite the fact
that that very act will implicate him further. My sister fancied a teacher once
and made hell for him during her years at school, kids are so destructively
emotional at this age they don’t realise the harm they are doing. Karen Witter’s
performance matches Ribisi’s during the sequence where he leads her away from
the hospital to a life of bliss together. She’s terrified and sympathetic which
is not an easy combination to pull off. Its so ridiculous, teacher and pupil
holding hands and him talking about her see through dress in class and the real
tragedy is that Darin just can’t see how unlikely this all looks. He’s so
gentle with her that its really sweet and really cringeworthy at the same time.
His tears when she runs away from him are genuine. I love the Psycho
inspired ending where Darin looks straight into the camera and the cuteness of
Carter’s name appearing on the TV. It’s a fun cap from what has been a slight
but enjoyable episode.
The Bad: The stubborn and unhelpful Sheriff is the sort of
character that turns up in so many shows and he’s never especially likable or
productive, he’s just there to get in the way. You want him to be punished for
being so stupid as to release Darin for what looks like sheer stubbornness and
I applauded Howard Gordon for seeing this through and killing him off
needlessly in the final act. I applauded.
Pre Titles Sequence: There’s plenty to like in the
pre-titles sequence including the rare use of a song and the dramatic lighting
but I’m not entirely sure what happens because there is no clear indication
that the kid has been struck by lightning.
Moment to Watch Out For: Kim Manners was made for The
X-Files because he manages to bring the show to life in such a visually
imaginative way. This is one of his lesser episodes but it is still full of
crane shots, fluid pans, dramatic low angles (especially during Darin’s
lightning attractor sequence on the hill) and POV shots. I found the
realisation of this character drama to be quite striking (hohoho). Zero’s death
is especially well done with some very angry music signalling Darin’s presence
and the sudden bolt of lightning that strikes from behind. The image of Darin
standing atop the roof of the arcade with the moon silhouetting him like the
Angel of Mercy is very effective.
Fashion Statement: As the series continues to become more
popular the regulars are looking sharper than ever. Scully’s sporting a pair of
designer sunglasses here and Mulder turns up in town in a sharp suit. Wait
until the show reaches its popularity zenith in the middle seasons, its like a
pair of models have wandered into the FBI.
Result: As the first standalone adventure of season three I
found D.P.O pleasingly unpretentious and simple and easy to enjoy. Because
there are no great surprises to be had (this is one of those season one X-Files
where everything we need to know is in the teaser) this is more of a
performance pieces and so it comes as a relief that the performances are this
good. Its amazing how much the writer and director manage to make such a slight
teenager seem like such a threat but with the combination of explosive
adolescent emotions and a supernatural gift they more than succeed. Its
becoming increasingly popular to offer up plenty of time to the antagonist of
the week and Ribisi is more than up to the task to injecting a great deal of
sympathy into his otherwise angry portrayal of Darin. It means we are rooting
for him at the same time as wanting to see him stopped. With the clever use of
music, some stylish deaths and a chance for Mulder and Scully to catch their
breath after such a dramatic opening to the year; season three is off to a
refreshing start: 7/10
Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose written by Darin Morgan and
directed by David Nutter
What’s it about: Fate. Determinism. Co-incidences. Life.
Death.
Trust No-One: There’s a fantastic build up to the
introduction of Mulder in this episode with talk of a spooky and unorthodox
advisor that is being brought in to help with the investigation. In walks Mulder
and the police don’t have a clue who he is – it’s the Stupendous Yappi that
they have been waiting for! This is the sort of self-critical humour that Buffy
excels in and taking the piss out of its own staple ingredients is the surest
sign of confidence a show can exude. Yappi advances on Scully when he picks up
on negative energy in the room which is interfering with his insights but
suddenly turns on Mulder who is told to leave the room like a naughty schoolboy
(Scully’s ‘I can’t take you anywhere’ made me howl). He gets his own
back on Yappi when he asks him to read his mind. Even though Bruckman is the
one with the paranormal ability he still wants to see Mulder’s ID when he
starts spouting off his usual paranormal inanities (‘I’m supposed to believe
that’s a real name?’). Mulder is asked if he wants to know how he dies and
insanely says yes not realising that that knowledge will define the rest of his
existence. Is Mulder really going to die of auto erotic asphyxiation? Who cares
when his reaction to this is such a scream. Mulder isn’t a Freudian so I guess
its nice that there is something that he wont buy into. I was beginning to
wonder. Bruckman ultimately saves Mulder’s life – the fact that he knew that
stepping in the pie signified the approach of the killer is what prevents his
throat from being opened up. That Bruckman’s ability (that has to this point
only signified misery) could ultimately save a mans life is a lovely gift to
the character. It adds to the poignancy of the conclusion that he never
realised that he has finally done some good.
Brains’n’Beauty: ‘Mr Bruckman there are hits and there are
misses. And then there are misses…’ is possibly Scully’s best line in
the entire series as she responds to Bruckman’s assertion that they will end up
in bed together. Scully enjoys a scientific rationale for everything and at
times it feels as though she enjoys taking all the wonder out of life. Which is
why the first scene she appears in she and Mulder start debunking psychics with
descriptions like anthropomancy, professional prognosticators and amateur
tasseogrophers. Making something that is potentially dangerous feel very safe
and scientific. There’s a gorgeous comment on Scully’s need to know how and why
paranormal happenings take place summed up beautifully by Bruckman who points
out that they have happened ‘so what are you complaining about?’ Any
episode that can get Scully to say ‘fat white Nazi storm trooper’ gets
my vote. Gillian Anderson’s performance at the climax is the very epitome of tenderness
with a tear that wants to escape her eye but she is so restrained (and its all
the more touching for it) that she wont let it go. I love the fact that Scully
earns a dog out of this exercise. Hurrah for its appearances later in the year.
Banana Cream Pie: Bruckman is a delightful character from
the off, mocking the idiotic predictions of the Stupendous Yappi that turn up
in the National Enquirer but buying the magazine anyway. Peter Doyle gives a
magnificent performance, delivering his lines with a warm and yet still deadpan
approach which makes every gag a winner. Doyle makes such a an obviously
scripted character entirely credible and great fun to be around. He deserves
every plaudit that was handed down to him and more. Anybody who is that down on
life has the ability to be really funny. To be able to tell how
everybody is going to die would be a terrible curse, burdening you with a
poisonous knowledge of everybody you touch in life. ‘Sometimes it just seems
that everybody’s having sex except for me…’ How can you not love a
character that can pause halfway through reliving a terrible crime for a moment
of melancholy like this? Why would Bruckman pursue a relationship with anybody?
You would be blighted with the exact circumstances of the moment they would be
taken away from you. Instead he lives a depressing existence selling insurance
because at least he can do some good with his gift that way, ensuring that
people who are about to lose somebody are sufficiently covered. Bruckman hears
somebody at his door and correctly predicts that it is Mulder come to drag him
further into this investigation but when he looks up says ‘oh, its you.’ His
(or should that be Darin Morgan’s) self deprecating humour never fails to hit
the spot. Hoping that the eventual fate of his helping the FBI will lead to his
mother never meeting his father and his birth never taking place (he’s kooky
like that), Bruckman is eager to get started. Moments like this signpost the
touching ending. When Scully is doubtful that Bruckman’s abilities can give
them any satisfying leads (as Bruckman himself says ‘I guess I can’t see the
forest from the trees’ – I don’t think I’ve ever seen that line filmed in
an actual forest but then I guess only this episode would dare) its brilliant
that his wild goose chase is revealed to be irrelevant because the very place
he asked them to stop the car is where the victim is, underneath in the mud.
Hauntingly the connection between Bruckman and the killer is made perfectly
clear, one predicts the deaths and the other makes them happen. You cannot have
one without the other. Destined to a life of solitude, of selling insurance, of
never being able to look at a single person and not be confronted with death,
Bruckman pokes a finger in the eye of fate and chooses to take his own life.
Given his unguarded depression throughout it shouldn’t come as a great surprise
but it feels devastating to lose such a magnificent character.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘I have to an APB out on a white male,
17-34, with or without a beard, maybe a tattoo who’s impotent’ ‘Might as well
go home, Mulder. This case is as good as solved.’
‘This is from your New York Nicks T-Shirt!’ – when Darin
Morgan wanted to write an episode based around the same theme as Beyond the Sea
I never thought he would so hilariously reference the episode.
‘If co-incidences are co-incidences then why do they feel so
contrived?’
‘Don’t you understand it yet son? Don’t you get it? You do
the things you do because you’re a homicidal mainiac…’ – Bruckman has to spell
out to the killer the reason behind his murder spree. The way he smiles because
that makes sense is utterly chilling.
The Good: What a shame that The Stupendous Yappi had to be
reduced to only a couple of scenes because his presence is a delight,
especially his insights into the killer that all come with an addendum of ‘or
not’ or ‘I think.’ It’s a wonderful piss take of Derek Acorah and
his contemporaries and prove that as long as you make a show out of it you can
convince people of psychic ability through theatre. Its played to comic
perfection. Its an episode that is happy to continually pause and make
thoughtful observations without ever halting the flow of the narrative. Why do
we collect the things that we do? What are the moments in our life that make us
decide to follow a certain path? Why do we see meaningful patterns and
configurations in things that inherently don’t have any? ‘How could I see
the future if it didn’t already exist?’ ‘If the future is already written then
why bother to do anything?’ – an exchange of two very good questions that I
can remember debating long until the night with a Christian friend recently.
Wonderfully Bruckman in one of his flights of fancy lists pretty much every
‘time travel’ plot sported by most genre series. What Bruckman has touched upon
is to look at the specifics of everybody’s lives so he can determine when all
the variables will come together and lead to your death. Very few shows I have
watched have come up with an idea that fascinates me quite as much as this one.
A cats cradle of decisions and influences
that make up a life and converge on the point where it ultimately stops.
To study just one person and see that process in action would be the work of a
lifetime. You can’t have an episode the focuses on the abilities of psychics
and mediums without a sequence where our heroes fate is spelt out. The way this
scene plays out with Morgan undercutting the tension with humour (Bruckman is
far more interested in the flavour of the pie that Mulder has stepped in than
the knife that is approaching his throat) is inspired. In the vision Mulder’s
throat is slit because Bruckman is seeing what the killer wants to happen
rather than what is actually going to happen. It means when this scene plays
out later in the episode there is a real sense of anticipation. What an
astonishing visual Bruckman decomposing is. I’ve seen similar effects on other
shows but they always cut away at some point, this is a progression of
purification from a dead body right the way through to a pile of dust and
beyond. There is such delicate tragedy in the way that Bruckman tells Havez
that he isn’t going to die of lung cancer and lights up a cigarette, a tender
gesture since he is the only person who knows that it will be his last one as
the killer is about to murder him. Through Havez we see the link between
Bruckman and the killer, he’s predicted his death at the hands of the killer so
now he has no choice but to turn up and make sure it happens. Bruckman’s curse
is to cement the fate of these people. Even woman’s intuition gets a mention
here, the most mentioned form of psychic ability in my world.
Pre Titles Sequence: One of my favourite pre titles
sequences from one of my favourite episodes, this teaser manages to be funny,
thoughtful, clever and frightening in the space of a couple of minutes. The
irony of a fortune teller not being able to predict her own death is one of the
most blackly funny things I have ever seen committed to film. I also love the
idea of a serial killer who has absolutely no idea why he is about to go on a
killing spree and seeking the advice of those people that would ultimately be
his victims. This episode thrives on madness like that.
Moment to Watch Out For: Whether it is fate, co-incidence or
pre-determinism through life choices, Bruckman and the killer coming face to
face in the hotel room is one of the most spine tingling moments this show ever
produced. It gives me goosebumps every time I see it.
Result: I have never known a single episode of television
that managed to be this bleak and yet so delightful to watch at the same time.
Darin Morgan is in another league to the rest of the writers on this show and
believe me the team that contributed to The X-Files were frequently excellent.
His scripts are bursting with ideas, intelligent observations, imagination,
laugh out loud humour, brilliant lines and
phenomenal characters. If we
are talking about
substance I would say that Morgan is one of the
foremost scriptwriters for television of all time. Every scene is a gem, packed
with moments that will make you laugh and cry and experience all the emotions
in between. Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose is the ultimate expression of what
Morgan could bring to The X-Files and remains one of the shows most significant
achievements. I spend so often reacting to this show (because it is often
scaring the pants off me) that it is a refreshing change when it gives me this
much to think about. Tempering all of the philosophy with humour is inspired
because it never feels like you are being lectured at but introduced to
catalysts that get your imagination firing in a very gentle way. From the black
comedy of the pre titles sequence to the tear jerking conclusion, there is no
part of this episode that isn’t magnificent. I’ll see other episodes of The
X-Files that will make me tingle with how glorious they are but nothing will
quite touch me in the same way as the tale of Clyde Bruckman and his terrible,
terrible gift:
10/10
The List written and directed by Chris Carter
What’s it about: A prisoner on death row promises to exact
his revenge on five people…
Trust No-One: It feels like Mulder and Scully’s role in this
episode is to stumble on corpses rather than get down to any serious
investigating. They sure talk a lot about the list and the suspects but they
don’t seem to achieve anything, turning up after the killings have taken place
and looking appalled (watch Duchovny especially who has mastered this look on
autopilot). They swan off at the end drawing no real conclusions about anything
leaving a trail of corpses in their wake.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘I only get five?’ ‘I remembered your
birthday this year didn’t I Scully?’
‘How does it feel to be on death row warden?’ – there is a
certain irony to the idea that the warden whose occupation involves leading
people to their deaths haunted by the fact that his days are numbered.
Dreadful Dialogue: ‘Its over Mulder, let’s just go home…’ –
Scully is bored with the whole thing and wants to leave despite the dearth of a
resolution. Mulder is more troubled by this by shrugs his shoulders and leaves
anyway. The fact that this script is the work of their creator is troubling,
like he cannot think of anything more useful to be doing with them.
Ugh: As far as I understand Gillian Anderson was not
thrilled to be working with maggots (this from a woman who shoved a cricket in
her gob in Humbug!) but they do make for some memorably icky moments. I
especially liked how their presence was used later on to indicate that there
was a corpse to find, as they dropped to the floor through the light fittings.
Oddly though we never actually witness any of the deaths until the end of the
episode (probably to try and keep the mystery of whether this is the work of
Neech or not a secret), we constantly stumble on bodies but with no reaction
shot these murders have no impact.
The Good: Carter shoots the prison with lots of green
lighting giving it an ethereal, spectral appearance. Its an oppressive
environment for sure and one where prison guards ca jump of helpless women from
the shadows and heads will turn up in paint cans.
The Bad: If Carter was going for a Shawshank Redemption
vibe with Neech he needed to adjust the tone of this story 180 degrees. Mulder
talks almost reverently about how well read he was and his philosophical
beliefs but in the end of the day that is all for nothing when he is going
around killing people because he’s a bit pissed that he was executed. It
doesn’t matter who is on the list because its impossible to give a damn about
any of these people. The similarities with Fresh Bones from season two are
manifold (the despicable characters, the dead prisoner with supernatural powers
seeking revenge) but I felt as if I was actually watching the previous show
when I was I was treated to prisoners being beaten up again. Its really nasty
television and it didn’t work the first time around. Of course the
Neech’s wife is having an affair, that was pointed out the second she told him
she would never love another man. Mulder asserts that this could be the work of
a conspiracy within the prison, using Neech’s promise of a five deaths to their
own ends. Had that actually played out in the episode (rather than Neech
turning up as an avenging spirit for goodness only knows what reason) it would
have been an awesome twist. Florida is represented by filming on a particularly
sunny day in Vancouver but the two locations have such a different energy about
them it doesn’t convince for a second. Plus this much sunshine on The X-Files
feels odd – how on Earth am I going to cope once the show moves to LA? I’m not
entirely sure why Danielle pulls a gun on her lover – she seems to think that
Neech has been re-incarnated in him for some reason that is never explained.
Sperenza being killed after telling the warden that there is still one name on
the list probably supposed to be loaded with irony but its just another vile
moment of persecution in the prison from hell that director revels in.
Pre Titles Sequence: The best scene in the entire story by
far, the teaser unflinchingly shows us a man being led to his death in the
electric chair and fried. Its very well acted (you would swear it was playing
out for real) and with Roque’s violent threats it reveals what the episode is
going to be about in economic fashion. If only the rest of this tale could have
been so succinct.
Moment to Watch Out For: The last scene of this episode sees
the warden who thinks he has gotten away with his regime of terror in the
prison being forced off the road by Neech. It plays out in a familiar fashion –
its exactly the same scene that kick started Fresh Bones.
Result: Every now and again The X-Files offers an episode
that will test its audience to the limit. Filled with hateful characters,
cursed with predictable writing and leaving the viewer with the impression that
they have wasted an hour because Mulder and Scully achieve nothing.
Fresh Bones was one such episode and it might not surprise you to hear that The
List has a great deal in common with it (right up to a scene with a car
crashing into a tree). There’s no real urgency or ingenuity about who has been
killed and it never leads anywhere climactic (we’re told about halfway through
that the warden is the last name on the list so its hardly a surprise when he
snuffs it in the final scene). A little humour and some of these characters
might have come alive long enough for us to give a damn about them before they
died but everything plays out with deadly earnestness. Carter needs to peep
over his shoulder at what Darin Morgan was doing just a week earlier. He could
learn something valuable about structuring a drama, filling it with memorable
moments, likable characters and finding fascinating things to do with Scully
and Mulder. If this (as a Chris Carter writing/directing combo) was supposed to
replicate the success of Duane Barry, its an abject failiure: 3/10
2Shy written by Jeff Vlaming and directed by David Nutter
What’s it about: An online killer is targeting larger women
because they have something that he needs…
Trust No-One: ‘OK its not yet the finely detailed
insanity you expect from me. Its just a theory…’ Mulder runs through the
motions whilst Scully gets all the best bits. Its kind of nice because until
now it has so often been the other way around.
Brains’n’Beauty: ‘You’re concluding that he’s some kind
of fat sucking vampire?’ Is this the first time that we have seen Scully
experience sexism like this? I don’t recall it ever being an issue before
(except for her tantrum about it in Soft Light without precedent) and it sticks
out like a sore thumb because the show has always concentrated on her as a
professional rather than as a woman. That was quite rare and one of the reasons
I really took to the character. Detective Cross seems to think that because
2Shy is preying on women that this will affect her judgement regarding the case
(whereas it was far more of an issue in Irresistible) when the only person
behaving out of the norm is him. As soon as Cross gives Scully a hard time he
is a marked man, just like the Sheriff was in D.P.O. The climax sees Mulder
chasing after a graffiti artist whilst Scully is left at the mercy of the
killer. Its been at least six episodes since she was last attacked so I suppose
we should have seen it coming! The natural conclusion that this drama makes
about a man who preys on women is that Scully is a strong enough protagonist to
fight back. It comes as a real surprise then that its Ellen who takes him out.
There is something satisfying about these two women working together to bring
down this lady killer.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘I gave them what they wanted. They gave
me what I needed.’
‘The dead are non longer lonely…’
Ugh: The teaser lets you know that you are in for an icky
ride with victim number one breaking away from her kiss with Incanto with a
fatty membrane sealing up her mouth! I love scene where Scully opens the
autopsy bay only to find the body has been reduced to fatty sludge that pours
all over the floor! What about the strips of dry skin that end up hanging from
the prostitutes fingernails? The final shot of Incanto staring out of the
television with skin hanging from his face is memorably scary even it was
precisely how D.P.O ended a few weeks back. David Nutter seems to revel in the
stomach turning these days and pushes things right to the limit. Lovely.
The Good: A killer that preys upon less attractive, larger
women is a really neat idea because it tarnishes the frights with a sense of
tragedy. The way he gives them one night to feel special before snacking away on
their fat is somehow more gruesome than had he just attacked them. There’s
something very cruel about feeding into peoples dreams to make them feel
comfortable. A lonely hearts killer is an idea that has been tapped into before
and it is possibly the most plausible modus operandi a killer has adopted on
this show and the long shots of Incanto practically salivating over his
computer as he lures another victim in is enough to frighten anybody off the
idea of internet dating! I thought Catherine Paolone gave a nicely understated
performance as Ellen, the dumpy victim that we follow throughout most of the
episode. I really liked the way they portrayed her as uncharismatic, a bit
unpleasant and quite hard work – it felt far more realistic than had she been represented
as a dappy, cute as a button victim. You can really see why she hasn’t found
love before which makes this liaison even more heartbreaking. When she offers
milk to 2Shy and points out that its non-fat you can see the sort of delusions
that so many people live with – it takes more than cutting out the fat in one
part of your diet to lose weight! Because Incanto is feeding a hunger rather
than indulging in a psychotic impulse the murders are more frightening, its not
that he wants to but that he needs to. That necessity taps into the same
skin crawling requirement that Tooms had. When Incanto’s face is faxed through
to Ellen I was impressed at how she tried to keep her poker face on but she
cannot hide the fact that she is terrified. There is a trend developing in
season three where each episode feels the need to tie up everything quite
satisfactorily by explaining precisely what is going on. It seemed to baffle
the season two writers for the most part (odd considering they are mostly the
same writers – perhaps there was a meeting?) and it’s a development that I
heartily approve of.
The Bad: There’s nothing worse than a nosy neighbour (well
there is but not when you live a very sheltered life!) and especially a pushy
one like Monica who fancies you. At times it feels as though this subplot is
only there to show that killers can be preyed upon too. Fancy her letting
herself into his apartment when he is out! She deserves everything that she
discovers. Incanto having to fulfil his needs with a prostitute is reminiscent
of Irresistible and Carter should have pointed out the similarities and altered
the script. Its not so much a comment on the episode but how quickly television
dates as technology continues to evolve, the use of floppy discs and that blocky
green font marks this as the early days of computer technology.
Pre Titles Sequence: Like every episode so far this year
it’s an extremely informative teaser that tells you pretty much all you need to
know for the hour ahead. Timothy Carhart is an attractive man but these women
only have to look into his eyes to see what a predator he is. From the first
time I clapped eyes on him I thought ‘killer.’ He doesn’t disappoint.
Moment to Watch Out For: The fight in the bathroom is very
well staged and utilises the small space well. Incanto is going for a proper Psycho
moment of his own the way he rips aside the shower curtain and lunges at
Scully.
Fashion Statement: I wish Mulder would stop wandering around
in giant shades. It keeps reminding me of the end of Humbug.
Orchestra: Mark Snow is on fire in this story after snoozing
his way through The List. The score feels more ‘science fiction’ than usual but
its very creepy and memorable for it.
Result: There’s nothing particularly original going on in
2Shy (there are nods to Squeeze, Fire and Irresistible) but it’s a terrifically
well executed episode that has some decent scares and stomach turning visuals.
This is what should be used as a blueprint for an average X-File because it is
extremely watchable. Timothy Carhart gives a masterful performance as Incanto,
a fat sucking monster that wants to give his victims one night to feel special
before he kills them. I did like the way the audience were allowed to follow
one of 2Shy’s victims throughout the course of the episode and Ellen manages to
stay on the right side of being a stereotype because she isn’t a particularly
fun person to be around. I’d rather watch her than the bizarre nosy neighbour
who turns up in an unnecessary subplot of her own. David Nutter has done a
grand job of putting this all together (look at how he handles the camera, it
never stops moving) and Mark Snow’s music is more noticeably scary than usual.
It might be by the numbers X-Files but its quite engaging despite that and the
way the killer exploits the internet to prey on his victims adds an extra layer
of frisson. I liked it: 7/10
The Walk written by John Shiban and directed by Rob Bowman
What’s it about: Is the ‘phantom soldier’ that is haunting
members of the U.S. Army really an amputee?
Trust No-One: There’s a wonderfully funny moment in Jose
Chung’s From Outer Space later in the season where Darin Morgan portrays Mulder
and Scully as a pair of FBI thugs that crash into a crime scene menacingly and
threaten witnesses. Watch the scenes where they break into Roach’s apartment
here and try and intimidate him in the interrogation room – they play out along
similar lines except they are deadly serious. It just goes to show Morgan is
spot on when he deconstructs their characters. Duchovny in particular seems to
enjoy playing the authorative bullyboy here. Mulder finally gets the chance to
square off with a villain (something that so rarely gets to happen in this
show) and really drive home the horror of what he is doing and for the most selfish
of reasons. This is precisely the sort of participation of the regulars that
The List needed, driving home the horror of the situation by expression their
repulsion to the antagonist.
Brains’n’Beauty: Cleverly Shiban allows Mulder and Scully to
have their usual bitch fight over whose theory is correct but this time during
an interview by writing on a pad. Having Scully talk her way out of a tough
spot when encountering military bureaucracy is infinitely preferable to her
being treated with kid gloves for being a woman in 2Shy. She’s back to being a
hard as nails professional here, and that’s just how I like her.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Sometimes the only sane response to an
insane world is insanity!’ – Mulder sums himself up perfectly.
‘You sat at home and watched the war on cable TV as though
it was a video game!’
The Good: The group therapy session manages to be both
tragic and very funny. I’m not one of those people that thinks sitting around
singing kumbya and getting in touch with each others feelings suits every
personality defect but when it comes to post traumatic shock disorder and
sharing stories of losing limbs in combat its quite touching (and necessary).
However there’s Rappo there to stop it from getting too twee, screaming as though
he has only just realised that his missing both and arms and legs. He’s
counter-productive but he’s also a reminder that you have to laugh at yourself
through adversity. Rob Bowman shoots one scene in a massively long tracking
shot that is beautifully done. As though he was directing a really effective
horror film Bowman makes the swimming pool death fantastically eerie, telling
us precisely how we are going to witness the killers entrance by shooting
shadows on the ceiling. When Rappo does emerge from the water looking for all
the world like a water sprite and drags her under the water it is a very clever
effect. I love how the next scene seems to be shot from the corpses point of
view as well, looking up at Scully from under the water. Willie Garson always
impresses in playing the fall guy and he doesn’t let the side down here. You
will genuinely believe that they have managed to cast a actor who has been
dismembered because the effects shots of his missing arms and legs are
flawless. Rappo is sick of suffering and has murdered his colleagues friends
and family to manipulate them into killing him because he cannot do it himself.
Therefore the greatest punishment he can receive from Callahan is to make him
live and suffer like the rest of them. Stans killing Rappo brings us full
circle, he can finally die himself by killing the man that is keeping him
alive. Ignore Mulder’s hideous wrapping up speech at the end (why does Duchovny
always sound so bored during these?) and instead ponder on the memorable closing
image of two men (Callahan and Stans) sharing a look of pain, both men scarred
by the war and Rappo’s curse upon them.
The Bad: The lighting in the military hospital draws
attention to itself in exactly the same way the lighting did in The Walk.
Practically every room is in darkness with a misty white light flooding through
one window. It gives the scenes a harsh, cover-your-eyes feel of an alien
abduction (when nothing of the sort is happening) where perhaps standard
lighting might have been just as effective. Not every shot has to be lit as
though it is screaming ‘atmosphere!’ Mulder’s description of Rappo’s ability to
stalk his victims as ‘astral projection’ sounds awkward but I think any
scientific description of a phantom would wind up being so.
Pre Titles Sequence: Talk about making an impression in your
first script for the show, John Shiban opens his debut story with a thoroughly
nasty set piece featuring a depressed soldier that is desperate to commit
suicide shoving weights in his pockets and throwing himself into a vat of
scalding water. The way director Rob Bowman shoves the boiling water right in
our faces is especially dramatic. The blistered, scarred monstrosity that
emerges alive is repulsive. Its one of those ‘how the hell did they do
that?’ scenarios with the water that the stunt man jumps into looking for all
the world as if it is roasting hot.
Moment to Watch Out For: Even after the shocking death of
Teddy Holvey in The Calusari last year I still didn’t think any American TV
show would dare to attempt killing a child in primetime again. How wrong I was.
Little Trevor’s death in the sandpit is very well realised but it’s the fact
that the show is taking risks again that impresses the most. I suspect there
were meetings agonising over whether this was appropriate but I’m glad they
went with it. When Mrs Callahan is murdered later in the episode it feels
almost like a release after losing her son.
Notes: It was lovely to see Thomas Kopache turn up in
another cult show after seeing him as Kira’s father in Star Trek: Deep Space
Nine. How refreshing to have someone in authority actually believe Mulder
for a change.
Result: ‘No sleepwalking…’ The X-Files really likes
its revenge stories, doesn’t it? Fortunately this is miles better than The List
in just about every respect and the thing it gets most right is by actually
showing the deaths of the victims being stalked and they prove to be highly
disturbing. And in complete contrast to The List both Scully and Mulder are
treated as real professionals, working their way methodically through this case
and trying to stay one step ahead of the phantom soldier. Anderson and Duchovny
are more stony faced than ever here but it really works in the context of the
episode and they prove to be quite intimidating in parts. Rob Bowman’s
direction is avant-garde and his use of shadows and bloody footsteps to
suggest the killers approach gives the story some really tense moments. At this
stage of the game this show has access to the finest small pool of small screen
directors available and each episode is practically a visual masterpiece (its
usually in the scripting where the show falls down but that is not in evidence
here). Once again the killer is known from the beginning and the story is
wrapped up satisfactorily – have they employed the services of a script editor
between seasons? Like 2Shy this isn’t original material for The X-Files but its
even more polished (the final set piece of Callahan being chased through
explosions of steam by the phantom looks amazing) and kicks the teeth of
the show that it steals its best ideas from. Season three chalks up another
winner: 8/10
Oubliette written by Charles Grant Craig and directed by Kim
Manners
What’s it about: The abduction of Amy Jacobs brings back
some disturbing memories to Lucy Householder, a previous victim…
Trust No-One: ‘You are protecting her beyond the point of
reason…’ After a run of episodes where he has been little more than an FBI
brute, Mulder is back to being sweet and approachable which I guess was vital
in a case as delicate as this one. Its lovely to see the agents working on a
case that truly benefits somebody rather than being witnesses to a chain of
murders which has been their purpose of the last couple of weeks. Even better
scriptwriter Charles Grant Craig fills the episode with little moments of human
tragedy that really help to sell this a real investigation – Mulder being
slapped away by the mother who asks how he could possibly know what she is
going through is but one example. You can always tell when David Duchovny is
engaged with the material because his performance is packed full of subtleties,
like he has really tried to get under the skin of the character in this
situation. Mulder realises that he has to be gentle with Lucy but he needs her
help to crack this case so occasionally the sledgehammer approach to get a
reaction is employed too. To show how close this comes to being a ‘normal’ cop
drama (whatever one of those is – they all feature episodes that are based of
implausible leaps as much as The X-Files to me) Mulder doesn’t make an official
announcement of his theory of the week until two thirds through the episode.
Scully points out that Mulder is identifying a little too closely with the
victim and I wanted to punch the air with delight when he slapped her away and
told her that not everything he does and has anything to do with his sister.
Seriously, this character hasn’t been this well written in over a
season. When they find Lucy at Wade’s house exactly where Amy should be my
first thought was ‘how on Earth is Mulder going to talk her guilt out of this
one?’ He is determined to remind her that she is a survivor and strong for
getting on with her life where it its clear that Lucy has always seen herself
as a victim. Its only because somebody so fervently believes in her that she
allows herself to be tortured again whilst she sees the crime playing out
through Amy’s eyes. He gives her the strength to face that.
Brains’n’Beauty: I love the fact that episodes like this break
against tradition and have the male lead empathising with the female victim
whilst Scully is as cold and as detached as ever. Scully approaches this case
as a scientist who makes a logical connection that because the second blood
type on Lucy’s overalls matches Amy’s blood type then she must be involved.
Whereas Mulder is vehement that Lucy is another victim and that is the extent
of her involvement. Mulder and Scully struggling to bring Amy back to life at
the riverside is an excellent snapshot of what they should be about. Working
these investigations to make a difference to peoples lives. The show has
forgotten about that for too long now. The emotion that crackles between the
two agents when she orders him to stop trying to save her is electric.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Who could take someone who wasn’t
theirs?’ – that just about sums up all abductions.
Ugh: The scenes of Amy trapped in the darkened cellar are
some of the most frightening I have seen on my marathon run of the show so far.
There is something truly gut wrenching about the way Carl chases her through
the shadows with the red dot to take photos of her, the flash blinding her in
the darkness. He’s doing it because he thinks they have some kind of future
together which is even creepier and wants some kind of photographic evidence of
their lives. Amy is pinned to the wall by the red dot, as though it is a laser
sight for a bullet that is about to strike her. The shrill whine of the camera
building up is terrifying. Watching her beg for her life (‘I don’t want to die
here!’) is enough to turn your stomach.
The Good: Tracey Ellis deserves a massive round of applause
for never once trying to make Lucy a sympathetic character despite the fact
that she has been a victim of a terrible crime. She’s a deeply troubled woman
who wants to forget all about what has happened to her in the past and doesn’t
want to get involved with the latest investigation even though a little girls
life might depend on it. She bald facedly tells Mulder that she doesn’t care
about the missing girl and that she isn’t interested and much of the tragedy of
the situation is that she is forced to empathise with Amy against her will, to
experience that pain again. Another thing that really impressed me was how the
episode almost seemed to try and empathise with the abductor whilst at the same
time assuredly painting him as the villain of the piece. The way he holds the
wrench up to threaten away the mechanic is almost motherly, like he is trying
to protect something precious. Another little detail that just feels right is
Lucy’s reaction to the light after being kept in the darkness for so many
years. Amy isn’t the sort of girl that accepts her situation and plays the
helpless victim, she manages to break free of her underground prison and try
and escape Carl’s clutches. At this point the Vancouver forest becomes a leafy
trap that doesn’t want her to escape, tripping her and allowing her predator to
catch up with her. I’m glad the idea of Lucy developing an emotional dependency
on Carl and thus being the reason for her hand in this abduction was at least
discussed. Its not easy to imagine but such cases have been known and whilst it
is never a serious consideration in this drama it’s the writer once again
realistically covering all the angles. We have been given enough access to how
Wade thinks to understand why he tries to drown Amy at the climax. ‘Nobody is
going to spoil this…’ is a chilling statement and I hope its while before the
show allows me to understand such a disturbed mind again. Lucy giving her life
to save Amy’s is what the episode has been building to all along but there is a
feeling that this is a release for her as much as it is suicide. Finally she is
free of her disturbing past and can find peace. Scully’s line that nobody wants
to talk about all the things that don’t make sense because her family (and the
police) are just relieved that Amy is safe draws a line under all the
unanswered questions very neatly.
Pre Titles Sequence: Straight off the bat you have the show
indulging in what must be every parents nightmare, a photographers assistant
working at the local High School perving on the students. Taking their
photographs and then lusting after them. The way Carl carves out her outline so
delicately and places into a frame next to a picture of him tells you
everything you need to know about this socially dysfunctional man. The director
pulls back from his work slowly until all you can see in the darkness is the
blinding flashes of the camera. Its undeniably very creepy. We’ve all had
moments when we’ve woken up and thought there might be somebody in the bedroom
watching us and the heart stopping horror that faces Amy is that it is real.
Cutting to Lucy struggling with a nosebleed repeating exactly Carl said during
the abduction links her to the crime scene in some way. Its one of the most
effective X-Files pre credits sequences because it manages to economically tell
you everything you need to know about the episode ahead, seeds an intriguing
mystery (how are Amy and Lucy connected?) and its chillingly realised too. Top
notch television.
Moment to Watch Out For: The direction of the final scenes
where Mulder rushes back to Lucy is superb. With night encroaching, the light
from the ambulance strikes the shrouded trolley with Lucy’s corpse beneath.
Mulder’s face is already slick from the river as he bursts into tears, gently
touching her lifeless face. Like the rest of the episode it hits all the right
emotional notes. I was reaching for tissues without ever feeling as though I
was being exploited.
Orchestra: Mark Snow’s dark, raging stings that accompany
the abduction scenes really convey the juddering horror of what Amy is
facing.
Notes: Tracey Ellis returned to the series in another
fantastic episode, season nine’s Audrey Pauley. Its well worth checking that
one out even if you can’t stomach the show in its twilight years.
Result: Beautifully written and executed with a great role
for Mulder and a simple but emotional premise, Oubliette is the finest
standalone episode of the show since last seasons Aubrey. It’s a show that
manages to create a nightmare for both Amy and Lucy whilst Wade himself is
portrayed almost compassionately as a man who just wants to be able to look
after these girls. It’s a measure of how balanced the show is that at
portraying this situation realistically that you could point at Lucy as the
villain of the piece for so forcefully refusing to help the police. There’s no
sign of the FBI bully that has plagued the series of late, Mulder is a compassionate
man here who is determined to help a disturbed young woman through an ordeal
that is not of her making. Duchovny is excellent and it is a healthy reminder
of the riveting character that featured during the abduction arc last year.
What a shame that the show lost Charles Grant Craig before his debut script was
even completed because he has tapped into a new approach to the show and its
one as close to a straight drama as you could imagine this show getting without
ever feeling like another series. There’s no bitching between Mulder and Scully
over whose theory is more valid, there’s no inconclusive ending and there’s no
implausible twists that leave you hanging your head in shame. This is a
sensual, powerful piece that connects strong characters through a terrible
crime and allows us to empathise with them all. The icing on the cake is the
gorgeous location work – the Vancouver forest has never looked more like a work
of beauty. In the way that it treats the characters with respect and the issue realistically,
Oubliette is practically flawless:
9/10
Nisei written by Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz & Howard
Gordon and directed by David Nutter
What’s it about: An apparently faked alien autopsy tape
leads Mulder deeper to an international conspiracy…
Trust No-One: Wow, Mulder’s pornography collection must be huge
to justify the amount of times it is mentioned. There is some kind of weird
logic to Mulder believing in the alien autopsy tape precisely because of the
lack of detail it shows. Mulder is a real action hero here, chasing after the
Japanese assassin and pulling his gun, being judo chopped to the ground and
pulling out his spare (‘I get tired of losing my gun!’) and firing. Its
all breathlessly done and Duchovny seems to be having a blast. Mulder’s subtle
way of gaining access to a ship illegally is to smash a window rather than to
pick a lock and he escapes by diving into the sea. Whilst Scully is busy
providing some heart for the episode Mulder is the action man and he looks
great whether he is searching ships, avoiding patrols, stumbling across alien
craft or jumping onto trains.
Brains’n’Beauty: Follow up from Scully’s abduction is always
welcome and its striking to learn that she wasn’t alone in her ordeal. Its hard
to know whether to laugh or gasp as the various members of MUFON pull out and
rattle their chips that is identical to Scully’s because its like a bizarre
version of Alcoholics Anonymous. The difference between Scully and the other
MUFON members is that the experience has haunted her whereas they seem to
revere their abductions, treating it as some kind of blessing that has defined
their lives. Perhaps they are just seeking answers but you cannot imagine
somebody as ultra rational as Scully joining up with a cultish group like this.
Scully is afraid to remember what happened to her, to discover how she was
violated during her abduction. Given the implausibility of the plotline you
need an actress as strong as Gillian Anderson to give the revelations some
complexity and subtlety and she makes Scully genuinely disturbed as she
discovers that it was men that abducted her rather than aliens. I was surprised
that the seeds of the cancer arc were planted this early – when Scully visits
Betsy who is suffering with an unknown but malignant condition Scully is
getting a glimpse of her future but she doesn’t realise it yet (‘this is
what’s going to happen to all of us…’). Mulder gently lists all the things
that Scully has already admitted she has seen and experienced and needs to know
why she still refuses to believe. Believing is the easy part but she still
needs hard proof. There’s another gorgeous scene between Scully and Mr X
(holding back their meeting has really reaped some rewards) and it looks as
though now Mulder has severed his ties with him approaching Scully is his only
option.
Assistant Director: I think Skinner enjoys walking the fine
line between enemy and ally by the way he behaves so covertly, waiting in the
shadow of Mulder’s apartment for him to return as he does here. Anybody else
would come back and knock when Mulder was home.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Mulder this is even hokier than the one
they aired on the Fox Network!’
‘I don’t get it Mulder, it just doesn’t track. What would a
Japanese diplomat be doing in that house with a dead man with his head stuffed
in a pillow case?’ ‘Obviously not strengthening international relations.’
‘What am I onto here?’ ‘Monsters begetting monsters…’
The Good: I’ve always thought that the conspiracy episodes
were the most complicatedly plotted episodes of The X-Files but one of things
that has surprised me is just how clearly they progress from one set piece to
another through logical stages of deduction. Duane Barry, Colony (although End
Game did suffer from terrible plotting problems), Anasazi and now Nisei are all
very well written from a narrative standpoint. I like the simplicity of the
autopsy tape leading to the man who circulated them leading to the assassin
that has killed him leading to leads on the potential deaths of MUFON members and
the mystery of a missing ship that came to port in West Virginia. When the
armed guards turn up to execute Mulder has investigates the latter we know he
is on the right track. The image of the alien spacecraft being steam cleaned
brings back vivid and giddy memories of Deep Throat, the last time Mulder got
this close to the truth. The show is once again indulging in real world
nasties, exposing some of the dirtier aspects of the Second World War involving
the experimentation of human subjects and applying it to the mythology of the
series. I like the way the show stacks its advancements in the arc – The
Erlenmeyer Flask talked about experiments involving alien/human hybrids and it
followed up on that promise by showing us the tests in progress in End Game and
the failiure of that research in Anasazi. The same thing has happened this
season with suggestions of war criminals being shipped to the US and working on
the governments alien/human hybrid programme in Paper Clip and that being
followed up with hard proof in this two parter. As Scully remembers being
operated on by Dr Ishimaru, I was more shocked that the show has decided to
answer a pertinent question that has posed (was Scully abducted by men or
aliens?) than the answer itself. For a show that thrives on ambiguity to the
point of insanity it is very refreshing for the answers to spill.
The Bad: Where on Earth has Senator Matheson been hiding
since the beginning of season two? It seems rather churlish for him to turn up
for his second appearance a year and a half after his first. In that time
Skinner, Krychek and the Smoking Man have been explored and re-invented.
This is the only part where the story stalls and Matheson is dumped in to fill
Mulder in on exposition.
Pre Titles Sequence: There is something oddly satisfying
about the way the teaser lurches from a Railway Children inspired wave
at a train as it passes by to the horror of what is taking place inside one of
the boxcars at night. Inside is a sterile operating chamber where Japanese scientists
are dissecting an alien creature and before the title music has piped in they
are all massacred in a hail of bullets. A rarity for this season, the show
hasn’t really armed us with everything we need to watch the episode ahead (it must
be a mythology episode then) but thanks to some muscular imagery and deft
camerawork (just watch the way it smoothly glides over the top of the boxcar)
this is a visually stunning first step into a very satisfying two parter. The
mere suggestion of a boxcar brings back memories the desiccated alien/human
hybrids from Anasazi and offers much hope for further examination.
Moment to Watch Out For: I’m going to sound like a total kid
(and even more geeky than I usually do…) but I love trains! Setting up
the stunt where David Duchovny jumps from one train to another was worth it
because it looks fabulous and it promises an entire train set second episode
ahead. Sign me up!
Fashion Statement: Mulder is wearing a black roll neck which
rather suits him whilst Frohike is sporting a sleeveless sheepskin jacket.
Which doesn’t.
Orchestra: There’s a lovely filmic score towards the end of
the episode as everything starts to cohere. Snow’s music just gets better and
better and it was pretty special to begin with. He really knows how to add
energy to the show and get us excited for what is coming up.
Mythology: ‘Several weeks ago in Knoxville, Tennessee, four
Japanese nationals were murdered. All prominent Doctors apparently engaged in a
highly classified project’ ‘What kind of project?’ ‘The autopsy of an
extraterrestrial lifeform, was that part of it?’ ‘I can’t tell you. I was only
just now given the names of the murdered scientists.’
Result: The X-Files turns to action movies for inspiration
of its latest mythology episode and its infinitely more watchable to the
mystical bollocks that kicked started this season. Given its trio of writers
you might think this would be an overly complicated script but it impresses
because it avoids all the pitfalls of the worst of the arc episodes. The story
has real momentum and offers insight into Scully’s abduction and further
exploration of the alien/human hybrid experiments and the narrative is pushed
along by some memorable action sequences and brawny imagery. I like the fact
that it has international implications but it actually feels quite small scale,
the story winding up being concentrated on one boxcar and the answers that
might be contained within. Another bonus is that the heart of the episode comes
not from Mulder, his cause and his sisters abduction (which is usually a given
with this sub genre) but Scully dealing with the horror of what she experienced
last year. Gillian Anderson is as exceptional as ever and she gives the
material an extra layer of sensitivity that is otherwise missing in this
masculine storytelling. It really feels as though Carter and cohorts have
gotten a hang of how to tell the mythology episodes this year and it promises
much for the conclusion. Let’s hope it doesn’t disappoint:
8/10
731 written by Frank Spotnitz and directed by Rob Bowman
What’s it about: Mulder is trapped on a boxcar that is
rigged to explode with all the proof he needs to expose the alien/human hybrid
programme whilst Scully is given proof of a very different kind…
Trust No-One: It feels like Mulder is continually being
punished for his beliefs and the image of his face covered in blood after
receiving a brutal kicking in is perhaps the most shocking example yet. Despite
the fact that he deducts most of it without a scrap of proof, Mulder is closer
to actual hard evidence than he has ever been before so of course he has to be
dragged away from it whilst it is destroyed.
Brains’n’Beauty: Nobody makes being angry look quite as hot
as Dana Scully and she’s immediately worked up by the evasions of X and pulls a
gun on him. He uses what is perhaps the only thing that would make her pause
and pay attention, information about her sisters killer. Its another plot
thread from a previous episode being woven into this mythology update and more
proof that Carter and co haven’t forgotten about the various threads that they
have started elsewhere. The idea that Scully’s every thought could be tapped
into via her chip and that its removal leads to a cancerous attack on the body to destroy the subject is
frightening and gives you an idea of the kind of people that Mulder and Scully
are facing. Its unusual for this show to take the time to explore the horrific
implications of the conspiracy from an emotional point of view and Scully’s gut
wrenching reaction to the mass grave is a very effective reminder of the human
cost involved. Regardless of whether she thinks this is the work of aliens or
not (and the script goes to great pains to prove otherwise to her), Scully
confronts the real life consequences of what Mulder’s work is there to expose.
It gives her even more of a reason to want to see whoever is responsible for
poisoning so many peoples lives brought to justice. The First Elder gives
Scully what she has always sought after, proof of what is really going on. He
has cleverly driven a wedge between Mulder and Scully by exposing everything
that Mulder has ever believed in to be a hoax. Its an elaborate deception and
Scully falls for it hook, line and sinker because it is presented so openly.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘This was one of the most frightening
places on the Earth. A place where society sent its monsters to live in shame
and isolation…’
‘There is no such thing as alien abduction! It is just a
smokescreen happily created by our government to cover up the biggest lie of
all!’
‘I’m not a very good shot and when I miss, I tend to miss
low…’
Ugh: The image of a group of scabrous, disease ridden
victims scrambling about in the darkness is nerve shattering until Scully shows
them great compassion for what they have been through. Suddenly they shift from
terrifying grotesques to unfortunate victims of a government plot. The make up
is shockingly effective, aided by some downcast performances and I was
surprised to see the show so bold facedly naming the camp a leper colony.
The Good: The six weeks that it took to prepare David
Duchovny for his stunt of jumping onto a moving train would seem to be well
worth it as numerous impressive camera set ups capture the moment. Even by The
X-Files exacting realisation, this is slick. I already mentioned this in the
first episode but I am mad on setting TV drama on trains (I pretty much squeed
throughout the latest adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express) – the
clatter of the vehicle on the tracks, the claustrophobia of the setting, the
fact that it’s a moving location…it just really appeals to me. Basically the
first half of this episode is Mulder and the assassin both pursuing Ishimaru
through the train carriages and proves to be rather engaging for all its lack of
development. Pendrell is a delightful
new character whose main purpose is to turn up and fawn over Scully whilst
providing her with leads to push the episode forwards. Usually this role is
performed by some faceless character dropped into the action awkwardly (I think
we’ve had three separate cases of gravediggers so far in the shows run) and its
nice to have somebody engaging who can turn up in the mythology episodes and
fulfil the job. I love the shot of the alien human hybrid mirrored in Mulder’s
eye – once again he is so close to the truth and by now we know that something
like a wire wrapped around his neck is going to drag him away. Its lovely that
Mulder acquires the services of a train guard who is in over his head but helps
to scupper the attempts of assassin when he tries to kill Mulder and escape. We
don’t meet enough ‘normal’ people like this in The X-Files that are likable
just because they are incredibly brave when facing dangerous situations they
are unaccustomed to. Talk of a bomb wired to the boxcar might have been baloney
but it does give the latter half of this episode a race against time feel which
always helps to up the tension. The First Elder (I bet his real name is
something ridiculously mundane like Bernard) showing up to fill in Scully on
some of the gaps in the story is the first real indication that this is tied
into the greater international conspiracy arc that was shown to us at the
beginning of the season. Him phoning the assassin on the train ties the two
plots together and the Syndicates hand in cleaning up this mess. Stephen
McHattie has always managed to impress me with his one shot roles in genre
television (his turn as Senator Vreenak in Star Trek: DS9’s In the Pale
Moonlight will forever he burnt into my subconscious – ‘It’s a faaaaake!’)
and he provides a muscular character in the shape of the mysterious NSA
assassin in the employ of the Syndicate. Given his lack of character background
and motives the part relies solely on McHattie’s charisma in the part and he
succeeds in creating a memorable rivalry with David Duchovny. We know now that
war criminals were brought in to work on the alien/human hybrid programme which
has been continuing unsuccessfully since the war. We also know that the
Syndicate want to obtain all knowledge of such experiments and fear its success
almost as much as they long for the results. Mulder suggests here that the
reason behind these alien/human hybrid experiments is to protect the population
from a weapon of mass destruction. A weapon that will be deployed by the aliens
when they try and colonise the planet? The way we are being drip fed
information about this plot is staggeringly measured (most other shows would
handle such a plot over a season or even a two parter) but at least we are
getting somewhere.
Pre Titles Sequence: In what feels like a massive departure
from the story that was being told in the first part, the concluding episode
begins with an unforgettable sequence of a concentration camp being invaded by
soldiers who take the entire population out into the woods to a mass grave that
has been prepared for them. Any World War illusions are tossed out of the
window, this show is cherry picking real world horrors and applying them
directly to the series’ mythology. You’d be hard pressed to find a more
distressing scene in this show than the soldiers looking into the crater like
grave once it has been filled as though they have just done a good days work.
Moment to Watch Out For: One of the most impressive
explosions to ever hit the small screen as the boxcar winds up in pieces across
the Vancouver countryside. A truly volatile ending to the story.
Orchestra: A gorgeous piano riff accompanies X saving Mulder
from the exploding boxcar.
Mythology: ‘What about the people who were in this room?’
‘They had been exposed’ ‘Exposed to what?’ ‘The same thing all these people
have been exposed to. Victims of an inhuman project run by a man name Falmer’
‘You mean Ishimaru. You hid him here after the war. He stayed here and he
continued his experiments!’ ‘The rule of the world is no longer the country
with the greatest soldiers but the greatest scientists. Unfortunately Ishimaru
started to conduct his work in secret. Not sharing with those who had risked
much in given him his asylum’ ‘What was he exposing these people to?’ ‘Terrible
things’ ‘What kinds of things? Have I been exposed?’ ‘Please I would like to
show you something that will give you your answers…’
And later…
‘It’s a weapon’ ‘A weapon? What kind of a weapon?’ ‘Ask
yourself my friend…what could be more valuable than Star Wars? More valuable
than the atomic bomb? Or the most advanced biological weapons?’ ‘A standing
army immune to the effects of those weapons. That’s what Dr Zama did, didn’t
he? He came up with an immunity to those weapons! And he was trying to smuggle
that thing back to his own country to share the science only our government
isn’t in the mood to share, right? They’ve been doing experiments since World
War II. Tests on innocent civilians but Zama succeeded where the others had
failed. And that thing in there, that’s not an innocent civilian. Its not a
leper either. Its an alien/human hybrid, isn’t it?’
Result: Infinitely preferable to the last time Spotnitz was
entrusted to close a double instalment mythology story, 731 is remarkably
focused on dealing with the questions and ideas that were posed in the first
part rather than heading off in a hundred directions at once. It helps that the
story drives a wedge between Mulder and Scully not just geographically but by
giving them very different viewpoints on what is happening and allowing them
the space to back up their unique opinions. For the show to call into question
everything that we have ever seen to this point and suggest that it was all a
massive sleight of hand trick to cover something even more nasty is truly
audacious even if that proves to be a blind alley in subsequent mythology
episodes. 731 works on most levels because it explores some very dark themes
(the whilst also working as an
effective action thriller and it reaffirms Mulder and Scully’s clash of
ideologies. There’s very little warmth to the story but for once the show has
made the right decision to play all this in a deadly serious fashion because it
makes the exploration of real world horrors all the more shocking. The fact
that this conclusion doesn’t drop the ball in the same way that so many
mythology episodes do is something of a minor miracle and I love the fact that
we are finally (if painstakingly slowly) being fed some answers: 8/10
Revelations written by Kim Newton and directed by David
Nutter
What’s it about: When a boy shows signs of being a real
stigmatic, Scully and Mulder vow to protect him from harm…
Trust No-One: ‘These people are simply fanatics behaving
fanatically using religion as a justification…’ Mulder has some balls
sampling the blood of the dead Priest simply because it might not have been
fake. You might think it would be odd to skip from Mulder discussing the
existence of alien/human hybrids in one episode to suggesting that a young boy
is self harming and reacting against a abusive parent in the next but one of
the joys of season three is how it swings from science fiction to real life
horrors and back again with absolute conviction. Its very amusing to see how
different Mulder and Scully are around children, Mulder gets down to their
level and talks to them like little adults whereas Scully is far more motherly
and gentle. They would make very good parents. Mulder proves to be quite
intolerant of religion which comes as a shock considering he is usually the
first in line to sign up to anything that lacks proof and requires a little
faith. Astonishingly Mulder suggests that Scully not let faith overwhelm her
judgement, a statement that should be carved into his grave. Mulder says
all he has seen here has tested his patience and not his faith and its
interesting that he comes across as being far more bullish when moulded into
the role of the sceptic than Scully ever is.
Brains’n’Beauty: ‘How is it that you’re able to go out on
a limb when you see a light in the sky but you’re unwilling to accept the
possibility of a miracle even when its right in front of you?’ In Oubliette you had Mulder reaching out to Lucy and Scully
standing back as the clinical observer and those roles are neatly reversed here
with Scully taking a very personal interest in Kevin and Mulder rather coldly
rejecting the idea that his stigmatic bleedings are the work of God. Rather
than have Scully jump in with both feet and declare that she believes she is meant
to protect Kevin for divine purposes (which is exactly the kind of approach we
see week in, week out with Mulder with him buying into every paranormal fad
going and accepting it without any kind of doubt that might make it rational)
it is gradual process throughout the episode. There are little reminders of
Scully’s faith and she is nudged into a position of acceptance because so much
of what she sees ties up with her own beliefs. She believes that Gods hand can
be witnessed and that He can create miracles and it feels like a little dig
when Mulder asks how she can accept that when science can’t explain them when
she has always held firm that proof is what she needs to believe in the
existence of extra terrestrials. We learn that it has been six years since
Scully’s last confession but as a result of the events here she has claimed
back that part of her life. Mulder is (sometimes quite irritatingly) always
proven to be right when he gets behind the supernatural threat of the week and
what makes this so effective is that even after everything she has seen Scully
still questions her interpretation of events, especially in the wake of
Mulder’s uncertainties. I love the fact that the priest tells Scully that these
things weren’t meant for Mulder to see and that perhaps the whole point of her
journey was to find her way back to the church. The purpose of the episode is
laid bare. Regardless, give Gillian Anderson material like this to play with
and she makes it sing.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Looks like Kevin was abducted by Homer
Simpson’s evil twin.’
Ugh: The director uses everyday items to contrast against
the blood during Kevin’s lettings; the way the blood of Christ dribbles over
chalk and through a wicker basket adds a touch of the mundane to these
miraculous acts. Gates falling into the newspaper grinder is spectacularly
nasty, especially when you can see his arm juddering as it is slowly consumed.
The Good: Working with children is always a double edged
sword, they can either make or break an episode depending on how naturalistic
the child is. Fortunately Revelations strikes gold in Kevin Zegers (who has
gone on to become one of the most fanciable actors in America – fact)
who has to carry a lot of heavy material and does it with absolute conviction
whilst never once trying to be anything other than the normal little boy that
the script wants him to be. Kevin suffering from stigmatic wounds in front of
his classmates is a vivid and very public display of his role in the episode.
Revelations exposes just how dangerous it can be to be a parent when it comes
to explaining away a childs odd behaviour – whilst the social workers only want
the best for Kevin the instant reaction is to blame the mother for his wounds.
Michael Berryman makes an instant impression and is given a terrific
introduction by the director as the monster of Kevin’s bedtime horror story.
Owen is the perfect representation of not judging by appearances and proves to
be a gentle sentinel whilst the much more convention looking Simon Gates is his
executioner. There is a suggestion of divine intervention, as if Owen is
supposed to protect Kevin he is given the strength to survive a head long
collision with a window, breaks free of his handcuffs and disappears into thin
air. Kevin being menaced at home is shot horror movie style, drenched in
shadows with minimal scoring to make the pursuit all the more nerve wracking.
The sudden appearance of Owen is as unexpected as his death is tragic. I have
never heard of Jerusalem Syndrome (when people who visit the Holy Land suffer
from religious delusions) and its great to see the episode discuss that this
could all be fraudulent as it gives a far more balanced view of things. Even
though we have already witnessed the supernatural powers that Simon Gates possesses
(such as the glowing doorknob). More great imagery in the advent of the glowing
bars on the window which tells the audience everything they need to know about
Kevin’s abduction. The episode remains pleasingly ambiguous as to why Gates is
so determined to murder Kevin which is exactly how it should be, I don’t think
that The X-Files is quite ready to declare the Second Coming.
Pre Titles Sequence: This is every bit as unique as the
teaser to Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose. In the former episode, Darin Morgan
disproved the efforts of mediums and oracles by having a fortune teller
murdered and failing to see that it is about to happen. Its as blackly funny as
the show will ever get. Here Kim Newton does the same thing with religious
fundamentalists, exposing how they can use tricks to twist the beliefs of their
flock but then subverting that by having a representative of the Devil show up
and murder him. Its braver too because American is so devoutly religious in
places that this is exactly the sort of mockery that doesn’t go down too well.
It is only at the moment of his death that this spokesperson for God has all
the proof he has ever sought after of the existence of divine beings.
Moment to Watch Out For: Revelations is one of the more
subtle explorations of Scully’s faith and also one of the most effective. The closing scene in which we witness a
conversation between Scully and a priest discussing her doubts proves to be as
enlightening and as touching as the end of Conduit was for Mulder.
Result: ‘It just makes me afraid that God is speaking but
no-one’s listening…’ What a fascinating experiment to turn the shows crux
on its head and have Scully the ardent believer and Mulder the stubborn
sceptic. It worked so well in Beyond the Sea and they repeat the formula here
with similar success, helped by the fact that the two episodes are so spaced
apart that it still feels like a novelty. I think it is very brave for The
X-Files to state categorically that these are genuine religious manifestations
whilst at the same time offering just enough doubt to not feel like a sermon.
Its another beautifully executed piece of television, packed with memorable
imagery and lashings of atmosphere. It feels as though season three is the year
where all of the directors were in competition to see who could create the most
memorably visual piece of television and they are all at the top of their game,
happily co-inciding with the year where the scripts are constantly delivering
too. It no point does it feel like a stuffy lecture on religion and that is
because the script and the direction ensure that this is a spook fest first and
that the subject matter is a thoughtful extra. Had it been the other way around
it could have been agonising (as exemplified in season five’s All Souls).
Gillian Anderson runs with this character building material and takes us on a
journey of Scully’s faith and religious beliefs. She’s been given some
wonderful opportunities in season three and hope her character continues to
blossom in this vein. Revelations is another confident, attention-grabbing
episode in what is turning out to be the finest run of shows the show has
delivered yet: 9/10
War of the Coprophages written by Darin Morgan and directed
by Kim Manners
What’s it about: Run! Flee! Save your children! The
cockroaches are here!
Trust No-One: ‘I gotta go!’ Mulder looks up at the
sky and thinks that something is looking down on him at the exact same moment.
Scully just thinks he is nuts. The running gag of Mulder inviting Scully to
join him every time things get hairy and telling her to stay put when there is
something that she doesn’t want to see (such as him flirting with a beautiful
woman) is hilarious. It shows just how he exploits her on a case by case basis.
Clearly he only needs her for her brains because as soon as she gives him a
lead to go on he know longer requires her presence. The use of the telephone
calls to connect our heroes throughout not only gives this episode an
unconventional feel (and is in no way bested by the reversal in season five’s
Chinga) but also serves a dramatic purpose by having Scully cut off at sudden
moments and unaware of Mulder’s fate. The look on Mulder’s face when Bambi
suggests that UFO sightings are swarms of insects is priceless, had this been
Scully he would have raged at her for making such an outrageous suggestion but
because Bambi is a hottie he looks absorbed by her explanation. Nodding his
head like a puppy dog. In a teasing line he says that he finds her scientific
detachment quite refreshing when it is the very thing about Scully that drives
him nuts (he also tells his partner to feck off when he is in the middle of
flirting with this buxom etymologist). After hearing so much about bugs Mulder
proves he is as susceptible as the rest of us, unable to sleep because he keeps
imagining them crawling over his face and under the sheets. Dr Ivanov suggests
that anybody who thinks that alien visitors will be grey beings with big bug
eyes has been brainwashed by too much science fiction and all Mulder can do is
look silently embarrassed. He loses the girl to the Steven Hawking parody but
at least he gets to go home with the girl that stinks of shit. In the final
scene Mulder gets the chance to redeem himself for his girly scream in
childhood and make contact with a potential alien species. Instead he uses his
case file to squash the twitching creature. That’s where a superior intellect
gets you.
Brains’n’Beauty: ‘Are you sure it wasn’t a girly scream?’
This is The X-Files at its most sitcom (until it literally becomes a sitcom
in its sixth year) with Scully left at home cleaning her gun, shampooing her
dog, tucking into a leafy salad and reading her book whilst Mulder is away on
vacation investigating the case of the killer insects. Scully calls the existence
of extraterrestrial life anti-Darwinian so she must be conflicted with her
belief in God (and his week long affix kit creation of the Earth) and
evolution. Its wonderful to see Scully in such a mundane, domestic setting and
its proof of what I have always suspected – that like Mulder she doesn’t really
have that much of a life (which is why traipsing after him chasing aliens is a
preferable alternative). It’s the only episode in the nine year run where
Scully suggests a man has died of an aneurysm by straining too hard on the
toilet. Its nice to know that Scully isn’t completely square, however, as we
cut to her at one point in the episode with a spoon reaching into the biggest
tub of ice cream known to mankind. The writer is really trying to make a point
when Mulder flirts outrageously with Bambi and we cut back to Scully desponding
staring at her phone, waiting for it to ring. When the phone eventually does
ring she’s asleep and yet answers it in record time. Bless her, she really is
obsessed by this man and his safety. The way she talks to Bambi (‘this is no
place for an etymologist’) proves hilariously that women do suffer the ‘mine is
bigger than yours’ syndrome too. Her ‘that would explain everything’ dismissal
of Bambi’s theory that the robot bugs have flown back to where they came from
made me howl. She really doesn’t like competition, does she?
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘It appears that cockroaches are
mortally attacking people!’ ‘I’m not going to ask you if you just said what I
think you just said because I know its what you just said.’
‘After talking with Agent Mulder here I suddenly feel
slightly constipated.’
‘Eat. Sleep. Defecate. Procreate. That’s all they do. That’s
all we do but at least insects don’t kid themselves that its anything more than
that.’
‘Her name is Bambi?’ ‘Yeah, both her parents were
naturalists.’
‘I screamed. Not a girly scream…’
‘Is there anything abnormal?’ ‘I’ll say! He’s hung like a
club tail dragonfly!’
‘Crap!’
‘You know I never thought I would say this to you Scully…but
you smell bad.’
Ugh: Not many shows would feature a scene with kids getting
deliriously high on shit (with a beer resting in liquid nitrogen for afters)
and hallucinating cockroaches burrowing into their arm and crawling under their
skin. It’s the epitome of Morgan’s approach to the show, OTT and yet utterly
chilling at the same time as the kid tries to slash his arms open with a blade
to cut the insects free. War of the Coprophages goes for all the same
crawl-under-your-skin scares as Arachnophobia did with spiders, having
them pop up in the most obscenely mundane places and bringing them into the
viewers lives. The scene of them crawling all over the toilet as the doctor
takes a dump is memorably nasty (and extra points for having the camera positioned
so that when he yanks on the toilet roll a cockroach rolls into shot) and I bet
there have been more than a few viewers who have watched this episode and had
second thoughts about parking their breakfast afterwards. Beyond a doubt the
most loathsome shot in The X-Files history is off the victim who dies halfway
through the episode – the focus on his dirty, scabby feet as a cockroach probes
its way towards them left me clutching my innards. I really hate feet,
especially nasty ones like this. Could the cake that Mulder eats look more like
a pile of crap?
The Good: I love the idea of a town with a large science
constituency being targeted for the roach attacks with the victims being a
molecular biologist, an astrophysicist and an alternative fuel researcher. I
bet Morgan wrote that line just so Duchovny had to learn it. Scully’s flea
killer for her dog is called DIE FLEA DIE! It’s the same sort of b movie title
that this episode enjoys. Morgan taps into the panic and paranoia that spreads
with a spate of mysterious murders with the local doctor worried that he should
evacuate his family and anyone with an insect phobia seeing them crawling out
of every shadow. One man mentions the possibility of killer cockroaches within
earshot of a nurse and before you know it the whole town is fleeing from this
new terror. Soon the press are reporting on a new breed of killer cockroaches
spreading the Ebola virus! The way the panic escalates its expertly done, that
build up of madness is needed to justify the completely insane climax at the
research facility. Kim Manners isn’t afraid of using unconventional camera
techniques and shoots directly up from a plughole as a roach escapes down it
(straight towards the audience – ugh!). Mulder stumbling on a perfectly
respectable looking house in the middle of a scientific complex that is
suddenly plagued by cockroaches that burst from the walls really sticks in the
mind. Talk about bringing the horror into peoples homes. The crackling
chemistry gag between Mulder and Bambi works a treat, you realise the lengths
that Morgan will go to to set up a joke. The idea of creating a race of insect
robots that can be shot into space and used to explore other planets is
actually pretty neat and not as daft as it might sound. By simulating insect
movements and abilities these robots could explore the terrain with much great
efficiency than human beings. The bug walking across the screen sees The
X-Files breaking the fourth wall in one of the most imaginative ways I have
ever seen. I love the assertion that the metallic cockroaches are the work of
extraterrestrials that have sent these insectoid robots to study our world. Its
so bonkers it could happily be flaunted by one of my other favourite programmes
(Doctor Who) and the gorgeous POV shot of Mulder saying hi justifies the insane
notion completely. In any other show (or indeed in any other episode of this
show) a climax that sees a scientist pulling a gun on Mulder because he
believes he might be a cockroach in disguise would be preposterous but somehow
the writer and director have pitched the insect fever to such an extent that it
just feels like a natural extension of what we have already seen. The use of
their phones throughout has been a subtle build up to the moment where Mulder’s
rings at the climax and convinces the delirious doctor that he is in fact a
cockroach! Morgan is even taking the piss out of the dreary monologues that
plague this show. He’s a genius, that man.
Pre Titles Sequence: As brilliantly subversive as ever,
Darin Morgan spells out why cockroaches are one of the most flawless creatures
in creation before having the exterminator who admires them so much crunch one
underfoot. If you have a fear of twitching insects then prepare to look away
now as a little army of them comes popping from a hole in the ground to cover
the exterminator. His just desserts, surely?
Moment to Watch Out For: ‘I’m in a convenience store on
the outskirts of civilisation…’ The swelling dread results in the glorious
scene where Scully arrives at the convenience store only to be confronted by
panic buying, violence and obscene theories being touted. Its one of the
funniest moments in the shows history not because the sailor grabs at several
packets of stockings (although that is funny) or because ‘we’re all going to
be bleeding from our nipples!’ (although that’s funny too) or even because
of the spectacular stunt of one car crashing into another to create a sense of
destructive madness (that made me howl!). No it’s the funniest sequence because
of Scully’s ultra rational attempts to calm the populace down. As soon as they
see her badge and gun putting an official face on the disaster it ramps the
panic up even further! It wouldn’t be
out of place in The Simpsons but it has a very serious point to make about
people not trusting what the authorities tell them. Who knew that The X-Files
could stray this far into sitcom land and still kick ass?
Result: It’s the episode that Darin Morgan was least happy
with and yet at the same time it’s the one example of his work that most of his
detractors seem to enjoy. There might be something in that. War of the
Coprophages manages to be many things at once and I think that is the joy of it
for me; it’s a comic masterpiece with countless gems of lines, an OTT b-movie that
explores small town panic with some verve, a turn-your-stomach monster story
with some truly revolting scenes, camp as Christmas science-fiction with a
gorgeous piss take of Stephen Hawking and an intelligent discussion on phobias,
insects, space exploration and all manner of fascinating subjects. The fact
that it swings wildly between each of these and still remains cohesive is down
to Morgan’s confident scripting and Kim Manners stellar direction. It manages
to be both ridiculously silly and stomach turningly horrific, sometimes both in
the same scene. There are also terrific sight gags (the bug walking across the
screen), great characters (‘her name is
Bambi?’) and it features one of
Mark Snow’s most skin crawling scores too. On top of all this we get to see
Mulder and Scully covered in shit which might just be the most sublime moment
in this shows nine year history. There really isn’t another episode like this
one and that is the joy of it, The X-Files strays into a truly unique, ever
fluctuating genre of madness and its deliriously enjoyable to hang onto its
coattails and fly with it:
10/10
Syzygy written by Chris Carter and directed by Rob Bowman
What’s it about: The stars make everybody act like tossers…
Trust No-One: To have Mulder and Scully so deliberately at
loggerheads for comic effect demands a damn good reason. The reason it doesn’t
work out quite as Carter intended is because he fails to provide one. It simply
looks as if this is where their relationship is at the moment and that they can’t
stand the sight of each other. Neither of them actually acknowledges how out of
behaviour they are acting or discuss what possible influences might be the
cause. As such its not so much clever as it is nasty and it tarnishes an
already pretty dreary episode with a sarcastic, angry edge that makes it
actively unpleasant to watch. When Vince Gilligan attempts to comment on the
Mulder/Scully relationship in Bad Blood he does it by having them tell a story
twice over in their own words, painting two very different pictures of their
characters as they perceive them. Carter lacks such innovation and instead just
has them making snide remarks about each others deficiencies. Whereas Bad Blood
allowed the Duchovny and Anderson to play exaggerated versions of themselves in
a subtly different and humorous way, they progress stiffly and unconvincingly
through Syzygy as if they are uncomfortable with the material. Mulder and
Scully squabbling over who gets to drive was inspired by fan comment that you
never see her behind the wheel…indulging the fan base in this way is a
dangerous business and usually the sign of a show that is trying to hold on to
its followers. Not a show that is currently at its creative zenith.
Brains’n’Beauty: Mulder describes Scully as ‘rigid in a
wonderful way’ which does sum her up rather nicely. If only it were true of her
behaviour in this episode. When Scully starts accusing Mulder of ditching her
she sounds like a jealous twelve year old who is losing her best friend. I
cannot think of a more awkward scene featuring Gillian Anderson than the one
where Scully is puffing on a cigarette and bitching about Detective White in
her hotel room – it baffles me as to why Carter would want her to behave in
such a fashion.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘You don’t think she’s a virgin, do
you?’ ‘I doubt she’s even a blonde.’
Dreadful Dialogue: ‘Why do you always have to drive? Because
you’re the guy? Because you’re the big macho man?’
‘What the hell’s going on here?’ ‘Something cosmic.’
‘We are but visitors on this rock, hurtling through time and
space at 66,000 miles an hour. Tethered to a burning sphere by an invisible
force in an unfathomable universe. This most of us take for granted while
refusing to believe that these forces have any more effect on us then a
butterfly beating its wings halfway around the world. Whether two girls born on
the same date, at the same time and the same place might not find themselves
the unfortunate focus of similar unseen forces. Converging like the planets
themselves into burning pinpoints of cosmic energy whose absolute gravity would
threaten to swallow and consume everything in its path. Or maybe the answer
lies even further from out grasp.’ Carter’s wrap up speech is so awful its
quoted here in full. He’s basically saying ‘I made this shit up because.’
The Bad: I don’t mind the odd bimbo in science fiction.
We’ve taken such leaps and bounds with regards to the portrayal of women in
genre television that the occasional throwback to a more innocent time is fine.
Its all about how well the writers and the performers play on the stereotype.
Glory from Buffy the Vampire Slayer worked a treat because there was a knowing
wink at the audience that this was clearly a villainous alter ego to Buffy
herself and the demi-God proved to be quite terrifyingly unpredictable and
dangerous at the same time as trying to pick out the shoes that would make her
ankles look fabulous. I simply don’t understand Margi and Terri – they just
seem to be a pair of Buffy wanabees (they talk in exactly the same valley-speak
as the Scoobies ‘hate her!’ ‘babilicious!’), they’re vacuous and
talentless girls with no depth to them beyond wanting to impress boys who as
soon as they gain bizarre astrological powers lose any sense of morality and
happily start killing people. There is no motive for their homicidal behaviour
beyond a sense of jealousy and that doesn’t wash. The only reason that they
stop killing other people and start trying to kill each other is because they
both fancy the same boy. That is the level of characterisation we are dealing
with here. When Darin Morgan writes crazy shit there is always a sense that he
has thought his world through and whilst mad events might occur there is an
internal logic that explains how that could be the case. In Syzygy I get the
sense that Carter just thought a pair of blond bimbo assassins would be cute.
The absurdly exaggerated tale of a black Sabbath and burying babies might have
been funny had Morgan and Wong not already pulled this trick off in Die Hand
Die Verletz. Here it is played for comic effect and winds up being a bit
tasteless, there it was played absolutely serious and as a result it was hilarious.
Detective White is never seen as anything but a cartoon character, played in a
drunken, childish fashion by Dana Wheeler-Nicholson and made to look
deliberately stupid so Scully can patronise her and be all clever-clever. Like
the villains, you cannot take her seriously for a moment. Let me get this
straight, Margi and Terri crush a boy to death in the most violent and bloody
way…because he spilt orange juice on them? Darin Morgan provided one of the
funniest moments of mob mentality in television history in War of the
Coprophages…Carter tries to mimic that here by having a town try and dig up a
mass grave of babies and hunting down an abortion Doctor in a ladies hosiery.
You can see the problem. There is just no subtlety to his approach. He even has
Scully explain why the town is behaving as they are. He should stick to writing
po-faced science fiction because his comedy is far too awkward. Carter tries
(and fails) to make the astrology angle sound convincing but in its basic form
he is saying everybody is behaving strangely because of the stars. No
more, no less. For some reason Margi and Terri have these powers because ‘all
the energy of the cosmos is focused on them.’ Or something. The finale in the
police station that sees the conflict between Terri and Margi come to ahead
with a display of dancing tables, guns firing wildly and light bulbs exploding
fails to work as either drama or comedy. It s just random weirdness and
violence. The perfect ending to this episode then.
Pre Titles Sequence: As season three powers ahead and proves
to be the most consistently excellent series of the show the only person who is
lagging behind is Chris Carter himself and nowhere is this more apparent in
this teaser which opens in exactly the same fashion as Carter’s Irresistible
with a funeral and the antagonist(s) unveiled before the theme music kicks in.
Whereas Irresistible opened in as terrifying and unforgettable a fashion as
possible, Syzygy is crassly scripted and appalling acted from the off. The
thought of spending an entire hour with Margi and Terri depresses me no end.
Have we really gone from something as skilfully crafted as War of the
Coprophages to ‘maybe if we weren’t virgins then we wouldn’t be so scared?’
in the space of a single episode. Proof, if it was needed that The X-Files can
dive dramatically down the graph even during a period of stability and quality
for the show.
Moment to Watch Out For: The truly horrendous sequence where
Detective White invades Mulder’s room and comes on to him, pinning him to the
bed when Scully walks in. There is such an inconsistency of tone it literally
feels like these are characters behaving against their will and none of the
actors look comfortable within the scene. The silences aren’t amusing, they’re
cringeworthy. The drunken acting isn’t funny, its painful. And the little
musical sting at the end to remind us that this is supposed to funny. Just no.
Orchestra: Someone needs to get that horn away from Mark
Snow. He starts blowing whenever there is any sign of black magic.
Result: ‘Sure. Fine. Whatever…’ was pretty much my
reaction to this spectacular clunker. Carter attempts to pull off a Darin
Morgan inspired episode and it is like watching a man with no aim shooting fish
in a barrel. Occasionally he will score an accidental hit (there is the odd
witty line and scene) but you’re mostly watching a futile and pointless
exercise (a pair of irritating protagonists, embarrassing dialogue, laboured
comedy and some misjudged performances). Its not just that the villains are
obvious to the audience, they are obvious to the characters within the story
too and its absurd that they remain at liberty whilst the body count stacks up.
Mulder and Scully are so far out of character for the most tenuous of reasons
and their behaviour provokes nothing but irritation. The only thing I can take
from this is that the idea was to make the most deliberately cringeworthy hour
of television to push the limits of the staunchest supporter and test their
loyalty to the show. If Syzygy is trying to mimic the energy and the slapstick
humour of the Keystone Cops (which he references many times throughout) then Carter
has a great deal to learn about comedy: 2/10
Grotesque written by Howard Gordon and directed by Kim
Manners
What’s it about: Mulder’s mentor drags him into a case that
takes him within a hairs breadth of madness…
Trust No-One: Fascinating to meet who is essentially
Mulder’s mentor, a man with such melancholic demeanour its unsurprising that
they are estranged to such a level. The performances of Duchovny and Smith are
spot on, Patterson acting like a slightly disappointed father who is appalled
that his son should have thrown his promising career away. Mulder ultimately
earned Patterson’s respect not just by knuckling down and proving his worth but
by not surrendering to the same hero worship as the other students. Whilst it
would appear that there is no love lost between them, there is clearly a great
deal of mutual respect. Patterson is a man who will openly say to Mulder that
he is disappointed in him and when drunk with a colleague will sing his
praises. It’s not an atypical parental relationship and when you factor
in that underneath all the passionless bile Patterson is actually reaching out
to his protégé the relationship has real layers. Ultimately I’m not sure
whether Patterson is trying to punish Mulder for sacrificing his career and thus
drawing him into this investigation to share his madness or if he is genuinely
trying to grab hold out of his hand to pull himself out of the dark but the
psychological implications either way expose this as one of the most complex
relationships The X-Files has ever explored. Mulder talks about this menace as
though it is a physical monster that is attacking people and his journey is to
discover that its something that lingers in the mind. The moment Mostow is
roughed up in his cell by Mulder and he suggests that the madness has already
caught up with him is great because the audience is just coming to the same
conclusion. The director fixes the camera on Duchovny’s face to expose Mulder’s
burgeoning insanity. Trying to shift the blame onto Mulder doesn’t wash because
the first murder was committed before he even started working on the case but
its still a terrifying experiment having him stare so hard into the heart of
evil. Duchovny has never been better than at the moment where he confronts
Patterson, Mulder crumbling under the realisation that his mentor has become a
killer.
Brains’n’Beauty: Scully is slightly in awe of Patterson the
writer, the man who wrote the book on criminal psychology but once she meets
the man in the flesh she is disappointed that he doesn’t quite live up to
expectations. As usual Scully is Mulder’s anchor. It seems clear to me that
without that human connection Mulder could have easily have succumbed to
madness in exactly the same way as Patterson has.
Assistant Director: Skinner’s involvement might seem
superfluous but Scully needed somebody to share her anxieties with and their
shared concern actually proves rather touching.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Maybe you are just seeing what you want
to see?’ ‘What makes you think I would want to see that!’
‘You’re here because John Mostow stole three years of your
life. Every day and night for three years you lived and dreamed the horror show
that was in his head and I’m sorry. Imagining everything he imagined. Sinking
deeper and deeper into the ugliness just like you always taught us to do. But
when you finally caught it it didn’t just go away, all that violence, it stayed
alive inside you…’
Ugh: For me, psychological horror is far more terrifying
than anything visceral. There are far more evils to be found in the dark
recesses of peoples minds than in watching blood and guts being sprayed over a
camera (I wish the current season of Supernatural would remember that). That is
why for all its atmosphere, Home remains something of a comic masterpiece to
me…something that is so ridiculously grotesque it actually emerges as being
quite amusing. In contrast, Grotesque holds back on the blood and guts and
instead probes the minds of its characters and shows the murderous instincts
that fester there. When the visual horror does come, the imagery is as ugly as
the psychology - dead faces staring their way out of dirty clay. Watching this
episode in hindsight of the twist that Patterson is the killer is fascinating.
He’s a man that has been obsessing over a case for so long, identifying with
the actions of this madman so intensely that he has become the killer
himself. I find the idea of a mind that has been split in two compelling, one
half the policeman trying to find the killer and the other half a twisted
murderer that is gnawing his way out of the mans soul. Patterson is essentially
trying to catch himself, there is something casual and violent and easily
traceable about his kills almost as if he is willing out to Mulder to expose
him.
The Good: The gargoyle imagery throughout chills the blood,
like a physical expression of the anger and the hate that breeds inside every
one of us. Revulsion personified, rage given a face. The insane sketchings that
wallpaper Mostow’s apartment are like the deranged work of a man who has looked
into the heart of human depravity and seen nothing but monstrousness. Kurtwood
Smith is an actor that I have never seen give an inadequate performance. He
frequently amused in That 70s Show and is another of those impressive character
actors that shows up in a wealth of television shows in memorable roles (he
worked wonders as Androvax in the Star Trek Voyager adventure The Year
From Hell). He’s a perfect fit for The X-Files, bringing a great deal of
brooding astringence to an episode that needs an actor who can convey a great
deal of emotion with a poker face. There’s a gorgeous Twin Peaks
atmosphere to the first half of the episode that seems to suggest that some
kind of devil is entering innocent peoples minds and forcing them to kill
(Mostow keeps insisting that ‘it killed them’ rather than admitting that he did
it). The horror on Mostow’s face when he realises that ‘it’ has killed again,
knowing that it wasn’t by his own hands is chilling…this disease has spread to
another victim (the director has the nerve at that exact moment to fix his
camera on Patterson as the door to the cell opens). I love the fact that the
writer tries to suggest that Nemhauser as a possible alternative killer. Mostow
bit him during the arrest and if you look at past form that is exactly the
route that The X-Files has gone down before (Shapes). Its Howard Gordon playing
games, shifting the attention away from Patterson who when if you look at this
episode on a psychological level is the obvious candidate. Later there is a
shot of Nemhauser stroking his wrist as he watches Scully and Patterson argue
almost as if he has orchestrated this entire affair. The close up on Mulder’s
eyes just before he starts sculpting gargoyles out of clay is especially
effective because it seems to suggest that he has also succumbed to this
disease of madness. Right up until Mulder’s nightmare the writer is still
tossing the ball between Patterson and Nemhauser, either of them potentially
being the killer. Its rare for an X-File to sink or swim on the basis of the
identity of the killer – had Grotesque gone down the Nemhauser ‘I’ve been
bitten’ route I would have been bitterly disappointed. I love the fact that the
episode lifts the curtain on Patterson’s guilt with shocking image of
Nemhauser’s disfigured head, Mulder pulling aside that clay is like
Schrodinger’s Head…whoever was revealed beneath the other is revealed as the
killer. You almost don’t need the voiceover at the end because the disturbing
sight of Patterson screaming his innocence in his cell is a memorable exit
scene.
The Bad: I can’t believe in an episode this subtly menacing
that the writer and director went for anything as crass as a cat leaping out at
Scully. That’s the oldest trick in the book and deserving of an episode of far
less quality (say, Teso Dos Bichos coming up).
Pre Titles Sequence: From the very first shot the
photography in this episode is dark, moody and brutal. Mostow scratching at his
drawing board, cutting his finger and smearing his blood into the picture says
something quite profound about pouring pain into your artwork. There’s a clever
piece of misdirection in the teaser, informing the audience that Mostow has
murdered the artist when in fact he has done nothing of the sort. Patterson
finds the murder weapon with astonishing swiftness, almost as if he was the one
that utilised it in the first place… After two comedy episodes it is a relief
to get back to something this gripping.
Moment to Watch Out For: If you ever want an example of what
a fantastic horror show The X-Files is just stick on the sequence in the glass
blowing factory. It’s a masterclass in provoking the ‘there’s something coming
up behind you’ paranoia, its gorgeously shot and scored and when I first
watched it had me scurry for the light switch because I didn’t want to watch in
the dark on my own anymore. Brrr…
Orchestra: This is probably Mark Snow’s most effective score
for the show. Tactfully menacing for the most part with some unforgettable
stings that will make you jump out of your seat and an expert use of the piano
to run his fingers up and down your spine. I think the dark and yet triumphant
score when Mulder heads to Mostow’s studio to confront Patterson might just be
my favourite piece of music he has ever produced.
Result: ‘Is this the monster called madness?’ A
frighteningly good psychological thriller with kisses to Cracker and Twin
Peaks, Grotesque is one of my favourite X-File episodes because it dares to
get inside the head of a killer and expose the ugliness that festers there. Its
an exceptionally tight script, Howard Gordon’s best for the series and the
sinister material is given appropriate weight with two knockout performances by
David Duchovny and Kurtwood Smith. It also rewards repeat viewings because once
you have figured out who the killer is it allows you to go back and look at the
relationships in a whole new, even more fascinating, light. Kim Manners would
continue to direct for this show and whilst his work always errs on the
impressive side there would be few occasions where every shot is imbued with
such brooding menace. Constructed from memorable imagery and striking lighting,
this is one X-File where the stunning cinematography really stands out. There
is a television series to be made out of subject matter this probing and dark
and whilst Millennium had a fair crack at the whip (whilst indulging in far too
much portentous garbage) there were very few episodes that lived up to the promise
of Grotesque. Compelling and terrifying, one of the shows best: 10/10
Piper Maru written by Frank Spotnitz & Chris Carter and
directed by Rob Bowman
What’s it about: A deadly substance has been salvaged from a
down World War II plane beneath the sea…
Trust No-One: Mulder is down in the basement because the FBI
is afraid of him and embarrassed by him at the same time. For a while it feels
as though Mulder has lost his paranoid touch (there was a time when he would be
constantly looking over his shoulder) but when he sits down at the same table
of the woman who is dogging his tracks I was impressed. He has learnt the art
of subtlety and surprising his enemies. Krychek deserves some kind of
punishment for the murders of Mulder’s father and Scully’s sister but the way
Carter turns Mulder into a savage thug when they meet lacks any elegance.
Krychek seems so pathetic that Mulder winds up looking like the villain.
Brains’n’Beauty: The standard of the show this series has
been so high that I had completely distracted from the fact that Scully’s
sister was murdered at the beginning of the season. For a show that has been
both praised and slated for its use of arcs it seems quite remiss that this
should have been forgotten until now. What bringing this to light this does
though is give Gillian Anderson another chance to cut her teeth on some emotive
material, Scully desperately trying to hang onto her sisters murder case when
the Bureau have lost interest. Anderson has been presented with her most
challenging material this year and has delivered time and again. Finally it
feels as though she has emerged from Duchovny’s shadow and claimed equal
ownership of the show. In an ill timed moment, Mulder starts harping on about
aliens and UFOs and the look on Scully’s face when there is something far more
tangible that she would rather be doing is unforgettable. Anderson manages to
convey so much with a single look as Scully drives through the naval cul de sac
and remembers happy times of her Melissa playing there. This show is lucky to
have an actress of this calibre.
Assistant Director: You know that Skinner has crossed a line
when he is starting to receive warnings of his own. Precisely the same kind of
warnings that he usually dishes out to Mulder and Scully. When he is shot down
he is definitely on the side of the good guys, beyond doubt.
Traitor: It feels like an age since we last saw Krychek
(when in reality he leapt from an exploding car at the beginning of the season)
and its great to catch up with him in Hong Kong, selling secrets, nervous and
paranoid. He’s made a great deal of enemies and already had an attempt on his
life so it comes as no surprise that he has fled this far.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Men can blow up buildings and we can be
nowhere near the crime scene and yet we can piece together the evidence and
convict them beyond a doubt. Our labs here can recreate out of the most
microscopic detail the motivation and circumstance to almost any murder, right
down to a killers attitude towards his mother and whether he was a bed wetter.
But in the case of a woman, my sister, who was gunned down in cold blood in a
well lit apartment building by a shooter who left the weapon at the crime
scene…we can’t even put together enough to keep anybody interested.’
Ugh: Time to introduce the black oil. I don’t think that
anybody has ever looked at oil or tar and thought ‘ooh scary’ (except
perhaps the b-movie creature in the Star Trek TNG episode Skin of Evil that
crushed the life out of Tasha Yar and even then that was an act to be
applauded) so I can only think that this was an aesthetic decision. They
thought that the effect would look cool swimming in front of peoples eyes (and
they were right, it does). Skinner’s shooting is so swift and brutal I
was left reeling (and I’ve seen this before).
The Good: I’m starting to notice an agreeable pattern with
these mythology episodes. Whilst erring on the side of functional, Carter (and
now Spotnitz who seems to be attached to the arc episodes as a matter of course
these days) plot the opening episode of their two parters as a linear,
progressional detective dramas. A leads to B leads to C…with each step
expanding the scope of the episode. Colony kick started this approach, Anasazi
followed suit and then Nisei. It’s a engaging nuts’n’bolts method of telling a
story that would be forgotten in subsequent years when the arc becomes too
unwieldy and crammed with elements. Another predictable occurrence is that
Mulder will be on the road playing action man whilst Scully is emoting like mad
in a subplot of her own. I’d quite like to see those positions reversed. As we
watch the black oil infection spread from person to person, the episode
broadens its horizons internationally giving the impression that the show
commands an unlimited budget. Whilst Mulder turning into Rambo and kicking the
shit out Krychek feels like a violation of character, watching Joan shove his
face into a urinal is glorious. You don’t see enough women beating up men on
television and whilst its not something I would promote, it makes for a great
moment (especially how she wipes the smile off his face).
The Bad: Whilst the extra time that a two part story
provides gives Carter and Spotnitz a chance to explore the emotional
ramifications of the events in Paper Clip, the pace is a little indolent as a
result. The episode takes advantage of the fact that not a great deal is
happening and sneaks up some nice surprises like that of the double barrelled
shotgun tape to the underside of the desk. As impressive as Robert Clothier is
as Commander Johansen (injecting some real emotion into what could have been a
very plain character) these scenes go on for too long. It feels like Johansen
tried to pretend that everything was fine to kill time so we could play the
scenes out all over again with the truth revealed. Unusually for The X-Files
there is an effects shot that completely fails to convince…check out the
submarine shot at the start of the flashback. If that isn’t a barely concealed
miniature I don’t know what is! Why would Scully be called about Skinner’s
shooting? Is she his point of contact? Would she handle his medical needs?
Pre Titles Sequence: About as middle of the road as these
set pieces come with a man taking a dive into the ocean and discovering the
wreckage of plane on the sea bed. The pollution of the black oil from one man
trapped under the sea to the other is intriguing enough but it doesn’t quite
match up to what we have been seeing of late. Its okay.
Moment to Watch Out For: I love black and white photography
when its handled correctly (it is never a case of bleeding away the colour) and
the flashback sequence is the centrepiece of the episode. It feels like it has
leapt from an old movie until the oil slick eye effect jolts us back into the
world of contemporary television. Moodily shot and lit, it is a long time
coming and worth the wait. The trouble is its far more gripping than the
episode around it.
Orchestra: After his outstanding score for Grotesque, this
is back to Mark Snow on autopilot. I don’t think I heard a single note that
hasn’t been used in other episodes and I could start predicting when the piano,
harpsichord, etc would kick in. Having every episode scored by the same man
does allow for a real sense of musical continuity and identity for the show but
as talented as Mark Snow is having to provide the music for 202 45-minute
episodes is going to see some repetition. I find with Snow you can tell when he
is excited about the material because he really gives those shows a unique
sound.
Mythology: What Scully thinks: ‘I think I know what those
men were exposed to. What the Piper Maru was out there looking for. That P-51
Mustang was part of an escort for a P-29 carrying an atomic bomb, just like the
one we dropped on Hiroshima. Why would they build a nuclear bomb when they
could salvage one?’ Jeraldine seems to have the ability to knock out an entire
squadron of armed men by emitting a fierce white glow…what the hell is all that
about?
Result: Above average but not quite strong enough so it can
hang out with the surfeit of knockout episodes this season, Piper Maru starts
slowly but explodes into life about two thirds through and does leave you
wanting more. The appearance of Krychek lifts things considerably and the route
they go down with rat boy promises a larger role for him next week. I was busy
waiting for something to happen as Mulder and Scully open their separate routes
of investigation but by the conclusion we’ve enjoyed a gripping black and white
flashback, some exciting Rob Bowman action and the savage shooting of one of
the regulars. Ultimately this proves to be more of an action movie than
containing anything of great substance (the nuclear weapon is a dead end
explanation that feels included just to add some kind of real world texture to
the episode) but there is enough excitement to be going along with. The black
oil turns out to be a better storytelling device than I expected: 7/10
Apocrypha written by Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter and
directed by Kim Manners
What’s it about: All roads lead to Krychek…
Trust No-One: Mulder and Scully have a habit of waking up in
hospital beds with the other half looking at them with doe eyes. Its probably
the ultimate medicine. There’s a wonderfully pathetic shot of Mulder screaming ‘you
can’t bury the truth!’ as he is bundled into a car violently by an armed
guard. I think you’ll find that they can.
Brains’n’Beauty: Scully is wonderfully stroppy when it comes
to protecting Skinner, even to the point of insulting another pair of agents.
When Mulder starts going on about black oil with intelligence body jumping
Scully goes from mild surprise to outright hilarity. Its gently played by
Duchovny and Anderson so rather than feeling spiteful (like their interaction
in Syzygy) its actually rather heart-warming. This is how to show the two agents
having different beliefs and agendas and still working well together. Scully
has seen stranger things than signs from God and is prepared to admit it to her
peers. Maybe there’s hope for her yet! For a show that evades conclusions as a
matter of course it is very fulfilling for Scully to be able to pull a gun on
her sisters killer and choose not to blow his brains out. This could have been
another obscure plot thread left dangling but it is tied up very neatly here
and all that is left is for Scully to heal. Scully thought that once she caught
up with her sisters killer that she would feel a sense of closure but the truth
is that no court and no punishment would be enough.
Assistant Director: There’s something horribly mocking about
Skinner being the man who informs Scully that her sisters case has been quietly
rested and then taking a bullet that leads his agent directly to the assassin.
The way both actors play the scene in the hospital places the emphasis on
Skinner taking a bullet as punishment and there isn’t a ounce of resentment on
his part. Its as though he deserved it. Given that Skinner has also suffered a
beating earlier in the season, I hope this is the end of his trials to prove
himself to Mulder and Scully.
Traitor: Krychek is now an incubator for the alien
intelligence that inhabits the black oil and has the ability to flash (not like
that although I really wouldn’t object) and bring down armed men with an
unknown radiation.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘I think the dead are speaking to us,
Mulder. Demanding justice.’
Ugh: The punishment of Krychek continues as he vomits black
oil from his eyes and mouth as the entity reconnects with its spaceship. It’s a
memorably nasty scene that you wouldn’t see outside of this show.
The Good: Thanks to the set up of Piper Maru, Apocrypha can
open in spectacularly busy style with Scully rushing to the hospital to tend to
Skinner and Mulder in an airport in Hong Kong with an infected Krychek.
Director Kim Manners is on fire this year and brings a distinct visual style to
this episode – just watch the way he brings the car chase that forces Mulder
and Krychek off the road to life. Its as brutal and as uncompromising as any
fist fight with the blows really having a destructive impact. For once something
that might appear to be an unreasonable co-incidence – that the man who shot
Skinner was also responsible for the death of Scully’s sister – works a charm
because there is no reason why the same wouldn’t be sent on both assignments.
It also allows for this narrative thread to put to rest and to give Scully some
closure. There’s only so many horrors you can put Mulder and Scully through
before they start to look stupid for continuing with their work but by having
that persistence rewarded with some closure is satisfying. Their inclusion
might be a little surplus to requirement but I did enjoy the cut to the Lone
Gunmen skating on the ice rink and getting involved in the action (for the
record Byers is a natural, Langley looks as though he is going to fall over at
any minute and has to stop and Frohike’s little legs work against him). The
exchange between Krychek and the Smoking is wonderful but its impossible to
know whether he is talking to his ex-assassin or the alien embodying him when
he says ‘I have what you want.’ For once the complicated nature of the
series feels as though it is reaping some rewards and set up from previous
episodes is the source of some excitement. Love the gag about the pencil and
the phone number, highlighted how the Lone Gunmen over think their work at
times. I got very excited when the Manicured Man (I physically cringe when I
write these names down) agreed to meet Mulder in Central Park because the last
time they hooked up answers came spilling out of him at a rate of knots. Again
he doesn’t disappoint. Mulder and Scully dancing torch beams around darkened
rooms has become a seminal X-Files image but rarely is it as visually stunning
as during their exploration of the silo. There have been sequences of the
dynamic duo being pursued by armed forces before too but they have never felt
as dangerous as these…perhaps because we know how close to the truth they are
here.
The Bad: Why don’t the Syndicate turn the lights on? Are
they afraid that they wont look portentous enough? Why Skinner’s second
shooting attempt had to take place in an ambulance on the road rather than in
his hospital bed is beyond me. Probably because it made for a more exciting
scene.
Pre Titles Sequence: Its quite a lot to throw at the viewer
in the first few minutes and if you haven’t seen the first episode you will be
totally lot but its another example of Carter and Spotnitz actually releasing
some information about the plot and for that it should be applauded. The
submarine wasn’t went down to find a down plane but to guard whatever entity
was lurking down there. The image of the sailor vomiting black oil from his
eyes and mouth is one that lingers in the memory. And the twist that the men
listening to the tale are a young Bill Mulder and Smoking Man is a punch the
air moment of excitement.
Moment to Watch Out For: Mulder managing to completely wrong
foot the Syndicate by phoning straight through to their boardroom. For once
he’s got access straight to the heart of the conspiracy. Plus Anderson’s
unforgettable outrage when she pulls a gun on Cardinal.
Fashion Statement: The Smoking Man was quite the looker when
he was younger. Pendrell needs to show up more often in this show…he’s so
adorable!
Mythology: The black substance that is causing so many
problems this week is the same kind of diesel oil that powered submarines
during the war. Its 50 years old and its composition has been changed due to
radiation. For once Mulder asks the intelligent question: ‘now that its in
Krychek…what does it want?’
‘What was pulled off the bottom of the Pacific ocean?’ ‘It
was a UFO. A so-called foo fighter. Downed by American fighter pilots in the
Second World War’ ‘Left there until now?’ ‘There were salvage attempts. A sub
was sent in fifty years ago but there were complications. The cover story said
it was the third A bob for Japan but the truth is no-one knows what killed that
crew.’
Result: Much more focused than the first part with some
stunning set pieces and a real sense of closure, Apocrypha is a superior
mythology episode in a season that is really starting to perfect that
particular brand of X-File episode. As Scully so helpfully points out, all
roads lead to Krychek and it is pleasing that he becomes the focus of this
episode. For once it is very clear what is going on and where all the
characters are – Mulder is on the hunt for body swapping black oil and its
craft, Scully seeks the head of her sister’s killer, the Smoking Man wants to
appear competent and powerful to his superiors, the Syndicate want their secrets
tucked away and the black oil wants to get back to its spaceship. Whilst we
never learn what the black oil is about and how it connects to the conspiracy
(but then what’s new?) at least all the threads within this story are brought
to a satisfying conclusion. There are some emotional fireworks when Scully
confronts the assassin that killed her sister and the episode is packed to the
gills with memorable images and some fantastic set pieces. The conspiracy is
spiralling out into an insanely vast mosaic and there are so many elements that
it is impossible to see what the finished picture will be…but this
section of the image is clear cut, visually stunning and tells a gripping
little narrative all of its own: 8/10
Pusher written by Vince Gilligan and directed by Rob Bowman
What’s it about: Look in to my eyes, look deep and listen to
my voice…
Trust No-One: Given Mulder’s expertise in the field of
psychology, he has technically found his ultimate nemesis in Modell – a man who
can use words to alter perception. In cases such as this Mulder should be
gagged and bound rather than allowed to stand up in court and express the truth
about the situation. Just like he did in Tooms when he stood before a judge and
rattled on about a liver eating mutant, his assertion that Modell can force his
will upon others without even touching them makes him look like a laughing
stock. His suggestive ability might be the truth but this is not something that
can be explained within legal terms. Mulder looks like a complete nutter
and that’s before Modell has put the whammy on the judge. Proving that
he hasn’t quite lost his touch completely though, Mulder manages to sum up
Modell’s life history based purely on what he has seen of his character so far.
At the climax the way Mulder keeps pulling the trigger on Modell tells you
everything you need to know about how he feels for Scully.
Brains’n’Beauty: Scully does believe that Modell is capable
of murder but will argue with Mulder to the ends of the Earth for an
explanation more substantial than ‘the whammy.’ There’s a lovely moment between
the two agents before Mulder walks into the lions den. Scully knows how
dangerous Modell is and the thought of her partner playing into his hand
genuinely disturbs her.
Assistant Director: My one objection to this episode is that
Skinner is once again being treated as a punch bag. Somebody important had to
be the victim of Modell’s influence at this point but this is the third
instance this year where Skinner has been the unfortunate recipient of that
penalty.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Please explain to me the scientific
nature of the whammy?’
‘He’s just a little man who wishes he were someone big.’
‘Mango kiwi tropical swirl. Now we know we’re dealing
with a madman.’
‘You mean you killed this man for nothing, you sick
bastard?’
‘Why do we keep giving this guy exactly what he wants?’
‘I say we don’t let him take up another minute of our time.’
Ugh: Nothing frightens me more than the thought of a
character knowing they are about to die. Life is such a precious commodity and
everybody takes for granted that they will live until their dotage and so the
split second realisation that everything that you hoped for is about to be cut
short with no time to prepare for the moment is terrifying. Its especially well
handled here when the cutest FBI agent known to mankind douses himself with
petrol under Pusher’s influence and walks towards his peers with the
frightening knowledge that he is not going to be able to resist setting himself
alight. Its terrifyingly well played , the agony on his face as he tries to
resist is almost impossible to watch. The burns that he suffers are gruesomely
realised.
The Good: Pusher is another of season three’s excellent
villains but for his own very unique reasons. Modell is a mesmerizing man with
the ability to twist your powers of perception and uses this to disguise the
fact that he is actually a bit of a failiure in life. He contacts the police to
get them on his scent because without their interest he would be a nobody, an
obscure little man with nothing to make him stand out in a crowd. He wanted to
be a somebody and tried to enlist for the FBI but his obvious character
deficiencies stood in the way of that life goal (described as acutely
egocentric) ever being realised so instead he dreams of being an rogue Samurai
warrior on a vengeance kick. It’s a childs mentality, somebody who is
completely forgettable going to any lengths to make himself get noticed. He’s
rather pathetic and because of his most childish of motives I found him one of
the most unpredictable X-Files bad guys. He always seems to be one step ahead
of the FBI and delights in pointing out that fact. The nerve of the man walking
into the FBI building with an envelope with the massive letters PASS written on
it is incredible. The bruised FBI worker seems like a superfluous inclusion
(albeit one that is treated sensitively…and the bruise on her cheek does make
what could have been a minor character stand out) but the reason for her
inclusion becomes hauntingly obvious as the episode progresses. A vulnerable
woman is far easier to exploit than a strong one and she is twisted into
thinking that Skinner was the man who attacked her. I love the sequence where
Frank is manipulated into staying on the phone to the point where Modell has
talked him into a heart attack – I was literally screaming at the TV like
Mulder was but the phone is practically glued to his ear. Modell’s all the more
powerful when he can exploit a weakness, he’s insidious like that. Its
maddening when characters behave irrationally but we’ve already seen Modell’s
spellbinding powers at work so this is entirely judicious (it’s the agents that
hold Scully back from ripping the phone chord from the wall that should be
punished). Wow, Modell kills Frank because he wants a ‘worthy adversary’ to
face before he dies. This guy never really grew up, did he? The idea of having
a POV camera angle feels worthless when the director chooses to shoot the scene
in the usual fashion as well until the awesome shock moment of Modell pointing
a gun right out at the audience. That’s the last thing Scully sees and its
enough to convince her to walk into danger for her partner.
The Bad: I wouldn’t have even bothered to try and explain
Modell’s ability. Psychokenesis brought on by a brain tumour? That’s as
desperate an explanation as any Star Trek technobabble. I suppose it does add
the reason for his accelerated acts of homicide – that an unmemorable man wants
to end his life in a blaze of glory – but I still wouldn’t have connected the
ability and his life threatening tumour. It really isn’t needed (there have
been plenty of X-Files episodes where the villains modus operandi has
been left completely unexplained) and when Mulder spells it out it seems even
more absurd (these crackpot ideas always sound more ridiculous coming out of
his mouth for some reason).
Pre Titles Sequence: A subtle indication of the episode
ahead, the teaser is both playful and hypnotic. From the off there is something
charismatic and confident about our killer of the week, a man who knows he is
being pursued through a supermarket, compliments the arresting officer for his
masculine name and smiles through his incarceration because he knows he will be
free before they even reach the station. He’s even willing to go to the lengths
of staging a car crash whilst he is in the back of the vehicle in question to
expedite his escape.
Moment to Watch Out For: The Russian Roulette sequence is
effective on so many levels it seems almost churlish to list them rather than just
experiencing the magic. It’s a fantastic face off between Mulder and Modell
that allows Mulder to violently take vengeance for the victims of this master
hypnotist, it beautifully reaffirms the strength of Mulder and Scully’s
friendship when he agonisingly refuses to pull the trigger on his partner
despite his mind pushing him to comply and its also an expertly filmed set
piece with moments that really make you catch your breath. The performances are
unforgettable; for once Duchovny’s hypnotic vacancy is part of the plot until
Mulder has to fight his own will to save Scully’s life, Anderson’s restrained
tears and Wisden’s sweaty, intense gravitas. When it comes to providing a
climax with substance and emotion, this has rarely been bettered.
Result: Another memorable and sophisticated season three
drama, Pusher takes the frightening concept of a man that can bend your will to
his design and runs with it. Robert Wisden has been perfectly cast as the
titular villain, as hypnotic to watch as his powers of perception prove to be.
The episode is little more than a series of set pieces but each one is more
effective than the last until we climax on the unforgettable sequence of Mulder
and Modell playing Russian Roulette. Soft Light was a forgettable debut episode
written by Vince Gilligan and he returns to the show with something much more
impressive and far more indicative of the magic he would continue to weave over
the next six seasons. In a season that has seen fit to push them apart and
explore their individual strengths as characters, Gilligan is insistent on
keeping Mulder and Scully together and proving what an effective partnership
they have. This is also a healthy reminder that psychological horror can be far
more effective than hanging viscera over the cameras and that all you need is
an effective script and strong actors to create a magnetic hour of television.
This was probably one of the cheaper episodes of the season to produce (because
the menace is implied rather than actualised) and its also one of the strongest.
Darin Morgan aside, Gilligan’s dialogue is the sharpest and most intelligent.
I’m starting to run out of superlatives for this transcendent season of The
X-Files: 9/10
Teso Dos Bichos written by John Shiban and directed by Kim
Manners
What’s it about: It deserves a fantastic b-movie title:
Killer Cats Possessed!
Trust No-One: There’s very little for either Duchovny or
Anderson to get their teeth into with this episode, no revelations or insights
into their characters (they have been lucky this season that so many episodes
have been charitable in that respect) and so both actors go through the
motions. I don’t object to that here though, had they tried to pretend this was
anything more than an humble pot boiler it would have been absurd. Not every
story can be an opportunity for Duchovny to expose his vulnerable side or see
Anderson holding back tears…sometimes they just have to be the purveyors of
plot exposition. It worked in many a season one episode and it works here. At
time it feels like Duchovny knows he is in a bad b-movie and just runs with it
(‘what the hell is that?’).
Dreadful Dialogue: ‘I feel like someone’s here. Someone’s
watching me!’ – John Shiban is going to have to work a little harder on the
dialogue if he is going to continue on this show. A first year media student
could spy the horror clichés.
Ugh: I don’t know what that substance is that the
Ecuadorians eat during their ceremony but it looks stomach turningly like a
cross between wallpaper paste and semen. The cats might not be willing to play
ball but the dedication of the jumping toilets and the rats that are contained
within them should not be undersold! It’s a scene that (if you are my husband)
goes from mirth (‘ooh bouncing lavatories!’) to absolute horror (‘rats!
I’m never taking a dump again!’). When the show has to resort to a blood
stained bathroom you know it is desperate.
The Good: The delicate, snowy location work looks fabulous
on screen. Even if what you are watching is clichéd to the point of being
carbon dated (hoho) you can at least be assured that it will look good. As soon
as Mona is told that she has a bright future ahead of her you know that her
cards are marked and the fun is figuring out when she is going to exit stage
left.
The Bad: There is so much of an emphasis on cats throughout
the episode, so much so that it isn’t so much of a revelation when their part
is uncovered and more of a relief that that characters have finally caught up
with the audience. Very season one. Questionable performance number one
– Alan Robertson as Roosevelt who mechanically walks across the dig and never
becomes more than a plot function. Questionable performance number two – Ron
Sauve as Tim Decker who has real trouble trying to make his (admittedly pretty laboured)
dialogue come to life with any conviction. He looks like an actor that is
relieved to have been booked for a job. I can’t believe that a show as
accomplished as The X-Files would resort to ‘its started raining again…’
as blood drips down from some viscera hanging in a tree. Shiban is so desperate
that he has Mulder and Scully figure out the cat connection by introducing an
army of rats evacuating from the sewers (‘they weren’t trying to get in the
toilets – they were trying to get out!’). So let me get this
straight…killer domestic cats that drag their victims down to the sewers? The
cats trying to desperately paw their way through wood so they can have their
wicked way with Mulder and Scully brings to mind a similarly cheeky sequence in
The New Avengers when birds tried to peck their way through a table to
get at Purdey. How Anderson and Duchovny kept a straight face is beyond me.
Pre Titles Sequence: How many shows have broken out the
‘buried horror from the dawn of history’ plot? Now it’s the X-Files’ turn as
human remains are discovered in an archaeological dig in Ecuador and the
professor in charge is warned against removing the body from the ground and
disturbing her peace. There is nothing clever going on here but the show is
playing with some pleasing hoary old themes. The poor old professor doesn’t
even make past the opening set piece, struck down by an unseen force. The
drugged up POV shots are very nice, as are those of the creature which attacks
Roosevelt. Oh and the chant the Ecuadorians sing is really catchy too.
Moment to Watch Out For: Poor Kim Manners. An excellent
director left with the unfortunate job of having to make fluffy cats look
scary. The puppet specimen that attacks Scully is hilariously awful and you can
just imagine the outtakes of Anderson diving around the set with this hideously
unconvincing ball of fluff clamped to her face (in fact you don’t have to
imagine it…most of it ended up in the episode!). Worse Mulder turns his flash
light on the pussy army from hell and they all look as if they would rather be
somewhere else. I swear I could see one licking its arse. Ooh scary.
Result: ‘Some things are better left buried…’ Many
people will tell you that Teso Dos Bichos is the worst X-File to grace your
television sets and whilst I’m not going to pretend that it is some kind of
classic I find it far more watchable than that. There’s some superb location
work, an exotic Mark Snow score, some half decent effects and a general feeling
of just trying to tell a daft story in as unpretentious way as possible.
Countering that are some questionable performances and the sequence where this
weeks horror reveals itself which must count as one of the most unintentionally
funny set pieces that this show has ever purported. The idea of killer domestic
cats is so absurd and being the proud owner of two myself I know it is very
tricky to get them to do anything they don’t want to. And that’s exactly what
they look like when their fearsome army is unveiled! Whilst this is the episode
that tries the least this season (even The Walk and Syzygy have potentially
interesting premises), I still found it enjoyable in a switch your brain off,
lazy riff on horror movie clichés sort of way. Its not even remotely satisfying
as a drama in its own right but there is a lot of aesthetic detail that helps
you to forget about its failings: 5/10
Hell Money written by Jeffrey Vlaming and directed by Tucker
Gates
What’s it about: An organ lottery, a pyramid scheme and
corporate exploitation of the Chinese community…
Brains’n’Beauty: Its interesting that in an episode that
deals so firmly with a foreign culture Mulder and Scully walk around as though
they have something bad smelling wafting under their noses. There is a sense of
arrogant superiority that exudes from the two agents this week which might come
from ignorance or might come from a pair of American citizens that think they
know better. Scully in particular feels especially accusatory this week,
because she doesn’t understand the complexities of Chinese culture she only
sees the negative aspects and judges the culture according to her beliefs.
Frankly she looks like a big bully at times. Chao at least has the balls to
fight back and tell the pair of agents where to go when they accuse him of
being more faithful to his culture than his work. Amazing how natural Gillian
Anderson looks acting all haughty, there is even something quite vacant about
the way Scully informs Mulder that Chao has been attacked, almost as if she
didn’t really give a damn. If there was supposed to a subtext here about how
Americans look down on the Chinese immigrants in their country, it succeeds.
For Scully to come face to face with the Doctors that extract the organs its
like staring into a mirror of alterantives, here are two sets of surgeons that
essentially do the same thing (cutting open bodies) for very different reasons
and at either side of life.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘The Festival of the Hungry Ghost. On
the 15th day of the 7th moon in the Chinese calendar its
believed the gates of hell are opened and the ghosts of unwanted souls roam the
Earth. Believers protect themselves by leaving gifts of food and Hell Money
outside their homes to appease the ghosts. To keep them from coming inside and
causing trouble. But for some spirits, ghosts most feared by the Chinese,
there’s no buying them off.’
‘This guy’s like a jigsaw puzzle.’
‘He said the game is not over.’
Ugh: Only a show as strong stomached as the X-Files would
show a man having his organs extracted whilst he watches. The masks worn by the
gravediggers really gave me the willies, there is something very scary about
picking out a blank face in the darkness. Reducing the human body no more than
a collection of saleable items, to capitalise on the worth of each organ…its just
seems to profane everything that we hold sacred about the soul. The toad
climbing his way out of the corpse Scully is doing an autopsy on is a glorious
shock moment. He was probably quite snug in there before she cut him open.
The Good: How nice for The X-Files to tackle a foreign
culture and unearth and teach some of its most interesting customs. Hell Money
is used in the Chinese festival of the hungry ghosts, a symbolic offering to
the evil spirits for good luck. Considering how badly they fudged their
depiction of the British in season one’s Fire (with Phoebe Green still a
hideous stereotype that I will never shake from my mind), its lovely to see
something a bit more complex happening with the Chinese community. Chao is a
character that is worth much praise, a man that is caught between two worlds
(that of his job with the American government and his culture) and is forced to
made bad choices to try and please both sides. Its very healthy to see a
character that bridges the gap between two cultures and without his involvement
Mulder and Scully would be quite lost weaving their investigation through a
society they simply have no knowledge of. Even that proves to be more intricate
than it seems, with him leading them up the garden path. Chao admits that he
finds it hard to disagree with thousands of years worth of Chinese portents but
he is more haunted by his mortgage payments that keep him firmly entranced in
the real world. You’ve got to love a guy with that kind of humour. Hsin is
another multi faceted character, a man who wants so badly to cure his sick
daughter that he is willing to risk the sick organ lottery to earn the money to
do so. In reality I don’t think a lot of men would be willing to go this far
for their children. Once you realise what the lottery is all about and how
these desperate men are being exploited and harvested by their own people the
episode takes on an even darker tone. Drawing those tokens out the bag is
remarkably tense. Halfway through the episode we visit a carbon copy of the
Magic Shop in Buffy except this better lit and stocked. I liked how a lot of
the episode is filmed in Chinese, emphasising the fact that we are the
foreigners here and we have to catch up in order to understand (to be fair the
performances are so strong there’s never any doubt what is happening). Notice
the lighting in this episode, especially for the street scenes, they lend the
story an stylish atmosphere. It is revealed that the man who runs the lottery,
a wealthy businessman, is only in that situation because he drew the right
token out of the lottery himself. It could have so easily have gone the other
way. The moment the wrong chip is pulled out Hsin literally sags forward,
terrified of a fate that he has been talked into. When it comes down to it Chao
might have been on the take to protect the ‘game’ from the police but he makes
the right decision in the end, bringing the whole sorry business to a close.
Discovering that the tokens are all the same and the game is fixed is a real
stab in the gut, all those people have been sold false hope when all that
waited for them was murderous extraction. What an interesting philosophy the
villain of the piece spouts – that there is nothing in their culture to fear of
death but life without hope is a living death. He offered them hope and
handed them death. In his eyes, he is anything but a villain. Chao’s suicide
almost feels like a release from a life that pulled him in two opposing
directions.
Pre Titles Sequence: If you want to make some noise about a
fresh location then Chinatown in San Francisco is bursting with noise and
colour. Ghostly carnival masks haunt the streets, firecrackers explode in your
face and men dressed like the undead stalk the living. If you include the shock
of seeing a man burnt alive, this is a visually stunning teaser that plants
right into a very exotic kind of horror.
Moment to Watch Out For: Given their abrupt attitude it
seems almost a shame that Chao ultimately turns out to be involved by it’s a
nicely placed surprise in an episode that looked to be quite clear cut.
Suddenly you find yourself questioning everything he has said.
Fashion Statement: I’ve never been especially attracted to
men of the Asian persuasion (balanced by a good friend of mine who doesn’t go
for anything but!) but BD Wong is a fine looking man. There’s always an
exception to every rule. Fascinating to see Lucy Liu in an early television
role before she made her name.
Orchestra: Alluring Chinese music winds its way through the
episode, Mark Snow invigorated by the shows exotic setting.
Result: Infinitely preferable to Indian mumbo-jumbo that
Carter wallpapered over the seasons debut episode, Hell Money paints a rounded
and respectful picture of Chinese culture whilst telling a subtly menacing
tale. You have to question whether this is truly an X-File at all because you
could surgically remove (hoho) Mulder and Scully without anything radically
changing and the paranormal element is completely absent. However it is a
superior drama, beautifully acted by the guest cast and stylishly brought to
life by newbie director Tucker Gates. I would rather watch something slower
paced, attention-grabbing and steeped in a menacing atmosphere than a fast
paced mythology episode that ties itself up in knots any day of the week. It
says something about me that I hated this episode as a child, often
skipping it in my marathons of the show and yet through more seasoned eyes it
stands out as one of the more unique episodes of the season. It paints Mulder
and Scully as arrogant interlopers in a far more effective way than Syzygy and
makes something as simple as a lottery one of the most terrifying things ever.
A massive round of applause to BD Wong for his complex portrayal of Chao, a man
with far more complexities than our agents could ever dream of within this
scenario. Different, but oddly compelling: 8/10
Jose Chung’s From Outer Space written by Darin Morgan and
directed by Rob Bowman
What’s it about: Well that’s a very subjective point...
Trust No-One: How can you not want to howl until a little
bit of wee comes out when Mulder shows great interest in Roky’s encounter with
aliens and excitedly reads through his account until the realisation dawns on
him that his source is a delusional fanatic. Reading that manifesto must be
like staring into a mirror. Chung wonderfully observes ‘surely your partner
didn’t believe any of it?’ Like you had to ask. You’d think the fact that
it is written in screenplay format would be a clue. The last shot of Mulder is
of him receiving groan-worthy gratification from a televisual treat…grainy
footage of Bigfoot in the woods.
Brains’n’Beauty: ‘Here I was thinking you were just some
kind of brainy beauty!’ Gillian Anderson leaps at the chance to be the
focus of a Morgan script and reveals a gift for comic timing whilst remaining
entirely in character (that is until we are seeing events from someone else’s
POV where she is doing anything but). Scully believes in the therapeutic power
of hypnosis but doesn’t think that proves that it helps to enhance memory. Her
opinion might change after season five’s The Red and the Black. To be fair to
Scully if I was asked to concoct an abduction scenario I would conjure up
something similar to Chrissy. I love the moment when Scully finally snaps, sick
of listening to Mulder probing for information about alien abduction and
demanding to know whether Harold and Chrissy had sex. Because Scully is the one
telling this story, Anderson walks through the flashbacks looking even more
incredulous than usual. She’s one step away from arching her eyebrow. I don’t
know what’s funnier, the bully girl Scully that Blaine recalls (‘you tell
anyone, you’re a dead man!’) or our Scully’s horrified response to being
described that way. You only have to think back to last weeks episodes and
Scully was pretty much behaving in this way so maybe there is something in
Blaine’s interpretation of her character. Scully is utterly nonplussed by most
of the contradictions to the story but then she and Mulder often exit an
investigation with very different opinions as to what has happened.
Jose Chung: A delightful character and a very different sort
of protagonist than Clyde Bruckman despite certain similarities (wit, charm and
lack of social graces). Scully is a massive fan of his work and it’s the only
reason she agrees to be interviewed by him, Mulder staunchly refuses. There is
a certain knowing charm to Charles Nelson Reilly’s performance that was lacking
in Peter Boyle’s star turn earlier in the season (Bruckman worked so well
because aside from his gift he was entirely ordinary) – it feels as though
Reilly has been told that he is acting in one of the best X-File scripts of all
time and his occasionally sitcom performance reflects that. Saying that its
still a gorgeous performance, full of eccentric ticks and tactile appeal. Its
sad that whilst he turns up a fair amount throughout the episode, Chung isn’t
an essential catalyst to events in the same way Morgan’s other titular
character was. He has a much better stab it this when he brings Chung back in
Millennium.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘You somehow brazenly declare that
seeing is believing!’
‘Agent Scully you are so kind hearted…he’s a nut!’
‘Because the proper authorities showed up with a couple of
Men in Black. One of them was disguised as a woman but wasn’t pulling it off.
Like her hair was red but it was a little too red, you know? And the
other on, the tall lanky one…his face was so blank and expressionless. He
didn’t even seem human…’ – as skilful a description of Duchovny’s acting
ability as I have ever heard.
‘You mean its just a dead human being?’ – Morgan comments on
how we can handle fictionalised violence (the alien) but not realistic
violence.
‘I don’t know if these mashed potatoes are really here!’ –
this whole episode can be boiled down (hoho) to this one fatuous line.
‘I know it probably doesn’t have the sense of closure that
you want but it does more than some of our other cases…’
‘Love. Is that all you men think about?’
Dreadful Dialogue: ‘The next rape you’ll experience will
probably be your own. In prison’ – there’s something distasteful about Morgan
referencing something as unsanitary as rape and in such an unguarded,
in-yer-face manner. Along with Vince Gilligan he is my little ray of sunshine
when it comes to The X-Files and it feels as wrong for him to be wasting time
on a subject this scummy as it would for Doctor Who scribe Terrance Dicks to
bring up the same putrescence in his novels.
Ugh: Oddly there isn’t a single moment of horror. Humbug,
Clyde Bruckman and Coprophages all remembered that despite their propensity to
be something other than a horror anthology show, that people still come to this
series for the scares. Unless the play-doh alien gave you the willies.
The Good: Apparently creating a new genre is a guarantee of
landing on the bestseller lists and Chung’s non-fiction science fiction
certainly qualifies! This episode goes on to prove Chung’s assertion that truth
is as subjective as reality by showing us the same events taking place but with
a very different emphasis in each scene. Its done in such a textured and richly
comic way it bears no similarity to the likewise brilliant Bad Blood because
that focuses purely on the characters of Mulder and Scully and their
interpretation of events. Scully tells the story of what happened in this case
but there are so many alternative views that her evidence lacks any credulity.
Rob Bowman enjoys playing lots of visual tricks on the characters, a cuddly
bear and a shadow on the lawn becoming terrifying alien abductors. Placing
Chrissie in the same position in a police office and an alien ship with both
sets onlookers in the same positions is an unnerving effect. When we start
dealing with flashbacks within flashbacks the veracity of what we are seeing is
divided exponentially. Its Scully’s version of Roky’s version of events. We’ve
seen Men in Black in this show before but never ones that are quite as self
conscious and theatrical as this. Was Chrissy abducted by aliens or was she
taken by the air force? Like the alternate endings to Clue either
explanation works so make your own mind up whodunit. Fiction needs more
characters like Blaine, the uncharismatic geek who desperately wants to be
abducted and taking somewhere else because he can’t be arsed to find himself a
job. Just a few seconds of the Stupendous Yappi is enough to get my senses
tingling. Bowman uses familiar X-Files imagery to tell his story – a naked man
walking down the highway (Red Museum) and exposition in a diner (Sleepless). If
alien abductions are little more than air force pilots travelling around in
spaceships dressed up as aliens then who is it that abducted the abductors? It
wouldn’t be a tale of multiple interpretations if we didn’t see two scenes
played out in very different ways and Mulder’s sweet potato pie interrogation
is probably the more plausible (but less interesting) of the two. Magnificently
Mulder’s speech to Chung at the end of the episode sounds exactly like one of
his voice over wrap up speeches (go on, close your eyes and you’ll see what I
mean) – pretentious, nonsensical and downright barmy. Darin Morgan remembers
that despite all the clever plot tricks and witty lines that we have to invest
in these characters too and so he includes a lovely coda which wraps up all of
their stories. Mind you that is told by Chung…and we know so little about him
who knows whether we can believe his version of events.
The Bad: Detective Manners and his bleeped out expletives
doesn’t really work for me. It’s a clever reminder that what we are witnessing
is an interpretation of events rather than the events themselves but
it’s a laboured gag that somehow fails to raise a laugh. The alien in the cell
with the cigarette just looks wrong (even if it is just a air force pilot in a
costume). Blaine ’stumbling’ is a gag so obvious it isn’t worthy of Morgan.
Pre Titles Sequence: From that spectacular Star Wars style
pan across the surface of an alien spacecraft that turns out to be the bottom
of a truck buggy in motion in action, you know this going to be something a bit
different. Within seconds it screams of Darin Morgan. However has the great man
taken things a bit too far this time? Imagine somebody new to the show catching
the pre-titles sequence and seeing that godawful stop animation creature beaming
down from the bottle top spaceship? Without the audience being pre-warned that
this isn’t the norm on The X-Files they will probably think that science
fiction hasn’t progressed beyond the 50s. Its wonderfully silly and knowing
(Morgan’s watchwords) but it’s the first time when I have stopped to ask myself
whether the show is being a bit too knowingly farcical for its own good.
Perhaps this was the right point for Morgan to get off before his work
descended into a parody of itself.
Moment to Watch Out For: ‘It’s a zipper…’ Probably my
favourite moment comes during the piss take of the fake autopsy that the Fox
network put out. Glorious shot on handheld camera and with a light version of
the shows theme, this is The X-Files exuding confidence. Like the
stories we are being told, the footage of autopsy has been edited and
re-interpreted to fit a specific agenda.
Result: ‘I don’t have any recollection of this…’ Its
Morgan’s weakest script of the three but its still packed to the gills with
laugh out loud gags, intelligent observations, clever narrative tricks and
memorable moments. If this were Morgan’s only contribution to The X-Files I
would probably give it top marks but coming after Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose
and War of the Coprophages, Jose Chung’s From Outer Space lacks the conceptual
brilliance of the former and the effortless mix of humour and horror of the
latter. There are a few moments where you have to wonder if Morgan is buying
into his own reputation and producing something that is so crammed with his
trademarks that he is almost (not quite) producing a parody of his own work. I
feel as if I am being too hard on an episode that’s only real problem is that
it came last because for every scene that fails there are a handful more
gorgeous moments ready to make you forget it. I’ve seen episodes of other
series that have tried to explore the complexities and contradictions of
interpretation and how everybody sees things differently but rarely with a
script as labyrinthine and dense as this. There are superb comic turns from
Gillian Anderson and Charles Nelson Reilly and Rob Bowman walks into the upside
down reality of Darin Morgan’s world with some aplomb (although surprisingly
not quite as flawlessly as David Nutter and Kim Manners did earlier in the
season) and each scene is basically a little gem when viewed in isolation.
Personally I preferred Chung’s appearance in Millennium but for all my
complaints this is still awash with style, confidence and insight: 9/10
Avatar written by Howard Gordon and directed by James
Charleston
What’s it about: Skinner wakes up in bed with a dead
prostitute…
Trust No-One: Given that their alliance has always been
necessitated by the plot mechanics that are manipulating them rather than
anything personal, I was grateful for this episode taking the time to allow the
agents to make up their mind about Skinner. They are clearly as awkward delving
into his personal life as the audience is, used to seeing Skinner as a
powerful, official man. Scully says she feels the same way about Skinner as
Mulder does but they both agree that they don’t really know anything
about him. All they can tangibly say is that he has put himself on the line for
them in the past and that is enough for them to work for his freedom. Mulder wants
to give Skinner the benefit of the doubt whereas Scully cannot help but accept
the direction that the evidence points her. Hilariously Mulder asks Scully if
she’s sure that she’s seen something supernatural (the unearthly
phosphorescence on the prostitute) when that is exactly the sort of tone she
usually takes with him! When Skinner and the agents wont admit how they feel
about each other it takes an official investigation by the Bureau to point out
the lengths that both parties go to protect each other above and beyond the
call of duty. By the end of the episode things go back to where they were at
the beginning with Mulder and Scully as in the dark about Skinner as they were
but at least now he knows they will fight for him as much as he does for them.
Assistant Director: It is long past time that we explored
the life and times of Walter Skinner. He’s existed on the periphery of The
X-Files for too long now, becoming more substantial with each passing season.
Its interesting that the moment that the writers choose to allow us into his
world (rather than him entering into Mulder and Scully’s) is a rainy afternoon
on the day that his divorce papers have come through. Its as though they want
us to sympathise with this character from the off but what they don’t realise
is that by making him this seasons whipping boy they have already achieved
that. Skinner’s work has turned him into a lonely man and he is desperate for
some human contact and so falls into the arms of a woman who is murdered in his
bed. Meeting his wife is invaluable because she has some insight into Skinner’s
psyche. He has built a wall around him to keep everybody out, even her,
thinking that it gives him strength. He talks about Mulder and Scully
respectfully in private, admiring their work from afar and protecting it to a
point but he never allowing them to see that. The scenes between Walter and
Sharon are powerfully played and agonising to watch because you can see
precisely how much he still cares for her and how he refuses to let her in to
the hurt he is feeling. Skinner saw so many horrific things in Vietnam that he
didn’t give much credence to any of it, least of all a succubus that haunted
his waking dreams.
The Good: David Duchovny helped to pen the storyline for
this episode and it seems very generous for an actor to allow the limelight to
strike elsewhere in a show where he is one of the two leads. Perhaps he just
wanted to give himself a break. Whatever the reason, opening out the show to
allow for guest characters to hog the limelight is a massive step in the right
direction. It allows for a greater flexibility of shows. Come the later seasons
there would be entire episodes devoted to the Smoking Man (Musings of a
Cigarette Smoking Man, Two Fathers/One Son, En Ami), the Lone Gunmen (The Usual
Suspects, Three of a Kind, Jump the Shark) and, of course, Skinner (Zero Sum,
S.R. 819). It’s a definite shift in the shows favour. I like how the episode
ties in Skinner’s attempted murder in Piper Maru, this being a second attempt
to remove an ally to the X-Files.
The Bad: They never quite adequately explain what the
phosphorescence around the prostitutes mouth was all about. Unless there was
something about Skinner’s semen that we just don’t want to know about. Why does
nobody on this show manage to hold down a successful relationship? The
inference seems to be that if you get close to The X-Files your personal life
falls to pieces. Neither Mulder or Scully are ever seen pursuing successful
relationships away from their work, Skinner and Doggett are estranged from
their respective wives and Reyes has a cloudy past with a future Assistant
Director. That’s a very dark outlook on life. Is the truth really worth it if
there’s nothing of your life left once you have unearthed it? Pendrell is
nowhere near as fun without Scully to fawn over.
Pre Titles Sequence: I always find it fascinating when
actors turn up in shows other than the ones that they are more famous for
appearing in just to see what else they are capable of. I never envisaged a
time when Samantha Carter from Stargate SG-1 would wind up doing the
wild thing with Skinner and have her neck snapped in the morning. If they
wanted to get our attention early, they have succeeded.
Moment to Watch Out For: Finally when his wife lies in a
hospital bed he can finally let down his defences and tell her the truth. He
has witnessed such terrible things in his life, things that he doesn’t want to
inflict on her. What got him through his darkest days was that he would be able
to wake up next to her each morning. It’s the one moment where we can really
get inside Skinner’s head and its superbly played by Mitch Pileggi.
Result: There is a shift in emphasis in Avatar where Scully
and Mulder walk into Skinner’s world rather than the other way around and its
proof that if the show did lose either of its central cast (something that
would become a reality post season seven) it has built up a strong enough base
of semi regulars for it to continue. I love the idea that Skinner could be
framed and sacrificed in order to keep Mulder and Scully in check, it’s a
subtly clever way of the government regaining some control over their most
rebellious agents. The trouble with this episode is that it cannot decide
whether to have a shit or a haircut – it wants to suggest that Skinner is being
set up by his own people and that there is a supernatural influence as well and
by faltering on which explanation is accountable it fails to convince with
either version. Ultimately you have to work quite hard to dig beneath Skinner’s
tough exterior and I’m not sure if the rewards are worth it. We discover that
underneath all that officious bluster is a intense man who is fighting with his
own demons. That’s fine but we kind of knew that already. I wanted to like this
more than I did (primarily because Mitch Pileggi is such a fine actor) but this
is probably the weakest of the ‘Skinner solo’ episodes because of its confused
(and ambiguous) plotting: 5/10
Quagmire written by Kim Newton and directed by Kim Manners
What’s it about: Is Big Blue emerging from the waters of the
lake and attacking people?
Trust No-One: Scully mentions that she had a passing
interest in Nessie as a child but then she grew up and became a scientist.
Maybe that is their ultimate problem - clearly Mulder never reached puberty,
rushing off on a whim to whatever exciting paranormal possibility that passes
his way whereas Scully is practically experiencing obsolescence, happy to pass
her time reading a good book and letting somebody else have the adventures.
They come at these investigations from different angles; him the wide eyed
child and her the rule bound adult.
Brains’n’Beauty: There is something so sunny about Scully
having to bring her dog along for the ride as Mulder yanks her from her weekend
at a moments notice. It would take until season six before the investigations
of the two agents are allowed to feel this deliberately domestic again. In a
gloriously paced scene that plays on what we already know about both
characters, Scully looks out of the window at the sign welcoming them to town
wondering what Mulder is missing out…before they pass another sign advertising
the presence of Big Blue, Americans answer to the Loch Ness Monster! Its very
funny, especially since we should be bored by Scully’s unenthusiastic responses
these days, that they should go to such lengths to get a laugh out of this
moment. Gillian Anderson understands perfectly how to play the early scenes
with Scully suspicious of the man that the script has already pointed the finger
at. She also proves that a pretty face can sometimes be more useful than an
official presence, twisting the Sheriff’s arm to aid them just because she
asked nicely. What makes me laugh is that Scully is so reluctant to follow
Mulder on these insane quests and is ready to mock him heartily throughout but
when his theory has been blown it is revealed to be nothing more than an
alligator she feels desperately sorry that his childlike glee has been invaded
by cynicism. She’s a mass of wonderful contradictions and that’s why we love
her.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Has anyone ever told you two that you
have a great problem of getting to the point!’ – it looks like I’m not the only
one who is sick of Mulder and Scully’s vague insinuations!
‘Scully are you coming on to me?’
‘There’s hope. That’s why these myths and stories have
endured. People want to believe.’
Ugh: Poor old Scott. Not only dragged into the water by Big
Blue and eaten but when the bottom half of his body is snared by a the fish
hook it decides to grab hold of his butt and when turned over his flies are
undone. The indignity.
The Good: The location work on The X-Files is always
something pretty special but every now and again it really comes up trumps. The
stillness of the lake is like polished obsidian and the wet, leafy forest takes
on a life of its own. It’s a really atmospheric location to set a run-around of
this nature in. I’m sure a frog holocaust would do very bad things to the food
chain and the natural world but let’s be honest giving it that name is really
funny. The episode playfully explores how a myth can be capitalised (‘I bet
those stories sell a lot of T-shirts’) and exploited to make an otherwise
unexceptional area count for something. If there hadn’t been a scene with a
fisherman wrestling with his rod I would have been disappointed and the fact
that this subverts expectations and he winds up dragging a body to the surface
rather than being consumed by Big Blue really made me chuckle. Even funnier is
the scene that begins with scaly, three toed feet clomping through the
countryside…only to be revealed as being the bait and tackle shop owner in
dinosaur boots trying to fake prints through the woods. A fake mythological
monster being killed by a real one? The writer knows exactly what he is
doing, having some fun with the audience. How wonderful to catch up with the
stoners from War of the Coprophages again. It’s a shame that they didn’t learn
from this example as they could have randomly inserted this pair into a story
once a season as two innocent observers on the periphery of the story. Last
time they were smoking shit, this time they are licking toads. Who knows what
they would have been getting up to in the harsher, dirtier season four? Like
Coprophages they don’t even get to talk to Mulder and Scully (there is a shot
of the agents walking past them) and that could have been the running gag, that
they are never an integral part of the investigation but are stung by whatever
horror is being investigated. The stunt of the kid in the wet suit being
dragged through the water to his watery grave is straight out of Jaws
without the appearance of a rubbery shark. You’ve got to love the idiotic
Sheriff who refuses to shut the lake down until he is attacked…then it
becomes the number one priority! It’s a shame that Queequeg was added to the
list of victims in this episode because the cute visual of Mulder, Scully and
dog investigating was worth repeating but its worth it for the shot of the
collar slowly making its way towards Scully as the lead retracts and the look
of horror on her face that her little doggie has been eaten (oh come on…don’t
tell me you didn’t laugh).You even have the Jaws sequence of
something appearing on a radar and approaching the boat that the agents are
investigating in and ramming it! For the camera to emerge over the top of the
bubbling, sinking ship to discover Mulder and Scully standing on a rock in what
appears to be the middle of the ocean…well let’s just say there are moments
when this show really is magnificent. The fact that the frog depletion was
pointed out to us in the very first scene and turns out to be the biggest clue
as to the identity of ‘Big Blue’, an alligator that has been forced to rely on
a new food source (human beings) is very clever. This solution would be far
more disappointing if they didn’t slip in that sneaky shot of the real Big Blue
once Mulder and Scully has left town.
Pre Titles Sequence: A glorious teaser that signposts every
scare but does it with such a knowing wink at the audience you would be fool
not to go with it and enjoy the ride. A man turning his back on nature foraging
in the reeds, the insects and birds turning silent in an instant, the slow
emergence of something from the water and floating towards him…right down to
the shot of the toad happily ribbiting away whilst his hands disappears beneath
the water. You will have seen scenes of this type in a hundred different horror
movies but rarely with as much cheek as it is here.
Moment to Watch Out For: Obviously the sequence on the rock
where Mulder and Scully have nothing to do but await rescue and talk. Its rare
for The X-Files to take an extended rest in the middle of an episode to examine
its central characters – its obviously pure padding but written and played this
well it is the best material in the whole episode. The little titbits that we
learn about their characters is invaluable. Scully’s father always taught her
to respect nature because it has no respect for you. She asks Mulder what the
point of his work is, what he really hopes to discover out there and he answers
incredulously that she is a scientist so surely she is eager for the next big
discovery. Mulder reminds Scully of Ahab, so consumed by personal vengeance that
everything in his life warps to fit his meglomaniacal cosmology. The two gags –
one of a duck emerging from the mist and the other when they realise that they
have been barely two foot away from the shoreline – work perfectly. Boy did I
laugh. And the chemistry between Anderson and Duchovny has never been more
apparent.
Result: In season three The X-Files has taken itself apart,
exposed everything that makes this show work and then put it back together
again in an even healthier state. Quagmire is the perfect example of this, a
season one monster of the week tale that would have been practically unbearable
had it taken place in the shows debut year. In hindsight of everything the
writers and directors have learnt about the series since it emerges as a delightful
little romp that knows exactly how to play with its clichés. Not only is it a
great monster story in its own right but it also deconstructs what a great
horror story is made out of by so happily pointing out (and often subverting)
the audiences expectations. If half the horror movies that I have seen had a
fraction of Quagmire’s confidence and understanding of the genre I would be a
very happy boy. As well as telling such an uncomplicated and visually arresting
slice of horror, this episode also scores highly in its handling of Mulder and
Scully who have never felt more like they have stepped from a sitcom and know
the roles they have to play in the show. The scene on the rock is justly
praised but there are lovely moments between the two agents scattered
throughout the piece. If you take a look back at the show as a whole this will
probably not be one of the episodes that stands out because of its sheer
modesty but there are very few examples of this show that achieve what they are
aspiring for quite so perfectly. Quagmire wants little more than to provide a
we’re-nearly-at-the-end-of-the-season hour of top notch entertainment and it
succeeds in droves. It hasn’t got a fraction of the tricks that Jose Chung
deployed but in its own quiet way its just as gorgeous: 9/10
Wetwired written by Matt Beck and directed by Rob Bowman
What’s it about: ‘Television does equal violence…’
Trust No-One: The trouble with Mulder is that as much as he
might object to being manipulated like a puppet if he gets an email asking for
a covert meeting and potential information he will follow that scent like a dog
after a sausage. I rather think he enjoys playing at subterfuge.
Mulder’s vicious rant at X for his abuse of their relationship has been a long
time coming and proves to be very satisfying. Things simply cannot keep going
in this vein.
Brains’n’Beauty: As soon as Scully tells Mulder she is going
to review the tapes that turned a man into a psychotic killer you know that
this cannot end well for her. Its all done very subtly at first, Scully looking
over her shoulder a lot or staring hard at Mulder as if trying to look beneath
his words for his real meaning. Gillian Anderson shifts her performance ever so
slightly so we can tell that she doesn’t trust a word that Mulder is telling
her and looks edgily like she could be capable of anything. Especially good is
the image of Scully clutching the phone in a darkened room, her face lit up by
the flickering events on the television. When Mulder calls Margaret she
immediately thinks that something has happened to her daughter, given she has
already lost one child to Mulder’s crusade. It must be the voice on the phone
she least likes to hear. The very idea that Mulder has been leading Scully on a
wild goose chase for the past three years and that he is at the heart of what
he is trying to ‘expose’ is ridiculous but when the delivery is as raw and
passionate as this you are at least convinced that she believes it.
Ugh: Hot on the tail of the exploration of the nature of
perception in Jose Chung’s From Outer Space, this is an altogether more
sinister handling of the same theme. Blood will always be the ultimate
expression of horror through subliminal messaging but there is something very
scary about the way that staring at your television screen can feed homicidal
information into the brain invisibly. Watching television is something a large
amount of the population does on a regular basis so if this was plausible the
government could potentially turn any of the public into assassins. Imagine if
overcrowding became unmanageable…they could decide which are the least
productive members of society and send the right information through their
television screens to get them to commit suicide. The possibilities are
chilling. The use of static and white noise as something angry and hissing and
whispering dark thoughts into the minds of the characters is especially clever
and the protracted shots of people hypnotised by the screens mirrors the
audience at home mesmerised by this episode. Sometimes when you are walked
through the reasons behind weird goings on in horror movies/TV it dispels the
very thing that made it scary in the first place. Understanding something
shatters the mystery. But when The Lone Gunmen explain away the subliminal
messaging in the TV signal to Mulder it becomes more frightening. You can see
just how possible this idea is.
The Good: I love the scene where Mulder and Scully discuss
whether simulated violence on television creates violent people because it has
long been a bone of contention that has failed to be properly addressed. Mulder
asserts that if that is the case then people are just empty vessels waiting to
be fed information rather than intelligent individuals able to make their own
choices. I believe that people who seek out deliberately violent television/movies/video
games to indulge in them for any other reasons than to be entertained and then
act upon their desires are unusually aggressive people to begin with. Watching
fiction might give them ideas but the feelings and the ability act upon them were
already there and would have always manifested themselves regardless. It’s a
lazy way of describing the things that people do, ignoring the fact that some
people are genuinely disturbed. The shot of Mulder and the Smoking Man laughing
in his car like a pair of illicit lovers as seen by paranoiac Scully is
delightful. Amongst all the restrained horror there is still room for some
laughs, especially when a man is killed because his wife thought she saw him
having an affair with a blonde which turned out to be a Labrador. You don’t
realise it until the end of the episode but there is a very understated thread
running through this that pre-empts the departure of Mr X from the series. The
way this show can shift from a standalone to a conspiracy episode in the batting
of an eyelid exposes how much more confident it is this year (they tried
something similar in Red Museum last year and it fell as flat as a pancake).
The final scene is deliciously foreboding - the Smoking Man stares right into
the heart of X to see whether he can be trusted or not and it looks like his
time might be up…
Pre Titles Sequence: A real ‘what the fuck?’ teaser
featuring a man that looks frighteningly like Edward Funsch from Blood (an
episode that this resembles in many ways) burying a man in a fit of pique
before returning home to clean his hands and finding him alive and well and
having to go through the whole affair again. When the police turn up to
investigate they all have the face of the man he has buried. Reality
seems to shift and he realises the murdered man is in fact his wife Sarah. At this point it is impossible to decipher
what is happening but it certainly looks as if it is going to be a hell of a
ride.
Moment to Watch Out For: Its astonishing how they keep
mining the Mulder/Scully relationship for gold in season three from the sitcom
antics of War of the Coprophages, Mulder’s insanity in Grotesque, his
resistance to killing her in Pusher and their quiet moment of reflection on
their lives in Quagmire. It’s a partnership that just seems to keep giving.
Here’s another chance for them to prove how deep their connection goes with
Mulder physically crumbling when he thinks that her body has been discovered
and later his passion when he tries to reach out to her and convince her that
he has nothing to hide. When he admits that she is the only person he trusts we
have reached the zenith of the marbled exploration of their relationship this
season. As far as Mulder and Scully are concerned it doesn’t get much better
than this.
Fashion Statement: Colin Cunningham is quite the hottie and
is about to fresh foot it to a recurring role on Stargate SG-1. He’s so
cute he had to be up to no good!
Orchestra: A great minimalist score that really gets under
your skin and suggests that wrong things are happening.
Result: Whilst it does owe some credit to Blood, Wetwired
taps into an insidious horror all of its own. The premise proves to be a real
winner, television influencing
someone’s perception so that images are created that send them into a paranoid
and homicidal rage. As soon as the subtly creepy effect of the TV interference
breaks up the killers sight you know there is about to be another murder. All
the ideas are put in place quite early so it is well established by the time
that Scully succumbs. Considering paranoia is this shows stock and trade it is
astonishing that Matt beck manages to cut into a brand new slice of the pie,
giving Gillian Anderson the chance to play Scully as a frightened, edgy victim.
For once I’m quite pleased that the climax is left ambiguous because its more
frightening to think that this kind of subliminal testing is still going on out
there and the final goal can only be guessed at. Like a seam of precious
minerals running through the engaging a plot is a second narrative that
explores paranoia of a very different kind. The Smoking Man is finally onto Mr
X and no matter how many precautions he takes to contact Mulder it looks like
his time is up. Season three continues to deliver right up until the end – this
rewatch really has focussed my opinion that this is one of the finest
individual seasons of any television show. Wetwired is a delicious paranoid
nightmare with real bite:
8/10
Talitha Cumi written by Chris Carter and directed by R.W.
Goodwin
What’s it about: Conversations with God…
Trust No-One: Every time I see ‘story by David Duchovny
and…’ on the credits I wince because that has rarely gone down well (Colony/End
Game, Avatar) and usually involves Mulder hogging the limelight at the expense
of his partner. The problem with Mulder’s muted reaction to finding his mother
in hospital is there has never been a convincing connection between the two of
them on screen and it extends to this episode. Plus we’ve been through this
routine with Scully, Bill and Melissa already and there’s little that is added
to make this feel special. Despite the words that Carter puts in his mouth,
Duchovny honestly makes it look as if Mulder doesn’t give a shit if his mother
survives or not. Ultimately the relationship with Mulder and X leads to…a
bloody great scrap in an underground car park. It feels like we have been here
too many times before and that this could have been so much more interesting.
Brains’n’Beauty: As with the events of Revelations, I don’t
see why the theological leanings to this episode fail to get Scully worked up
in the same way. With its blatant religious parody I would say that this would
justify her faith even more than the previous episode but it isn’t even touched
upon. Rather than patronise him in her usual manner Scully tries to gently
prevent Mulder from reading too much into his mothers attack.
Assistant Director: How many times can Mulder burst into
Skinner’s office and demand the Smoking Man’s address before his superior turns
around and says ‘why the hell didn’t you kill him last time?’
Mr X: What a shame that Steven Williams’ commitments
elsewhere prevent him from taking part in the show any longer because he did
bring a certain presence to the show as Mulder’s replacement mole in the government.
Its doubly unfortunate that he should go out on such a spectacularly
underwhelming two parter which barely features him. Jerry Hardin’s departure
from The X-Files was rightly hailed as a classic and his death scene one of the
most dramatic moments the show achieved. The same plaudits cannot be placed at
Talitha Cumi/Herrenvolk’s door. Carter feels that killing characters off in
such an arbitrary way ups the stakes but after a while it feels like the entire
cast of characters are going to be massacred whenever the show needs a boost in
the ratings. When characters work out, sometimes it is a good idea to keep them
around. Whilst the murder doesn’t take place here, its inclusion in the
conclusion is made very apparent by the brawl between him and Mulder which
finally cuts the ties between them.
The Good: The show threatens to get exciting when Mulder
confronts the Smoking Man at the hospital but it’s a real blink and you’ll miss
it moment.
The Bad: Spare me the soap opera suggestion that the Smoking
Man is Mulder’s father. The sequence where he visits Teena Mulder to reminisce
over old times fails to work for two reasons – the dialogue is overblown strays
too far into daytime telvision and the inclusion of Rebecca Toolan who remains
the shows most robotic and unconvincing actress. For an actor of William B.
Davis’ calibre its like hitting your head against a brick wall. I’m also
getting a little bored of the way that our heroes family members are exploited
in these mythology episodes – how many more are they prepared to lose on this
quest of theirs? I could understand Scully wanting to continue searching for
the killer of her sister but with Mulder’s father and now mother placed in
jeopardy you would have to start to question whether the truth was worth
discovering it meant a massacre of your loved ones. The fact that Mulder as
good as chooses his cause objective over his family in this episode leads me to
believe that Carter and Duchovny have lost sight of how a reasonable person
would react. It seems in order to turn Mulder into a mythological figure he has
to jettison his personal life completely. It says something about her
competency as an actress when Toolan gives her best performance when Teena
Mulder is practically comatose. What about the childish puzzle surrounding the
word PALM? Not so much a conundrum as an insult to the viewers intelligence as
Mulder starts reading all kinds of meaning into the word when in fact his
mother simply meant to write the word the other way around. When the episode
actually spells out the anagram to the audience like a game of Countdown you
know the writer is in trouble. Whilst not a fault of the episode itself the
Administration Office of Social Security looks like a truly monotonous place to
work. Placing Jeremiah in a straight jacket and restraints makes him look more
like the killer than the hero. Who cares if the Smoking Man is dying of lung
cancer? He’s seen lighting up in every scene he appears in…its hardly a
revelation! So let me get this straight…Mulder’s father put the weapon that
could kill the alien bounty hunter inside a lamp for safe keeping? Did he think
that would be any good if these guys decided to invade? What if Teena decided
to throw it out? You can see the director or stunt co-ordinator in shot during
the Mulder/X fight sequence and the doubles are clearly visible for both actors
several times. What a dull end of season cliffhanger.
Pre Titles Sequence: Whilst it is beautifully acted, this is
one of those teasers that sets out to prove a point about a character and so
rushes its set piece to do so. It features a hostage situation in a restaurant
but its about a zillion times less impacting than the one in Duane Barry
because it has absolutely no context. We don’t know who this guy is or why he is
waving a gun in the face of these people – he just comes across as a madman
that is rather easily provoked. Besides I’m not really keen on cod religious
analogies usually and the heavy handed ‘Jeremiah is an Angel’ music really
pushes the point too far for me.
Moment to Watch Out For: If you have the stomach for it then
the sequences between the Smoking Man and Jeremiah are ponderous, portentous,
purveyors of purple prose. The dialogue is so hidden in mythological
obscurities and exclamations that are open to interpretation that other the
course of five minutes or so they wind up saying absolutely nothing of
consequence at all. That is some feat. ‘Science is their religion. No
greater explanation exists for them…’ Even if you understand the source of
this sequence it still doesn’t explain why Carter chose to write it in such
dreary, censored dialogue unless he genuinely believes that the audience would
continue to follow the show on the barest breadcrumbs he feeds them whilst
acting out his wish to turn the show into some kind of pretentious religious
metaphor. This is what happens when a man starts to buy into the myths that are
being built around his work. As usual with show runners, there needed to be
somebody there to say no when they stray off into ego stroking territory. Its
also a massive waste if Peter Donat and Jerry Hardin but considering Carter
already had a stab at that at the beginning of the season things have simply
come full circle.
Fashion Statement: I was happy to see Brian Thompson back
looking sharper than ever in a designer suit.
Orchestra: There’s nothing innovative about the score, it
feels like a collection of Mark Snow’s greatest hits on the show. Perhaps
stronger, fresher music would have provoked more interest.
Mythology: About the only thing to come out of the long
winded ‘dialogue of the Gods’ is that a date has been set. But for what is
anybody’s guess at this point. ‘What we’re talking about is colonisation…’ Really?
Because I have seen no exploration or explanation of that within this
episode.
Result: Its almost cruel that a season that has been so
giving should stumble at the last hurdle but Talitha Cumi is one of the weakest
episodes of the year. The first half of the episode is ponderous, unexciting
and plays the same exploitative tricks we have seen from the series plenty of
time before. However considering what comes next we were lucky during those
opening scenes because the sequences between the Smoking Man and Jeremiah are
so thoroughly tedious you might just lose the will to live as they endure for
what feels like several Ice Ages. As usual when David Duchovny gets a writers
credit Gillian Anderson is given very little to do at his expense and it is
somewhat unbelievable to think that Steven Williams barely appears in his
penultimate episode. The conclusion would see his character depart from the
show but you would never think he was relevant given his non existence in the
story. Whereas the generally disappointing second half of season two climaxed
on the unforgettable image of a boxcar of corpses going up in flames, Talitha
Cumi chooses to pause the action between seasons with the return of the alien
Bounty Hunter. Big woo. It’s a long winded exercise in running on the spot and
repackaging information that we have already learnt and telling it to us again
in the form of a revelation. The mythology episodes usually go one of two ways
– working as a piece of drama in isolation or not and this is a particularly
poor example of the latter. Perhaps the worst mythology episode the series
delivered: 2/10
