Index to all seasons | Abbey Home Page
"I just came up with a sick theory Mulder"
"Oooo, I'm listening."
While I certainly would not classify it as a great or classic episode, "Our Town" is a solid outing that I've always liked. I think it is mostly because Spotnitz's first solo effort at a Monster of the Week was different. It told us a few new things about the characters, the script (despite it's Scooby Doo "Zoinks let's pull the mask off" ending) was not that predictable, and there was an uneasy tension throughout. Perhaps it was aided by the fact that humans are always the most frightening monster on the X-Files.
I think in examining that tension that exists in this episode you can point quite quickly to the things that made it successful. First of all the opening scene between Mulder and Scully is a favorite of mine because it is an early case of Scully showing a lot of investment in the work. She's clearly annoyed at the fact that she believes they are being asked to go on a wild goose - or as Mulder points out chicken - chase to discredit what they do. Her argument is not with Mulder, it is with the mysterious "them" as she starts to buy into the conspiracy after two years. Actually, the last few episodes of season two did a grand job of escalating the threat to Mulder and Scully as a lead into "Anasazi". You just felt like they were on thin ice and knew things were closing in on them a bit.
The video they watch (as usual with wonderful reflective work by the master cinematographer John Bartley) is also edgy and disturbing - continuing to set the tone. What's amusing about that first back and forth is that while Mulder's talking foxfire, Scully thinks the burn mark is a bonfire, and boy is she right that time. "Our Town" is one of those episodes that does a good job of using both leads proactively to solve the crime piecing things together in tandem. It's this type of partnership work that always seems to elevate an episode. I have to credit Spotnitz with providing some clever writing such that the scenes with Kearns' wife and the Sheriff can and do work two ways. It helped to keep the audience guessing throughout the investigation as to what was going on.
I have a love/hate thing with the Scully in jeopardy part of "Our Town". I can remember being quite annoyed when it initially aired because it seemed like Scully was getting bonked on that left temple of hers like every other episode and being put in some sort of danger. I mean can you even imagine the callus she must have built up in that one spot over the years? Still, even though I don't like the idea of her being so easily overpowered and taken once again, there is something absolutely terrifying about this particular instance. I don't think we've ever seen Scully look so petrified as she does here, and folks, Gillian does it all with her eyes since once again duct tape is her friend. It still makes me uncomfortable every time I watch it even when I know Mulder's going to save the day, look at her all angsty and get to play with her hair.
On a gross scale this one is right up there. In a place where even the chickens are cannibals, Chaco Chicken and their "Good People, Good Food!" slogan will put you off your feed for a while each you see it. All the shots of disgusting sludge (of course Mulder finds the grossest thing in the plant to ask about it - I'm shocked he did not shove his fingers in it first), bloody rivers, and that last gross out with what I've always assumed was Chaco's mustache were a little over the top for me. I pity the actress who had to take the sludge bath for her big X-Files break. Acting doesn't get much worse than that for a paycheck. Gillian Anderson actually has one of the better bits when she expresses what I felt as an audience member with the sick look she gives that bucket of chicken before leaving it behind.
The supporting performances were for the most part fine. I especially liked John Milford as Chaco, but I've got to say I was glad to see George Kearns die in the teaser before that actor could really start to wear on me. The editing could have been a little tighter especially in the end sequence when it seemed like they were taking forever just as to give Mulder enough time to show up. I suppose the last melee was there to indicate folks running about like chickens with their heads cut off, but the stomping of Jess always comes across as a little too phony for my taste. Then of course there was the aforementioned Scooby Doo denouement.
We've certainly seen better monster of the week episodes, but "Our Town" does hold up well in the middle ground of The X-Files.
-George to Paula in the car: "It's not like you're still in high school". I sure as hell hope not if she was 47.
-Mark Snow uses some familiar themes heard throughout the series in this episode, but his scoring of act four in particular did an evocative job of increasing the tension while the towns people prepared to find out just how tasty Scully is.
-Apparently they grow their doctors pretty dumb in Dudley. Doctor "I'm just a staff physician" seems to have blocked how to treat anything much greater than a scratch. I like the fact that he's prescribed codeine that these folks seem to down by the handful for their dramatic seizures. The way Kearns was acting in the teaser you would have thought it was nitroglycerine for a heart attack. Thems fast acting codeine pills if he could snap out of it so quick. No wonder Kearns was falling all over himself later though. I'm surprised he could even walk after crunching down that dose.
-I've always found the comment by Scully "I didn't think anything gave you nightmares" interesting since there seems to be such a fan focus on Mulder as having nightmares. I thought this comment was intended about monsters and such rather than having anything to do about Samantha. Mulder's monsters have always been his family.
-Just how many chickens does Chaco think he needs to keep in that small pen with no hutch in his backyard? It was like a crowded chicken prison next to the tennis court. The set people certainly could not have been more obvious in the fact that it was just tossed into the backyard of the house they happened to be shooting at.
-The picture of Mulder in shades pulling a plastic fork out of the ashes always gives me a smile. Nice little bit of foreshadowing with that one.
v-Frank's Fashion Spot: I will say I always liked that camel color trench coat of Scully's, but my favorite fashion moment in this episode is a bit of a silly one. It's not often Scully wears one of those scrub dresses, and seeing her in that complete with the white hose and shoes is highly amusing. Plus, though sadly she does not wear them, at least her glasses were also sitting there in that scene taunting us.
-We've always known Scully does good autopsy, but she's even more impressive than usual in "Our Town" since she's able to get a slice of Paula Gray's brain out without even cutting into her head. The body just lies there completely intact from every angle as they look at this miracle brain tissue.
-Another fun John Bartley moment: he's able to capture a good reflection of Mulder and Scully in the shades of the Sheriff.
-Nice reactions all around when the Sheriff tells them "Foxfire's nothing more than a ghost story about swamp gas". In fact Mulder looks a little like he's having one of his "dodger dog" moments at that point.
-It's the little things that count. For some reason I really really like that moment in the chicken plant where Scully is calmly closing in and trying to talk Paula down. Despite the situation you feel like Scully is the one in control, the consummate law enforcement professional.
-I cannot for the life of me figure out why that one woman is wearing a badge over her chicken plant outfit. Is she some sort of a member of the Ranger Chick Club wearing her merit badge?
-Danny makes another non-appearance in this episode running missing person's checks for the dynamic duo.
-Annoying Spotnitz Dialogue: Having Mulder point out the bones have been polished to Scully after she just showed him that in the previous scene. I think the audience could have remembered this all the way through the commercial break Frank.
-Speaking of commercials I find the reference to the Anasazi tribe in the episode before "Anasazi" always a little odd. It's like it should have meant something and it didn't.
-Thank God Chaco labels his knickknacks for easy reference with things like "Jale tribe, New Guinea, 1944" and keeps a bunch of heads in his entryway. It really makes investigations go a lot quicker. I do keep wondering what the label by the bone said though. Perhaps "My first femur".
-I'm not sure why Mulder pounded that lock off the cabinet when we just saw him use his handy lock pick gun to break into the courthouse. More dramatic I guess.
Autumn
"I'm surprised she didn't call Oprah as soon as she got off
the phone with the police."