Autumn Tysko's X-Files Reviews

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Jose Chung's From Outer Space

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"I know it probably doesn't have the sense of closure that you want, but it has more than some of our other cases."

No, not much closure at all. This is Darin Morgan's ode to "Rashomon", where everyone has a different story to tell about the chain of events of the disappearance of a Washington state couple and what follows. While I found Darin's take on an alien/ conspiracy episode entertaining and certainly very funny in parts, it didn't have the snap for me that Morgan's other efforts had. Still, I know this tape will be warming my VCR more than most. Maybe my viewing was hampered by the sad knowledge that I might have been watching Darin's last effort for the X-Files. I never would have guessed a year ago that my favorite drama in all of its moody intellectual darkness could also turn into, on occasion, one of my favorite comedies as well. For that we have Darin Morgan to thank. While other new writers have been added to the staff, no one else has consistently tested the borders and redefined what the show could be - making all of his efforts, if nothing else, fresh, different, and highly anticipated. If he has indeed left the show, they will be hard pressed to find a talent so willing to experiment with such success - and no, as a final effort, this doesn't have the sense of closure that I want.

I think that if this episode had a theme it would be "truth is as subjective as reality" and the script attempts to prove it by showing the same events seen through many eyes. Mulder, of course, believes what he hears while Scully, of course, paces and rolls her eyes so many times I was worried she would hurt herself from screwing up her face so often. Then we have the hilarious "Roswell! Roswell!" Blaine who shares Mulder's taste in wall hangings and wants to believe so bad he has warped everything he sees into scenes from the UFO and abduction books he read (not because he had to - LOL!). His take on Mulder & Scully as men in black ("one of them was disguised as a woman, but wasn't pulling it off" and her partner the "mandroid") who slap and threaten people had me rolling.

The teaser did just that - nothing was quite what it seemed - the underside of the telephone repair man's lift as a UFO, the "aliens" Jack and Ray who echo one of the episode's other themes "How the hell should I know", and, uh, "Lord Kimbote" who looked like one of those great old stop-motion cyclops monsters from the Hercules or Sinbad movies. We open to the "I want to believe" poster, but in this episode we don't know what to believe. So our premise is that Scully is talking to Mr. Chung because she is a great admirer of his work (including the funny riff on The Manchurian Candidate). I really liked Charles Nelson Reilly in this part, he was fun and flirty with Scully and seemed to know just how to deliver the dialogue - my favorite bit of his was his discussion of the use of "abductee" versus "I just had a little alien experience". Scully prefers neither word. Hmm. Imagine that.

However, the highlight of this story, hands down, had to be Scully's biggest nightmare - a starring role in the "Alien Autopsy: Truth or Humbug" video. I loved the way this scene was shot, the take on the theme song playing as background music. However, what I enjoyed more than anything was the downright pouty and whiny way Scully got as she tried to explain "It's so embarrassing". Gillian Anderson certainly makes Scully her funniest when she is flustered.

The other supporting performances were uneven. I didn't much care for the kids and the swearing detective, appropriately named "Manners", was a bit much. A lot of effort went into that bleepin for the payoff line by Scully. I actually found her explanation "Well, he didn't actually say bleeped, he said ..." funnier - somehow the image of Dana Scully using language like that is quite amusing. I was, however, impressed with Jesse "The Body" Ventura. He seemed to really enjoy his stint as a MIB, and it was fun watching him rip the videotape out of the VCR (who needs an eject button) or perform a back-breaker wrestling move.

Where things got interesting and tangled started in the "Ovaltine Diner" where the cigarette smoking "alien" tells Mulder of covert intelligence operations and UFOs as secret military airships while molding his mashed potatoes in an homage to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". The closest thing in X-Files history to the story we get here harkens all the way back to "Deep Throat" with human piloted UFOs and induced memory losses. Something was done to our heros here (maybe by the evil Alex "you're feeling very sleepy" Trebeck - or someone who looked incredibly like him). My take on it was that both Scully and Mulder were hypnotized given Scully's robot-like actions and lack of memory (you know she hates that). It was a funny sight to have her awake in bed fully clothed trying to figure out how Mulder, who suddenly has a keen interest in ice buckets, got in her room. Not quite the bedroom scene that some folks look for.

Oh well, the tale ends without closure with Mulder & Scully as witness to the coverup alibi, and the book published much to Mulder's dismay. "From Outer Space", the epic tale of "noble of spirit and pure of heart" Diana Lesky and her partner Renard (a medieval name for Fox) Muldrake, the "ticking time bomb of insanity". As ending images we see Scully (whose eyebrows certainly got a workout this episode) as a perfunctory 9 to 5 lien hunter, feet on her desk, reading at work (she is nevertheless a federal employee) and Mulder *in his bed* watching a bigfoot video. Life, for the X-Files ghostbusters continues ...

Random Musings

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-Some interesting camera work done in this one. I really liked the way there would be no cut between the flashback and the storytelling. You'd see the character say something and then they were telling the same thing to Mulder & Scully - neat effect used well.

-Did Scully not have the most hideous hotel room? That red furniture? Ugg. The scene with Mulder reading her the tale of Lord Kimbote the Shakespearean alien was quite amusing though.

-In a hilarious bit of business by Gillian, during both hypnosis scenes every time the hypnotist (who seems to always appear in Darin Morgan episodes) says "You are getting sleepy" Scully yawns in the background behind him.

-"I didn't spend all those years playing Dungeons and Dragons and not learn a little something about courage."

-Sometimes when I watch this show I can't help but think that Scully believes every sentence is some sort of vocabulary challenge. How many $100 words can one woman fit into a simple sentence? Our brainy beauty does provide us a lay man's translation once though. In Scully-speak "Mulder's had his share of peculiar notions, he's not inclined to dismiss anything out right" equals "Mulder, you're nuts."

-If nothing else I think we did learn that Mulder can and does issue a "girlie scream".

-What were those big heeled clunky shoes that Scully was wearing?

-Mulder: "So what if they had sex" Scully: "So we know that wasn't an alien that probed her."

-I loved how the boyfriend says "I'll never let anything happen to you" and the girl is immediately taken while he cowers and the other "alien" just smokes and says "this is not happening".

-I hope that Duchovny didn't need to film those sweet-potato pie scenes too many times, with the huge bites he was taking. I could only think when Mulder went back to Scully's room it was probably to get sick.

-Just what is the "military, industrial, entertainment complex"?

Autumn
"They just found your bleepin' UFO"

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