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"Mulder, what we've walked into here is a Mexican soap opera."
And not a very good one. Well, this John Shiban script certainly lived down to my expectations. For a while there I was actually thinking that the episode might be OK as I laughed along at some of the dialogue between Mulder and Scully, but then, like his last outing "Teso dos Bichos", it totally fell apart in the end. Not only did the episode not have a clue how to end, it had to prove it to us - not once - but three times. Sorry, "Jose Chung" was clever - hysterical poorly acted caricatures relating their versions of the story while the fungus goat boys hitch hike back to Mexico and Mulder and Scully give us platitudes is not.
I find it a real turn off when the X-Files gets heavy handed about social issues. Like "Hell Money" (also directed by Tucker Gates) we are told over and over in two different languages just how ignored and invisible these poor people are. At least Mulder was accurate when he said "nobody cares Scully". I suppose it is meant to be profound that this story was about aliens of a different kind and "the aliens in this story are not the villains - they're the victims". It might have been if they had given their audience the chance to discover this for themselves instead of drumming these themes into us.
I'm sure that the parallels to a soap opera were also meant to be clever instead of highlighting the weaknesses of the story. The title a spin on "As the World Turns", the repeated theme of "two men - one woman - trouble", the spanish soap on the TV set, even the reference to former CHiPs actor and now spanish soap hunk Erik Estrada. However, it was the overwrought acting that we had to watch and have translated to annoying spanish guitar music (and that pains me to say as I usually love Snow's scores) that really sunk this one for me. If it was supposed to be a joke it didn't really work, and if it wasn't that makes it all the more scary.
Gee, a foreign language teaser - that's a new twist. "Look... the rain is strange" falling hot and yellow on the plain. Scream Maria a couple of times (and unfortunately not the last time) and that ought to get the FBI to frigid Fresno (must've been a cold snap there). Actually, I was pretty disappointed when we came back from commercial and Mulder and Scully were already there - I really wanted to see Mulder try to convince Scully to go to Fresno to investigate Chupacabras - that would have been fun.
The episode did put Scully in her element - our girl has a fungal mystery to solve while Mulder chases goat suckers. So poor Eladio wanders about sweating chupacabra juice that causes people to look like really really bad cheese from an attack of athlete's foot. Big surprise - someone dies in the bathroom - like there wouldn't be fungus in a construction site porta-potty! Also, even though Mulder did start ordering Scully to make cell phone calls towards the end she was in charge a bit more. When she put Mulder in his place with that "let me work on the fungus" and you chase goat boy speech I wished she'd added "and bring the car around for me too while you're at it." She's getting a bit of an edge to her voice when she asks Mulder "While you do what?" these days.
Wow. I know I sound like I'm on a rampage here so in all fairness let me say what I did like about the episode. There were some good lines and some interesting exchanges. Unlike "Teso", where I felt even David and Gillian had given up, they really appear to be trying to make this work - God bless 'em. I absolutely loved that moment in the car where Mulder starts yelling "Maria" followed by the look he got from Scully - or her mumbled "West Side Story" rendition. I enjoyed some of the jokes like the "purple rain" bit and Scully's slam at the coroner. The amused look that Scully shoots Mulder after his Chupacabra explanation was wonderful. We even had a "Mulder, it's me." and a funny "Scully, I've been thinking - I know that's dangerous".
However, I think my reaction can be best explained by the episode's last line: "The truth is nobody cares."
-Retreads: The County Coroner was an agent in "Grotesque" and Dr. Steen was in "Irresistible".
-Well, probably the thing that made the most sense in this episode for me was that the older woman that we were continually subjected to was named "Flakita". Talk about a name fitting the character.
-Here they are surrounded by dead smelly goats that even make Scully have to hold her nose and Mulder is *eating*.
-An awkward editing moment as Mulder and Scully walked away during their initial camp visit made Gillian seem like an actress in a Godzilla movie with her lips not matching the sound. That's something you usually don't see on this show.
-I had to laugh when Flakita smacks herself in the face getting out of that cop car in the end as I had been wanting to smack her most of the show.
-I think we all learned a valuable lesson about why one should never eat bad nuts, didn't we?
-What was with that fade from the alien's head to Skinner's? That is subtext I don't want to know.
Autumn
"I don't think he's going anywhere"