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"Smells like a whole lot of something went bad."
Geez, is that an understatement. It has been a long long time since I've been this disappointed in an episode of X-Files. All I could think when it was over was that I was suddenly very afraid for the movie. Sure, we've all joked about the National Enquirer "lizard aliens", but when I actually had to witness that "Dark Skies" rip-off (incredibly pathetic in and of itself - especially given the dissing of "Dark Skies" X-Files staffers entered into) crustacean-like slimy lizard butt thing crawl out of Skur's mouth I was just appalled and saddened. I was actually thankful Gillian Anderson was not in this episode just to spare her having her name attached to it.
David Duchovny is not as lucky. Nope, not at all. Instead of escaping this cheese festival he gets to trip down memory lane again. Maybe they thought it would be cute to make us all wonder at a smoking, wedding banded Mulder. It wasn't cute. It was annoying. For the second time this season (the first being the other flashback episode "Unusual Suspects") Mulder sports a wedding ring. No, I do not think David just forgot to take it off. They dress these characters down to their watches and bras. Plus, they made sure it was in our faces with that affected hair swipe thing that Mulder never does as if to make sure we saw it with all the subtlety of a ton of bricks. Is this some clever little thing they plan on dropping on us later? Oops, did we forget to mention Mulder was once married? Sure.
Oh and apparently as Mulder was in his carefree early years he just blocked this whole story about his father being involved with grafting another species to people's insides with the help of German Axis scientists. Why the hell is he so shocked in "Paper Clip" if this is the case. (Pardon me while I sigh and fondly remember "Paper Clip" - it's the best thought I've had tonight). Oh damn, Dad did that? Hmm. Ok. Good thing we "don't really speak" or I might actually bring this up some day. Fine.
Then there is the whole incredible idea that Mulder's Dad would let a murdering alien possessed guy go out of some guilt complex so he could continue using that crab thing to suck the organs out of people for years. Yeah right, he's just been used. He didn't mean to kill his wife. Best let him go for the greater good. Oh, and it get's better: 38-odd years later of removing people's organs via his little slimy symbiont pal his last word is "Mulder"? Whatever.
On the acting side Darren McGavin was sadly wasted. Fredric Lane did a credible but bland job as Agent Dales. David Moreland played Roy Cohn like Pee Wee Herman's evil twin. Eileen Peddle as Mrs. Skur gave us some nice work for her few scenes, and I really liked Jane Perry as the helpful woman who created the "X" files because there was no room in "U".
I will say a few nice things. I liked what Joel Ransom did to create a 40's look with the yellow-based lighting. There were some very nice touches by the set dressing crew down to the push button wall light switches.
Other than that I'm going to try to block this one out of my memory just like Mulder.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah we've all heard the excuses of "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" being not grounded in reality in order to hide the continuity errors. So then, I ask, why do they use the same actors? We are supposed to recognize the characters and forget the time line? Now we are to believe Dad Mulder 10 years into his State Department job leaves to be an Army Captain for a while in 1962 to fit the "Musings" time frame. Whatever. I don't know why we bother. They sure as hell don't.
-Retread Alert: The coroner was the deputy in "Miracle Man", the helpful secretary we last saw in "Paper Hearts", and the teaser sheriff is an X-Files regular appearing in "GenderBender", "Sleepless", and "The List".
-Not only do we get actor retreads, but they couldn't even be bothered to find new locations. The house in the teaser is straight out of "Demons" and Dale's hang out Hoot-Owl bar was in both "Deep Throat" and "Piper Maru".
-Not only is Mulder smoking in this episode, but he is driving around with his trench coat belt slammed in the car door. Pretty pitiful.
-Which leads me to "Frank's Fashion Spot" and that horrid blue/navy/white striped tie Mulder had on. Ick. At least the period costumes looked dapper.
-I've got to say the pathologist telling us they'd have the results back in 6 to 8 weeks made me appreciate the good Dr. Scully and modern medicine even more.
Autumn
"You're not supposed to understand."