Index to all seasons | Abbey Home Page
"I'm willing to believe, but not in a lie."
Well, it was better than "Redux".
I'm still surprised, though by now I should be used to it, that X-Files usually manages to bring us a rather average episode for the season premiere. I almost always think "they had all summer and *this* is what they come up with?"
Sorry, but I want more than a paint by numbers mythology episode for a premiere. Call me greedy, but damn it I waited six months and I want to believe it should be special, not so-so. What we got seemed like a check list: Finale tie-in - check. Dana "what you can't question is the science" Scully "woozy" and can't seem to recall riding a friggin' UFO - check. Fox "Hallway-shmallway, it's all about me again"
Mulder performs ditch - check. Villains in place - check. CancerMan smokes in non-smoking area - check. Ridiculous new element to mythology - check. And so on and so on. All these pieces came together into an hour that had some highlights but for the most part was rather pedestrian. At least there were no voice overs.
Now I know I have Scullyist leanings (stop laughing), but despite that, after watching this episode I really have to wonder if Mulder believes the truth is up his ass since that was where his head was for the majority of the time. What happened to the movie Mulder who so bewitched me? Even Scully is left wondering. Scully may question things, but she desperately tries to connect with him using his own words and telling him "If I change now, it wouldn't be right - or honest"
. Still no dice. However, even more annoying than his ditch (I mean after all on the Mulder ditch scale this was a polite one as he actually came back to the car and let her know he was running off with Fowley because *she* believed him), was that attitude thing going on at the end. Let's see - Fowley gets him caught in the plant, pulls a gun on him, testifies in a harmful way before the A.D. committee, calls him "Fox" every chance she gets, and disses Scully with little comments like "You're not under the impression that what we're looking for makes sense in any conventional way"- but at the end, with Scully laying it all on the line about their relationship and trust he actually says "You're asking me to make a choice?"
Geez, was Fowley that good in bed? All Scully wanted him to do the entire episode is read her little report, to listen to her, to use the word "we" instead of "I". Yet, true to form he only really listens to her when he finally thinks what she has done might support him.
All that being said, the best things about this episode were the scenes between Mulder and Scully. Duchovny and Anderson were up to their old tricks, doing their best to bring whatever spark they could to the dialogue even if Mulder and Scully had to spend the majority of the episode snarking at each other. Anderson once again shows she has a real connection with child actors, infusing her scenes with Gibson with a warmth that is just enough to get me irritated all over again at what has been taken from Scully. Jeff Gulka has been a real find as Gibson. Not only is the kid a good actor, but he's a very interesting character to play with. His "talent" is especially fun when we see it slice through the little white lies to the heart of the matter. In an episode filled with the camera lingering on Scully's face for a reaction the "I'm a very special lab rat" allusion back to Emily cuts Scully to the quick.
Duchovny likewise gets lucky in his scenes with Mimi Rogers. Not because she is so good, but because she is just so bad she makes him look brilliant. I've nothing against Ms. Rogers. In fact I've seen her do some very good work in the past, but she just seems lost and unnatural as Fowley. When I watch her I feel like I'm seeing an actress just trying to remember her lines and get them out in the right order. I mean Chris Owens, bless his little actor heart, is at least trying. The problem with that is we just don't care because the character is so poorly conceived. I was lucky to keep my dinner down in the big "father/son bonding through evil" scene which came across as too cheesy for words.
In the, "call me a masochist but I am still trying to make sense of the mythology" corner, why is it that sometimes black oil just likes to take you for a ride like in "Piper Maru" and other times it decides you are alien bait? Is it just finicky? And is it just me or did we learn from this episode that we are all alien love children? Frankly, I found the opening sequence in the hearing hilarious because it effectively pointed out just how silly and convoluted this "global domination" by "vicious long-clawed spacelings" thing has become. It's not only A.D. Maslin (named in a jab at professional reviewers) that is trying to understand the plot. At least, for a change, I can't complain about this episode being too complex.
Like I said. At least it was better than "Redux".
-Retread Alert: THERE WERE NONE. Welcome to L.A.
-It seems, as the person who casts the show, Rick Millikan has just been waiting for the L.A. move so that he too could die a horrible teaser death. I guess if the Vancouver prop master got a gig in "Unusual Suspects" fair is fair.
-Speaking of Sandy, personally I think he may have been chosen to die because not only was he wearing a fashion disaster vertically striped shirt with a wide diagonal stripe tie, but he was so pitiful that all the pictures in his house were of him in a lab coat.
-Which brings us to Frank's Fashion Spot: What is with these Mulder casual investigation outfits? You'd think he was on vacation or auditioning for a GAP ad instead of on the job. Is Scully the only one who wears a jacket these days?
-I'd hate to see Sandy's utility bill if he actually keeps his house at 60 degrees in Phoenix even when he's not home. Does he like living in a meat locker?
-Is it just me or was that syndicate scene missing a certain well placed "Dear God" in a clipped British accent?
-My biggest laugh: seeing a house plant in the "new" X-Files office. On the bright side it looks like Fowley doesn't have a desk either.
-Small continuity nod: the scientists worked at Roush Technologies, the same company who was paying off Blevins. Now if they would only pay the same attention to major plot points like how long Scully was missing we would all be happy.
-They went for the obvious Simpson's gag. Homer asleep at the controls. What I found more funny was the Vancouver/L.A. jab in the same scene. The song featuring lyrics like "gray skies are gonna clear up" and "sunshine all over the place".
-I'm still trying to wrap my brain around exactly what Mulder thought he was going to do when he found the lizard alien. We know shooting them is out. He didn't appear to have a big net. Was he just going to try to put it to sleep with a voice over?
-Now Mulder knows aliens are toxic right? That a bee sting can kill. That their "blood"is very dangerous and yet we get "Hey cool! Look, a pile of alien goo - I think I'll stick my ungloved hand in it!"
-Our Little Sailor: "God, does anybody know what the hell is going on?"
-Well I must say "dip wad" now surpasses "dork weed" as the stupidest faux swear word on the show. And that was tough to do.
-Tough X-Files question of the week: Is it worth a brain operation to get to lay your head in Scully's lap?
-It's a good thing the FBI has all that high tech equipment around for Mulder to restore his files instead of doing simple backups.
-I guess aliens also have a problem with that dry, flaky skin in warmer climates.
-You just have to feel sorry for those poor fools who try to tell Scully to calm down when she's worked herself up. They just don't see it coming.
-Here's why we should fear those sneaky lizard "spacelings". It's not the RuPaul nails or their attitude problems. It's because they can apparently become invisible, travel 60 miles on claw without leaving an obvious trail, and somehow penetrate the security of a nuclear power plant. Then again if Mulder and Fowley can sneak in too maybe it is not all that tough. I don't know about you all but that lack of security certainly gives me a warm fuzzy.
-Five years later and they are just noticing Mulder and Scully's "very questionable travel expenses"? I'd been thinking one of them had been doing some serious flirting with someone in accounting for years to get their expense reports through.
Autumn Tysko
"Why do I bother?"