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"I'd say it's wise you keep an open mind."
I didn't think it could get any more ludicrous. From the spoilers I'd received for this episode months ago I knew it was about a beggar from India with no legs who gets around on a creaky cart and has powers to alter perception. Then a few months ago, I heard the words "butt genie" come out of Gillian Anderson's mouth in describing this guy and I knew I was wrong. It did indeed get more ludicrous. I was fully prepared for this episode to redefine the word stupid. Damn, if it didn't take the wind out of my sails. So now I'm here to confess. I liked "Badlaa." There. I said it. I guess now I should tell you folks why.
As is true to form with me, it was the character interaction that interested me most, and to be honest this is one of those episodes that gets better the second time because of that factor. The first time that Scully told Doggett to keep an open mind I snickered. It sounded so silly coming from her, but really that was the point. It was silly. And it was not Doggett she kept reminding the whole episode. She was saying it for herself. Because in order to function as she wants to, to carry the torch in her own bizarre fashion by trying to be like Mulder, an open mind is what she needs. Still, for all her open mind posturing in front of Doggett it is obvious she's still not comfortable with the words she says. There is discomfort in the way she presents her findings - a guarded nature because she knows how it sounds. Case in point is how she almost reluctantly gives Doggett her "stowaway" theory or how she weakly tries to sell Chuck as having "certain insights" to Doggett. "It's hard to believe in something when you can't understand it" Chuck tells Scully and that's something she knows all too well.
What happens next is interesting. We see Scully at Mulder's desk complete with an alien coffee mug and the photo of Mulder and Samantha with papers scattered all about, sleeves rolled up like Mulder used to do, pulling an all-nighter to try to make any sort of connection about the case so she can understand it. She calls Chuck back in to help her. There's a sadness to her as Chuck mentions Mulder and she explains that she's "just trying to see it the way Mulder would," and yet still can't get to the bottom of why he's killing who he is killing. She keeps telling herself and others that there is a reason and we'll see it, but she never does and neither do we. It is on faith alone that she's doing the right thing that she pulls the trigger at the end and in doing so realizes that she's not capable of being Mulder no matter how hard she tries. The last scene is very nicely played by Anderson. Scully looks like she might actually throw up over her actions as Doggett approaches her. It's an interesting revelation, as caught up in missing Mulder she realizes that no matter how hard she tries to do what he would do and see what he would see she's just not capable. It was a well needed look at the empty Mulder shaped place in Scully's life and how alone she is without him.
The interaction between Doggett and Scully finally found what it had been missing for the last few episodes - some sort of spark and proof that these two people have worked together for a while now and actually have some level of comfort and familiarity. It wasn't just the bland investigation by rote that we've been seeing. At last there was some personality. Robert Patrick got a lot more mileage out of this character by layering Doggett with a good-natured amusement - joking about the things that land in Scully's inbox and hypothesizing sloppy vampires for her. There was an enjoyable twinkle in the way he delivered the line about her theory requiring an openness that he was "just not comfortable with." The only scene between them that did not work for me was Doggett's confronting Scully's take on the case after the mother's death when really he had nothing to offer himself. Whether or not he bought her theory she was following a string of deaths that were obviously related. I just felt that scene was an excuse to push Scully further emotionally and restate the episode's open mind theme rather than having a logical basis for Doggett. The writer's are going to have to be a little more careful with Doggett because the brand of skepticism they've chosen to employ with this character has little of the natural curiosity we always saw with Scully and instead comes across as someone just closing their eyes, plugging their ears and saying "nyah nyah nyah I can't hear you," making him infinitely more annoying when it comes to this sort of thing than Scully was at her most stubbornly skeptical.
I have to give credit to director Tony Wharmby and to actor Deep Roy (isn't that just a killer name for an actor playing someone who crawls up your butt) for actually making what sounds too inane to be true on paper actually seem, well creepy. I sure as hell wouldn't want that little man looking at me that way. Deep Roy is indeed a master of the malevolent stare. I thought they did a pretty good job of casting the kids in this episode as I found the scenes, especially between the two of them very believable. I was also glad to see Bill Dow back as Chuck, especially for that second scene with Scully. Nicely played by the both of them. On the effects side I thought the red eye thing looked a bit too hokey and obviously CGI. Thankfully they did much better with the bulging stomach effect, but to be honest I found that bloody handprint/body drag trail much more horrific, even if it did come after a gun dropping incident that would have made Mulder proud.
Sure there were things I had problems with. I liked the episode, I didn't love it. The problems are rather typical of The X-Files these days. You know, the whole plot not making much sense thing. Sure writer John Shiban squeaks by a little easier than some in this department as he tells us through Scully that it isn't supposed to make sense because we're not Mulder. Perhaps he thought the whole confusion the audience feels was supposed to me an example of what Scully was feeling, but I'm not going to let him off that easy. While they hint around using a thinly disguised reference to the Union Carbide Bhopal tragedy, no connection was ever really made as to why our little munchkin monster was after these particular people. Did he have scooter envy once he got to the U.S. and saw how the kids got around? How did the fanny fakir get around when he wasn't inside someone? Did he squeak that little cart all the way from downtown DC to the suburbs? Paddle that little cart as fast as it would go to follow a car to the boy's home? Was he surfing that thing down the stairs throughout the episode because he sure was managing stairs fast for a guy on a ragged old cart. Was it hard for him to find that cart again when he had to drag his bloody self all the way from the morgue without it? How come the kids could see him intermittently? Since he only appeared to be able to control what people saw (since they could still hear the squeaks) why the heck couldn't people smell the little dude since he clearly had personal hygiene issues not to mention his form of travel? Did no one find it the least bit odd that the dad looked more pregnant than Scully? They just draped a sheet over that huge protruding belly at the morgue and called it a day until Scully could come in and buck the system to do the "unauthorized procedure" also known as the butt genie C-section? Why did the "janitor" escape from custody and head back to the supply closet to grab that rag off the shelf except for the writer to have some lame excuse to get him where the kid needed him to drop the lye bottle? Did the butt genie just really really like that rag? He had to have it because it comforted him sort of like Linus' blanket? Surely he could have used his time better. My guess is there was no reason. Why time and again simple motivational and plot questions like this have to remain unanswered is beyond me. It just doesn't seem like it would be that hard to spend a little more time filling up silly plot holes to put a polish on the writing of an episode. Thank God there was something interesting to watch character-wise this week.
So, obviously I had some problems with "Badlaa," but in a season where lately the characters lacked character it was a welcome relief to be able to enjoy that aspect of The X-Files again.
-I sure hope that Mr. Potocki flew firstt class wherever he went, because that butt was not fitting in a coach seat even before someone bummed a ride.
-There was something inherently amusing in seeing Scully barely visible yet intently working on that huge mass of Mr. Potocki.
-Prop SNAFU #1: Someone in the props deppartment needs to learn the difference between CAT scans and MRIs, because that was not an MRI that Scully was looking at.
-I always hate it when a character says something that everyone on screen already knows just so the audience can also know. Case in point: Scully defining "mule" in dictionary like fashion for Doggett who obviously already knows the definition since he made the inference.
-Prop SNAFU #2: You'd think if the propss folks are going to go to all the trouble to mock up a paper for a closeup they'd drop in more than a paragraph. The Vishi disaster article Scully points to does indeed say in the first paragraph what she was referring to. However, it then goes into a discussion of an arrest that the Attorney General is involved in and that has nothing to do with the proceeding information.
-Frank's Fashion Spot: I guess we couldnn't have those turtlenecks forever. Not a whole lot of excitement on the fashion front this week when a video of Chuck is the most interesting thing. Scully was back to wearing that one blue shirt she owns with very few buttons and the oversized coat. Yawn.
-Since when does Scully need to remove hher firearm in order to simply don a smock over street clothes? Since they needed her to be conveniently without her gun, that's when.
-I thought that was one of the creepier autopsy scenes we've seen Scully do. You knew it had to be bad from the way she had to oh so meaningfully gird herself when she walked in the door. That little bloody hand shooting out was quite the toy surprise.
-In the it's the little things that counnt department check out the look Scully gives Doggett for checking his watch when they are talking to Chuck.
-Scully certainly does have the patiencee of a Saint if she actually spent four hours interrogating someone who did not speak. That had to have been a fun exercise in frustration. Heck, he probably wasn't even there for most of it.
-Trivia for the bored: The Mumbai airporrt is actually called Chhatrapati Shivaji Int'l Airport, they changed the name a while ago from Sahaar that was used in the episode.
-Manly Man Meter: Well, this week 1013 ttakes pains to remind us that Doggett was a marine at the age of nineteen. And as we know they only take the few and the proud not just anyone. They're not just looking for a few good men. They're looking for a few proud young men. Somehow, I do find it hard to find a person manly when he says "dollars to doughnuts" though. That sounds like something my grandma would say. And lastly since Scully hands Doggett her gun as she leaves the room and next time we see him he is no longer holding it, can we assume that he has a gun in his pocket and is happy to see us? That gives us an 8 to ballster this week's rating.
- I would be remiss if I did not point oout how completely and utterly stupid that tag on ending was. Then again they pretty much without fail are. Talk about something that has become X-Files clich?. Instead of taking the opportunity to end the episode with an emotional resonance we are supposed to think "oh no! Two weeks have passed and that evil butt genie somehow got all the way back to India to give more Americans dirty looks! The horror!" Frankly, besides making zero sense it totally fizzled the episode's end. Why not just show our little friend singing "Baby Got Back": "I like big butts and I cannot lie"? That would have made about as much sense.
Autumn
"Are you questioning my integrity?"