The X-Files
Deadpool himself does a pop up in one of the episodes we are covering in this post. What a treat! Let's get right to it.
"Syzygy"
Dana Scully: "This has gone on far enough."
Fox Mulder: "What?"
Dana Scully: "I am not going to be humiliated by you, in front of you, or by having to bring a teenage girl on her birthday of all days to identify the bones of her dead dog, Mr. Tippy. I see no reason to pursue this case any further, and not only that, I find your conduct and your comportment in this case not just alarming, but highly objectionable."
Notable Guest Star(s): Ryan Reynolds as Jay "Boom" DeBoom and Lisa Robin Kelly as Terri Roberts
Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW
X-File of the Week: In Comity, New Hampshire, high school students are being killed, and the townspeople are convinced that it is the work of a satanic cult. These fires are fanned by two blonde seniors, Margi Kleinman & Terri Roberts. Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully come to town to investigate but are at each other's throats. Could all this be happening because of a rare planetary alignment?
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| Agents fighting. |
It's great when people who are uber famous now pop up on "The X-Files." We've had Jack Black and Giovanni Ribisi just this season. And in this episode, we get Ryan Reynolds. Each time I watch this episode and it basically opens on him, I can't believe that is Ryan Reynolds. He was 20 years old at the time. He's just a fresh faced baby. It makes sense that a young Ryan would show up because the show was being filmed in Canada at the time and he is Canadian. Reynolds plays Jay "Boom" DeBoom who thinks that things are initially going his way. A friend of his may have just been killed by satanists, but he's maybe going to have a three way. But then he ends up getting hanged and his corpse catches on fire at his funeral. He may not have much screen time, but his guest stint is memorable.
Mulder and Scully are at their most unlikeable in this episode. Their very worst characteristics are dialed up to eleven. Scully is her most know-it-all and rigid in this episode. She is combative with Detective Angela White. Scully talks down to her. She says, "Yeah. Fine. Whatever" so much that you'd think that was her new catchphrase. She comes off as jealous of Mulder's relationship with Detective White. Mulder is no better. He refuses to have Scully's back. The things that Scully is talking about when it comes to Satanic cults are on point. They are the facts. These girls are saying that they saw an infant sacrificed and there is a mass grave, but there is no reports of missing infants or mass graves. Her delivery is awful but she's not wrong, but Mulder won't give her an inch. And are we supposed to believe that only White and Mulder were seeing the horned beast burned into Boom's chest? Because Madame Zirinka doesn't see it either.
According to Chris Carter, who wrote this episode, this was apparently a direct response to fans who were complaining at the time. They complained that Scully never drove, hence the back and forth about who gets to drive. And apparently the agents nasty attitudes were supposed to show fans that Mulder and Scully were never going to be a romantic couple. And we see how long that lasted. I hate when show creators do stuff like this. It feels weirdly disrespectful to the fans who are watching your show and really unnecessary. It just makes Chris Carter look like an asshole.
The plot of the episode is kind of cool. I like this idea of a satanic cult and how it drives the townspeople into a frenzy where they are like going after people like angry villagers in an old time horror movie. Margi and Terri are great. They are like if Romy and Michelle went bad. The actresses do a great job of being both sickeningly sweet and horribly evil mean girls. The reasoning behind all this is a little convoluted though. A random planetary alignment happening and the girls being born at the same time on the same day. It just feels like too much and the more it gets explained the more ridiculous it seems.
There are some comedic moments in this episode that I really enjoyed. The highlight is probably when Terri and Margi are at odds in the police station and are causing all the firearms in the building to go off at the same time, all the while the Keystone Kops theme is playing. It made me laugh out loud, though after that the episode kind of piddles out. After midnight, it looks like the girls powers fizzle out and everything goes back to normal. Mulder and Scully blow out of town. And that's... it.
Grade: B-
"Grotesque"
Walter Skinner: [regarding Mulder's erratic behavior] "Are you worried about him, Agent Scully?"
Dana Scully: "No, sir."
Walter Skinner: "Off the record."
[pause]
Walter Skinner: "So am I."
Notable Guest Star: Kurtwood Smith as Agent Bill Patterson
Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW
X-File of the Week: John Mostow is arrested for the killing of seven men across three years. Things take a turn when another man is killed after he is in custody, his face being mutilated in the same way that Mostow mutilated his victims. This isn't common knowledge so AD Skinner assigns Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully to investigate. Mulder and Agent Patterson clash as Mulder gets deeper and deeper into the case and the mind of this copy cat. Maybe too deep.
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| We're worried. |
I love episodes like this one. I love when the show really leans in to the procedural element. There is a horror element in this episode and I think focusing on gargoyles is a really great idea. Gargoyles are inherently creepy. They are meant to keep evil spirits away which is why they are so weird and disgusting but oddly beautiful. I'm not usually a huge fan of when shows just sort of vomit information at you, but I will say, I did really enjoy when Mulder was researching in the library and narrating for the audience. I honestly think that I learned most of what I know about gargoyles from watching this episode as a kid, so it's not always the worst thing.
Kurtwood Smith of "That '70's Show" fame guest stars as Agent Patterson and he's great. He makes an amazing foil for David Duchovny. I love seeing the fallout from Mulder kind of losing his status as golden boy of the behavioral sciences division of the Bureau. Mulder should be a star in the FBI, but because of his crusade to bring the truth about extraterrestrials to light he has become a pariah. There is an extra layer here because Mulder wasn't one to get on his knees for Patterson unlike the others that really idolized him. The reveal that Patterson actually requested Mulder on the case because he trusted his instincts and thought that Mulder could solve the case is great.
David Duchovny kills it here. Duchovny plays Mulder a lot as really sassy and snarky and funny. He can be really intense but that intensity a lot of the times comes off as like growling and shouting. Here Mulder's intensity is a lot softer and it's great to see him sort of turn in on himself and kind of shut everyone else out. Seeing him cutting himself off from Scully, in particular, really makes you nervous. We don't really see Mulder profile and I loved watching him sleeping in Mostow's apartment, making clay sculptures, papering his own apartment with pictures of gargoyles. It's scary and knowing how it all ended up for Patterson makes it even scarier because you know that Mulder is right on the edge. He's seeing a man that looks like a gargoyle. He's taking evidence and not remembering. It's disconcerting.
There are some great visual moments in this episode. I really like how dark everything is. You expect something to pop out of the shadows at any moment. It's creepy and scary. The reveal of the dead bodies in the gargoyle sculptures is one of my favorite "X-Files" reveals. This episode is directed by Kim Manners who has directed so many "X-Files" episodes and you can see why. He just knows exactly what he is doing. The episode hits the way it needs to because of Manners stellar direction.
If I have a gripe about this episode, it's that Scully is kind of shuffled to the side. It makes sense because this is a very Mulder focused episode, but I kind of wished they had found a way to weave her into it a little more instead of always being at the periphery. And it was kind of obvious that Patterson was the copycat killer. Minor gripes overall for a pretty great episode.
Grade: B+
Next up, we are back to the mythology with some black oil and we are not talking Texas tea.
What do you all think? Do you love these episodes? Are they just OK? Let me know in the comments.
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