The X-Files
I feel like "The X-Files" are known for a few things. And two of those things are clumsily telling stories that focus on other cultures/races and interesting serial killers. And with this post we get both of those things. Let's get to it.
"Teliko"
Fox Mulder: "We only arrested him because he ran when we tried to question him and I want to know why he ran."
Marcus Duff: "Sir, if you had ever been beaten by the police, or had your home burned to the ground for no other reason than being born, then, maybe, you would understand why he ran, and why you would run too."
Fox Mulder: "That man ran because he's hiding something. And no amount of tests you run on him, no science is gonna find that. Excuse me."
Dana Scully: "Where are you going?"
Fox Mulder: "To find someone who I know who plotted to deceive, inveigle and obfuscate."
Notable Guest Star: Carl Lumbly as Marcus Duff
Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW
X-File of the Week: On an international flight, an African diplomat is attacked in the bathroom by a mysterious assailant. His body is found drained of all pigmentation. Three months later, Assistant Director Walter Skinner tells Dana Scully that four men in Philadelphia have been found the same way but the CDC believes these aren't kidnappings but victims of a mysterious pathogen. Agent Scully's partner, Fox Mulder isn't convinced.
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| Laying down on the job. |
This episode is kind of inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. It's not one that most X-Philes would remember right away unless you mentioned the phrase "deceive, inveigle and obfuscate." That is a phrase that is burned in to the memories of most fans of the show. It's clear that episode writer Howard Gordon is really proud of this, because it is said so many times throughout the episode. They even replace "The Truth Is Out There" at the end of the opening credits with "Deceive Inveigle Obfuscate." I get it. It's clever. You don't see those words put together that often. But, did we need to hear it like four times within the episode. Also, wouldn't it have made more sense to have it said during like a mythology episode instead of this random, extremely mid, monster-of-the-week one?
I've said it before and I'll say it again, but "The X-Files" really falter when they try to tell stories about other cultures. I'm sure the writers do research on these cultures and the myths that they are trying to incorporate into the mythology of the show. But, if you're not a part of that culture than these stories are going to falter and they are going to come off as minorly to extremely problematic.
The episode treats the African experience as "other" while the regular American culture is normal. The African folklore representing this big boogeyman. But it feels squishy to me. The robbing of the pigmentation. The white face make up on the African American actors. The ominous sounding African tribal music. Then there is Mulder's off putting Michael Jackson "joke." The African American cop scoffing at how weird the name "Aboah" is. I just don't think that the episode gives off the vibe that the Gordon was looking for.
I think there are some elements of this portion of the episode that work and are still impactful almost twenty seven years later. The scene with Mulder, Scully and Marcus Duff that I quoted at the beginning of this recap. Duff really calls out Mulder for his white privilege which wasn't something that was done back then. You couple that with the mentioning of police violence against people of color and I just wish there was more of that in the episode. I think it would have made it more impactful overall.
I do think that the climax of this episode with Mulder, Scully and Aboah in the abandoned construction site is tense, but it is extremely reminiscent of the season one episode "Squeeze." Aboah is giving big Eugene Victor Tooms energy. Him squeezed in to the drain pipe that Mulder and Scully find him in or him hiding in the small drawer in the food cart at the hospital are cool images, but they are dulled because we've seen this before. This climax, for how intense it is, just feels like the climaxes of "Squeeze" and "Tooms" mashed together. I do love that Mulder is incapacitated and that Scully is the big hero. Going after Mulder in the drain pipe, taking out Aboah. We love seeing Scully as the hero.
Overall though, this episode is just not great. It feels like a mishmash of other episodes and the cultural components don't hit the way that they intended for them too. But hey, we'll always have "deceive, inveigle, obfuscate."
Grade: C-
"Unruhe"
[last lines]
Dana Scully: [voiceover, typing addendum to her case report] "For truly to pursue monsters, we must understand them. We must venture into their minds. Only in doing so, do we risk letting them venture into ours?"
Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW
X-File of the Week: In Traverse City, Michigan, a woman named Mary Louise Lefante is kidnapped and her boyfriend is murdered in their car when she goes to get her passport photo taken. This case catches the attention of special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully because the woman's passport show's her screaming in a distorted background. Things take a turn when Lefante is found wandering the highway, the victim of a botched icepick lobotomy and a new woman is abducted.
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| Agents deep in conversation. |
Vince Gilligan really proved that he knows how to write a stand out "X-Files" episode with season three's "Pusher," but it is in season four where he really stakes his claim as one of the most prolific writers in the show's history. Where Gilligan really excels is these more procedural episodes that mix with a supernatural element. "Pusher" had the antagonist using his mind to control others actions and in "Unruhe" we get psychic photography.
"The X-Files" is a show that is pretty well known for some pretty indelible images that stick with you and you remember for a long time after you've watched the episodes. When I think of "The X-Files" things that kind of immediately come to my mind are the Flukeman, the black oil, the inbred family from "Home" and also that picture of Scully screaming from this episode. It's a really cool conceit and it is very simple which makes it even scarier when you really stop to think about it.
I think as the series progresses Scully's attempts to explain the unexplainable with logic become more and more laughable. Here she spins this story to Mulder about how the picture could have looked this way because of outdated film and then the film being exposed to a heater that was under the shelf. Mulder looks pretty non plussed at this explanation and Scully has the good sense to be chagrined when he calls her on it. I like that the show plays this as Scully knowing that she's kind of going out on a limb here with all that.
The concept of psychic photography is cool. It's basically when someone takes a picture and the picture shows you what is in the photographer's mind. Mulder mentions Ted Serios when he is talking about psychic photography with Scully who was a real person who wrote a book about his experiences with the phenomenon. I really dig when the show weaves in these real people who claimed to be purveyors of this kind of phenomena more so when they try to weave in real life historical events. Mulder fails to mention that professional photographers and skeptics investigated Serios's claims and found that he was employing pretty simple of sleight of hand to create these images. It's very Mulder to leave this out, but you can't ignore that the same images showing up on pictures taken with a camera found at Lefante's home aren't extremely compelling.
The show creates a classic antagonist in Gerry Schnauz. I love how Scully meets him when he is on stilts and their chase through the under construction house is neat and clever. Definitely something we haven't seen on the show up to this point. Schnauz is definitely someone that you have empathy for. He lived in a home with an abusive father who drove his sister to suicide. Gerry beat his father almost to death with an axe handle causing him to be institutionalized. After he got out, he took care of his dad until he died as a sort of penance, which is extremely fucked up when you think about it.
Gerry calls the creatures in the backgrounds of the photos "howlers" and they seem to be creatures that he has made up to explain the awful actions of people including his father. And he's lobotomizing these women in an attempt to "save" them from the howlers. He ends up kidnapping Scully after escaping police custody and the interactions between Gerry and Scully when he has her are great. It does seem like she's kind of getting through to him and the reveal of the pictures he took of himself showing his death at Mulder's hands are great. You don't see it coming.
I will say that I don't love that this episode has Scully getting kidnapped yet again. It's tired at this point and really undermines her. Just because she's a woman doesn't mean she needs to be consistently be this damsel or the psychotic focus of these crazies that the agents come up against. It does lead to some pretty solid face acting from Anderson at the end of the episode and doesn't really drag down the quality of the episode overall so I won't ding it too hard. But I'm pretty over it at this point.
Grade: A-
Next up, it's three episodes! Mulder thinks he's met someone he loved in a past life while investigating a David Koresh style cult, freaky things are happening at a hospital's plastic surgery ward and we get the possibly, totally legit backstory of the Cigarette Smoking Man.
What do you all think? Are there things about "Teliko" I'm overlooking? Does that photo of Scully stick with you? Let me know in the comments.
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