The X-Files
Vince Gilligan returns to write a classic crime story with an "X-Files" twist and then the show explores another culture which.... does happen some time. Let's get to it.
"Paper Hearts"
Fox Mulder: "Scully, do you believe that my sister Samantha was abducted by aliens? Have you ever believed that? No. So what do you think happened to her?"
Dana Scully: "What are you saying you believe now?"
Fox Mulder: "I don't know. I don't know what happened. I don't know what to believe. I just know that I have to find out now."
Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW
X-File of the Week: A seemingly prophetic dream leads Special Agent Fox Mulder to the gravesite of a dead girl. The girl is a victim of serial killer John Lee Roche who murdered thirteen girls throughout the 1980's. Mulder was instrumental in bringing Roche to justice. Roche would cut out a heart from the nightgown of each of his victims and those "paper hearts" were never found. Joining with his partner, Special Agent Dana Scully, they find the hearts and learn there are two additional victims and one could be Mulder's sister, Samantha.
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| Do you have more of these to do? |
I think it's sometimes easy for fans of "The X-Files" to forget that at its core the show is a procedural. One with supernatural elements for sure, but a procedural nevertheless. Heck, the show can forget it sometimes, too. It feels like writer Vince Gilligan always keeps that in mind and he will lean on these procedural elements, but it always feels fresh and it always feels like "The X-Files" and this episode is no exception. Gilligan brings moments that we don't always see in "X-Files" episodes and makes those moments really feel. I think particularly about the scene where the agents notify the father of Addie Sparks that they have found her remains. This is not something that we usually see on this show and it is extremely impactful and it is one of the scenes that stays with you long after you've watched it.
The episode doesn't forget what viewers are looking for. There is still that supernatural element. Mulder is drawn to the location of Addie Sparks's body due to a seemingly prophetic dream he has and I really love the visual elements of that sequence. The laser pointer spelling out clues is a really interesting visual cue. It's not something that I have really seen before. The idea of Mulder's subconscious being working on this case in the background of his mind this whole time is extremely "X-Files."
The potential abduction of Samantha Mulder by aliens is a huge part of the show's mythology. It's the defining event of Fox Mulder's life. It set him on the path that he is on right now. With all that being said, it can sometimes be difficult to take this plot point seriously. The show trots out Samantha a lot during the mythology to inject drama into an episode. Usually it's Samantha is a clone. Here she is as an adult. Here she is as a child with alien bees. This episode posits a much more likely explanation. What if Samantha was abducted by a serial killer and Mulder created this alien abduction scenario in his mind to cope with the fact that he couldn't help her. It really recontextualizes the Samantha abduction and instead of making it silly makes it extremely sad and more real. We all know that Samantha isn't going to turn out to be one of Roche's unidentified victims, but it doesn't make it any less heart wrenching.
I spend a lot of these reviews praising Gillian Anderson (which is totally deserved), but I feel like I don't always give David Duchovny his flowers. I have to give it up for him in this episode. He really shines. Sometimes he takes Mulder in to a more manic place, but in this episode, he plays everything just right. You can tell that each time he meets with Roche he's walking a razor thin wire and is barely keeping it together. There are so many great moments here. I love the scene when Mulder is searching his parents basement for the vacuum cleaner that Roche claims that he sold to the Mulder's. The way that Mulder handles his mother and his initial relief when he believes that Roche is lying but then the panic when Teena says that the vacuum is actually under the stairs. Sometimes it can feel like Mulder is too gullible and we get that here. It's clear that Roche is playing with Mulder and you groan a bit when Mulder has him released from prison temporarily, but its nice to know that Mulder is in control even if Roche does escape.
Tom Noonan is a great as John Lee Roche. It's really difficult to play characters like this. He has this childlike menace and I can't imagine watching any of his scenes without a look of disgust on your face. Roche has zero remorse for what he's done and that is always chilling to see and it's always impressive to me when an actor is able to convey that. I'm always curious where they go in themselves to bring that out.
Once Roche escapes and ends up kidnapping the girl off the plane, it does kind of feel like Gilligan was like "oh crap, we need to have some sort of action" so he interjected it. It does feel a bit tacked on and does kind of screw up the pacing of the episode. It is extremely methodical throughout but that last like ten minutes feels extremely frantic. But, it doesn't detract from what is a really great season four episode and a great episode of the show, in general.
Grade: A-
"El Mundo Gira"
Fox Mulder: "Then a hot, yellow rain fell from a cloudless sky. Fortean researchers call these liquid falls. Black and red rains are the most common, but there have also been reported cases of blue, purple and green rains."
Dana Scully: "Purple rain?"
Fox Mulder: "Yeah. Great album. Deeply flawed movie, though."
Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW
X-File of the Week: At a migrant worker camp near Fresno, California, there is a flash of light, followed by yellow rain. This results in the death of Maria Dorantes. She is found with a fungus surrounding her eyes and lips. The local migrants believe that she was killed by Eladio Buente who is actually El Chupacabra. Special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully investigate due to Mulder initially believing the flash of light and yellow rain was caused by a Fortean event. But soon they are pursuing Eladio as he infects people with a killer fast growing fungus.
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| What the actual fuck? |
"Paper Hearts" is a really great episode and then they follow it up with this. "The X-Files" has a shaky relationship when it comes to telling stories that involve other cultures and they continue that tradition with "El Mundo Gira."
I think that the biggest problem with this episode is that it is so reminiscent of other "X-Files" episodes. The main plot points of this episode call to mind season three's "Hell Money." You have the boogeymen from another culture. In "Hell Money" it was the masked men and in "El Mundo Gira" it is El Chupacabra. There is the law enforcement officer that is straddling the line between two worlds. In "Hell Money," it is B.D. Wong's Detective Chao and in "El Mundo Gira" it is the INS agent Conrad Lozano. Both Chao and Lozano ending up dying because no matter what they say they can't leave their culture behind even if they are initially talking about how it is all just superstitious nonsense.
One of the coolest things in "El Muno Gira" is probably the fungal effects that are used throughout when Eladio kills someone. It is kind of giving a precursor to "The Last of Us." It is a really cool, grisly visual, which the show is known for. But again, they scenes of the construction foreman in the port a potty or the person on the floor of the convenience store feels really reminiscent of the deaths in the first season episode "Darkness Falls." The show can also have practical effects that vary wildly in quality from one episode to the next and sometimes in the same episode. While the fungal effects look great, I'm not sure what is going on with the prosthetics used for the brothers when they fully transform at the end of the episode. It's giving full on rubber mask.
The last ten minutes of the episode are a wild ride. It's all over the place. We are getting the story from two different perspectives There is Flakita who is telling the story and is still pushing the El Chupacabra angle and then there is Gabrielle who is claiming to tell the real the story. The shifts back and forth are really jarring and disorienting and not in a good way. It really goes off the rails there at the end and it reminds me of "Tesos Dos Bichos" which is not an "X-Files" episode that you want to be thinking about.
It feels like the episode is trying to send a message about the plight of undocumented people in the United States. How they are invisible and that is part of the reason that Eladio Buente is so difficult to track even though he is leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake. I think that this is definitely an important message and still one that resonates today, which is extremely sad, but it gets completely lost here. It feels tacked on and loses all impact when it is jumbled up along with all this ridiculousness.
The bottom line is that they can't all be winners and this is an episode that you can say you've watched after it's finished.
Grade: D+
Next up, the agents track an EMT who is eating cancerous cells and Scully meets a man who has a murderous tattoo.
What did you all think? Did "Paper Hearts" make you care more about Samantha Mulder? Do you like when the show leans more into the procedural elements? Are you an "El Mundo Gira" apologist? Let me know in the comments.
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