The Beginning
Episode 6X01
Nov. 8, 1998

I always say that I never find X-Files season premieres among my favorite episodes. They have so much to wrap up, so many cliffhangers to resolve (usually someone's dead, or at the very least dying; we were granted an exception to this because of the movie, I suppose), so much Action-Packed Suspense (or is it Suspense-Packed Action) to work in that it never all seems to fit in the allotted 45 minutes (and I DON'T mean that in a good way).

"The Beginning" was no exception. I felt almost as if they should just have paraded all the relevant participants in front of us with the appropriate epithet attached, a la Gilligan's Island: "The ex-girlfriend...the genius kid...the Smoking Man...his son...mean aliens...and D-N-A..." All the required elements - carry-overs from "The End" and Fight the Future, the requisite action scenes, the M/S crisis of faith - were present, all right. But the story as a whole left a bit to be desired, and it had to be stretched noticeably to fit all of those elements in - sometimes enough that the seams were clearly visible.

Let me start off with what is always, but especially this time, the center of the episode for me: the Mulder/Scully dynamic. Throughout the episode they engaged in their usual "Scully, why can't you believe"/"Mulder, there's no evidence" dance. They have worn holes in the carpet with that one by now, but it's what they do, and when it's honest I don't mind it.

My problem was that, in this episode, the arguing wasn't honest. When the series began, Mulder and Scully, those young, naive whippersnappers, could debate til the cows came home about whether aliens were real, whether science was the answer to everything, etc. But now, we've seen the aliens. I have an action figure of one sitting on my bookshelf. This is all well and good - the mythology has to move forward. But what the writers sometimes seem to fail to understand is that the Mulder/Scully relationship also has to move forward. They simply can't keep putting them back at square one.

Scully's having come away from her wide screen summer adventure without having seen a blessed thing has become such a contrived and worn-out plot device that I can't ascribe it to the characters anymore. Sure, it's possible that she could have gone through five years as an X-Files investigator without EVER seeing ANY evidence of aliens, while Mulder gets up close and personal with them nearly every week. Possible, yes. Believable, no. It's a situation more worthy of Three's Company than The X-Files. Mulder is frustrated with her for the same reason many of us are frustrated - it seems ridiculous that she has seen nothing. His "bite you on the ass" comment is evidence of this. But we have, then, the characters being written on two levels - one aware of the implausibility of Scully's not having seen the aliens, and reacting accordingly; and one not aware of it, and reacting accordingly. Scully, fully in the story as presented, is written as seeing nothing unusual in the fact that she hasn't seen anything. Mulder, though, is halfway out of the story - he is allowed to see that it's a stretch. It would be like someone walking into the Daily Planet newsroom and saying, "Give me a break, guys, Clark looks exactly like Superman, except for the glasses. When I put on my glasses you still recognize me, right? What, does he have to put on his cape and bite you on the ass?" <SNORT>

No wonder they can't have a conversation. Much of the time they seemed to be talking in separate monologues: Scully says the evidence doesn't support his theories; Mulder reiterates that he saw aliens. They're not contradicting each other here. He saw it; she didn't, and the evidence supports her version. That doesn't mean she's right and he's wrong, and she never says that. It means what it means, that the evidence doesn't support it. If Scully would just say, "Look, Mulder, I'm not saying I don't believe you, I'm just trying to find proof," and Mulder would just say, "Look, Scully, I'm not saying I don't accept your evidence, I'm just saying it doesn't jibe with what I saw," then the conflict would be over. "There's no argument here," Mulder says, and he's right. Yet they continue to argue anyway. They're like two kids bickering about who gets to toast the last marshmallow while the house is burning down around them.

This is a problem The X-Files has had ever since Scully came over the rise a second too late in the pilot. It's something I can usually ignore in the interests of sustaining the drama. But we're coming to a point where it no longer works. It's not interesting to watch them debate whether aliens are real, because we know they're real. And guess what - it's not necessary. The fundamental conflict of the series has always been, not "aliens" versus "no aliens," but intuition versus empiricism. I would love to see them get beyond the whole question of whether there are aliens (the ending seems to set up for this anyway, with the revelation that the "alien" DNA is found in all of us, but I'll believe it when I see it) and move on to doing what they do best: investigating dark forces, side by side; using different methods to get there but arriving together all the same. It's their differing temperaments and ways of dealing with the unknown that provide the dramatic tension, not the literal aliens themselves. Or that's how I feel anyway.

I really thought the movie was setting up for this - a new "beginning" wherein Mulder and Scully have evolved to a new level of awareness and begun to "fight the future" of the threat against mankind - and I was disappointed to see them back in the same old rut. Not only has Scully seen nothing, but Mulder takes off with Diana - she's a "believer" so it's OK for her to be in the "people who see aliens" club without it upsetting the dynamic - and Scully once again is left knowing nothing. I'm not even blaming Mulder for this - I'm blaming the writers. Mulder ditches Scully because if he didn't, she would see paranormal stuff. It's now an "alien" show (as opposed to being a show about the possibility of aliens), so Scully can never see anything or be right about anything. This is why we need to MOVE BEYOND that. The conflict can still be based on Mulder's intuitive leaps versus Scully's need for proof. The plot device of Scully's non belief in aliens is not only wearying, it's unnecessary. As an actor we all know once said, "It's crap to me, and it makes for bad drama." I know the writers are afraid to mess with their successful formula. But they're going to have to make a choice between that and cutting Scully out of the mytharc entirely.

Whew. And I thought this was going to be a SHORT review!

Now, IF we accept the characters as written, i.e. that Scully saw nothing, I see nothing wrong with the majority of her actions in this episode. She trusts Mulder, but she can't confirm what he says, and when she actively tries to corroborate his version by running the tests, she comes up with nothing. Mulder tells Skinner that "I don't have that proof just yet," but he dismisses Scully's science as "wrong" when it doesn't produce the proof that he wishes it would. Normally he doesn't care about proof, but this time he needs it, and when Scully can't give it to him, he blames it on her and on the science. Later, she's worried about Diana's motives, and though her feelings are undoubtedly colored by jealousy, she also has no reason to trust this person.

I also think that Mulder - understandably - equates Scully with science, and when "her science" doesn't agree with him, he feels rejected by her. He cares about her and desperately wants her to know what he knows. It doesn't help that Scully's world view prevents her from being able to accept anything until it's proven. This is not to say that she doesn't believe Mulder - she does, or at least she believes in him. She is able to separate what he says he saw from him as a person, while he seems to have some trouble with that in this episode. But she is still stuck in one spot, trying to force what's happened through the wringer of science before she can say she accepts it as the truth, while he's moved beyond it and is frustrated that she can't take that leap with him (while at the same time being frustrated that her science isn't providing him with what he needs). (It's my opinion that Scully's issues with authority figures also apply to her stringent beliefs in science, and to a lesser degree religion - she needs something or someone to have the final word of approval on everything. It restricts her, but protects her as well; it orders her world. A leap of faith of this sort for her would be akin to admitting that the world has no order. While Mulder makes that leap fearlessly, Scully cannot.)

All righty then. Let's move on to the rest of the episode. I'll make it fast. The opening shot of the sun was mildly adorable; as this episode was largely set in Arizona, I'll reserve judgment until future episodes on whether I like the L.A. look or not. The L.A. actors, on the other hand, I can probably do without - though I like Wendie Malick (who I'll forever think of as Martin Tupper's sweetly neurotic ex-wife Judith on Dream On, not as a dippy model on a dippier sitcom), she brought me right out of the moment, and I expect Michael McKean, Ed Asner, and other upcoming semi-celebrity guest stars to do the same. If they try really hard maybe they can turn the show into something like the Batman franchise: a playground for celebrities who eventually crush it under the weight of their collective blinding hipness. I LIKED dumpy Vancouver unknowns as guest stars; that extra realism was one of the things that drew me to the show initially. I have to say, though, that I was extremely tickled by the palm tree plant in Spender's office (as well as the Clinton and Reno pictures on the wall - could he BE any more of a little suck-up?).

Fowley, somewhat to my surprise, is intriguing me a little bit. As "Mulder's chickadee" who did everything the exact opposite of Scully she was about as original as a peanut butter sandwich, but now that they've toned down the whole love interest/cattiness angle (please don't let her turn out to be the "Mulder Wife"; please, PLEASE don't ever revisit that unfortunate continuity blip ever again) and repainted her as someone who believes in the paranormal maybe even more ruthlessly than Mulder, it's kind of fun to guess whether she's good or bad or just annoying. Mind you, if she got bitten on the ass by a smallpox-carrying bee I wouldn't shed a tear for her.

Spender, of course, is as dull and unworthy of film as ever. I spaced out while he and Pop were spouting the usual "Hey, better not kill Mulder, he's contracted for two more seasons" stuff. I think he should just stand in the hall at the FBI and demand to see everyone's pass. (On a side note, I never anticipated Spender and Fowley getting Mulder's actual office - I guess I was thinking it was totaled. Maybe I was confusing fantasy with reality, as I also had to keep reminding myself that Mulder and Scully were staying in Washington, not moving to L.A.)

No, I didn't dislike the whole episode. Gibson, for one, delighted me. While last year I wasn't crazy about his line delivery - it sounded like line delivery - this time I sort of got used to it and thought he sounded as if maybe he was just thinking a little harder than most people - or speaking carefully to be heard over the voices in his own head. (This is the only place where we disagree- I loved Gibson in The End.) And it's always refreshing to have him around to cut through the crap: "You think they were butchers," "I'm a very special lab rat." Jeff Gulka did a nice job of holding his own with the adult actors. Gillian Anderson in particular had a nice rapport with him - I liked the way she gently rumpled the front of his shirt in the hotel. I hope he doesn't disappear entirely - I'd like to see him back. Even if he does look like a child Frohike.

What else did I like? I liked Mulder's navy blue shirt and his hair. I liked Scully's hair too. I liked the doctor's light shining on CSM's smoke. I liked Mulder wiping the alien goo on the wall - actually, I laughed at that; does he wipe his nose on his sleeve too? <joke> I liked the idea that the aliens are us. And I liked the shake-ups - Mulder and Scully losing the X-Files could be a very good thing. It should break up the rhythm, at least, and I like seeing them as outsiders.

Maybe external shake-ups are a good thing too. I wasn't expecting this episode to be one of my favorites, and it wasn't, but I'm looking forward to the rest of this season, and I'm hoping that with the move and with the burden of the film out of the way, creativity will abound. Change can be very positive, and just because the show is very different from how it was when it started doesn't have to mean that it loses quality. I don't think it has - really - and I'm strapped in for another season.

Cathy B.

My Mad Musings...

I see four possible reasons for Fowley's actions.

Drive
Episode 6X02
November 15, 1998

Vince, I'll never doubt you again.

I have to admit I wasn't particularly looking forward to "Drive," since it didn't look like anything special. Well, it wasn't - what it was, instead, was a good, solid, old-fashioned X-File. It had no aliens, no labyrinthine conspiracies, no deceptive progeny, no faith crises. After last week's tension, Mulder and Scully are back where they belong - together. Not together in the literal sense, as they spend most of the episode far away from each other. But they're on the same page again. And it was enough to make me breathe a sigh of relief. It was just what I needed.

Following from "The Beginning," Mulder and Scully have been reassigned to "domestic terrorism," traveling the country to check out suspicious folks who might or might not be building bombs - a crappy job, but someone's got to do it. As we've come to expect with these two, they don't stick with the mundane very long, instead high-tailing it to Nevada conveniently, another sunny state with a climate resembling California's) to investigate the strange case of Mr. Crump.

Yes, it was - to be kind - an "homage" to Speed. There is even a sly mention of this fact to defuse any complaints. But I found this episode original (mostly) in premise and clever in execution. Vince Gilligan, bless him, almost always manages to provide gratifying character interaction (my number one priority for a good episode) AND an engaging story. There were red herrings (the "quarantine" scare, the biohazard suits, the second death that made it look as if the "disease" was spreading) and moments of revelation that I never saw coming. There was the tricky opening sequence (also known as "World's Spookiest Police Chases" - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, I guess), the surprising ending, and the intriguing coda.

Mulder was very enjoyable to watch in this episode; he was very human as he tried to investigate Crump and what was happening to him, but kept interrupting himself to get - understandably - pissed off at him. His expression as Crump talked about nosebleeds, almost blank but with enough of a flicker of emotion to remind us of his awareness of his and Scully's history with that particular word, was very nicely done. And his relief at getting Scully back on the phone (I guess he would lapse into catatonic schizophrenia, almost anyway, if he had to be without his phone for 10 minutes) was palpable. Oh, and the sunglasses can stay. Very cool.

And Scully, thankfully, was back at full power, doing what she does best: autopsies, investigations, getting Mulder out of trouble. She was a delight the whole way through - taking charge in the autopsy bay, figuring it all out with a deductive leap of her own at the Crumps'; deceiving (barely - and I still don't believe she could have lied that convincingly in "Gethsemane") the Navy guy to get what she needed, and finally waiting at the end with that needle. Yeesh. Though she is initially (pardon me for stating the obvious) skeptical, she quickly gets intrigued in the case, poking around in Vicky Crump's ear with an enthusiasm born of her own intellectual curiosity rather than of a perceived duty. It's not just Mulder's party with Scully being dragged along like a reluctant child - they are a team here, both invested in the case and both driven (sorry) to understand the cause.

One snippet of dialogue in particular really stood out for me as an indication of the M/S unity that was so apparent. The police captain is talking to Scully about why Mulder has evaded the roadblock. "Maybe Agent Mulder steered him away from it," Scully says. "Why would he do that?" asks the captain. "Maybe he knew something that we don't," says Scully. She can't explain why Mulder did what he did, but she trusts him enough to know that he must have had a reason. They may not have their cell phones, but their uncanny communication is in full force.

The episode as a whole, as I said, hung together very well and was successful in drawing us into the story. I truly didn't know what was going to happen and I found the answer to the mystery ultimately satisfying. The whole sequence in the elderly woman's house deserves a special mention - it was tense and atmospheric as Scully & Co., brandishing their GIANT flashlights (I've missed them - those weenie little double-A-battery versions don't cut it), swept the house. The double startle effect of the sudden view of the back of the woman's head - we assume she's dead, thanks to the clever visual reference to Psycho - then the second and almost more terrifying revelation that she is in fact, contrary to expectation, alive, was the creepiest moment in the show for me, and best of all, it served a purpose. I had a big "Eureka!" moment when it was revealed that the old woman was deaf and I realized at least a part of the solution along with Scully. I prefer shows like this - when we are investigating along with Our Heroes - to episodes where the villain is revealed in the teaser or first act and we spend forty-five minutes waiting for Mulder and Scully to catch up.

Another small moment that I liked very much was when Mulder pulled up to the gas station and realized that the gas tank was on the other side of the car. It was a very everyday thing to have happen, one of those "D'oh!" moments in life that we all experience, and its addition just gave the scene that much more of a realistic air. I don't know if it was Gilligan's or Bowman's or both, but I liked it.

About the only thing that rang false for me, and I think I'm probably in the minority here, was Crump. Sorry, Mr. Crump. He was never raised above the level of stereotyped hick for me, which is unusual for a Gilligan show, where guest characters - Pusher, John Lee Roche, Gerry Schnauz - are normally brilliant and memorable. I couldn't blame Mulder for being aggravated with him, I didn't really care that he was in pain, and I kept wondering why Mulder didn't just grab the gun, stop the car, walk off and let his damn head blow up. (Of course I know that Mulder would never really do that, but still I had trouble not wishing that he would.) Maybe if he'd had a little more visible grief for his wife (though I suppose he was a man not used to dropping his bravado) I would have had more sympathy for him. In any case, I had really just started becoming interested in him right at the end, when he asked Mulder to "go a little faster, please...just a little bit faster" with such quiet anxiety just edged with panic and dread. That was enough to make me sorry, when the car pulled up next to Scully and the needle, that he was dead. But I could have used a bit of that interest and sympathy a little earlier in the episode.

And the final scene. I have to say that I think Kersh is definitely a positive addition to the show - precisely because he's so negative. I was absolutely delighted to see Mulder and Scully being grilled about their expenses, yelled at for not following orders, and egged on about quitting instead of being told that the world would stop if they did. I also liked Kersh's "You two obviously relish the role of martyr" line - how true.

I like Skinner very much and look forward to seeing him whenever he's next on, but I really think the decision to add the character of Kersh was a good one. Mulder and Scully needed an adversary, and I'm glad they didn't undo everything that's been done with Skinner's character to have him fill that role. Skinner is too much of a good guy and too close to Mulder and Scully to really lay down the law with them anymore - he likes them and knows all too well the special situation they're in. He's sacrificed for them, shown clearly how much he cares - he even bargained with the devil (maybe) to save Scully's life. He wouldn't be harping on extra rental car mileage or snipping "I don't see you proving that" about the harmful antenna array. Kersh doesn't care about them, which is actually refreshing to see. In fact, he seems to relish taking them down a peg, not letting them get away with an inch more than any other agent. Sometimes it seems that Mulder and Scully get away with the things they get away with only because they're the stars of The X-Files. They're not, of course, the stars of anything at the FBI, and it's fun to see them treated like everybody else for a change. Kersh sees absolutely no reason why he should put up with their shenanigans. I think it's interesting, and I hope for more showdowns between him and the X-Team (hopefully all ending with Scully stomping out of the office muttering almost-swears under her breath).

From beginning to end, "Drive" was quite a ride. It was well written, suspenseful, true to the characters and, best of all, wildly entertaining. (And how often do we get to hear Mulder say "pee" and "doo-doo" in the same episode?) Vince Gilligan is back in style, and Scully and Mulder are back on track.

Cathy B.

My Mad Musings...

Did anyone else notice the cool sound effects Mark Snow put in his music early on (I believe it was while Scully is in quarantine and calls Mulder)? The auditory clue as to what's going on- sounds like a radar 'ping' in the background.

I did not like the fact that Scully took off her helmet. But, in the grand tradition, my SRE is that she was so sure in her abilities to find a disease vector- that when she didn't find any- she just knew that it was ok to remove her helmet. Yes, sir, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

OK- maybe I'm way off base here, but there are two things that made me think that Kersh was NOT a villain. Just a bureaucrat doing his job.

1. His immediate support of Mulder and Scully in the field- by making sure that the Las Vegas Field Office would be ready to assist. This isn't the action of someone who'd want to get rid of our favorite FBI agents.
2. His taunt- "You could always quit." This impressed me as a bit of reverse psychology. Tick them off- so they'll come back into line.

Subject: Sonya's "Triangle"review
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1998
From: "Sonya" <sistersonya@yahoo.com>

Triangle
Episode 6X03
Nov. 22, 1998

Well, Cathy is too stuffed from Thanksgiving to write anything, so until I hear from her you'll have to put up with my thoughts on Triangle.

My Mad Musings...

A tasty repast, just before Thanksgiving! It's episodes like these that remind me how thankful I am for Chris Carter and Company. I had plenty of advance warning as to what to expect (I'm a spoiler slut- I admit it.) but nothing can really prepare you for this roller coaster ride.

This was CC's homage to the Wizard of Oz. The teaser begins with an immediate Oz reference. The name of Mulder's boat is the Lady Garland. While the tag line: Die Warheit ist Irgendwo da Draussen, literally translates into The Truth is out there, Somewhere. Obviously mimicking Somewhere over the rainbow. The Captain's name: Yip Harburg was the name of the lyricist and the torch singer Elmira Gulch was Judy Garland's real name.

How about Frantic!Scully? I for one thought she was horribly out of character, but I loved it none the less. Twelve whole minutes of our Saint rushing, thither and yon, trying to get the help she needs to save Mulder's butt. I may be a shipper- but the Skinner buss had me smiling from ear to ear. Good old Wally didn't seem too nonplused by it either, making me rethink my position on his feelings towards TBO. The fact that the Lone Gunman came to her for help also gave me a nice warm, fuzzy feeling. Who didn't visuallize them driving a VW van? (Additional thoughts- 7/10/99- Since much has been made that this episode was a dream from Mudler's point of view, I thought it interesting that Mulder sees Scully in this light. Could it be that he is projecting his own possible behavior onto Scully? IE. If she were missing- he'd run around like a maniac trying to get help? Something to ponder...)

I like the recycling of actors thoughout. The torch singer and Kersh's assistant were played by the same actress, as was the Agent who was trying to overhear Scully's conversation and the Agent in the elevator- they both played Nazis in 1939. Carter has still left us in the dark as to the true intentions of Kersh (he plays a misguided Swabbo in 1939) and Spender (who was dressed as a Waffen Officer, but he isn't as bad as his father (who was not SS, but he was gestapo.))

I have to say, in my best Cartman voice, "The music KICKED ASS!" I'm very sensitive to the musical scoring of this show. I'm a very musical person. It makes me sad that Mark Snow has yet to win an Emmy for his consistantly excellent offerings. The swing segment in act four had me bopping at the edge of my seat, while the piano treatment of the main theme during the hospital scene was breathtakingly sweet.

And now, since I am a shipper, I must address the kiss. I loved it, but why was it so dark? I understand that CC felt compelled to have Mulder smooch 1939 Scully to keep the noromos happy, so why hide it in the shadows? It did crack me up that it went on for a full 10 seconds before 1939 Scully pulled back and slugged him! Despite the fact that she wasn't Scully, she wasn't too upset over the kiss, otherwise she would have stopped it sooner.

And then there's the hospital scene. He said it! I heard him! (Me and about 11million other viewers heard him.) He said those three little words. Too bad he was all doped up, and Scully couldn't take him seriously. LOL. That's the way life is on the X-Files. If it weren't for bad luck, Mulder'd have no luck at all.

---

Subject: OB: Cathy B.'s "Dreamland I" review
Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 02:48:39 -0400
From: "Catherine J. Blatz" <cjanet@ix.netcom.com>

Dreamland I
Episode 6X04
November 29, 1998

Boy, remember the days of "Lazarus,"when it was decided not to have Dupre possess Mulder because it would be too direct a paranormal experience for him? Well, we're way beyond that now. This marks the third time on The X-Files that someone else has appeared in Mulder's body, or at least replicated it. It's almost routine. This time the impostor slaps Scully on the ass instead of bringing her a bottle of wine, and plays computer golf instead of griping about tax dollars. Meanwhile, Mulder, in his first undeniably, irrefutably paranormal experience (since last week's episode, anyway), is suddenly in the body of Lenny. Or is that Squiggy? Or Gibby? Or an SNL alum, married to another SNL alum, reciting recycled SNL jokes ("Chris" and "Terry" are right out of the Pat sketches)? Geez, who's next, Lily Tomlin and Victoria Jackson? <joke>

Grump, grump, grump. I know, "Dreamland" was pretty much an excuse to have fun with body-switching. And fun we had. Mostly. "Dreamland" was a hoot of an episode, with several moments that made me howl with laughter and several more that just made me smile. Perhaps it suffered slightly from being next to last week's "Triangle." Though I wouldn't call it a comedy, "Triangle" was a departure from the norm and was filled with a lot of visual gags and treats that were thrown in more for the hell of it than for any compelling story reason, as well as dubious points of view and lots of stuff that may or may not have happened. It was fun and light. "Dreamland" might have worked a little bit better if it had followed a run of more serious episodes. Comic relief isn't as effective if there's nothing that needs relieving. I feel this is part of the reason that the darkly comic "Syzygy" was disliked by so many people - it came right after Darin Morgan's hilarious "War of the Coprophages," and we weren't really ready for it.

The episode starts off pretty straight, though there is a bit of a departure with Scully wishing out loud that they could just "stop...get out of the damn car...settle down and live something approaching a normal life." Mulder, happily oblivious as usual to such domestic yearnings, replies with a non-nonplussed "This is a normal life." Sure enough, the car is pulled over and the ubiquitous bad guys order them to step outside. What's most interesting to me about this scene, though, is that Scully, rather than appearing really depressed or upset, as she did for example in "Never Again," seems more wistful, almost playful. (Yup, I noticed this immediately.) She seems to be going through the motions, arguing with Mulder almost more out of habit than to get across any particular grievance. Maybe she's just given up, but it seems to me that these two are pretty content together. When Mulder starts reiterating his reasons for being interested in Area 51, she interrupts him to finish what he's saying, and smiles while she does it. It's a game, and they're both aware of that. She knows very well that he's not going to stop the car and start pricing bungalows with her, and I don't think she'd really want it any other way.

We already know, of course, that Mulder and Scully go together like peas and carrots. Which may be why it seems a bit unnecessary to grant them sudden normalcy in order to prove this. Nor does the show spend a great deal of time telling us about what Mulder and Scully would do if their lives suddenly became normal. Neither buys it for a second, and they're miserable without each other (even if one of them doesn't realize it). I think it would have been interesting to see Scully at first refreshed by her partner's newfound by-the-book attitude, before becoming disgusted by his sudden lecherousness. And I think it would have been interesting to see Mulder momentarily thrilled at being a big-cheese MIB smack in the middle of Paranormal Junction - complete with a Spender look-alike who, in this alternate universe, spouts geeky pro-paranormal diatribes instead of geeky anti-paranormal diatribes; (LOL- how's that for ironic?) as well as a wife and family that it might take him a while to figure out aren't perfect. Instead, we have Scully instantly concerned, then annoyed, then enraged at her partner's erratic behavior, and Mulder rolling his eyes at his newly acquired wife and kids (but admiring his paunchy middle-aged body in the mirror - wouldn't that scene have made more sense the other way around?). I wouldn't have expected Mulder not to be eager to get home to Scully and his own damn good-lookin' bod, and I wouldn't have believed that Scully would be unaware that there was something unusual about Mulder for long, but it would have been kind of neat to see them each try out the "normal" lives into which they've suddenly been dropped.

While I'm griping, let me mention one more thing I found problematic: the decision to have David Duchovny play Mulder inside Fletcher's body, and Michael McKean play Fletcher inside Mulder's body. Leaving aside for the moment the fact that I would have LOVED to see Duchovny slapping Gillian Anderson on the ass and telling her with a straight face not to be a Nazi about his sudden smoking habit, (me too- I guess that's why I laughed (St. Scully forgive me) when I saw 'Mulder' saying "Bitch.") having the audience's point of view differ from what the characters were seeing didn't seem to make much sense. I know, Mulder still saw himself as Mulder even when he was in Fletcher's body. But what about the scene when Scully comes to Mulder's apartment to find him with Kersh's secretary? The scene clearly begins from Scully's point of view. She stares as the assistant (does this woman have a name, already?) ( I believe the leading contender in the poll at the Abbey is Prancy Galore.) kisses an unseen Mulder and then leaves. She approaches Mulder's door and knocks. Fletcher's voice comes out. Of course, it sounds like Fletcher's voice to us, but not to Scully. But why? We don't even see Fletcher; why are we being given the voice from his point of view? Scully looks into the apartment as Mulder opens the door. Only it's not Mulder, it's Fletcher. Only it looks like Mulder to Scully, just not to us. Another example is the scene with the Spender-like guy covertly watching Fletcher, really Mulder, steal the black box. It's his point of view, and he doesn't look down and see a renegade FBI agent, he sees a colleague who has betrayed him. So why does he see David Duchovny? He doesn't, of course. Then why do we?

Then, there's the scene in which Scully speaks to Fletcher (really Mulder, played by Duchovny) at his house. As she leaves, the real Fletcher, in Mulder's body (played by McKean) pulls up. In Fletcher's mirror we see Mulder, in Fletcher's body, played by Duchovny. OK, so Fletcher, being in on the switch, "sees" Mulder and not himself. But then he looks into the mirror at himself and also sees Mulder. But then the camera pulls back and we see Fletcher. The point-of-view-switching in those few seconds is dizzying, and not in a pleasant way. If we were looking through Fletcher's eyes, and we saw Mulder as Mulder, why wouldn't we then see Fletcher as Fletcher in the mirror? Instead we go from Fletcher's mind's eye (Mulder with Scully) to the objective viewpoint (Fletcher appearing as Mulder in the mirror) and back to Fletcher's mind's eye (Fletcher as himself). (STOP! Your making my stomach spin- kinda like I just got off of a Tilt-A-Whirl after I ate too much cotton candy and ice cream.)

I don't think that it necessarily should have been done completely in the reverse, with Duchovny as Fletcher-as-Mulder and McKean as Mulder-as-Fletcher. But why not switch between points of view as needed? For example, in the teaser after the switch, instead of Scully gesturing McKean to the car and driving away with him, it could have been Anderson and Duchovny as usual. Then we could have panned around to show another Duchovny - this time Mulder, not yet realizing he's in Fletcher's body - staring after them in astonishment. When the soldiers start calling him sir and asking him for his orders, he could turn and look at himself in one of the car mirrors, seeing Fletcher (McKean). Pan back to Mulder, now played by McKean. I guess they figured this all would have been too complicated, and maybe it would have - I'm no director. But I would have liked to see more sharply defined points of view, instead of having Mulder always look like Mulder to us, even when he looked like Fletcher to everyone else, including himself. (And if they did it solely to get the mirror bit in there, they shouldn't have bothered. I enjoy seeing David Duchovny cavort around in his undies as much as anyone, but the sequence served absolutely no purpose and added another level of silliness that we really didn't need, and the two "mirror images" didn't match very well anyway.) As it stands, it just looks like yet another excuse to separate Duchovny and Anderson to speed up filming time. (Come on, what are they, ten episodes ahead of the broadcast schedule?)

In spite of my reservations, I did enjoy this one. David Duchovny once again gets to show off his comedy chops. Though I did find the mirror dance and some of the other mugging over the top, I liked a lot of the subtler stuff, like the "My work here is done" and the way he maniacally reeled off the description of Scully's lunch habits. My favorite Mulder expression was the one he made after selecting a porno channel to watch while going to sleep. He sort of shrugs, as if to say, "All right, porn, that'll do," and as he settles down he gives a slight, almost contented smile. Like Scully's almost rote arguing in the car, he's watching not to be aroused but to comfort himself with routine - porn's like his favorite teddy bear, familiar and reassuring. I found this very funny and I loved how Duchovny played it. And he got some nice drama in there too, from the quiet moments in the car at the beginning to his desperate shouts to Scully at the end.

As for Gillian Anderson, I thought she did a great job of retaining her half of the Scully/Mulder chemistry with Michael McKean. She still sounds like Scully arguing with Mulder, even when she doesn't have Duchovny to play off of, and when she does have Duchovny but thinks he's someone else, she stays nicely distant. I liked the casual way she turned down the volume on the generic rock 'n' roll music that Mulder (Fletcher) had turned on - it reminded me of the tie-straightening in "Bad Blood"; one of those "are you two married?" moments. I also got a kick out of her open-mouthed, outraged glare in the hallway at Mulder's (quite the hot spot for kisses, it seems), (Snicker, snicker- OR NOT as the case may be.) and then the way she went off on him inside. And once again, the teaser in the car was very sweet; I loved her gently sarcastic "I'm all a-tingle," and the plaintive note in her voice as she lamented her lack of a normal life.

A note about Scully here: Once again, the audience is skewed in Mulder's favor - this time not only by the presentation of vital evidence that Scully does not see, but also by having Mulder's point of view dominant at all times - even when he isn't present. It certainly makes it harder to accept that Scully doesn't believe the man with her is not Mulder, when that man is played by a different actor. In addition to that, Scully doesn't see the UFO, due to the space-time continuum, or the warp-core breach, or the photon torpedoes, or whatever. She thinks she drove out to Area 51 with Mulder and then drove back. She doesn't know anything unusual happened, she doesn't know of any currently escaped shapeshifting clones or monkey boys, and she's still Scully - she goes for the obvious explanations (drugs, disease, head injury) over extreme possibilities (paranormal event causing body switch between partner and unknown Area 51 goon, memory of which was erased by rip in fabric of space). Yes, even when she gets a call from some freak claiming to be the real Mulder. Her Mulder's acting a little wiggy (maybe he'll get a tattoo next), but he's right in front of her. Once again, it's difficult for us to swallow this because Mulder looks like Mulder to us, and Fletcher looks like Fletcher. By the time she gets back to Nevada and the real Mulder, who she thinks is Fletcher, gives her a lengthy treatise on her eating habits, I think she's starting to waver. (See this had me somewhat confused, I DO understand how Scully's mind works. I understand how , like a good scientist, she'd be adverse to admitting something extreme was going on. I understand why she'd look into the strange phone call. But I don't understand why she was so quick to leave after she confronts 'Morris'. I guess you could say that she was concerned about ' Morris' hold on sanity, but then isn't it her duty as a doctor to get him some help?) But I think at that point she's been backed into a corner by Kersh, who basically told her she was fired if she didn't set up the "source." She's in enough trouble as it is, and she tamps right down on that nagging feeling that this Fletcher guy sure knows a lot about how she takes her yogurt.

OK, what else. I found it interesting that, as another little indication of how everything was skewed in this episode, all the times were a little bit off. It's 11:17 at the start, then later it's 10:12. I even picked up on the 9:42 at the Bureau - until I remembered it's Mathnet (the continuing feature on the old PBS kids' series Square One TV, which I feel bears eerie similarities to The X-Files) where it's always 9:43 a.m. I also liked, as I said, the anti-Spender ("Howard Grodon"? What's that about?). And I liked the contrast between the normality of Mulder's and Scully's abnormal lives (particularly the feeling of deep, quiet affection between them in the car in the teaser, and the intriguing implied "we" in Scully's talk about getting out of the car and settling down) (Thank You! < sigh> sometimes I don't know if I read too much into things being the shipper I am, but you noticed this as well.) and the abnormality of everybody else's normal ones. Maybe that was why some of the pacing seemed funny - they were going for an off-kilter effect. (More likely it's just that Gilligan, Shiban and Spotnitz seem to come up with uneven results when they all work together. I loved the ending of "Leonard Betts," but the rest of the episode felt clunky and less than seamless. These three have very different styles, and I'm sure it's difficult to get them to mesh.)

Now I'm getting down to the really random snippets. I mostly liked Nora Dunn as Fletcher's wife, even if she seemed a bit over the top at times. She has nice comic timing and a funny smile. Michael McKean, in spite of my reservations about how the body-switching was handled, was suitably sleazy. I still like Kersh, who still seems to be laboring under the delusion that Mulder and Scully can be brought back into line with a little discipline. (Hee, hee- couldn't you just hear him thinking, "What's he trying to do, pull a little reverse psychology on me?" when 'Mulder' apologized for their latest jaunt.) And the secretary is interesting. (Love her.) I am a bit concerned about the ramifications of a semi-recurring character sleeping with the fake Mulder - are they going to drop it as they do with most character issues, or are they going to attempt to deal with it, which might be even worse? Those who are worried about "soap opera" should, I think, be worried about that.

"Dreamland" is one of those odd episodes that I can't decide if I like or not. I laughed a lot watching it, yet when I think hard about it, I find lots of problems. Yet, again, when I look back on it I have fond memories and a warm feeling. I think I'm going to have to stick this one in the "guilty pleasure" pile. And I'm not ashamed to admit that I can't wait for "Dreamland II."

Cathy B.

My Mad Musings...

Glad to have you back Cathy! Very thorough review there's only one other thing that you haven't touched on.

How the hell did Morris get his plan to body switch work? I mean, come on. It's obvious that he set this whole thing up. He was the informant, and lured Mulder and Scully out there. He wasn't surprised when the switch occurred. No one else there, seemed to be affected. How'd he do that? I suppose he's not stupid, but why is not trying a little harder to act Mulderish? Does he just not care?

And wouldn't it have been a cool alternative if this was some sort of plot by the syndicate? Think about it. The consortium arranges the switch, allowing Morris to reek havoc in Mulder's life (which he is doing in his own way) while they detain Mulder as Morris. Just consider how much damage Morris could do to irreparably divide our own Moose and Squirrel. ( Yes, yes, I know he's kind of doing that too.) This would have been a truly frightening prospect, and would have made for a much more compelling story line. 

---

Subject: OB: Cathy B.'s "Dreamland II" review (long)
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 02:16:23 -0400
From: "Catherine J. Blatz" <cjanet@ix.netcom.com>

Dreamland II
Episode 6X05
December 06, 1998

"Dreamland II," like the first part last week, is a difficult episode for me to get a handle on. I was pretty annoyed the first time I watched it. The second time, I suddenly liked it a lot better. I think that, again, the episode was made up of moments that didn't fit together all that well (due, I would guess, to the differing styles of its three writers). Many of the moments were silly, many of them were wonderful, but it never really all hung together just right. Despite that, though, I found much to like here.

I'm going to get out of the way first what I felt were the most pressing problems with "Dreamland II." Let's all line up, now, in a nice, orderly fashion. No shoving.

   1. The ending was ridiculous.

Let's face it. Handily erasing the inconvenient events of a two-part episode was a BLATANT deus ex machina. Even worse was that they didn't erase the entire thing, just the memories of Mulder, Scully and Fletcher. (Actually it had to be more than that- because the gas station was NOT burned down. Can you say plot device? Sure you can.) Yes, this paved the way for a mildly funny moment where Mulder does a double take at his new furniture. But what's going to happen when Mulder and Scully discover they've lost several days? When Joanne tries to talk to Morris about what happened (come on, it WAS kind of noteworthy), he doesn't remember, and she calls up Special Agent Fox Mulder at the FBI to get him to back up her version? When Scully discovers that she's, er, fired? (Answer: None of these things are going to happen, of course. Silly girl. Conta-what?) I would have gone all or nothing - either actually set time back however many days, so no one remembers, or reversed the bodies without erasing anyone's memory. M & S have been through weirder things. And we could actually have had some <gasp> character growth. (ITA)

   2. This episode did not need to be a two-parter.

It was, at best, an amusing whim of a plot. Let's face it, body-switching is hard to take seriously. Apparently the writers agreed, judging by the ending. Now, amusing whims can be wonderful, but I prefer them in small doses. In addition, there were plenty of long dull bits and equally long gratuitously silly bits - nearly every scene seemed to go on a little longer than it needed to, like a run-into-the-ground Saturday Night Live sketch (hmm...coincidence?). Cut every scene in half, and presto, you've got a stand-alone. Perfect. Even if it means losing the mirror dance, or five or ten minutes of Michael McKean playing computer golf.

   3. I like humor. But enough already.

A two-part farce is a bit much - especially after Triangle and before How the Ghosts Stole Christmas, which looks fairly humorous as well. I loved Mark Snow's "silly" music in Humbug and Small Potatoes. Now I've had enough. French horns, please. (And I did NOT need to see Fletcher singing "Let's get it on" for oh, such a long, long time.)

   4. I'm tired of Very Special Guest Stars.

I know, we have several more to go this season. Let's see, who's left that's ever expressed an interest in being on The X-Files? Winona Ryder? Robin Williams? The Foo Fighters? (No, I guess they're taken care of.) I think Tom Selleck is available. Yes, I enjoyed Charles Nelson Reilly, Lili Taylor, Peter Boyle, and others. But they were few and far between. The presence of too many familiar faces does take away from the show. I'm sorry, but it does. There are plenty of talented unknown L.A. actors. You just have to know where to look. (< Sigh> Me too. I miss those nameless faces that would re-appear in different roles. They were like family. It was a bit of a game trying to figure out who that person played last.)

   5. It would be nice to see DD and GA on-screen together once in a while.

Perhaps they're filming another movie that I don't know about? Come on, Spotnitz, you PROMISED. Just once I would like ONE damn episode where Mulder and Scully are together the majority of the time. (How's next week?) Sounds great. Make it a good one, please.

   6. In spite of the length of this episode, I feel as if I missed a scene.

Specifically, the scene in which it is decided that it makes sense for Morris, in Mulder's body, to go back to the FBI to be Scully's partner forevermore, while Mulder, in Morris's body, remains in Nevada with Morris's wife and children. (Well I was wrong wasn't I? Morris has no clue as to what was happening which begs the question. Why was he so damn calm about the switch? I would have be confused, at the very least if not freaking out. (Grumble, grumble , grumble- damned 1013 writers))Does Morris have any training in law enforcement? Is he remotely qualified to be an FBI agent? Is nobody worried that he might kill somebody his first week, or is he just planning to jet around the countryside slapping Scully on the ass and flashing his badge at hotel clerks? And doesn't Scully, queen of proper procedure, have anything to say about this? You wouldn't think either she or Mulder would stand for it. Is it all to save the cost of a new ID badge?

   7. And one more thing - I found Morris's character problematic.

I could believe that he was having a ball away from his wife and family, hitting on Scully and screwing around with Kersh's secretary, but not that he would happily accept without looking back the fact that he would never see them again (or that he would orchestrate the whole thing - I'm still unclear on this). His long whine about this to Scully - "You saw my wife, you think I wanna go back to that? Two kids who'll probably kill me in my sleep for the insurance money..." - seemed too harsh. I would have expected something more along the lines of "Don't you miss your family?" "Well, SORT of, but come on, I'm having fun." Even after he appears to soften when he sees his wife in the bar, he still seems perfectly happy to play Fibbie for the rest of his life and never look back. I know he's supposed to be a sleazeball, but I think it was taken just a bit to the extreme - especially if we are to believe that he is redeemed at the end.

Now, that's enough objections. Let me segue from that last one into something I did like: the mood shift at the end from silly into serious. Joanne changed from a sitcom-y "ball and chain" to a real, insecure woman for me when she saw her husband in the car with "Special Tramp Dana Scully." We sometimes act ridiculous when we're upset, and in that moment I could forgive her for all the hysterics she had displayed previously. Likewise, I did appreciate the sudden look of actual human feeling on Morris's face when he saw Joanne sitting alone and forlorn with her white wine. When Mulder said "I guess I make a lousy husband," it was like the music shut down and the lights went out. Party over - people are getting hurt here.

And we saw real feeling, again, in what for me was easily the best scene in the episode - the one with Mulder, Scully and a handful of sunflower seeds. I have come to accept that I am hopelessly in love with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson's on-screen chemistry. If they sat on top of a dumpster and read the phone book to each other I'd be there hanging on every word. It's not just "shippiness" - the air seems to shift when they're in the same frame. The sunflower seed scene was no exception. It is scenes like this that demonstrate fully the power of Duchovny's and Anderson's minimalist acting. Every look, every agonized pause, every gesture almost but not quite made was heart-wrenching. The simmering fury from both of them at being interrupted by Morris ("Take a picture, it'll last longer") was something we've never seen before - usually they seem glad of distractions from these intensely emotional moments, or at the very least indifferent; we've never in my memory seen them so upset at being pulled away from each other. (This is true, which makes it all the more powerful for me.)

As she's leaving, Scully touches Mulder's arm because under the circumstances it's all she can do, and Mulder understands, as we can see from his barely perceptible nod. And Mulder's gift of a handful of seeds was wrenching - it's hard to think of anything more intimate, there, that he could have given her, and the way he takes one out of her hand and puts it in his mouth just borders on gentle flirtation. This is X-Files UST as I live for it. I wouldn't have wished for anything more in this scene. (I nearly cried here, as it was my eyes teared up and I snuggled closer to my SO. It hurt to watch that. Hell, it hurts right now thinking about it.)

And what about the looking-glass version - the scene at Mulder's apartment? Well, with the exception of Morris's "Let's get it on," which irritated me for some reason, I found a lot that was very interesting here, primarily Scully's reactions. She knows, by this time, that this isn't Mulder. She squirms when he takes off her coat and when he guides her into the bedroom. I was expecting straight slapstick in this scene - we got the slapstick, certainly, but what I wasn't expecting was the wistfulness that fairly radiates from Scully. "Do you hate it?" Morris asks in regards to his raunchy redecoration. "No, I don't hate it," she says quietly. She's not answering Morris here. She's answering herself, with not a little melancholy in her voice, and maybe addressing an absent Mulder as well. Even as Morris gets up to fetch the champagne and she glances around the bedroom, she looks as if she's thinking a little regretfully about the legitimate version of this that will probably never be. Maybe her anger after Fletcher is in the cuffs is directed not only at him for deceiving her, but also at the real Mulder for not being the one to take her into this room for the first time. Scully's apparent wistfulness and tentative, very private maybe-desire for Mulder to clue in to how she feels was, I thought, a fascinating departure from what I had anticipated, which was a narrow-eyed Scully barely able to contain her disgust until she bagged the impostor. (Me: Nodding my head thoughtfully.)

Between this scene and the final phone conversation between Our Heroes, it's apparent that Scully, for all her strength and frequent displays of impatience with him, is ultimately melted butter where Mulder - the real Mulder - is concerned. Her very soft "You're welcome" after he thanks her for accompanying him reminded me immediately of another phone conversation in "War of the Coprophages," when Mulder apologizes for bothering her at home. "It's no bother," she says then, and the look on her face makes it clear that there's nothing she'd rather do with her Friday night than spend it listening to her partner's enthusiastic ramblings, and also that she feels a bit helpless about it.

That whole scene was for me the saving grace of the "lost memory" device - not the dime/penny and the furniture, but the way Mulder and Scully seem to linger on the phone, as if something seems unfinished but they're not quite sure what. Both say things that are a departure from their normal interaction: Scully tells Mulder she's sorry that his secret informant didn't work out, and he thanks her for coming along with him. Why they're feeling so warmly towards each other, they can't say, but it's clearly on both of their minds, and I thought this scene was well realized and well played by both actors.

Tearing myself away from the Mulder/Scully relationship for a second, I must say that I very much liked the idea that the mysterious "men in black" of Area 51 are basically pencil-pushing bureaucrats like everybody else. Howard Grodin's (I still wonder about the use of that name) arranging to switch everyone back not for some dark nefarious purpose (or for some charitable one) but because he didn't want a smudge on his record tickled me, as did the general's assumption that Mulder would know the truth far better than they do ("They engineer them up in Utah" - hmm, do I smell a trip to yet another sandy California-like state in the near future?).

As I said, I felt the episode was in large part just moments strung together, and while they didn't gel all that well I enjoyed many of them individually. Young Fox Mulder as Spock, stepping on his wayward Vulcan ear and running away in a fit of frustration, was pretty adorable. The scene with "Maverick" Lana Chee was quite original and that actress is a gem. I got a kick out of Morris's overly solicitous (and loud) "You're not SERIOUS!!" when Scully tells him she's been suspended. David Duchovny's facial expressions during the meeting with the general, particularly his quick furtive look before coming up with his answer to why he didn't let his colleagues in on the FBI scam, were a lot of fun to watch. Getting back to the Mulder's bedroom scene, I have to confess that I absolutely adored the brief Mulder!Tummy shot, and the timely cork pop was also very clever. In the bar, I laughed at "What are you, like - disgruntled?" and at Mulder's and Morris's heads peeking over the bathroom stall - and, though I complained about the scene with Morris's rearview mirror in "Dreamland I," I thought the mirror bit in the bar bathroom was very well done. The Gunmen scene was a hoot, especially Morris barely able to contain his derisive laughter at what the trio take so seriously (except for the Saddam joke, which I thought crossed the line into absurdity), and their reaction to him, particularly Frohike's "Punkass!" And finally, I loved the way Scully fairly propelled herself out of the car towards Mulder at the Fletcher house, and the way she reacted in that scene to being called a homewrecker - that is, barely at all. Not something she has to deal with every day.

Yes, folks, once again I have ended up with a completely divided reaction to this ep. I have a feeling that my fondness for "Dreamland" I and II will grow over time, that when we're back in angst city (and you know we will be again) I'll pop it in the VCR and remember the good old days when The X-Files didn't take itself so damn seriously. For now I'm ready for a rest from silliness (one I suspect I'll not get next week either). But I am grateful for two things: one, that David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are back at full power this season, and two, that the show continues to experiment with format, story, and character. Even if they're not always successful, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Cathy B.

My Mad Musings...

Well, since I didn't particularly care for Dreamlands I, I enjoyed Dreamlands II a lot more than you did Cathy. I still won't think of this a favorite of mine, but all in all it was ok. And the reason is, like you, I live for the moments where Scully and Mulder get to interact with one another. I am a shipper and I am one because the chemistry between these two IS so strong. Much in the same way as the 'Bench' conversation in Home saves it from being an episode I can't stand, the 'Desert' conversation propells this story into my middling area. Good characterization, sucky plot.

---

Home    Current Review     Season 6 - II   Season 6 - III   Season 7   Season 8   Season 9   Top

web hosting • domain names
web design • online games