X-Files S1E19: We're in bad Shapes here

Editors' Note: On the rewatch of The X-Files, Lorrie plays the part of Sestra Amateur and Paige serves as the resident "expert," aka Sestra Professional.
 
Sestra Amateur: 

In Browning, Montana, someone – or something – is killing the cattle. It attacks one rancher, then gets shot by another. The creature turns into a human and we get to observe the fakest stage blood since Alfred Hitchcock used chocolate syrup in Psycho.

Even though Jim Parker was arrested for the shooting, Scully and Mulder are there to investigate because it occurred on an Indian reservation. Jim defends his actions, but not with the "stand-your-ground law." It’s more like an "I-swear-it-was-an-animal" defense. Jim claims he saw red eyes and fangs, but Scully thinks he just saw what he wanted to see. 

Jim’s son, Lyle, tells Sculder he felt something watching him that gave him the creeps. You ever get the creeps, Scully? Don’t answer that. You’ll just provide a psychological explanation of “the creeps.” While investigating the crime scene, Scully and the writers inadvertently remind us they’re in Canada by using the metric system. Mulder finds footprints that seem to change form from human to animal. He also finds a piece of skin that had been shed. Ew. 

Sculder go to a bar looking for leads. They stumble across Gwen, the sister of the dead manimal, Joe Goodensnake. Mulder also talks with an elderly Indian man named Ish, who recalls some well-deserved distrust of the Feds. Sculder talk to Sheriff Tskany, played by Michael Horse. He also played Deputy Hawk on Twin Peaks. Typecast much? Remember when David Duchovny was on Twin Peaks as a Fed? Of course, he was a cross-dressing Fed, so slightly less typecasting there. Sculder look at Joe’s dead body and spot some telltale signs of wolf-ness. Similar to last week’s episode, an autopsy is a no-no because of religious reasons. Guess that will let them drag this non-mystery out a little longer. 

Mulder shows Scully the first X-File from 1946. Of course, it involves the same types of deaths in Browning, which actually originated 150 years earlier and recur every few years. Scully, of course, writes it off as a psychological version of lycanthropy, not a physical one like American Werewolf in London or Teen Wolf. 

Sculder crash Joe’s funeral to try and get answers but don’t really succeed. Lyle arrives during the ceremonial cremation – which reminds me of Funeral Pyre for a Jedi – but Gwen and the sheriff chase him away. Back at the ranch, Jim is killed by a creature that resembles pre-dead Joe. The next morning, Scully finds Lyle, who claims he was drunk, and takes him to the hospital to be treated for exposure. Sheriff Tskany won’t talk, but brings Mulder to Ish, who tells “Running Fox” about the 1946 murders. Ish describes the Manitou – a supernatural being that controls nature. They sound like werewolves but don’t require a full moon to change. 

The doctor who treated Lyle at the hospital tells Murder that his partner took Lyle home, then imparts a teeny bit of extremely important information -- Lyle somehow ingested his father’s blood. Considering the worst-case scenario is that Lyle is a Manitou and the best-case scenario would be Lyle is a cannibal, it’s safe to assume the doctor should have told this to Scully or the sheriff long before he casually mentioned it to Mulder. 

So Mulder and the sheriff have to race back to the ranch to save Scully while Lyle begins his transformation. Scully is trying to break into the bathroom to get to Lyle, who she thinks is “sick.” Lyle beats her to it and busts out. Mulder and the sheriff finally arrive and Mulder shoots a perfectly innocent stuffed bear in the head. Lyle attacks Sculder, so the sheriff puts Lyle down for good. And just to show she’s making some progress, Scully seems to accept the inexplicable on this one. Can you imagine if Lyle transformed Mulder or Scully? A prime opportunity to watch the first Manitou federal agent on a weekly basis just slipped away.

Sestra Professional:

Full disclosure, during the original series run when X-Files fandom meant listing preferences in chat rooms and email groups, I always considered "Shapes" to be my least favorite episode. But I am willing to stay open to the possibility of change during the rewatch. Just thought I should state that at the outset. And I am looking forward to finding out if that's still the case.

Right away, I get a sense of why I didn't take to this episode all those years ago. It makes comments on the plight of Native Americans vs. farmers and Native Americans vs. government at will. And if it wasn't done with such a heavy-handed conceit, maybe it wouldn't make me cringe constantly. For example, mentioning once that the FBI shows up when it wants to as opposed to when they ask for help is fine, why do we have to go through that rigamarole a couple more times?

Everything about this episode feels green to me. It feels like it's from the first half of the season. Our leads seem to be either struggling or sleepwalking. As Sestra Am mentioned, the wounds leave a lot to be desired. But hey, people fly through the air great. That's something.

There are some inspired bits and pieces. Love Mulder's dubious glance at Scully's back when she's questioned about having the creeps. The description of human tracks in one step and animal tracks in the next seems like a perfect X-File.

With his Indian first name, Mulder's obviously open to Native American legend. But Scully's particularly of the non-believing persuasion in this episode. She thinks it's an open-and-shut case of reservation homicide. That no one can physically change into an animal, and anyone who thinks they can is suffering from lycanthropy. (At least we're expanding our vocabulary.)

The protracted funeral scene just stops the episode dead in its tracks... so to speak. Eventually, we do learn about the Manitou. Pretty convenient that when bloodlust builds, it releashes savage energy. And when that's done, he turns back into a man, unaware of what's happened -- even though that we saw flesh and bones and whatever else during a pretty thorough change. I don't think mere shedding accounts for all the physical transformation. At any rate, the idea of doing that every night has really gotta suck.

This isn't a job for Sculder, I think we need Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. And the proof of that is when they follow the MacGuffin -- the dead guy's sister -- and Scully's with the actual beast. Although I gotta say the fact he had no clothes on when she found him probably should have been a dead giveaway.

So this one's still a dog to me. Actually, now that I have new terminology, it's a Manitou to me. Stay tuned for next week, when our pretension shifts from the Native American reservation to loggers vs. nature. And for Sestra Am, your Skinner Watch is down to two.