Welcome to Big Trouble in Little China, Part 2. I wasn’t going to pepper the entire blog with BTILC references because I wasn’t sure it was well known enough, but since there’s a whole line of Funkos from that 1986 flick, I’m going with it. Some poor Chinese guy is being chased through Chinatown, San Francisco. He tries to hide in a building, but men in creepy white masks are already there waiting for him. If subtitles were included, I would have broken out the Google translate to find out what they were saying to each other. But I guess I’ll have to wait for exposition with all of the other non-Chinese-speaking viewers. In a nearby funeral home, a security guard investigates a strange noise coming from inside the crematorium. Yep, the chased man is now being burned alive.
Mulder (aka Jack Burton) and Scully (aka Gracie Law) arrive to view the burned body. The local detective claims he is the third victim who died in this manner, but Mulder -- of course -- has knowledge of 10 other Chinese men between the ages of 20 and 40 being burned alive in major cities across the country. (Big Trouble in Little Boston?) Really, how does he get those statistics? His search engine criteria must be oddly specific.
Detective Neary refers Sculder to Chinese-speaking (and -reading) Det. Glen Chao, played by a very baby-faced B.D. Wong – let’s cast him as Wang Chi. Chao translates a word written by the victim as “ghost.” There’s also a piece of Hell Money in the oven. Chao explains it’s not real money, just used as an offering to evil spirits for good luck.
Mulder makes the obligatory Ghostbusters reference when he, Scully and Chao go to victim Johnny Lo’s house. (Johnny can be Eddie Lee, who was adorable in the movie but, character-wise, not relevant enough for this “sequel.”) There’s a still-wet Chinese character painted on the door that Chao claims he does not recognize. We’ll probably get a translation for it later. I guess Johnny was trying to hide in his own apartment. Sculder realize someone hastily covered up the crime scene.
Meanwhile, a man named Hsin is taking care of his sick young daughter, Kim -- the future O-Ren Ishii, Lucy Liu. Hsin goes to a hall full of Chinese men and participates in a lottery being run by Lo Pan himself, James Hong. Not quite sure how this ties in with Kim yet, but since she looks more like Miao Yin than Hsin does, we’ll deem Hsin to be Miao Yin’s papa. Lo Pan’s lackeys at the hall can be the Three Storms: Thunder, Rain and Lightning. I always liked Lightning best, Rain just looked spooky weird to me. But let’s get back to the lottery. One man “wins” when his tile is pulled from a vase full of tiles. But then he “loses” when he pulls the wrong tile from a separate vase. The man later drinks a potion and dies.
Meanwhile, a man named Hsin is taking care of his sick young daughter, Kim -- the future O-Ren Ishii, Lucy Liu. Hsin goes to a hall full of Chinese men and participates in a lottery being run by Lo Pan himself, James Hong. Not quite sure how this ties in with Kim yet, but since she looks more like Miao Yin than Hsin does, we’ll deem Hsin to be Miao Yin’s papa. Lo Pan’s lackeys at the hall can be the Three Storms: Thunder, Rain and Lightning. I always liked Lightning best, Rain just looked spooky weird to me. But let’s get back to the lottery. One man “wins” when his tile is pulled from a vase full of tiles. But then he “loses” when he pulls the wrong tile from a separate vase. The man later drinks a potion and dies. Sculder and Chao learn Johnny was using skullcap root and Chinese angelica as painkillers. They also discover someone marked Johnny’s place as a haunted house. Chao explains the tradition of the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts. Chinese believers leave hell money and food gifts outside their homes to appease the ghosts and keep them away. Of course, not all ghosts can be appeased. Det. Neary calls them to the cemetery, where they find the lottery “winner” unceremoniously buried in someone else’s grave by men in white masks. Scully gets to play doctor and analyze the body. She realizes he’s undergone numerous surgeries, likely for money. And just when it looks like Dana's witnessing something supernatural, it turns out to just be a frog inside the dead guy.
Back at lottery central, the next “winner” is Hsin, but we don’t know what he’s won – or lost – yet. Scully meets with Chao at the San Francisco Police Department to ask about body parts being sold on the black market, and Dana is pretty confrontational with him because she thinks he’s not being forthcoming with them due to his Chinese heritage. Fox wisely stays quiet in the background. Chao takes offense, but hopefully, that’s not the case. I’d hate for Scully to be proven right this time.
Despite Sculder’s attitude, Chao gives them his lead and they meet with Hsin at his apartment. Dad is missing his right eye. Now we know the price he paid. Sculder hear Chao and Hsin talking in Chinese, but don’t believe the young detective's version of their conversation. Mulder finds Hsin’s tile and Chao claims the character means “wood.” Kim doesn’t believe her father's work injury excuse, but he doesn’t know what else to do to help her.
Chao goes home and his front door is marked in blood. Inside he sees men in white masks. Maybe these men are the Three Storms since they’re acting on Lo Pan’s behalf. This won’t end well for Chao, will it? Scully meets with Mulder, who is staking out Hsin’s apartment. She tells him about Chao’s attack and they head to the hospital. As soon as Sculder leave Lo Pan confronts Hsin to convince him to return to the lottery. (I’m going to keep calling him Lo Pan because, according to IMDb, his character is never given a name.) Kim hears everything from her room.
The agents get to the hospital but Chao’s already gone. Mulder thinks Chao's blood was in Johnny’s apartment and Chao called for the carpet to be installed. Sculder go back to Hsin’s apartment and Kim tells them what she saw. She also discloses she is dying of leukemia. Kim looks at the tile for “wood” and says it also relates to the eye. Mulder realizes they’re playing a game for body parts. Sculder go to the Organ Procurement Organization and speak with an employee who says Asian men have come there for workups but disappear after they are deemed “compatible.”
At lottery headquarters, Hsin gets picked again. Boy, this really sounds rigged. Sculder and Chao arrive separately at the lottery location. Pops picks a tile and he tries to run, but the men stop him. Guess Hsin is about to lose something he can’t live without. Sculder finally get inside the building and find body parts in the kitchen refrigerator. The detective tries to intervene on behalf of Hsin’s daughter but we learn Chao has been paid off to keep non-Chinese people out of the loop. Dammit, Scully’s right yet again. I guess Sculder also “were not brought upon this world to ‘get it.’” But Chao still has some fight left in him and upsets the apple cart. He learns the game has been rigged all along and the crowd fights back. Lo Pan is about to cut out Hsin’s heart and Chao stops the carnage by shooting him.
At lottery headquarters, Hsin gets picked again. Boy, this really sounds rigged. Sculder and Chao arrive separately at the lottery location. Pops picks a tile and he tries to run, but the men stop him. Guess Hsin is about to lose something he can’t live without. Sculder finally get inside the building and find body parts in the kitchen refrigerator. The detective tries to intervene on behalf of Hsin’s daughter but we learn Chao has been paid off to keep non-Chinese people out of the loop. Dammit, Scully’s right yet again. I guess Sculder also “were not brought upon this world to ‘get it.’” But Chao still has some fight left in him and upsets the apple cart. He learns the game has been rigged all along and the crowd fights back. Lo Pan is about to cut out Hsin’s heart and Chao stops the carnage by shooting him.
In the epilogue, Lo Pan is doing his best Cigarette-Smoking Man impersonation. No other villain on the show should be allowed to smoke. It just seems wrong. Unfortunately, the case against Lo Pan falls apart when everyone refuses to talk and Chao disappears. Ultimately he suffers the same fate as Johnny Lo. Guess it’s not all in the reflexes after all…
Sestra Professional:
I busted last week's episode, "Teso dos Bichos," for not particularly feeling like a Sculder show. "Hell Money" takes it a step further, the premise could be used in any procedural -- supernatural or not. But maybe it's fine and dandy if every case doesn't fit neatly into the X-Files cabinet. A haunted house is probably a get-rich-quick scheme more often than not.
But if I'm right, this is one man who left his heart in San Francisco: Since we're not in a metaphysical episode, it stands to reason that our resident non-believer is going to make the lion's share of correct calls this time around. And it's not too difficult to side with Dana about the initial killing being some form of retribution, as opposed to Fox's theory that ancestral spirits pushed the victim into the oven and turned the gas on.
It's too bad, though, that Scully is also right about Chao because Baby Face had been making some seriously good and cogent points. As an American-born Chinese cop, he faced his own form of discrimination from both sides. "What good is an interpreter when everyone speaks the language of silence," Chao bemoans. Too bad he didn't heed his own words, maybe he learned far too much from those around him.
Who ya gonna call? In a couple years, Lucy Liu went on to make a big splash as Ling (soft l, soft g) on Ally McBeal. We see absolutely none of the edge of that character in Kim. Then again, we don't know what happened to her after going on the transplant list, I would imagine Kim might be a little hard-boiled following what happened to her. Anyway, the actress is billed as Lucy Alexis Liu here, should we open an X-File on where her middle name went? According to IMDb, she used the full name here and the previous year for a three-episode arc on ER.
James Hong makes for a formidable presence as the baddie in the episode. In addition to Lo Pan, he's been in something for everyone -- from Hannibal Chew in Blade Runner to Mr. Ping in the Kung Fu Panda series -- as well as host of other small but memorable roles in movies and television. He definitely gives this episode its gravity, the sense of danger is palpable throughout. In that sense, it's the opposite of Teso dos Bichos, which didn't resonate or raise primal fears.
More meta for the Money: Rumor has it that Duchovny was dating Liu at the time of production. ... Co-producer Paul Rabwin recalled that "Hell Money" required an enormous amount of looping in the official third-season episode guide. Both Michael Yama (Hsin) and Liu had to rerecord their dialogue in a Cantonese dialect. "We did it 'til it sounded right," Rabwin said. ... Creator Chris Carter came up with the basic concept of a pyramid scheme for body parts. The script was written by Jeffrey Vlaming, who also penned "2Shy" from earlier this season. He'd go on to write and produce for the likes of Fringe, Hannibal and Outcast. ... Diana Ha of Rogue played Dr. Wu in this episode; there is a Steely Dan song called "Dr. Wu."
Guest star of the week: With all the powerhouse guest performances, including Yama as hapless Hsin, it's a tough call. I threw all the names into a vase and drew out BD Wong. Yeah, it was rigged just like the lottery in this episode. We really feel for Chao, even when Scully realizes he might not be on the up and up. And afterward, when we know for sure that he's been profiting off the scheme for quite some time.
Sestra Professional:
I busted last week's episode, "Teso dos Bichos," for not particularly feeling like a Sculder show. "Hell Money" takes it a step further, the premise could be used in any procedural -- supernatural or not. But maybe it's fine and dandy if every case doesn't fit neatly into the X-Files cabinet. A haunted house is probably a get-rich-quick scheme more often than not.But if I'm right, this is one man who left his heart in San Francisco: Since we're not in a metaphysical episode, it stands to reason that our resident non-believer is going to make the lion's share of correct calls this time around. And it's not too difficult to side with Dana about the initial killing being some form of retribution, as opposed to Fox's theory that ancestral spirits pushed the victim into the oven and turned the gas on.
It's too bad, though, that Scully is also right about Chao because Baby Face had been making some seriously good and cogent points. As an American-born Chinese cop, he faced his own form of discrimination from both sides. "What good is an interpreter when everyone speaks the language of silence," Chao bemoans. Too bad he didn't heed his own words, maybe he learned far too much from those around him.
Who ya gonna call? In a couple years, Lucy Liu went on to make a big splash as Ling (soft l, soft g) on Ally McBeal. We see absolutely none of the edge of that character in Kim. Then again, we don't know what happened to her after going on the transplant list, I would imagine Kim might be a little hard-boiled following what happened to her. Anyway, the actress is billed as Lucy Alexis Liu here, should we open an X-File on where her middle name went? According to IMDb, she used the full name here and the previous year for a three-episode arc on ER.James Hong makes for a formidable presence as the baddie in the episode. In addition to Lo Pan, he's been in something for everyone -- from Hannibal Chew in Blade Runner to Mr. Ping in the Kung Fu Panda series -- as well as host of other small but memorable roles in movies and television. He definitely gives this episode its gravity, the sense of danger is palpable throughout. In that sense, it's the opposite of Teso dos Bichos, which didn't resonate or raise primal fears.
More meta for the Money: Rumor has it that Duchovny was dating Liu at the time of production. ... Co-producer Paul Rabwin recalled that "Hell Money" required an enormous amount of looping in the official third-season episode guide. Both Michael Yama (Hsin) and Liu had to rerecord their dialogue in a Cantonese dialect. "We did it 'til it sounded right," Rabwin said. ... Creator Chris Carter came up with the basic concept of a pyramid scheme for body parts. The script was written by Jeffrey Vlaming, who also penned "2Shy" from earlier this season. He'd go on to write and produce for the likes of Fringe, Hannibal and Outcast. ... Diana Ha of Rogue played Dr. Wu in this episode; there is a Steely Dan song called "Dr. Wu."
Guest star of the week: With all the powerhouse guest performances, including Yama as hapless Hsin, it's a tough call. I threw all the names into a vase and drew out BD Wong. Yeah, it was rigged just like the lottery in this episode. We really feel for Chao, even when Scully realizes he might not be on the up and up. And afterward, when we know for sure that he's been profiting off the scheme for quite some time. 
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