Sestra Amateur:
Roland, Roland, Roland
Mop those floors, oh, Roland
Clean the rooms, oh, Roland
Roland!
Now that Rawhide is out of my head, let’s get started. Roland is a simple man working as a janitor at Mahan Propulsion Lab in Washington. He’s having trouble with his access card, so a condescending scientist helps him. In Roland’s defense, don’t most access card require a swipe then a code?
Roland is cleaning while Doctors Keats, Surnow and Nollette argue about their experiment, which isn’t working properly. Keats and Nollette leave while Surnow continues to work on the project. Roland traps Surnow in the wind-tunnel experiment and replaces some of the equations on the scientists’ board with his own. Roland starts the program, which results in Surnow dying a presumably messy death. You gotta love subtitles -- "squish" was definitely the right word for this one. I guess Roland didn’t realize he’s the one who’s going to have to clean up that mess.
Sculder investigate because this is the second death of a scientist who was working on the Icarus Project at Mahan. The research and experiments are attempting to double supersonic speeds while using half the fuel. Sounds like a great idea. Dr. Arthur Grable died first in a nasty car crash. Mulder notices the difference in handwriting on the equation board. Dr. Keats is convinced Roland is too stupid to be involved. Sculder interview Roland at his halfway house, where he demonstrates some proficiency with numbers before having a spaz attack.
Mulder takes a sample of Roland’s handwriting, but an expert rules him out as being the contributor on the equation board. Meanwhile, Roland has visions of killing Keats so he goes to the lab and shoves Keats’ face into liquid nitrogen. Chilling. The next morning we get to see the most disturbing chalk outline ever. (Please note that black tape was used instead of chalk and is considered a perfectly acceptable substitute.) Mulder realizes someone accessed Arthur’s computer files after Keats’ murder, but the program is password protected. Mulder uses the code he found at Roland’s halfway house and it gets him into the system.
Roland has dreams (flashbacks?) of boys being separated. Sculder learn Grable hired Roland and they are identical twin brothers. Roland is later talking to his girlfriend, Tracy, when he gets visions of strangling her. Luckily, he fights those urges. Sculder suspect Arthur faked his death until Nollette reveals Arthur’s head was cryogenically frozen after the car crash. But the tank has been experiencing temperature fluctuations. Do they coincide with Roland’s visions or murderous actions? Mulder uses a remote-control spaceship to explain to Roland that something is using him the way he drives the toy. Roland panics again and runs away. Mulder tries to convince Scully that Arthur is psychically working through Roland, but Scully doesn’t buy it and compares Arthur’s current state to a Fudgsicle. Mmmmmm, Fudgsicles...
Sculder think Roland is going after Nollette and want to protect him, but the intended victim's busy sabotaging Arthur’s cryo tank so the temperature continues to rise. Roland/Arthur seem to know they’re running out of time, so Roland feverishly writes out the formulas. He tests the experiment and it is finally successful, but Nollette arrives for the victory. Frank plans to take all of the credit and kill Roland, but the savant smacks the doc upside the head with a keyboard and puts him into in the wind-tunnel experiment. Sculder arrive and are able to get through to Roland, who spares Nollette’s life. Arthur’s brain dies.
Since Nollette can’t be charged with murdering Arthur, how about vandalism? I’m still not clear on why Arthur wanted Keats and Surnow dead in the first place. Were they also planning to take credit for Arthur’s research? Did they have anything to do with Arthur’s car crash? Is Roland the one who actually had the murderous intentions and they just happened to be fueled by his psychic connection with Arthur? According to Roland’s caretaker, he hadn't previously shown violent tendencies. And a link with Arthur doesn’t explain the violent vision involving poor, innocent Tracy, who did nothing wrong. Sestra Pro, explique s’il vous plait.
Sestra Professional:
I had the Rawhide theme playing in my head too before even seeing Sestra Am's portion of the program. Hey, Mulder's psychic-connection theory between siblings plays out before our very eyes.
Perhaps an aeronautics lab isn't the best place for the working world to be politically correct. If the autistic Roland can't enter a four-number combination to get into a room, it probably isn't safe for him to be on the premises. Or anyone else.
Mulder is very quick to see the handwriting on the wall -- especially since it is actual handwriting on a dry-erase board. Our hero's very quick on the uptake in this episode. He seems to identify with Roland rather deeply, there are some very surface parallels with some of the obsessiveness of his own life matching up with Roland's. And he delivers a perfect analogy between the remote-controlled spaceship (of course!) and Roland.
But that puts his usual quipping nature on the sideline. Scully tries to take up the slack every now and then, with lines like "Does this pitch somehow end with a way for me to lower my long-distance charges?" And she did implant a vision of us all needing to have a Fudgsicle. But Mulder does get in one good shot after the episode's money shot -- the liquid nitrogen death. "I don't think they'll be performing this experiment on Beakman's World."
The Sculder dynamic worked pretty well in this episode. Mulder jumps right to a psychic connection and Scully's in her element delivering scientific data in a laboratory environment, not to mention background on twins fertilized by a single sperm and damaged chromosomes. The X-Files fires on all cylinders when the viewers can understand both leads' rationale.
The episode boasts a phenomenal guest performance by Zeljko Ivanek. Even in the first season, the show drew talent and got exactly what they needed to drive the show. His Roland is struck by severe autism, but he has to deliver manic rages. In the early going, Ivanek keeps you rooting for him, even before Roland's more tender and resulting anguished moments with Tracy bring out a gentler side. And then he's got a bit of a visual portrayal of Dr. Grable to do as well.
David Nutter, one of The X-Files' early directorial powerhouses, was at the helm for this one. As behind-the-scenes legend has it, it was his least favorite of his six episodes from the first season. But he was very pleased with Ivanek's ability to sell what he considered "weaker material." The Slovenian actor was the only one to test for the role.
Maybe Roland's violent vision was meant to deter him from the course of his brother's duty, Sestra Am? His brother wanted him focused on his particular task, romance would just have gotten in the way. As for the other dead scientists, Grable doesn't seem to be the most balanced brain in the jar, so maybe he was just saving the worst for last. Dumb brainiac. Or maybe he knew that one of the scientists was going to betray him, but he didn't know which one. Or maybe his brain got freezer burn in there.
Guest Star of the Week: Of course, It's Ivanek. But since I waxed poetic about him already. I'll talk about James Sloyan as Nollette. If you need to shift from exposition to baddest living guy in the ep, this '80s character actor's your man. I particularly enjoyed watching him try to stave off the wind machine.
Sestra Amateur:
My go-to reincarnation picture is Chances Are with Robert Downey Jr. and Cybill Shepherd. It’s a cute, sweet, awkward and funny movie from the '80s. But "Born Again" doesn’t model itself after Chances Are; it’s more like Audrey Rose meets Identity.
This episode takes place in Buffalo, New York, which looks suspiciously like Vancouver. Even having Maggie Wheeler, who’s been cast in more New York-based comedies than I can count, can’t give it an authentic feel. Wheeler, as Detective Lazard, meets 8-year-old Michelle Bishop outside the police station, but Michelle won't talk to her. Detective Barbala gives it a shot and ends up flying out a window to his death. Lazard reaches out to Mulder because she heard about his work with the Tooms case (see Episode 3 – "Squeeze" or last week's – "Tooms"). Since Lazard is already open-minded, maybe this could have been the start of a spinoff show: The X-Files: New York.
When Sculder arrive in “Buffalo,” the precinct is still an active crime scene. Since D.C. is about 400 miles from Buffalo, I hope Sculder were in the vicinity. Otherwise, Buffalo cops work verrrrrrry slowly. Mulder tries to get a suspect description of the man who “attacked” Barbala from Michelle, while Scully talks with her mama, who admits she is scared of her own child. Judy Bishop drops the little detail that Michelle is terrified of their swimming pool. Michelle creates an origami falcon for Mulder, and her parent said she doesn't know where her daughter picked up the traditional Japanese art of folding paper.
Mulder’s already considering pyrokinesis and tells Scully to look for evidence on Barbala’s body to support his theory. Michelle’s psychiatrist, Dr. Braun, shows Mulder a group of dolls that Michelle ruined during therapy sessions. They are all missing a left arm and right eye. Mulder recommends deep regression hypnosis, the procedure that helped him recall details of his own sister’s disappearance. Dr. Braun pooh-poohs his theories of psychic ability and telekinesis, then gives Mulder the move along.
Scully finds a lesion on Barbala’s body consistent with Mulder’s pyrokinetic theory. Lazard learns Michelle's description of the suspect matches Detective Charlie Morris, who died nine years earlier. Scully assumes Michelle saw the memorial plaque of Morris in the precinct and it influenced her account. Mulder learns Morris suffered injuries similar to the ones Michelle inflicted on her therapy dolls.
Sculder interview Morris’ former partner, Tony Fiore, who claims Morris was murdered as payback from a Chinatown gang. Fiore stops talking when his wife, Anita, checks on them. Fiore later meets with insurance agent – and former cop – Leon Felder. Apparently, the case hinges on crooked cops and a lot of money. After telling Fiore to chill out, Felder takes a deadly bus ride, on the outside of the bus. Michelle is there when Felder dies. Sculder make the connection between Morris, Barbala, Felder and Fiore, so they return to the latter's house for answers. His wife hasn't seen him. Turns out she has a nearly complete collection of origami animals made for her by her previous husband – Charlie Morris – before he was killed.
Mulder suggests reincarnation and arranges a regression hypnosis for Michelle. During the procedure, “24-year-old” Michelle starts to panic when talking about her death, so her shrink stops the session. Scully gets the best line of the episode when she tells Mulder Judy won’t let them try hypnosis again, “not in this lifetime, anyway,” I disagree with Scully’s argument that they should not pursue Mulder’s reincarnation theory just because it is not “actionable” -- that’s Episode 21-Skinner talking. In the X-Files world, if reincarnation is a reality or even a possibility, then it should only matter they get answers to the unexplained. Mulder reviews the video from Michelle’s last session and sees an electronic disturbance. Anita receives an origami animal; now her collection is complete.
Scully learns Morris drowned – no wonder Michelle is scared of the pool. The clues help Mulder realize Morris was killed in his own aquarium, the same one now in Anita and Tony Fiore’s house. Tony tries to convince Anita to run away with him, but Michelle shows up and stalks Fiore. Sculder arrive at the house while Tony talks to the pint-sized "Charlie." Fiore confesses and Michelle thrashes Tony and trashes the place. She doesn't kill him, and Fiore has his/Charlie's wife to thank for that. Fiore goes to prison for his crimes and Morris seemingly leaves Michelle in peace so she can learn how to swim. Now how about some uplifting, lighthearted entertainment? Chances Are, it is.
Sestra Professional:
The Audrey Rose/Identity mashup is an interesting concept, but this premise made me think of another Downey Jr. film, Heart and Souls. In that comedy, he helps five souls who died prematurely get the chance to fix something in their lives. This would be a much more lethal and cynical variation on that theme. Or maybe it's Poltergeist meets Firestarter.
Jumpers tend to open the window before they jump: Speaking of mashups, this one kind also seems like The X-Files run through the NYPD Blue meat grinder, minus the nudity, of course. It's definitely 75 percent procedural, except for that pesky supernatural element in which an 8-year-old girl seems to be connected to a murder that happened a year before she was born and deaths that are occurring years later.
I wonder how long Michelle's been acting like that. She's had four nannies since April, she's had a dozen sessions to dismember dolls in. So Charlie Morris, in his quest for revenge, has been torturing a little girl? The guy who wouldn't take a payoff and wound up murdered by his friends? This psychokinesis thing is so hurtful, and not just to the intended victims.
As Sestra Am pointed out, they've got Scully so far rooted in the practical, she's not really doing her job. We understand you believe the crime to be non-actionable, but the case is still to delve into the mystery. If Scully had her way, we never would have found out. Then again, she did point out the scintillating clue that the supposedly asleep wife had baking powder on her hands. She glosses over the evidence she found during the initial autopsy backing up Mulder's theory that the first dead body would show signs of an electrical charge. And she did figure out that sea water thing. OK, she can stay.
You think he's back like Peter Proud to avenge his murder? Scully is not exactly on board with Mulder's supposition that the agents are a "short step away from proving the pre-existence of the human soul." Guess she didn't like the movie or the book version of The Reincarnation of Peter Proud. And Mulder's not happy that she isn't following his lead -- "Short of her growing a mustache, how much more apparent does it have to become for you to accept it?" I know I'm on his side this week, but she ain't a puppy, Fox.
Mulder's much more on his game when discovering the image of the fish tank diver on Michelle's regression tape -- even though that one was kind of a stretch. He
cites a case in which someone created shapes in a film negative with his mind. Save that explanation for Season 4, Mulder, a whole
episode will be built around that concept.
Meanwhile, Fiore really seems to be getting everything he wants and then some. The only people who know about his crimes are dead, he has his ex-partner's wife and he's got all the loot. But he's thrown (well, not physically thrown, more like discombobulated) by Michelle. "All you had to do was take the money," says the guy who took the money and his former partner's wife? So he confesses, and now the badge bunny has everything ... plus a complete origami set! OK, she doesn't have either of the husbands any more, but it doesn't seem like a big loss. Mulder makes out like a bandit too. Not only is he right on just about every subject, he also gets to write the agents' field journal instead of Scully for the first time in the series run.
In the official show episode guide, co-writer Howard Gordon (who scripted this with usual partner Alex Ganza) deemed it to be "a little too cop show-y." And it is, but it plays fairly well. Probably not as well as what I'm going to check out now -- the 1975 reincarnation flick with Michael Sarrazin and Jennifer O'Neill.
Guest Star of the Week: Andrea Libman's filmography is replete with multiple characterizations of My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, Dino Babies and Care Bears. Obviously, Michelle Bishop bears no resemblance to any of those. Just the latest of example at how great The X-Files was at casting episodes in which eerie kids were at the center of complex and bizarre occurrences.
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:
It’s Toomsday and Eugene Victor Tooms is at it again. Remember him from the third episode? He’s the guy – thing? – who goes on a killing spree every 30 years and can fit pretty much anywhere. Turns out Tooms is up for release from the sanitarium because our heroes couldn't charge him with murder, just his attack on Scully. That’s just what society needs -- a yellow-eyed, elongated creepy serial killer.
Back to him in a bit, 'cause it’s Skinner time! The upside of being familiar with the X-Files history is I know how important Assistant Director Skinner will be to our Dynamic Duo – in good ways and bad. But in his first episode, in which he is clearly being influenced by the Cigarette Smoking Man, he seems just like every other AD who is working against Sculder. He tries to intimidate Scully, who has grown a lot since the last time we saw her in an AD/CSM meeting. She stands up to Skinner -- figuratively, not literally -- and suggests he should have an open mind regarding X-Files cases. But Skinner doesn’t give her any wiggle room, especially with CSM hovering directly behind him. On a technical note, I hope the wardrobe peeps do something about the reflection in Skinner’s specs; you can see the whole crew in them.
Mulder attends Tooms’ release hearing. We see Tooms start to change, but he manages to control himself. Too bad the same cannot be said for Mulder during his testimony. The “pro” is he provides enough exposition to catch up old viewers and not confuse new ones. The “con” is Mulder ends up sounding pretty crazy. It’s a good thing most X-Files cases don’t end up in a courtroom.
Scully’s late for the review because of her meeting with Skinner. For me, that casts him in a bad light from the get-go if this is how Scully’s morning started: “Hey boss. I need to go testify at a hearing to keep a man who attacked me from being released.” Skinner: “No, let’s talk about something you probably discussed monthly with other ADs instead.” So, of course, Tooms is released. He even gets his job back with Animal Control. Almost immediately, he is back to his creepy behavior, but he gets liver-blocked by Mulder.
Meanwhile, Scully visits Briggs, the original detective, to see whether they can still build a case against Tooms. Remember how Briggs conveniently maintained all of the evidence from the decades-old murders in the third ep? I can buy that since he considered the cases unsolved. But now, Briggs miraculously mentions something he never disclosed to Sculder or even tried to follow up on his own: He pulls out a 60-year-old liver in a jar that he said belongs to his one missing victim. Briggs even tells Scully where he thinks the body is buried, and of course, they find the bones pretty easily. Well, that's convenient. But why would Tooms leave a liver in the first place? Wasn’t he killing people for their livers? Sestra Pro, I need more exposition! Scully has the bones examined and unofficially identifies them as belonging to Briggs’ missing person from 1933.
Mulder follows Tooms, who is hot on the trail of a potential victim. Mulder falls asleep on his unauthorized stakeout -- that’s exactly why you need teams of two -- while Tooms elongates himself to get in through the sewer system (P.U.!) and the barred windows (Eek!) Mulder awakens and warns the family they may have a serial killer inside their house, but Tooms makes a not-so-clean getaway. Mulder is just not looking good in this episode at all.
Scully meets up with Mulder on yet another unauthorized stakeout. They have a cute bonding moment and Mulder leaves to get some rest. What he doesn’t know is Tooms stowed away in his trunk. After he gets back to his apartment, Mulder falls asleep. Tooms gains access through the A/C vent, but instead of killing or hurting Mulder, he sets up the agent up so it looks like he attacked Tooms. It sort of works and Sculder are brought before Skinner. CSM is still silently lurking in the background. Do you think William B. Davis got paid by the word or the cigarette? Scully alibis Mulder, who uses science to prove he never attacked Tooms.
Scully finally has evidence that Tooms murdered the man whose bones were found and they go to arrest him. But by now, Tooms has killed his shrink and is ready for hibernation. Man, those liver addicts have no self-control. Sculder determine Tooms will return home, but his apartment was destroyed and replaced with a shopping mall. Yes, in the seven months between these episodes, the contractors demolished a multi-story building, built a shopping center complete with escalators, filled the spaces with retailers and opened for business. Too bad road construction crews can’t work that efficiently.
Mulder finds the nest below the floor and Tooms non-verbally invites the agent to join him. Mulder non-verbally declines and a creepy chase ensues through the vent. Mulder kicks Tooms in the face, then starts the escalator. Tooms gets caught in the track, and well, I’m sure all of your parents told you what would happen if you ever got caught in an escalator. If not, there are some disturbing YouTube videos out there that will catch you up.
The next morning CSM finally decides to speak. Turns out he believes Sculder, but is that just about Tooms or about all of the X-Files? Mulder warns Scully that change is coming. Oh, don’t get so foreshadowy, Fox.
Sestra Professional:
He's baaaaack. And he's heeeeere.
The team of Glen Morgan and James Wong created a classic X-Files villain and a blueprint for "Monster of the Week" episodes in Eugene Victor Tooms. And the show hit the mother lode casting Doug Hutchison, because he's so supremely creepy and does it with a minimal amount of dialogue.
Very cool that a legal loophole brings Tooms back into the fray and the public since his behavior in the mental institution was exemplary and the agents' evidence against him -- 19 murders spanning nearly a century -- defies belief and/or common sense. Mulder's liver-extraction theory certainly leaves a bad taste in the judicial system's mouth.
Less cool that Skinner's first meeting with Scully, as Sestra Am pointed out, comes at the expense of an ongoing case. Walter cites their inconclusive findings backed by opinion -- "Maybe your mind has become too open." His charge is quick to point out Sculder's conviction or case solution of 75 percent, well above the bureau standard. He calls that their saving grace, she counters with a claim that conventional investigation may decrease the rate of success. No biggie, he's a quick learner.
Mulder knows Tooms needs to kill to survive, and he won't be sloppy about it -- at least not until near the denouement of the episode. Scully, who just stood up to Skinner, still winds up in some kind of verbal tussle with Mulder. "If you're resisting because of some bureaucratic pressure, they've not only reeled you in, they've skinned you." No, Mulder, they've Skinner-ed her.
So Mulder follows Tooms around town -- the mutant's hearing and seeing things in slo-mo, is that something yellow eyes do for you? -- and Scully goes off to rework the previous murders. By the way, the detective on the original case should be an X-File himself. There's no earthly reason why he should have figured out exactly where the evidence was in the cement, for if he could truly do that, he should have solved that one before now. That dude must have been soooo Mulder -- aka Spooky -- back in his prime.
So much meta for me in this episode from Mitch Pileggi's first appearance to David Duchovny's outtakes. A story I've been lucky enough to hear in person a couple of times, Mitch was brought in several times to test for the show prior to this episode. When they wanted to see him again for Skinner, he was pretty perturbed and let that show in his performance. That controlled anger ultimately landed him the role, obviously a more important one than in his previous auditions. Meanwhile, David's riffing on poor, poor Tooms for animals. "I use him to hunt mousse ... for my hair" and "Where can I get a jumpsuit like that?"
You're going to get sloppy and you're going to get hurt: Mulder hasn't slept for three days? By Sestra Am's own reckoning, he falls asleep twice during this one episode! Maybe because he's so tired, he tells Scully he even made his parents call him Mulder.
I think it's kind of a cool plan Tooms came up with to frame Mulder. Of course, he's no match for the G-Man, because that guy can figure out what's what just by finding a loose screw. Also appreciating how technology can utilize information from the original murders to point the elongated finger at Tooms now.
You can get the next mutant: I totally concur on the ridiculous shopping center springing up magically between Episodes 3 and 21, but regarding the liver, maybe he was just saving it for a late-night snack? I had a fear of escalators long, long before this show -- guess my mom did tell me what would happen if I ever got caught in one. Chock up another solved and closed case for Sculder ... and this one won't have to go to court, Sestra Am.
Guest Star of the Week: I didn't give it to Hutchison last time, although he definitely earned his paycheck in both eps. And another fine piece of X-Files meta -- the guy performed his final scene chasing Mulder through the duct nude, and that made Duchovny eXtremely uncomfortable and all too eager to get away from him. Perfect motivation, I say.
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 northwest Washington state, a group of loggers are panicking. They run through the woods all night. Two guys get swarmed by a swarm of ... swarmy things. Picture neon-green homicidal lightning bugs. They fly; we don’t know what they are. Doesn’t that make them UFOs by definition? As Veronica Cartwright -- who plays a recurring X-Files character in the distant future -- said in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, “Why do we always expect metal ships?”
Back east in less-buggy Washington, D.C., Mulder explains the case to Scully. It may be eco-terrorism, but he's assuming it’s an X-File since a similar incident occurred 60 years earlier.
Sculder meet with Larry Moore of the Federal Forest Service and Steve Humphreys, who employs the 30 missing loggers. They drive up toward the loggers’ camp together, but get delayed when eco-terrorist road spikes disable two of their tires. They continue on foot to the deserted camp where it looks like the loggers left in a hurry. Remember that scene in Aliens when the Colonial Marines arrive on LV-426 and the colonists’ camp appears completely empty? Well, it’s like that without the rain. Too bad the missing loggers probably don’t have locators implanted in their bodies. Their trucks also were disabled with sugar. Damn those eco-terrorists; they never account for potentially deadly infestations.
Sculder and Ranger Larry check the area and locate a large cocoon in a tree. They hoist Scully up to it and she sees a desiccated body inside. Meanwhile, Steve finds monkey wrencher Doug Spinney in the kitchen. Doug tells them his friend (and fellow eco-terrorist) was devoured by the bugs and warns they will come back ... when darkness falls. The non-Sculder folk then get sidetracked arguing about their own agendas.
The next morning Doug proves Steve’s loggers were in the wrong. Good news though: No trees were harmed in the making of this episode. The tree Steve touches is amusingly fake. Mulder notices a weird ring in the fallen tree’s stump. Larry analyzes the sample and sees living wood mites. Doug claims everyone disappeared and his partner died after the loggers cut down that particular tree, which was several hundred years old. Steve hikes back to Ranger Larry’s truck, but Numbnuts forgot to get the keys so he’s stranded out there ... when darkness falls. Naturally, the swarm gets him.
Back at the cabin, Scully conducts a biology class and Mulder delivers a history lesson that ends with his ancient insect eggs theory. Spinney seems to appreciate the poetic justice. The next morning, Mulder trusts Doug with the last can of gasoline and lets him leave to check on his friends/fellow eco-terrorists. Scully and the ranger are a teensy-weensy bit perturbed at that, especially since they don’t have enough gasoline to run their own generator all night. So darkness falls ... and our heroes barely make it through the night.
They hike back to Ranger Larry’s truck with a spare tire. And that’s when they find Humphreys. Poor cocooned Steve. Mulder’s faith in Spinney is justified when he arrives to save them. While driving out of the forest darkness falls yet again ... and Doug flattens their tires with the road spikes he probably forgot were in the roadway. Spinney exits the Jeep, gets swarmed and runs away. I’m pretty sure that’s the end of Doug. Sculder and the ranger get swarmed inside the Jeep and are found the next morning in a cocooned state by government operatives in containment suits. Looks like they found our heroes just in time. Even Ranger Larry probably gets to survive this one, but I’m pretty sure we’ll never see him again. How do I know this? I checked IMDB.
Sestra Professional:
"'Darkness Falls' across the land, the midnight hour is close at hand. Creatures crawl in search of blood, to terrorize your neighborhood." This episode makes me itchy. And not just for Skinner's arrival in the next episode.
It'll be a nice trip to the forest: For once, Mulder's not going the supernatural route. He doesn't believe the rugged manly men taken out in the full bloom of their manhood were felled by Bigfoot -- "That's a lot of flannel to be choking down, even for Bigfoot." He develops something of a rational, coherent theory that Scully, for once, doesn't have to move heaven and Earth to try and disprove.
The eco-terrorists ensure Sculder and the Freddie and the head lumberjack wind up good and stranded. The road spikes effectively take out multiple tires on their vehicle, while rice and sugar was used in the tanks of trucks up at camp.
So this is definitely a better way of going about a statement episode than last week's ill-formed "Shapes." The loggers may be planting saplings in place of trees they cut down, but they've also taken out specifically marked old-growth ones they weren't supposed to touch. In doing so, they
released carnivorous mites and doomed themselves. When corporate Paul Bunyan refuses to believe, he gets caught in a no-longer-proverbial web of his own making.
Sanctimonious crap: Mulder's a bit too do-gooder for his (and Scully's) good in this episode. And when Scully calls him on letting Spinney go without so much as a word to her and Ranger Larry, he says she is the one delivering "sanctimonious crap." OK, he gets some brownie points back by being able to calm his usually unflappable partner down when they realize the bugs are all over everything -- in and out of the light.
And ultimately Mulder wasn't wrong, Spinney did come back. Of course, in this episode of ultimate comeuppances, the eco-terrorist hits one of the road spikes while driving them out and subjects all of them to the deadly fireflies. Good thing that they made some calls for help before the generator died.
This episode went so fast. It's nicely paced by executive producer Chris Carter and skillfully weaves its message with the action. But I have to admit, I've scratched at least 20 times rewatching this thing. (Editor's Note: Now up to about 50, since I played it again while putting the blog together.) And the government's big plan for putting an end to the issue? Controlled burns and pesticides. Will they never learn, when it's Man vs. Nature, the latter tends to win out.
Guest Star of the Week: The eco-terrorists call themselves monkey wrenchers? And guest star Jason Beghe starred in underrated 1988 horror gem titled Monkey Shines! Just
a coincidence? Well, yeah, probably. Especially since plays the "Freddie"
-- employee of the Federal Forest Service -- and not a monkey wrencher.
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.
Roland, Roland, Roland
Mulder takes a sample of Roland’s handwriting, but an expert rules him out as being the contributor on the equation board. Meanwhile, Roland has visions of killing Keats so he goes to the lab and shoves Keats’ face into liquid nitrogen. Chilling. The next morning we get to see the most disturbing chalk outline ever. (Please note that black tape was used instead of chalk and is considered a perfectly acceptable substitute.) Mulder realizes someone accessed Arthur’s computer files after Keats’ murder, but the program is password protected. Mulder uses the code he found at Roland’s halfway house and it gets him into the system. 
I had the Rawhide theme playing in my head too before even seeing Sestra Am's portion of the program. Hey, Mulder's psychic-connection theory between siblings plays out before our very eyes.
But that puts his usual quipping nature on the sideline. Scully tries to take up the slack every now and then, with lines like "Does this pitch somehow end with a way for me to lower my long-distance charges?" And she did implant a vision of us all needing to have a Fudgsicle. But Mulder does get in one good shot after the episode's money shot -- the liquid nitrogen death. "I don't think they'll be performing this experiment on Beakman's World." 
