Sestra Pro was probably able to translate the title without looking it up since she took French in high school. I didn’t know what “folie” meant and “deux”, of course, means two, which I know because of Hot Shots, Part Deux. According to Google, the literal translation is “madness to two.” I prefer Urban Dictionary’s interpretation, “The two of you share the same delusion.” Side note: I feel I should be thankful for the 1998 movie because it cut this season down to 20 episodes. For one, it wasn’t a great season, but more importantly, we’re that much closer to the way more entertaining (and hopefully just as trashable) Season 6.
Do you need some vinyl siding? Turns out, people who answered their phones to salesmen in 1998 were a lot more patient and polite than they are now. Poor Gary Lambert is just trying to earn a living as a telemarketer in Oak Brook, Illinois, but his spiel keeps getting interrupted by a giant trilling insect. He tries to warn the potential customer, which I think is pretty above and beyond the scope of his job. Sometime later, Assistant Director Skinner sends our intrepid heroes to the call center to investigate because of VinylRight’s monster-laden manifesto, left by Gary for a local radio station so he could warn the public. Mulder thinks it’s a crap assignment because he pissed off Skinner. There’s always a possibility of that being true, and considering how last week’s episode played out, he might be on to something. Bonus points for continuity: Fox's fingers are still healing from that finger-breaking lie detector “test” in Episode 18 ("The Pine Bluff Variant"). Mulder initially heads to Chicago, sans Scully. (The Blackhawks weren’t in the Stanley Cup playoffs in 1998, so Mulder might have to settle for a Cubs game instead.) On the recorded manifesto, Lambert tries to call everyone to action to locate and stop the monster. VinylRight’s boss, Greg Pincus, isn’t sure who created the message, but he’s conducting his own investigation. I’m sure that’ll end well. Fox decides he needs Dana's help after all and asks her to research a phrase in the manifesto -- “hiding in the light.” He’s heard it somewhere before. Pincus calls Gary’s coworker, Nancy Aaronson, into his office. Lambert warns her not to go, but seriously, what else could she do? Gary now sees Pincus as the insect and hears Nancy’s scream, but he gets sent back to his work station by the floor manager. Poor zombified Nancy returns to her desk and goes back to work while the boss calls in his next victim, Mark Backus. Unfortunately, it’s all in Lambert's head. Aaronson looks normal to us, but Gary begins loading a rifle and preparing to take out the monsters in his office.
Scully calls Mulder with news about a man named Resnick from 1992 who used the same phrase about his church parishioners in Lakeland, Florida, before gunning them down and committing suicide. After confirming she told him so, Dana heads to Chicago to assist Fox, who returns to the call center a little too late. Lambert is armed and ready to fire. Scully arrives in record time and meets with Agent-in-Charge Rice, played by Continuum and Dark Matter’s Roger Cross, an actor making his fourth appearance on The X-Files in four years. Poor guy never got to play the same character twice on this show. At least give viewers a throwaway line about how he looks familiar. Everyone is still alive in the call center, but Gary’s observations haven’t changed. Agent Rice gets impatient and calls Mulder’s cell phone. Too bad you didn’t keep it on silent, Fox. It’s also too bad the call didn’t go to voice mail after a dozen cricket-sounding rings. Lambert sees Mulder’s concealed handgun, disarms him then shoots “zombie” Mark Backus. Gary really does sound crazy when he tries to justify the shooting. (He’s technically right. Some jobs do figuratively try to turn their employees into “mindless drones." Lambert just sees it literally.) He requests a cameraman and Agent Rice complies … sort of. Mulder gets in between Pincus and the rifle. The lights go out and the insect trills. Fox turns and sees the insect, but then the FBI’s armored transport crashes through the wall and takes out Gary. Now Mulder doesn’t know what to believe. Still time to catch a game before you head home, Fox.
Mulder learns Pincus visited Lakeland, and in 1994, worked in Kansas City, where another shooting incident occurred. Back in D.C., Fox begins mapping 10 years’ worth of similar claims that revolve around Pincus and end with the last incident at the call center on May 10, 1998. (The Cubbies did have a home game against the San Francisco Giants on that date. Unfortunately, May 10, 1998 was a Sunday so the call center should have been closed in the first place.) Scully claims Lambert was mentally ill; Mulder admits he saw the creature too and claims it is definitely not folie a deux. Fox also denies he is suffering from Helsinki Syndrome, which I had to look up because I’m only familiar with Stockholm Syndrome. Turns out it’s not a real thing, just a running joke regarding people who get their Nordic countries confused. Mulder and Agent Rice go to Gary’s house in Illinois. Fox sees zombie Nancy outside, but she leaves with Pincus before Fox can stop her (and, more importantly, before Rice can see she’s a zombie). Skinner asks Scully why Mulder returned to Illinois. She says she’ll head that way until Walter tells her she has an autopsy to do: Dead employee/potential zombie Mark Backus, whose time of death is a day or two before Fox witnessed it. Mulder continues chasing the insect, but all he finds is another female zombie, VinylRight employee Gretchen Starns. Too bad the human version of her files a complaint against Fox for breaking into her house. A fed-up Skinner arrives to take Mulder home. Pincus plays the good guy and agrees not to press charges against the “hero,” who thinks the boss from hell is about to attack Skinner. Fox tries to stop Pincus … with his gun. That little move lands Mulder in the psych ward. Luckily, Dana shows up with her autopsy findings, but she still doesn’t believe Fox. Of course, he needs her to believe or else she’ll never see the monster. Back at Quantico, Scully looks for a mark on Backus' neck, and because we’re in the last quarter of the episode, she finds it.
It’s time for bed, but Mulder thinks the creature climbed three floors to get at him through the window. The marked nurse makes things worse by opening his window and double-checking his restraints. Frankly, why does this creature feel the need to change Fox? It’s been more productive letting people think Mulder is crazy. Oh yeah, it’s that last quarter of the episode thing. Dana makes it back to the hospital and momentarily gets stopped by the nurse … until she finally believes and sees Nursey as a zombie. Scully runs into Fox’s room and shoots the insect. During the epilogue, Dana offers a watered-down version of the truth, claiming the actions were the result of an unknown toxin found in Mark Backus and the VinylRight “zombies” have disappeared. Greg Pincus is also missing, but don’t worry, he found new employment at a call center in Missouri. By the way, Scully’s translation of folie a deux is “a madness shared by two.” It was way, way, way more than two, Scully.Sestra Professional:
Oooh, busting on Season 5. I don't usually hear a lot of that. I do concede Season 6 is more entertaining. In fact, it's my go-to season for random rewatches and my second favorite for the whole series run. And I'll also admit this season suffered a lot from the need for preparation for the big blockbuster. Quite a few times someone involved in production wasn't working on the series because of Fight the Future. And there was some testing of the waters with outside-of-the-box storytellers (and fan boys) Stephen King ("Chinga," Episode 10) and William Gibson ("Kill Switch," E11). Still, with the likes of "Bad Blood" (E12), "Mind's Eye" (E16) and "The Pine Bluff Variant" as well as the crackling Mulder-Krycek scene in "The Red and the Black" (E14), though, I like to have it around.
But we're not quite there yet, so back to Episode 19, and although obviously not as strong as "Bad Blood," "Folie a Deux" is a nice piece of work from writer Vince Gilligan with a strong performance by David Duchovny. There wasn't really a lot of study of folie (madness/delusion) in my high-school French, though. I had the deux part down cold, however.Monsters, I'm your boy: As Sestra Am mentioned, there are a couple nice callbacks to the previous episode. (Pretty cool considering that in that blog, Sestra was not so happy about how the show wasn't playing off -- and thus paying off -- on what had previously happened.) So having Mulder's hand still bandaged up and questioning whether Skinner has given him a crap assignment because of his actions on the previous case make for spectacular continuity.
The joy of Gilligan's work is the ability to enjoy characters beyond whoever is the main focus of the episode. So Scully gets to get some shots in as well, such as when she reminds Fox that he's not the only one who Walter asked to do what Mulder considers dirty work. "You're saying I a lot. I heard we" is about as gentle a reminder of that as possible. On top of that, Gilligan also gives the guest actors some great material to work with. In other hands, Cynthia Preston's part as Nancy Aaronson would be an afterthought. But she gets to quip snazzy dialogue like, "Uh oh, now I'm dead," before going into the boss' office to be zombified.
The story progresses into an unexpectedly tense hostage situation. We don't get a lot of that in the series. It reminds me of "Duane Barry" (S2E5) -- watch out, Scully! -- but really does show that Mulder's got aptitude for other parts of his job than just spotting the supernatural. And it gives the show's most prolific director, Kim Manners, a chance to do his best work as well. Save maybe Rob Bowman, no other director on the show can keep the tension ratcheted up while looking visually on point. Your episode calls for bulldozing through an office building? I'd want Manners too.What a fantastically quick way to end the hostage siege and move on to the next part of the story. Mulder now believes Gary, so no need to take that poor sod much further, unless the show needed Scully abducted again. This also gives us something we've been lacking for large portions of Season 5 -- true Sculder interaction in which one of their viewpoints carries as much weight as the other. Duchovny and Gillian Anderson feast upon that here.
Five years together, you must have seen this coming: We've had our fair share of Mulder madness over the series, but he makes an excellent point about Gary (and himself, in the process). Did he go all buggy because he was disturbed, or was he disturbed because he saw the big bug? Extending the analogy to a mantis clouding the minds of victims and hypnotizing its prey may seem like a stretch, but the idea of bosses controlling us and co-workers spying on us to do his dirty work like mindless drones certainly doesn't.
Skinner's blowing in the wind a little bit in this episode. We haven't seen a tremendous amount of Mitch Pileggi in the fifth season. After working pretty well with Scully last episode, Walter seems to have reverted to a buttoned-down version of himself for "Folie a Deux." I do appreciate that when given the exact same choice as Mulder, Skinner won't look back at the monster. A sharp piece of symmetry, even if we kind of expect -- or at least hope -- that at this point in their relationship, Walter will give Fox the benefit of the doubt and take a peek over that shoulder.You're my one in five billion: The money line. It's an exquisite sentence with no boundaries. Could it be the most seminal quote in the history of the series? Possibly. The shippers still cling to it. And the no-romos don't mind it either, because when it comes down to it, they know that no one else is going to fill Scully's space in Mulder's heart and soul. Where the two factions depart is the need to see that expressed physically. I can live with the idea of them being soulmates, I don't need their tongues to tell the tale. I'd rather watch them battle gargantuan arthropods. We know they have the ultimate folie a deux, a madness shared between just them.
Meta mothballs: Cross tended to play law enforcement or military on the show. He was an officer in "E.B.E." (S1E17), a private in "Fresh Bones" (S2E15) and the SWAT lieutenant in "Pusher" (S3E17). He'll be back in Season 11 ... as a police officer. ... When arguing with Mulder, Scully says she doesn't want to give credence to a mad man. Brian Markinson (Gary Lambert) played Dr. Arnold Rosen on Mad Men 15 years later. Coincidence? Uh, probably. ... In the official guide, Markinson perfectly captured Manners' reaction to the stuntwoman wearing a 70-pound bug suit on the set. "I thought, 'This is what's driving me crazy?' ... Then I looked up and I saw Kim Manners. He had absolutely lost it. He just kept saying, 'Oh, my God! My career -- it's over!'" ... In The Complete X-Files, Gilligan explained how the effects weren't done until the day the show originally aired. But he was quite happy with the finished product. "(Visual effects supervisor Laurie Kallsen-George) took the footage with the monster in it, erased the monster completely, took the monster to a different screen or whatever, animated it, and added speed blur. ... You never really see it closely, but that's OK. ... The truth is, your imagination can be much more effective than real life," Gilligan said in the guide. ... And if you're keeping track, the scribe's penchant for adding partner Holly Rice's name to his episode is fulfilled by Agent Rice.
Guest star of the week: What a dynamic and typically unheralded performance by Markinson (who also was Tony Fiore in "Born Again" (S1E22). Gary really has to be over the edge, believing what he's seeing, but we need to ... and do ... have empathy for him. Markinson is only in about half the episode, but he makes the stakes clear and high. His dialogue surely makes Gary sound crazy, and while we can't abide him taking up arms and hostages, we believe him. It bugs me that people don't usually bring him up when discussing best guest stars.
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