This episode could be the plot of an action movie, like The Chase with Charlie Sheen and Kristy Swanson, but with X-Files flair. Hopefully this one will have a different outcome. I’m mostly sure (but not 100 percent) that this will not end up being a romantic comedy, like The Chase. The driver is question is Patrick Crump, played by Bryan Cranston in a pre-Malcolm in the Middle role. He’s trying to help his wife, Vicky, who is suffering from an exploding headache. Literally, not figuratively. After Crump breaks bad (see what I did there?) and leads Nevada Highway Patrol on a high-speed pursuit in a stolen car, they puncture his tires and apprehend him. Poor Vicky is “safe” in the backseat of a cop car until her head explodes in a red, gory mess on live television. Did I mention this episode was written by Vince Gilligan?
Sculder are in Idaho on a soul-sucking FBI assignment when Fox sees the chase news footage and arranges for them to meet Mr. Crump, who now is writhing with pre-head exploding symptoms. Fox interviews Captain Van Gelder, played by character actor Michael O’Neill -- who I recognized mainly from Grey’s Anatomy, where his bitter, vengeful character Gary Clark removed the most annoying doctors from an already overstuffed cast. Luckily, he wasn’t successful at killing McDreamy, but he did inadvertently cause the loss of McDreamy’s unborn child. But I digress...Back in the morgue, Dana inspects what’s left of Vicky’s head. Scully pokes and prods until she gets sprayed with blood and needs to be quarantined. Crump gets transported to the hospital, but his symptoms subside as the ambulance speeds up. So this might be more like Speed instead of The Chase; stay above 75 mph and his head won’t explode. Somehow, Patrick gets the jump on the trooper in the ambulance and takes Mulder hostage. Dana, not even aware Fox left the jail, calls to warn him Crump may be infected and Mulder should stay far, far away from him. Well that’s unlikely now…
Patrick threatens Fox's life, so the chase cars back off, but the helicopter follows and highway patrol officers set up a roadblock with the CDC. Scully is trying to coordinate with Captain Ven Gelder while fielding calls from Assistant Director Kersh about why Sculder are in Nevada, not Idaho. Dana, just claim Fox has a gambling addiction. Then his job will be protected by the AMA. Meanwhile, Crump’s headache worsens and he directs Mulder to drive west to ease the pain. Patrick tells Fox that he rushed Vicky to the hospital when she started showing symptoms, but she improved with speed. Great plan … but eventually won’t they run out of gas? Scully and the CDC search the Crump’s home, a lovely trailer in the middle of nowhere with a leashed, Cujo-like dog trying to attack everyone. They check on the Crumps’ neighbor, an elderly lady who is not infected, but almost dies of fright by their unannounced presence in her house.
Mulder stops for gas while Patrick writhes in the backseat, but it’s a pay-before-you-pump situation since this ep predates credit-card payments. So Fox steals a newly gassed up car and takes off with Crump. Scully starts to realize the pathogen targets the inner ear and finds dead birds near the Crump property, along with a U.S. Government underground access point. Maybe Patrick’s conspiracy theories are on the mark.
Captain Van Gelder is not amused with Mulder’s heroics and now sees him more as Crump’s accomplice than hostage. Scully speaks with Lt. Brell of the U.S. Navy about Project Seafarer and learns there was a power surge the previous morning of the ground conduction radio system. (If he’s a lieutenant, why does he have two bars instead of one? Recent demotion due to his project’s screw-up?) And Lt. Brell will not disclose what happens to living things affected by that … "power surge." Dana tells Fox about E.L.F. (Extra Low Frequency) waves, which he describes as “electrical nerve gas.” Mulder and Crump (Culder? Mump?) go as far west as they can, all the way to California. Scully is ready with an ambulance standing by. (Wasn’t there a westward military hospital to where they could have driven instead?) It’s a moot point anyway, Fox arrives with a dead Patrick in the back seat.
Back in D.C., Sculder are called before A.D. Kersh, and he reviews the financials of Mulder’s multi-state joyride/attempted life-saving situation. The agents leave the meeting pretty peeved. At least the Department of Defense shut down their antenna, so maybe there will be less exploding heads in Nevada. And yes, Bryan Cranston was great, Vince Gilligan was great, the episode was great. Can we watch "Triangle" now?
Sestra Professional:
It's The X-Files version of a meet-cute! Vince Gilligan, who will later create and helm Breaking Bad starring Bryan Cranston, creates a protagonist who seems more like an antagonist. Which seems valid, since our protagonist is the only man who would go to such extreme lengths to help out a racist redneck and not just let his head pop like a grape (put a pin in that description until the final series finale). I think this is a start of a beautiful friendship.
It's a sharp episode and one which demonstrates what the show will be able to accomplish in its new California environs. Miles of road spanning showing off the terrain of the good ol' U.S. of A. with bright sunlight, the perfect setting for an ultimately ill-fated road trip.Nice opening teaser with the breaking-news bulletin, I'm sure more than one X-Files fan bemoaned a local news report interrupting his/her show upon original airing back on Sept. 10, 1993. Gilligan will use this little gem again for one of the highlights of Season 7. We're not going to have any pins left if I keep jumping ahead. (Sorry, Sestra Am, we'll have to wait until next week for The X-Files variation on our favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie.)
Investigating yet another enormous pile of doo-doo: So Mulder and Scully have been assigned the unenviable task of tracking down people who have purchased too much fertilizer. Yet I'd still rather watch the dynamic duo do that than whatever Diana Fowley and Jeffrey Spender are up to in the bowels of the FBI building in Washington. (Actually, I think I made it sound more interesting than the Season 6 writing team ever will.)
Now not only did Gilligan craft a masterful script for the future star of his landmark television show, but he's also mighty fine at writing for both Fox and Dana. And that's become something of a rare commodity, we've seen a lot of scripts in recent seasons that serve either Mulder or Scully, but not usually both. Fox's ferocity at trying to save Crump slots right into the best aspects of the character. He gets to leave behind the pretentiousness that increasingly comes off as acerbity. Even though Mulder's usually right -- and maybe right too often than he should be -- it's in standing up for the Crumps and Duane Barrys that he really fits the hero mold.You know how to pick 'em, I'll tell you that: Even though Dana's not in the car with them, she still gets to build on the kind of determination we saw for a couple minutes in Fight the Future. Using her patented science, Scully not only figures out what's causing the cranium bursts, but also what can be done about it. And aides the investigation in critical aspects such as why Fox didn't drive Patrick into the road block and uncovers the source of the predicament. The latter is usually strictly Mulder territory and it's a most welcome change.
Last week, I mentioned reversing my initial course on Kersh. And I think this episode explains why I did. Let's face it, Sculder needs an adversary. Assistant Director Skinner is certainly more friend that foe at this point. Cigarette Smoking Man only comes out for special occasions, and as previously mentioned, Fowley and Spender are not worthy. So we need someone to ride herd on them. Kersh does it with style, and he's certainly not wrong about his directives. The duo censured by a committee that didn't include him wants them punished, and he's their new boss. So he doesn't even know that thing about Fox being right most of the time yet. I'm willing to accept his rigidity at this point, and James Pickens Jr. is mighty fine at doling that out.You were right, they did it to you: Sestra Am mentioned the homage to Speed, but in The Complete X-Files, Gilligan admitted it's also "a rip-off of the best episode of Homicide: Life on the Street, where Vincent D'Onofrio, one of the detectives, spends the entire hour talking to a guy trapped under a train in Baltimore, and this trapped man's a real asshole. And yet, when they finally move the train off of him, and he passes away -- you feel so bad for the guy. I loved that idea and I wanted to borrow that dynamic."
It's played to perfection on all fronts, the suspense holds up. Scully and Mulder have formulated a plan of action -- maybe that should have been a clue that it wouldn't work out -- and did everything in their power to save Crump from crumpling. I believe in England they would refer to this as a "cracking" episode.Metamphetamines: In preparation for his role, Pickens had the opportunity to observe real-life counterparts at the FBI's Los Angeles office. "They didn't get where they are by taking their work less seriously or bucking the system for no good reason," he said in the official episode guide. ... Show researcher Lee Smith contacted the military and contractors while researching Project ELF. After being told they couldn't harm anyone, a couple called back to admit ELFs could. ... Looking for the telltale placement of Gilligan's significant other, Holly Rice, in this one? The gas station Fox stops at -- Holly's. ... Farmer Virgil Nokes was played by one of Gilligan's favorite musicians, steel guitar master Junior Brown. On his own dime, Vince flew him in from Oklahoma, according to the guide.
Guest star of the week: Cranston, no duh! He made this wholly unlikable character someone we wanted to see survive the malady that befell him -- just like Gilligan drew it up. The ex-soap actor's ability to do that will be of utmost importance going forward into the brave new world of home methamphetamine production.
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