We’re in sunny Santa Monica so our Los Angeles-based crew doesn’t have to travel far (or provide us with an unbelievably fake cooler climate). The Amazing Maleeni – played by Ricky Jay, who I know mainly from movies Sestra Pro made me watch -- is getting screwed out of his promised fee, but the show must go on. He’s pretty good with the sleight of hand, even as he deals with an annoying heckler. (Really, is there any other kind of heckler?) Maleeni takes the bait and performs an unexpected head twist of Exorcist proportions. Afterward, he’s found in his van with his head severed from his body. No blood though, so it should be an easy cleanup.Sculder manage to drop everything, fly to luminous California and arrive at the still-active crime scene. Scully thinks it’s murder and Mulder says it’s a magic trick gone wrong. The agents watch video of Maleeni’s trick and Dana takes note of the heckler, Billy LaBonge. The next day they track him to a North Hollywood magic club. Billy turns his hand around 360 degrees for them. Apparently, this is one of those episodes where you really can’t watch and type at the same time, you’d miss too much sleight of hand. LaBonge is trying to explain his contempt for Maleeni while simultaneously showing off his own skills. But it was nice of him to return their FBI badges.
After the autopsy, Scully determines Maleeni’s head was sawed off, but there are traces of spirit gum holding the head onto his body. Of course, none of that caused his death. It was advanced coronary disease from approximately a month ago. He’s been refrigerated since then. That certainly explains the lack of blood. Meanwhile, LaBonge is up to something. He meets with former cellmate Cissy Alvarez, the bookie who Maleeni owed $20,000. Billy takes credit for cutting off Maleeni’s head and claims he can makes Cissy 10 times what was owed. Billy keeps Alvarez's men from beating him to a pulp by proving his abilities.
Sculder meet with banker Albert Pinchbeck who looks exactly like the Amazing Maleeni. He’s even wearing a neck brace because he was (allegedly) in a car accident in Mexico. He and his twin brother, Herman Pinchbeck, used to perform magic together but parted ways when Albert left the act. Mulder theorizes Albert helped his dying brother commit one last act so he would be remembered. Unfortunately, it was such a bad car accident in Mexico that Albert lost his legs. Convenient. Sculder return to LaBonge to see if he could help them uncover how Herman’s severed head trick was done in exchange for learning The Amazing Maleeni’s secrets. Too bad it’s beyond his capability for explanation. But Mulder does find Cissy’s notebook record of Herman’s $20,000 marker.
Back in the bank, Albert performs his own bit of misdirection with the armored car security guard. Afterward, Cissy shows up demanding Albert make good on Herman’s debts. Inside the armored car, the guard shoots at a man with Cissy’s tattoos, but it’s Billy wearing fake ink who gets away. Sculder interview Alvarez about Herman’s murder but don’t seem to know about the armored car attempted robbery yet. Fox thinks they’re being intentionally misdirected. After they leave, LaBonge arranges for police to show up at Alvarez’s pool hall to arrest him (LaBonge, not Alvarez). And at the bank, Mulder unceremoniously dumps Albert out of the wheelchair, revealing he has legs after all. Albert reveals he is actually Herman. Albert died of a heart attack and Herman came up with a plan to get out of his gambling debt. Fox's explanation was spot on, he just had the wrong brother. But Mulder thinks Herman had bigger fish to fry, like robbing the bank … or the armored car.
Of course, Herman Pinchbeck and Billy LaBonge end up cellmates and reveal they’ve been working together this whole time. And the following day the bank vault has been emptied of $1.8 million. The video surveillance is blank, but the armored truck guard identifies Alvarez as the tattooed man he shot at. Fox finds the bank’s money hidden in the pool hall (hope he had a search warrant), so Cissy goes down for the theft. Herman and Billy make bail, but the agents catch them before they leave the jail. Their theory -- it was revenge on Alvarez. The duo easily could have escaped the holding cells (that’s really not saying a lot about the overnight guards and security system in the police station), committed the burglary and theft, framed Alvarez, then returned to their cells. Pinchbeck and LaBonge get off scot-free but Mulder prevents them from going through with their final criminal act, an electronic bank transfer that can be authorized with a federal agent’s badge number and thumbprint. That sounds more unbelievable than the rotating head trick.
Sestra Professional:
I'm always torn between thinking that "The Amazing Maleeni" is complementary to "The Goldberg Variation" a couple episodes ago or that airing those two in the span of three episodes is a bit much, especially since there isn't much particularly X-filey about either of them. I suppose our heroes must investigate to determine that, though. And I still don't know whether it was a good idea or a bad one to have the return of Donnie Pfaster in "Orison" split the two up either.
Why are you talking like Tony Randall? It's also the second time in less than a month in which Mulder and Scully don't have a lot to do other than filling their usual roles on the canvas. However, since Dana just did something contrary to her character last week and we're nearing a two-parter that will wrap up Fox's search for his sister, I'm not going to complain that we're not really advancing their story or relationship at this juncture.In the meantime, I'll take "Movies I Made Sestra Am Watch with Ricky Jay in Them" for $100, Alex. Let's see ... definitely Magnolia, Boogie Nights and State and Main ... possibly The Spanish Prisoner and House of Games ... and absolutely not Tomorrow Never Dies or Mystery Men. Hope I fared better on that than she thought I did on the National Siblings Day quiz.
Abracadabra, man: That was a pretty stellar teaser, though. I did originally roll my eyes in true heckler fashion at the commonplace ball trick -- I'd much rather be riding the rides -- and the head-spinning illusion isn't too much of a con with editing. But Maleeni's head rolling away soon after he pronounced that the feat didn't meet with a lot of success in previous attempts, now that was something.
How I can buy that easier than the idea that a trash bin wasn't dumped in over 24 hours -- enabling Scully to pinpoint the heckler -- is beyond me. (Although Sestra Am points out it was an active crime scene and thusly probably was cordoned off.) Maybe I'm more Mulder than I suspected. But I do wish one of those magicians could give Dana back the rest of her hair."The Amazing Maleeni" was written by our favorite three-headed machine -- co-executive producer Vince Gilligan, supervising producer John Shiban and executive producer Frank Spotnitz. They hadn't received a writing credit together since the "Dreamland" two-parter (Season 6, Episodes 4 and 5) more than a year earlier, unless you count Gilligan and Shiban's teleplay of Spotnitz's story for "Field Trip" (S6E21). Because of them, the episode is imbued with a certain spirit and a playfulness between the lead characters. In that sense, the comparison to "The Goldberg Variation" feels less warranted. Wherever you'd put this tale on The X-Files spectrum, it does inherently feel like a Mulder and Scully vision and less like one that could be found in any other supernatural show.
That winds up being a good thing, because much of the story about the marker and the money is a bit dull. Ricky Jay and Jonathan Levit (LaBonge) are real-life magicians, so the flair they utilize in their illusions helped liven up the lulls with more flair than Maleeni handled his cup and balls trick on the pier. I was more blasé about Fox explaining what sleight of hand is to a partner who probably would know that kind of thing, that was used to much better effect by both our leads in "Humbug" (S2E20).
Another moment I really appreciated in this episode was Mulder grabbing the wheelchair and unceremoniously dumping Maleeni out of it. It was so much more dramatic than jabbing a pin into his leg to prove Herman wasn't dead and he could walk. I view it as Fox living up to the challenge of presentation posed by the tricksters.The bigger setup engineered by the two magicians proves to be a satisfying denouement akin to the classic movie The Sting. But even better was Scully showing Mulder she can appear to turn her hand around 360 degrees on a fixed spot. She did learn a thing or two from the uncle she mentioned in "Humbug" who was an amateur magician, didn't she? So much more impressive than The Amazing Muldeni's disconnecting thumb trick.
Meta magic: Jay and Levit have often been called upon in movies and television to whip up some magic. Among the more amazing of the titles, Jay plied his trade in The Prestige and Levit's credits include consulting on Now You See Me. ... In The Complete X-Files, Gilligan revealed the episode concept originated with Spotnitz, who had wanted to do an episode about magicians since he started on the show -- like Fox, he was a huge fan of Bill Bixby in The Magician. In the official episode guide, Spotnitz explained that it didn't go so smoothly. "Vince was ready to kill me," he said. "For him, this was agony." ... Billy LaBonge was named after the show's second unit director of photography, Robert LaBonge.
Guest star of the week: I've got to go with Ricky Jay in the dual roles. He's supremely talented on the magic front, but he also stands out playing the beleaguered aspects of both characters. Wait, no, just the one character. I mean, the one character playing his deceased brother and himself. Right.
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