I was slightly miffed at the time that Angela Lansbury was nominated
for an Emmy and Gillian wasn't....
Simply Irresistible
by Autumn Tysko
"I know that the world is full of predators just as it has always
been, and I know that it is my job to protect people from them."
This episode, like no other, drives home the fact that Gillian
Anderson's lack of an emmy nomination this year was nothing
short of highway robbery. The combination of Chris Carter's
writing and Gillian's superb and heartrending performance gave
us a treasured peak beneath the surface of the oh-so-cool Dana
Scully. What we see is that our heroine is not unflappable after
all, she has fears she hides from her partner and even herself.
This episode has been often criticized as not being an "X-File",
but if this show is indicative of a non-X-file show you can
keep yer mutants. O.K. enough of that serious stuff ...
Basic Plot (with Creepy and Psychic Moments highlighted):
Really creepy guy (Donnie Pfaster) proves himself to be
exceptionally creepy by:
#1 Breathing funny as he fondles at dead girl's hair.
#2 Noticing a Kathy Bates look-a-like is wearing "Indian Summer"
lipstick. (And even creepier she thinks that's a sign that
he is religious and not gay.)
#3 Rooting around in a bathroom trash can in a house with four
women. (Oh, yeah and sniffing a wad of hair.)
#4 Keeping a pillowcase stuffed with hair and actually having
brussel sprouts in his freezer. (Which I found grosser than
the finger in there too.)
#5 Driving a van. (All really creepy X-Files bad guys drive vans.)
#6 Calling Scully "girlie girl".
Scully proves once again to us ('cause she'd never believe it
herself) that she is indeed psychic by:
#1 Seeing her own face in crime photos. (Or what she would look
like with really messed up black hair.) Production note: We are
given a hint that this is a "psychic moment" by the alteration
of the camera speed as she closes the folder - making it all
seem not quite right.
#2 Suddenly developing an aversion to looking at dead bodies.
(Something she usually enjoys. After all she "majored" in it.)
#3 Having a nightmare and waking up at - you guessed it - 11:21PM.
#4 Getting that odd "Scully psychic" look on her face when she
sees Pfaster in jail.
#5 I will not mention all those morphing/demon moments (whoops I
just did) because they were added in post and we know she's
psychic without them.
Fun Facts:
- Mulder asks Scully out on a date (O.K., maybe I'm stretching a
little), but the only one who gets a pass made at them is Chris
Carter (of the Vikings on the game on TV).
- A gravestone in the cemetery scene at the start is for Raymond
Soames the original X-File swirlie.
- Scully wears purple pjs and even does that hair tuck thing when
she's disoriented and sleepy.
- That finger print technician guy has got to be the most used
extra actor in the X-Files. Sightings include: "Our Town",
"Lazarus", "Young at Heart".
- Scully actually gets to wear a red suit in the very beginning
before hitting that large "tan" section in her closet.
- Scully actually gets to drive...of course she is by herself and
does get forced off the road by satan-spawn, but she did get to
drive.
- Agent Bochs is actually weirder than Mulder. He uses the word
"freakazoid" in a sentence AND somehow ties someone having
their nails and hair cut away to cattle mutilations. Since
cows really don't have nails or hair that's kinda hard, but
he does it.
- Scully swears. "Get the hell away from me".
- Scully temporarily gets Pfaster by spraying "Tub & Tile"
in his eyes. After removing her gag. First things first you
know.
- There is a camera shot in the hooker sequence where you see
Pfaster through her raised leg. Sort of a really creepy homage
to "The Graduate".
- Mulder eats chinese take out (with chopsticks) while Scully
works on two-count-em-two computers reading about things like
serial killers who attack people with serrated kitchen knives
and acidic chemicals. No wonder she wasn't hungry.
Great Acting Moments:
- The "A body had a story to tell" monologue. Way cool.
- Mulder & Scully's wonderful whispered conversation in the jail.
The actors really bring out the intimacy in this scene where
Scully repeatedly lies to Mulder and even looks as if she is
holding back tears with her last weak "I'm fine".
- The conversation between Scully and the social worker is hands
down one of the best moments ever on the X-Files. It holds the
key to every time Scully lies to Mulder in this series: "I don't
want him to feel like he has to protect me".
- S: "Anyway, you could use my help." M: "Always."
- Mulder's concern for Scully highlighted by his "No one saw a
pretty woman being forced off the road" speech.
- The beautifully acted scene at the end where Scully give her
standard "I'm fine" lie one more time before breaking down in a
concerned Mulder's arms.
NitPicks
- Call me cruel, but it would have done some justice to the gene
pool if that apron-wearing-cookie-baking-moron-mother wouldn't
have gotten away with telling Pfaster she keeps the door
unlocked.
- Scully dates her autopsy 11:14AM Monday, Nov 14th. This puts
the episode in a weird X-Files time limbo that isn't quite
right. We learn in "3" that it is November. That would mean
the events of "One Breath", "Firewalker" (which includes a
month of quarantine at the end), "Excelcis Dei", "Red Museum",
and "Aubrey" all happened in less than two weeks. I don't
think so.
- We never did get the answer to that "normal or dry" question.
My money is on normal.
One last thing. Angela Lansbury. Yeah, right. She doesn't even
have a proper flashlight.
Autumn
