I know I'm not the only one who sees this episode coming up next and goes "oh crap, the retard one". If I weren't such a completest I probably would have skipped it.
I would have been missing out! It was a really interesting episode, very scientific, and it wasn't even 'about' mental handicaps, it was 'about' twins, and their psychic links! I am really interested in sibling connections! The supporting characters were fairly interesting (Dr Nollette relaying their college prank of disassembling their prof's car and putting it back together in his office is, frankly, priceless). There are even a handful of cute M & S moments to keep the shippers entertained (they seem to be bored by episodes that are strictly paranormal, and not emotional or part of the mytharc- episodes like this one!).
Amazingly, Maclean wins a bloody prize for noticing that Zeljko Ivanek (Roland) plays JJ in Big Love. X-Files actors are in every single one of the shows that we love, but as far as I knew, not only was Big Love the exception, but there was no chance of seeing an XF actor in it. It just didn't make sense.
I am wrong. Also, I can't believe Roland is played by an actor, and not a real life mentally handicapped guy. That man is good. His female companion on the show is not. She seems more like a drunk homeless person if you know what I mean. Plus, Ivanek manages to get his eyes completely blank, but the chick still has a sparkle like there is someone in there.
After the pre-credits setup, the first shots are of M & S walking down a hallway, not not briefing eachother on the case, but catching up after a weekend apart:
M: How was the wedding?
S: You mean the part where the groom passed out or the dog bit the drummer?
M: Did you catch the bouquet?
S: (flirtatious and girly) May-be
That was just about the girliest Scully gets. Adorable. But you know what they say; ask a flirty question, get a flirty answer.
The case involves a group on scientists working together to break the sound barrier on less than half the fuel presently required. A formula is being tweaked, but the scientists are being killed off one by one, by Roland the janitor.
What nobody knows is Roland is the long-separated twin of Arthur Grable, one of the scientists, who hired him completely by coincidence. That scientist was in an accident, and his head is kept frozen in a bath of liquid nitrogen- not dead, but not exactly living either.
The premise is that because Arthur is in a state of consciousness that nobody has any experience with, he is able to do mysterious things like influence is twin brother in order to complete his life's work. It is also interesting that one brother ended up with all of the brains, and one with absolutely none.
I enjoy watching Mulder and Scully put the pieces together on this one; actually noticing details in reports etc to form theories and come to conclusions, rather than Mulder having a hunch that happens to be exactly right. I like watching the light bulbs turn on in their heads when they realize Arthur and Roland share birth dates and places. I enjoy watching them doing work together, you know? Like this is a job, not a TV show, and they are two normal people, not actors :)
I also like that they draw the wrongs conclusions at times in this one as well:
M: Well, if he had intentions of killing Nollette, Keats and Surnow, why not set it up to appear the least likely suspect?
S: Yeah, but by the look of this, (she holds up a photo of Grable's accident scene) he's hamburger.
M: Maybe he staged it. That would explain why his work is continuing on, six months after his "death".
It really helped to build the case. In this episode even the viewer is being set up to believe Arthur faked his death.
S: Was he a practical joker?
DR. NOLLETTE: On top of all his brilliance, he had a genius for executing elaborate schemes.
M: Could he be making it seem like a man with a 70 IQ is gaining access to and, uh, operating his old computer files?
DR. NOLLETTE: Arthur would still have to be alive.
Often we are shown everything that happens, and the Agents have to figure out what we already know. This episode is so much more mysterious. But the next reveal is genius:
DR. NOLLETTE: If, you are trying to suggest that Arthur Grable killed Surnow and Keats and is after me next, you're way off. Art could not have done the murders.
S: How can you be so certain?
(cut to the scene in the cryogenic lab where Arthur's head is kept)
It's also full of great quotes.
BARRINGTON: This is Arthur Grable. Uh, because of the massive internal damage to his body caused by the car accident, we could only preserve the head.
S: Wouldn't your client find it somewhat inconvenient to be thawed out in the future, only to discover he had no functional mobility?
BARRINGTON: We believe that by the time science figures a way to revive our clients ...
M: ... you'll also know how to clone new bodies for them.
BARRINGTON: Exactly
M: You've got a brother, don't you Scully?
S: Yeah. I've got an older one and a younger one.
M: Well, have you ever thought about calling one of them all day long and then all of a sudden the phone rings and it's one of them calling you?
S: Does this pitch somehow end with a way for me to lower my long distance charges?
S: But in this case, one sibling has closer ties to a frozen fudgesicle than he does to his own brother.
Also, a really interesting, probably unintentional bit of foreshadowing when Mulder tells Roland about a dream he had, in order to get him to open up.
M: Tell me about your dreams, Roland. It's all right, I won't tell anybody. You know, I had a dream last night. I dreamt I was swimming in this pool. And I could see my father underwater, but when I dove down, the water stung my eyes. Then there was another man at the pool, watching me. He upset me. He was asking me questions I didn't want to answer. And I had to leave. I couldn't find my father.
I seriously doubt the writer of this episode had any idea what direction the show would eventually take with the complicated issue of Mulder's father, but I have to say, it's a hell of a coincidence. And it really works. You can so easily interpret the other man as CSM, and the dream being about how Mulder doesn't want to answer the hard questions about who his father really might be. Ultimately he can't find the man who he understands to be his father ( because A) he dies, and B) is not his father).
Best of all, this episode has one of the greatest deaths ever. Roland dunks a man's head in liquid nitrogen and...
...OH SNAP!
I liked this one too.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think, though, that Arthur hired Roland by coincidence: they noted the lab had never had "special" workers before, and Arthur specifically requested Roland. (And also that he was very kind and supportive to Roland.) I thought Arthur knew all along - after all, how else would he know to manipulate his twin if he wasn't aware he had one?
I like that Zeljko Ivanek goes by that name; if this were 50 years ago, he'd be "Steve Evans."
As always, I like episodes where Mulder doesn't figure it all out in the first five minutes - even more when his first theory (Arthur faked his death) is proven wrong. Not because I don't like Mulder, but it's just more interesting and believable when he gets it wrong sometimes.
I like how Scully didn't deny or confirm that she caught the bouquet. I bet she didn't - she probably stayed aloof and didn't even try - but she likes that Mulder asked, and she likes that he's a wee bit jealous. She may be a doctor and an FBI agent, but she's still a girl. :-)