X-Files 6.20 "Three of a Kind" & 6.21 "Field Trip" TWO REVIEWS IN ONE......AGAIN! :D

Hey everyone. I was out of town the last two weekends, and decided to
hold off on my reviews until i got back to LA.

Well, I liked the Las Vegas episode, mainly because I just love John
Byers, and its among my fondest TV desires that he be happy one day. I think
this episode suffers over last season's "the Usual Suspects" because THIS
year, an episode without Mulder and Scully was hardly a novel concept. But I
genuinely like the lone gunmen characters, and I enjoyed their plot to
lure Scully to Nevada: notice how, annoyed as she is, Scully rushes to Vegas
on "mulder's" assurance that he needs her to go.
i enjoyed Michael mcKean's cameo as the slimy defense dept. stooge he
played in the "Dreamland" two-parter. I also enjoyed seeing Scully silly
and drunk--cheap ploy that it may have been. if you've ever seen Gillian
Anderson on a talk show, you've probably noticed that laugh of hers and
wondered if Scully laughs like that too (Since she almost NEVER laughs,
you don't have anything to compare it to). It was also an interesting switch
to have the lone gunmen be the serious story, with Scully providing comic
relief. The episode was a pretty fair "Manchurian candidate" inspired
story. My main complaint would be casting: I mean, does Charles Rocket
ever not play a creep? I knew he was a bad guy right off the bat, which
lessened the dramatic effect of his "betrayal." I hated the girl (arr,
can't think of her name!) leaving withouht Byers, and next year better
include John going into hiding with her or I'll be ticked. I
mean, no offense Byers, but that little newspaper of yours isn't worth
giving up the (literal) girl of your dreams.

The next episode was, i thought, FANTASTIC. i only have one major fault
with it, and I'll get that out of the way early. The teaser was great, I
was very intrigued. It was also nice to see a minor "Twin Peaks" reunion
(if you've never seen David Duchovny's turn as a transvestite drug-cop,
you've missed out) as Robin Lively makes an X-Files appearance. She was
the young woman who gets eated by the ground creature. In Twin Peaks,
she's the pretty young thing that drives a wedge between the elderly
mayor and his brother. I will admit i also remember her from "Savannah," OK?
Yeah, I liked "Savannah!"
Anyway, we finally get a slide show! I've been waiting for a while, and
they alluded to how long it's been with Mulder's crack about not being
able to find a screen for the projector. I love Scully's "No, I've never
heard of it but I'm sure you're going to tell me" looks, and Mulder's anger
over her continued skeptism intrigues me: are they going to retire the dance? As
I said a few weeks ago, it has gotten pretty tired. that being said, I
STRENUOUSLY OBJECT ( a little "A Few good Men" reference to keep it
interesting) ANyway, I object to the implication made by John Shiban and
Vince Gilligan (staff-writers, so this wasn't a newbie goof) that Mulder
is "always right." First of all, even though Most of the shows have dealt
with the paranormal, Mulder's initial explanation of the case is almost
always wrong--he thinks it's aliens and its monsters, he thinks it's
monsters and its aliens, etc. Secondly, in the First Season's
exceptional "TOOMS," in what I beleive is Skinner's first appearance, Scully is
called in to defend the X-Files, and she tells him they have something like an
80% clearance rate--in other words, they close a lot of cases. Now, if the
ONLY cases Mulder and Scully work on are what we have seen on the show, that
means they work about 15 cases a year (you have to eliminate a lot of
mythology episodes and two-parters, etc.) and Mulder's always right!!??
This is the kind of short-sighted, unimaginative reasoning that keeps me out
of X-Files chatrooms. I have always maintained in my own mind that Scully
is right most of the time! Mulder and Scully go to investigate something
creepy and it turns out to be dumb kids pulling a prank or a scam or some
other perfectly rational explanation. Mulder's skepticism in many of the
cases supports this: he goes into a lot of the shows with the same doubts
as scully. But we don't see these "unaired" cases, WHY? Because it
wouldn't be "The X-Files," it wouldn't be interesting--it'd be Scooby
Doo. ANd then mulder would look as lame as Shaggy, acting like its a ghost
when it is, as usual, an old man with a slide projector (and a screen!). SO,
I object to that implication, but I liked that it was said because it sets
up a really bang-up episode.

Despite my general disappoinment with this year, I have to say, Mulder
has looked REALLY good this year, and this week was no exception, but...going
into the spooky cave without back-up? Not very smart...although...that
was probably part of the hallucination, which implies that Mulder might have
a poor self-image if he envisions himself being so foolish....poor Mulder!
Anyway, Scully realizes mulder's in trouble, and asks the county coroner
to lend him his car, and even though they've been in LA for a year, Gillian
kicks it old school and says "borrow" like a Canadian. After stepping on
the mushrooms, Scully manages to use her "expert tracking skills" to find
Mulder's skelteton--Scully apparantly has a very positve self-image
(later, everyone is continually telling her how thourogh and wonderful her report
is...)

There was something very Roald Dahl about this episode. there was a
cool star Trek episode (don't worry, I'm not accusing of them of stealing from
Star trek THIS week) where these aliens get into Commander Riker's head,
and they create this circumstance in his head, where he believes its the
future. The aliens (Romulans, if you must know) want him to reveal some
code or something, so in the future, they figure, he'll give it up no
problem since its irrelevent: BUT, they get it wrong, and when he sees
his wife, the spell is broken because she was a holodeck creation, a fake
woman, if you will, that he had once fallen in love with. There were
similar themes in this episode, especially in Scully's version, where the
plant seems to sense her panic and despair over Mulder's loss and says
"You want Mulder?! there's Mulder, he's alive, just go to sleep little
girl!"

Lively's account of her abduction is too perfect, and Mulder goes along
with the whole shibang for a while--after all, he "wants to believe."
Lively's account is a nod to long time fans who can picture the table and
the drill perfectly: She's recounting precisely what WE saw happen to
Scully--in Mulder's mind's eye, in Second Season's "Ascension." Mulder
also borrows from "E.T." when he shows the alien to Scully (I half
expected him to tell her he was "keeping him") and scully's gushing "you were
right about everything" was great--great that he wants to hear her say it, and
great that he doesn't believe it when he does.

"go ask Dana, I think she knows" dana too is suffering from the magic
mushrooms and hallucinagenic underground goo. Loved the tears in her
eyes as she contemplates a dead Mulder. You know, this was actually very
similar to a comic book I read several years back. It was a 'Lost in
Space" comic, and no, it had nothing to do with that horrible film. It
was a much darker take on the show written by Billy Mumy who played Will
Robinson on the show. In one issue, several of the characters are
captured (unwittingly) by a cave creature who is trying to coccon them in goo.
He lulls them into submission by conjuring happy memories of their lives on
earth. It doesn't work, though, because those good memories ultimately
lead to bad memories which break the happy spell the creature tries to
work on them. Life is just too full of tragedy and disappointment for the
plan to work. In this episode, Mulder and Scully, we learn, are so much a part of one
another they can actually recreate them and get their perception of each
other to challenge them and keep them alive: or they are communicationg
telepathically, but that's unlikely. this episode zipped by, too, and
they had me going with their their phony ending. It was great, and it was an
actual X-File--and something they'd never done before. ANd don't get me
started on the Touching! When they reached out to each other in the
ambulance? Sigh :) Hey, that County Coronor ROCKED! they owe him a
nice thanky and a fruit basket.

Next Week: Another Season Finale with Dirty Diana. Grrr, can't wait. :D

Christine