Season 3: Queequeg, Cockroaches and Cerulean Blue

[janestclair]

Poor Queequeg. 

 

I definitely didn't know that detail about the crash not being in the script.  One of my favorite parts of the episode is also at the convenience store when the display of Choco-Droppings gets knocked over and everyone screams roaches and runs. Scully calmly walks over, picks up a box and pops one in her mouth.  Cracks me up. 

[queequeg]

One of my favorite parts of the episode is also at the convenience store when the display of Choco-Droppings gets knocked over and everyone screams roaches and runs. Scully calmly walks over, picks up a box and pops one in her mouth.  Cracks me up. 

 

YES!!!!  I LOVE that part!!   I tried to find a picture of her tasting the candy... but no dice.

[Bastet]

YES!!!!  I LOVE that part!!   I tried to find a picture of her tasting the candy... but no dice.

 

I love that too.  This is the closest I could find, but it's not the shot I like best:

 

[smrou]

Well, on the topic of that scene, this just crossed my Tumblr dash today. Relevant gif:

Edited August 18, 2014 by smrou

[queequeg]

Thank you smrou, and thank you tumblr.  Amen.

[joelene]

 

NOM NOM.

[RadiantAerynSun]

LOL Queequeg is what started my lifelong obsession with Pomeranians :P

[Bastet]

Help me ID some of the season three villains of the week, too, please:

 

In Grotesque, Mostow committed some of the murders (and claimed to have done so because he was possessed by an evil spirit), but then did Patterson start copycat killing once Mostow was locked up?
 

And WTF in Teso dos Bichos – was there really a clowder of killer cats in the sewer?  Was it Bilac (under the influence of the Yaje)?  Or was he possessed by the jaguar spirit he talked about?  Was someone else possessed by the jaguar spirit?

[Taryn74]

I think it would be the evil spirit in both of those that's the ultimate villain - the gargoyle in Grotesque and the jaguar spirit in TdB.  (Or Toonces.  Heh.)

[Bastet]

Gargoyles are traditionally for protection, and I thought that's why the guy was drawing them all over the place.  Were they evil instead, in some sort of XF twist?

[Taryn74]

Oh, you may be right.  It's been forever since I've seen Grotesque!

[joelene]

Patterson claimed innocence but it seemed pretty clear he was responsible for the continued killings. I think I always assumed this was one of the few episodes that weren't supernatural and it was all mental illness in various degrees. I'm not sure who's be the main baddie really. Patterson for being the one who drags M/S into it and is responsible for most of what goes down in the episode, or Mostow for influencing him (if that's how you read the episode). But that influence would be pretty inadvertent so I tend to think Patterson is the big bad. Ugh, I don't even know.

"The Grotesque Killers"?

I don't know that Bilac was purposefully responsible for the killing in TDB. He was killed himself in the end, after all.

The episode closes with "[...] Mulder suspecting that the animal attacks were associated with the burial urn that had been removed against the wishes of the Ecuadorian tribespeople; it is shortly returned to the burial grounds, where the local shaman watches the urn's reburial with jaguar-like eyes."

So either a/some shaman's sent out the jaguar spirit (who in turn influenced the cats) or the jaguar spirit was doing everything on its own accord, I think.

"Angry shaman jaguar spirit," maybe?

Edited October 15, 2014 by joelene

[Bastet]

It's always interesting trying to nail down the villains, because first you have to sort through what the hell happened half the time, then you have to figure out whether to swallow Mulder's paranormal theory. 

 

My Grotesque recollection pretty well tracks with the above -- it was Mostow, then Patterson, doing the killings.  Mostow offered up the old "the devil made me do it" defense, and Patterson basically became deranged by inhabiting Mostow's mental space for so long. 

 

I think we'll go with Patterson; he's the perp at episode's end, and he's the one who dragged M&S in yet refused to be honest with them, so he wins.

Edited October 15, 2014 by Bastet

[queequeg]

Is it bad that I remember next to nothing about Grotesque other than an unfavorable impression?

[Bastet]

My strongest memory is how beautiful Scully looks standing in front of a projection screen with grisly crime scene photos showing on her face, so, no.

[janestclair]

All I remember about Grotesque is that it was really dark (lighting wise) even for the X-Files.  So I'm no help there. 

 

Angry shaman jaguar spirit sounds about right for TDB.  Or at least it sounds more threatening then a clowder of killer kitties, although the later is nicely alliterative.

[Bastet]

We'll go with the jaguar spirit for the elimination game, but now this is bugging me and I certainly don't want to watch the episode to find out:  Who was the jaguar spirit possessing to actually do the deed of killing people?  A person?  Those cats?  No one?

 

I don't even remember who got killed, other than Mona's dog ("and don't call me Sugar").  Someone's entrails wound up in a tree.  Rats didn't fare well, either - I think they drowned in toilets and got chopped up in engine parts.  The dog ate the cat, and the cat ate a rat?  I now know Bilac got killed, but I don't remember that.  (All I remember of him is, "If you think I did this, then you are a foooolllll.")

 

I wonder how much yaje John Shiban ingested to come up with this episode.

[joelene]

LOL to you entirely post, Bastet. I've been reading up on it on wiki and I'm not even sure what yaje has to do with it. Per the plot description it seems it's simply the jaguar spirit running about killing a couple of professors (one in a tent in the beginning and the other is the one missing his entrails), Mona, and Bilac is dragged through a vent at the end (which lead Mulder and Scully to the tunnels) and then it switches to cats? It then says "animal attacks" so my feeling is that the jaguar spirit could influence other cat animals. And the shamans conjured it, I guess. Bilac just really liked yaje.

Edited October 15, 2014 by joelene

[SnideAsides]

I wonder how much yaje John Shiban ingested to come up with this episode.

Not enough to make it good, and I say this as someone who once... well, watched it with other people who happened to be pretty high at the time, if you catch my drift.

[Jac]

I'm also mildly disabled, so maybe that's why we picked up  on it.  I actually had a doctor once express surprise that I had a fairly demanding career and a driver's license.  I think he thought it was a compliment, but yeah, no.  Try again. 

 

Wow, some people have no idea. If it was me I probably would have given the doctor a swift whack in the leg with one of my crutches (I'm not a full-time crutch user but if I'm at the doctor I am usually on them). I graduate from law school in June next year and I am dreading the interview process. I don't consider myself special for living in the world with a disability and I hate having to discuss it during the job hiring process, which I usually need to do because it is a requirement to disclose if you want to eligible for the state funded worker's compensation scheme and the 'OMG you are so amazing' comments get on my nerves.

 

The peg leg comment was not Mulder's finest hour.

[Jac]

After completing my rewatch I can definitively state that S3 is my favourite season by a considerably margin. The show was firing on all cylinders in S3, it was a good balance of still interesting mytharc that advanced in ways that made sense and wonderful MotW episodes. It was in this season that the show struck its best balance between darkness and light and between funny and serious. This season is the hardest by far to single out favourite episodes and even the weak episodes are relatively strong in terms of the whole series, the worst episodes of this season for me would fall no lower than about 120 on a whole series ranking.

 

Favourites

 

Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose - The perfect combination of great story and great acting.

Nisei/731 - A really great pair of unusually action-packed mytharc episodes (especially 731), that call back to a lot of previously established mythology and introduces interesting new elements.

The War of Coprophages - Laugh out loud funny, Gillian in particular is excellent as a highly exasperated Scully.

Syzygy - Also laugh out loud funny with a ton of highly quotable dialogue, more of Gillian's great work as 'had-it-up-to-here-with-this-crap' Scully.

Jose Chung's From Outer Space - My favourite episode of the entire series. Perfect tone, excellent parody of several stock standard literary archetypes, excellent acting all round.

 

Least Favourites

 

The Blessing Way - The relative weakness of this episode is what led to me choosing Nisei/731 over this episode and Paperclip, I don't dislike it as such but I fell that it is very slow and as much as I like a shirtless DD, this episode feels out of place as the middle of a three part arc.

2Shy - I don't actually dislike this episode but it feels more dated than most other eps of the show.

Teso Dos Bichos - This episode does not really work on any level.

Hell Money - Everyone seems so bored in this episode.

Avatar  - I don't mind Skinner at all but I don't need entire episodes focused on him.

[Taryn74]

Teso Dos Bichos - This episode does not really work on any level.

 

 

Hee!  That just cracked me up.

[M.F. Luder]

I also think season 3 is one of the strongest of the whole series. All of Darin Morgan's episodes are great (Clyde Bruckman, WotC, Jose Chung). I also love Pusher and Wetwired. Those 2 episodes are definitely in my top 10 list.

 

While there are a few episodes in this season that are largely not memorable (The Walk, Oubliette, Revelations, Grotesque), there are only 2 episodes that I would label as bad: Teso Dos Bichos and Hell Money. 

 

Season 4 has always been my favorite because that's when I started watching the show as it aired, but really, watching reruns of season 3 during the summer before season 4 is what got me hooked on this show.

[Jac]

Who's this handsome guy?! 

 

 

Completely shallow observation of the day: I wish Scully had her hair pulled back like this more often, she looks super cute.

[Bastet]

Back when Scully was allowed to dress casually when the situation warranted.  Oh, early seasons, I miss you so.

 

Also, "Die Flea Die" as the brand name of Queequeg's shampoo will never fail to amuse me.

Edited April 19, 2015 by Bastet

[supposebly]

Continuing my rewatch,  mostly to get the bad taste of the Supernatural season finale out of my mouth. This is what it must have felt like watching season 8 and 9 of X-files.

 

On Topic: I think D.P.O. mostly suffers from its positioning after that trifecta of Anasazi, Blessing Way, Paper Clip. Giovanni Ribisi's portrayal made me almost feel bad for him. He feels very locked-in in his life, his fantasy about Mrs Kiveat, and the limits of his intellect and child-like personality. He keeps calling her by her last-name throughout. I kept wondering if he even knew what her first name was.

 

Looking forward to Clyde Bruckman.

ETA: which is as good as I remember.

 

The List: Darkest prison in the history of prisons. Scully:  "I only get 5?"

 

2Shy: Gross, gross, gross. Detective Cross: "I'm not being sexist here, I'm just being honest." You mean honest in your sexism?

Edited May 22, 2015 by supposebly

[Bastet]

2Shy: Gross, gross, gross. Detective Cross: "I'm not being sexist here, I'm just being honest." You mean honest in your sexism?

 

That exchange between Scully and Det. Cross in the morgue is on my "Mulder, It's Me" mix tape, leading into No Doubt's Just a Girl.

[supposebly]

 

That exchange between Scully and Det. Cross in the morgue is on my "Mulder, It's Me" mix tape, leading into No Doubt's Just a Girl.

So funny!

 

The Walk: Scully is awesome in not letting the military block their investigation. I'd like to think that's a remnant of having a father in the navy. Always loved Ian Tracey. Had forgotten about the death in the swimming pool and the boy in the sand. Overall, it seems I have forgotten how creepy some of the episodes in season 3 are. I wonder if that's due somehow to the somewhat slower pace and a lot of close-ups of creepiness. Or maybe the music. It gets to you when binge-watching.

[Bastet]

The Walk: Scully is awesome in not letting the military block their investigation.

 

Yes!  The Walk is just a so-so episode to me, but I really love Scully in it.  She's a badass in all the coolest ways here.

[supposebly]

It's very bleak. Everyone wants to die, kill someone, or both. Not very fun.

 

Oubliette: So very sad.

Nisei/731: My favorite pair of Mytharc episodes. Mulder climbs around on ships and trains and gets his money's worth. Scully finds out about her implant, gets creeped out by other abductees, and starts to remember. Ambiguous ending that makes sense. Creepy NSA agent is awesome.

 

ETA: Continuing my rewatch skipping the episodes that I tend to watch when I feel like X-files. Season 3 is probably my favorite together with season 5.

 

Grotesque: Man, that show is dark. And I mean the lighting. I like this one, especially Skinner and Scully going: "Are you worried? No. Off the record. Yes. Me too." They have a nice rapport there. I also liked the initial meeting with the agent who might or might not like Mulder all that much but called him in, probably because he sensed he needed help. So, they were both just crazy.

Teso Dos Bichos: The whole thing is still rather hilarious. I haven't seen it in at least 6 or 7 years. Scully is very impatient with the perpetually high Dr. Bilac. And a jaguar spirit employs rats to scare people. Until it uses pets. Even after all those years, I still can't watch it without recalling the gag reel. Go with it, Scully.

Hell Money: It's hard to pay attention it's so slow and boring. I still don't really understand what's going on there. What is the point of removing people's organ's? Are they selling them? Is there some sort of lottery? It's always fun when something crawls out of a dead body on the autopsy table. At least, this time it's a cute frog instead of a fluke worm.

Edited May 23, 2015 by supposebly

[festivus]

Season 3 or Oh No Queequeg!

 

Season three was pretty great overall with only a couple of true stinkers. It also has my favorite episode ever, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose.

 

First couple of episodes: Oh look it's Mulder's face in a starry sky. 

 

D.P.O: Jack Black was actually kind of cute.

 

Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose: This episode was perfection. Peter Boyle was amazing. The look in his eyes when he told Scully she wouldn't die will always be in my head. 

 

Skip,skip,skip, Oubliette: I liked this one it was a good Mulder episode.

 

Train episodes: Mulder running, I like. DD is a sexy runner.

 

Revelations: Not a fan of the religious episodes but it was a good Scully ep.

 

War of the Coprophages: I really loved this one. Funny and Smart is Sexy.

 

Syzygy, Grotesque: Watching these now it's like hey it's Laurie Foreman, hey it's Red Foreman. I did enjoy Syzygy, the girls were funny and I probably shouldn't have adored bitchy Scully as much as I did. Adorable angry princess. 

 

Skip, skip, Pusher: Yeah this was a really great episode. So tense. The standoff at the end was riveting. I watched it three times.

 

Teso Dos Bichos: Even Scully's hair gave up in this one.

 

Hell Money: The Hair remains unimpressed.

 

Jose Chungs From Outer Space. The eyerolls. The blankity bleepin blanks. Pie. I was owed this one after the last two.

 

Avatar: I remember the first time I watched this I didn't want to see Skinner getting it on. I still don't. 

 

Quagmire: Other than poor Queequeg this was a great episode. I loved the conversation on the rock, except for the pegleg thing. wtf. Mulder still wanting to shoot the duck anyway cracked me up.

 

Last two episodes: Here's where I admit that I don't like the mytharc episodes. The last episode was well done but all I can think of is how I got more and more confused as the series went on.

 

Well that's my in depth analysis ;) of season three. On to season four.

 

[Taryn74]

Teso Dos Bichos: Even Scully's hair gave up in this one.

Hell Money: The Hair remains unimpressed.

 

 

Ha!

[eleanorofaquitaine]

Syzygy, Grotesque: Watching these now it's like hey it's Laurie Foreman, hey it's Red Foreman. I did enjoy Syzygy, the girls were funny and I probably shouldn't have adored bitchy Scully as much as I did. Adorable angry princess. 

 

My friend and I quoted, "Sure. Fine. Whatever." for years afterwards.  But I will tell you, that episode also has Mulder at his most hateable moment I think in the series, when he makes the crack about "slapping on the latex." I would have punched him and then left.

[Baby Button Eyes]

I'm currently doing a rewatch and I'm in Season 3 right now. I haven't watched these episodes since when they aired and I think season 3 is a prime era for the show. One thing that I'm noticing is how pretty GA suddenly became. She looks like a technicolor MGM movie star from the 1940's. I'm watching Jose Chung's From Outer Space and is it just me seeing Scully actually "fangirling" over that author? That's so cute and unusual, I've seen Mulder be a fanboy, but didn't think Scully would gush over anyone lol

[eleanorofaquitaine]

I'm about halfway through season 3 on my rewatch.  I see how season 3 is more interested in presenting where the cracks are in Mulder and Scully's relationship than in season 2 - by the end of season 2, they were such a united front that even the fact that Scully shot Mulder doesn't even impact it.

 

The Season 3 MOTW that is sticking with me in the rewatch is "Oubliette." It surprises me that isn't regarded more highly, because it is such a haunting episode and shows Mulder at his empathetic best.  I like a lot of these "Samantha stand in" episodes because they are important reminders that a lot of women face terrible abuse in their lives and as a society, we generally just leave abuse victims to fend for themselves. 

 

On the other end of the spectrum, Mulder annoys me so much in Revelations (which was the episode I watched last night, along with War of the Coprophages). I'm Catholic and Scully's version of Catholicism always resonated with me. But Mulder's brand of pre-hipster sneering at her faith is more annoying to me now than it was when I was in my 20s. It's fine that he doesn't believe but it is so upsetting at the end of the episode that Scully confesses to the priest that she can't talk about this deeply important part of her to Mulder because she knows he'll just mock her for it.  Saying that the incidents of the episode doesn't shake his faith is a meaningless answer to the question Scully asked Mulder about why he can believe every light in the sky is an alien but refuse to entertain the existence of God... because he has no faith. I wish she had pushed him a little bit more on the point. (Of course, she loses a little credibility by claiming St. Ignatius was in the Bible, but whatever. Clearly the episode wasn't written by a Jesuit). 

[Taryn74]

I love Oubliette, too, for pretty much the same reasons you stated.  And share your frustration with Mulder in Revelations, LOL.  I'm not Catholic, but I am a Christian and Mulder really bugs me every time he goes on an anti-religion tear.  It would be different if he were the skeptic and religion was just another thing he was skeptical about, but when he's willing to believe EVERYTHING ELSE BUT, it gets annoying.  (The snideful, sarcastic person in me says that just shows that God is the one thing he's afraid to believe in, because it's the one thing deep down he knows is true, but I'll let that one go.  ;) )

[eleanorofaquitaine]

(The snideful, sarcastic person in me says that just shows that God is the one thing he's afraid to believe in, because it's the one thing deep down he knows is true, but I'll let that one go.  ;) )

 

I am not sure if he is afraid to believe in God because he knows it is true, but I do think he's afraid to believe in God. For a couple of reasons:

 

1. I said this in talking about "One Breath" but I think he (understandably) rejects any belief system that says you are just supposed to accept when bad things happen to people.  He rejected Melissa Scully's New Agey beliefs for that reason - he's not down with acceptance, and okay, I can accept that about Mulder. It is part of what I love about the character.
2. Given all of the truly terrible things that have happened in his life, Mulder can't bring himself to believe in the existence of God because it would just open up all of those questions about why these terrible things have happened to him. In other words, if he believed in God, he'd likely just end up being bitter and angry with God because what kind of a God allows his sister to be kidnapped or allows his father to die in front of him or allows Scully to lose her sister or allows any of the terrible things they've seen?

 

All of that being said, I actually don't really care that he doesn't believe but his attitude is so beyond obnoxious about it. Mulder doesn't want his answers competing with Scully's answers about the mysteries of the universe, and it is by far the worst part of his nature. (And don't get me wrong, I love Mulder a lot - even more than Scully. But yeah, that part of him is ridiculous).

 

On another note, I watched Grotesque last night (and I posted this at the Musings of an X-Phile blog) but I really think that part of why that episode doesn't quite come together is because they try to hide all of the homoerotic subtext too much.  As I said there, "We have a man killing attractive men, mutilating them so that they become grotesque. Mulder makes a point of saying Mostow doesn’t sexually assault them but that screams of either network fear or maybe the writer’s fear. Meanwhile, on parallel, we see a dynamic between Patterson and Mulder that is attraction/repulsion. Mulder says he wouldn’t 'get down on his knees' for Patterson. Patterson is attracted to Mulder’s genius but is also repulsed by it. Most commentary focuses on the idea that Patterson is a paternal stand in for Mulder but I don’t think so – he comes off as more of a stalker than a father."  I mean, I am not surprised they downplayed it because it was 20 years ago but honestly, had they been more willing to acknowledge it, I think that the episode would hold together better.

[Taryn74]

1. I said this in talking about "One Breath" but I think he (understandably) rejects any belief system that says you are just supposed to accept when bad things happen to people.  He rejected Melissa Scully's New Agey beliefs for that reason - he's not down with acceptance, and okay, I can accept that about Mulder. It is part of what I love about the character.

 

Interesting point!  I do find it fascinating that when push came to shove regarding Scully's life, Mulder had no time for Melissa with all her platitudes and crystals and hand-wavings.  He wanted to DO something.  With your comments, I can see how that would kind of parallel his disbelief in God.  Interesting.

[baileythedog]

I am not sure if he is afraid to believe in God because he knows it is true, but I do think he's afraid to believe in God. For a couple of reasons:

 

1. I said this in talking about "One Breath" but I think he (understandably) rejects any belief system that says you are just supposed to accept when bad things happen to people.  He rejected Melissa Scully's New Agey beliefs for that reason - he's not down with acceptance, and okay, I can accept that about Mulder. It is part of what I love about the character.

 

True, he did initially reject Melissa, but in the end he kind of came around to her way of thinking anyway.  Mulder did want to do something but realized doing something wasn't going to resolve anything.  

 

I don't know how much positive thinking Mulder actually put into his bedside visit with Scully in "One Breath" but he certainly gave up trying to do something in vengeance in favor of being present for her.

[eleanorofaquitaine]

True, he did initially reject Melissa, but in the end he kind of came around to her way of thinking anyway.  Mulder did want to do something but realized doing something wasn't going to resolve anything.  

 

I don't know how much positive thinking Mulder actually put into his bedside visit with Scully in "One Breath" but he certainly gave up trying to do something in vengeance in favor of being present for her.

 

I think he came around to believing that Scully was really going to die and if he wanted to say something to her before she did, he had limited time to do so.  I mentioned this before, but the scene at the end where the phone is ringing, you can tell from the dread on Mulder's face that he thinks that this is it.  But when push comes to shove, barring actual death, Mulder is going to choose action over acceptance every time. So I am not really sure he ever really came around to Melissa's point of view, he just conceded that she may be right that he would regret not having that final visit with Scully if she died.

[Taryn74]

Oooh, this discussion reminds me of something else about One Breath I remembered I wanted to discuss, but I'll take it to the S2 thread since One Breath was actually a S2 episode, heh.  (I couldn't remember, but I just checked to see.)

[eleanorofaquitaine]

Just watched Pusher, which I remembered loving the first time around and still love (it may have been the episode that turned me into a full-blown shipper, because of the Russian roulette scene).  I love the fact that Modell’s desire to use Mulder and Scully against each other completely backfires on him. I was reading this review (at Musings of an X-Phile), where the author says that Modell is cruel and that his intention is to have Mulder hurt Scully, which I agree is probably the case. (Not only because he mentions the thing about Mulder’s “pretty partner” but also because he mentions Scully shooting Mulder in “Anasazi”).

 

Modell divines that Mulder is a “worthy adversary,” because of course the guy who spends his entire life fighting a global conspiracy and his own employer is going to have the will power to fight him.  But because he’s so cruel and so alienated from humanity, Modell doesn’t anticipate that his desire to hurt Mulder by having Mulder hurt Scully was the exact one thing that Mulder would be able to fight against.  Mulder may not have the willpower to save his own life, but he does have enough willpower to prevent himself from hurting Scully. Modell didn’t anticipate that and he pays for it.

 

And then I also watched Tesos dos Bichos, and man, is that episode ridiculous.  It’s like an “Ice”/”Space” situation, where you have a superlative episode followed up by a real clunker.

 

(Also, I watched "Piper Maru"/"Apocrypha" yesterday and "Nisei"/"731" earlier in the week.  Gotta say, I think I like "Nisei"/"731" better than "Piper Maru"/"Apocrypha."  I mean, I get why PM/A are really important to the mytharc - and they are good episodes - but from a pure storytelling perspective, I feel like Nisei and 731 are just more tightly written episodes.  That being said, I always really enjoy any episode where Krycek appears because it cracks me up how Mulder's first instinct whenever he sees Krycek is to throw a punch at him).

Edited April 3, 2016 by eleanorofaquitaine

[Baby Button Eyes]

Just watched Pusher, which I remembered loving the first time around and still love (it may have been the episode that turned me into a full-blown shipper, because of the Russian roulette scene).  I love the fact that Modell’s desire to use Mulder and Scully against each other completely backfires on him. I was reading this review (at Musings of an X-Phile), where the author says that Modell is cruel and that his intention is to have Mulder hurt Scully, which I agree is probably the case. (Not only because he mentions the thing about Mulder’s “pretty partner” but also because he mentions Scully shooting Mulder in “Anasazi”).

 

Modell divines that Mulder is a “worthy adversary,” because of course the guy who spends his entire life fighting a global conspiracy and his own employer is going to have the will power to fight him.  But because he’s so cruel and so alienated from humanity, Modell doesn’t anticipate that his desire to hurt Mulder by having Mulder hurt Scully was the exact one thing that Mulder would be able to fight against.  Mulder may not have the willpower to save his own life, but he does have enough willpower to prevent himself from hurting Scully. Modell didn’t anticipate that and he pays for it.

 

And then I also watched Tesos dos Bichos, and man, is that episode ridiculous.  It’s like an “Ice”/”Space” situation, where you have a superlative episode followed up by a real clunker.

 

Pusher is an excellent episode. GA's little tear coming out of her eye as she tries to get through Mulder's mind is affecting. I find it interesting how Mulder was able to instantly obey the command to fire on himself without hesitation but warning Scully was interesting and revealing about his character. Also, it's interesting to me that in "Wetwired", when Scully is pointing the gun at Mulder, she still looks really close to shooting him, her paranoia was still too strong and she can't hesitate on it with just Mulder trying to talk her out of it.

Hey. Tesos dos Bichos gave us one good thing, what I call the dead dog or "Don't call me, Sugar!" gag on the season 3 gag reel. Plus just the phrase "mythical jaguar spirit" is something you just can't make up yourself!

[GreenScreenFX]

My take away from season 3 is Scully"s notation about straining too hard.

[Bastet]

I've been watching seasons one through three recently, and it's the first time I've seen most of these episodes in many years; I generally just watch Bad Blood, Small Potatoes, CBFR, and JCFOS. 

In Pusher, when Mulder wakes Scully up during the stakeout ("I think you drooled on me"), she says, "No luck [finding Modell], I assume," and Mulder confirms, then tells her no luck at the two previous places, either.  I don't know why I never got this until now, but that means he's been driving a sleeping Scully around from stakeout to stakeout.  It's 3:00 in the morning, they've been in that parking lot for at least an hour (Modell tells him he watched them until an hour ago), so presumably they were at each location for a couple of hours at least.  So if Scully doesn't know that the previous two were busts, that means she slept through them.  Hee.

Also, when Modell tells Mulder to shoot Scully, because she shot him once, he says, "I read it in her file."  But after the incident with Holly, Skinner checked and Mulder's file was the only one Modell accessed.  It should have been, "I read it in your file."

Another thing I noticed for the first time is how cheap and cheaply-furnished Modell's apartment is for someone who has been paid to commit over a dozen murders in the past year and a half.  Now, I've never hired a hitman, but I suspect they're a bit costly.  What did Modell do with all the money, spend it on those energy drinks? 

Something that has always bugged me about this stellar episode: There's all this attention paid to how Modell talks people into doing things, his voice is the key, etc. but when it comes time to get into the Hoover Building with his handwritten "PASS," he doesn't have to say a word to the guard in order to put the whammy on him.  ("Please explain to me the scientific nature of the whammy.")  Same with Holly; he eventually talks to her, but initially he just walks in and starts closing the blinds and she's immediately under his spell. 

I've been watching one disc per night, and last night's was quite the mixed bag - it's bookended by Pusher and JCFOS, two of the best episodes of the season, and in the middle sit Teso Dos Bichos and Hell Money, two of the worst.  I slept through Hell Money.

[Bastet]

I finished season three last night, and watching so many episodes in a row reminded me why I never actually liked Mulder when I watched the show.  Loved Scully, liked many aspects of their dynamic, liked a lot of the storylines (at least at this point in the series), liked some of the things Mulder said or did, but in general?  It wasn't until IWTB that I said, "Hey, I kind of like this guy," and then I liked him in season ten.

I used to get pretty pissed off when Scully was referred to in entertainment media as Mulder's "sidekick" rather than his partner, but it's no wonder when he's constantly telling her what to do.  An hour-long, two-person show is just never going to get filmed in time if the duo do everything together, but the divide and conquer investigative strategy is virtually never something they decide on together; almost every.single.episode thus far includes a scene like this:

Mulder: Why don't you go [do something, and the majority of the time it's not even an autopsy, which obviously only she can do]
Scully: While you do what?
Mulder: [Either silence or a sarcastic answer as he walks away]

No wonder when she's exposed to the mind control in Wetwired, her personal paranoia is that Mulder is lying to her.

I somehow never noticed before that Wetwired was written by Mat Beck, the special effects guy.  I love that episode, and am really impressed it came from a non-writer.

I think most of the special features on the Blu-Ray discs are just carried over from what was on the DVDs, but I'd never watched them before.  It was funny to hear WOTC discussed, because no two people said "coprophages" the same way.

Apparently, it was CC's idea to add the domestic killer kitties to Teso Dos Bichos; Shiban had just written about the jaguar spirit.  Way to go, Chris - only you could make a John Shiban script even worse.

After listening to Darin Morgan and Rob Bowman's commentary on JCFOS, I am even more impressed - which I wouldn't have thought possible - by the many layers of brilliance in that episode.  Such tremendous thought went into how the different versions of events work together.

Edited October 23, 2017 by Bastet

[festivus]

I wish I could discuss season three with you but I have such a terrible memory and sadly the episodes are no longer available for me to watch.  I do remember how much I hate Cat Bitches and Hell Money though. Two of the worst episodes ever!

[Sharna Pax]

Going back to the whole Conversation on the Rock/ peg leg issue, I've always found Mulder completely infuriating in that scene, and it always puzzles me that people seem to think of it as romantic. Here's Scully, for once in her life, allowing herself to voice some genuine anger with Mulder for getting her dog killed, and you can see how hard she's trying to get through to him about what his actions cost her. And what does he do? Assure her that he's not being flippant, and then make the most flippant, shallow, Mulder-centric joke possible. I know this is the way Mulder and Scully do important conversations - he deflects with humor, and she keeps pushing the conversation into serious territory until he's forced to quit it with the jokes and just talk to her. But he's not usually this insensitive.

I actually like the scene a lot. But what I like about it is how beautifully it portrays Scully's frustration with Mulder and with her own inability to just write him off. When Mulder comes out with that peg leg comment, you can tell Scully's just emotionally done with this whole conversation. She'd walk away if they weren't stuck on a rock together. And then Mulder turns out to have a favorite line from Moby Dick, and Scully repeats it along with him, and the look on her face says that in spite of herself she's just been pulled right back into Mulder's orbit.

[eleanorofaquitaine]

20 hours ago, Sharna Pax said:

Going back to the whole Conversation on the Rock/ peg leg issue, I've always found Mulder completely infuriating in that scene, and it always puzzles me that people seem to think of it as romantic. Here's Scully, for once in her life, allowing herself to voice some genuine anger with Mulder for getting her dog killed, and you can see how hard she's trying to get through to him about what his actions cost her. And what does he do? Assure her that he's not being flippant, and then make the most flippant, shallow, Mulder-centric joke possible. I know this is the way Mulder and Scully do important conversations - he deflects with humor, and she keeps pushing the conversation into serious territory until he's forced to quit it with the jokes and just talk to her. But he's not usually this insensitive.

I actually like the scene a lot. But what I like about it is how beautifully it portrays Scully's frustration with Mulder and with her own inability to just write him off. When Mulder comes out with that peg leg comment, you can tell Scully's just emotionally done with this whole conversation. She'd walk away if they weren't stuck on a rock together. And then Mulder turns out to have a favorite line from Moby Dick, and Scully repeats it along with him, and the look on her face says that in spite of herself she's just been pulled right back into Mulder's orbit.

I don't know if I consider that scene particularly romantic as it is intimate.  You have both Mulder and Scully betraying some level of vulnerability in their own ways - Mulder using humor, Scully demonstrating frustration and rationality.

I will say, I think one of the reasons why it is such a stand out scene is because it is one of the few times we hear Mulder saying that he wishes his life was different independent of what has happened to Scully.  Usually the only time we see Mulder questioning is choices is when Scully is in danger (One Breath, Redux II), so it's interesting to hear him admit that he wishes things are different independent of some crisis related to Scully's health. 

The other thing that is so interesting to me about that conversation is the insight it gives into Scully's connection with Mulder.  If she actually wanted to diminish Mulder or get him to reconsider who he is and what she does, she should have used someone other than Captain Ahab, whose quest was ultimately futile and destroyed him but is also considered one of the greatest examples of futility in history.  In other words, by elevating Mulder's actions to that of Ahab's, all she did is feed his ego.  And I think that is much the point of that conversation - by feeding his ego, she's feeding her own, and explaining to herself why she continues to work with him despite all that she's suffered because of it.  (I suppose she says this more explicitly in Never Again).   Objectively, Mulder is not that important, but in both Mulder and Scully's minds, he has become a central figure like Ahab.

[Sharna Pax]

7 hours ago, eleanorofaquitaine said:

I will say, I think one of the reasons why it is such a stand out scene is because it is one of the few times we hear Mulder saying that he wishes his life was different independent of what has happened to Scully.  Usually the only time we see Mulder questioning is choices is when Scully is in danger (One Breath, Redux II), so it's interesting to hear him admit that he wishes things are different independent of some crisis related to Scully's health. 

That's a really good point, and it's classic Mulder to be unable to say that without making a joke out of it. And I agree with you, comparing Mulder to Ahab is totally feeding his ego. I think that's part of why I feel for Scully so much in that scene. She's admitting a lot about how she sees Mulder, and she's talking about a book that Mulder already knows has deep meaning for her, and all of that is potentially humiliating. I feel like she deserves more, in return for that, than a flippant comment about Mulder wishing he had a peg leg. I can certainly believe that Mulder doesn't mean for it to be flippant, that he genuinely feels his life would be easier if he could replace the mental wound of Samantha's loss with a physical disability, but it comes out sounding insensitive on a number of levels.

The opposite of this scene, I think, would be the one in the pilot where Scully freaks out about the mosquito bites and takes off her clothes in front of Mulder. That's also an embarrassing, vulnerable moment for Scully, and Mulder's response is perfect. Instead of just reassuring her and sending her back to her motel room, he reciprocates that moment of vulnerability. He tells her about Samantha, he makes a gift to her of this deeply personal story, and by the time she leaves his room they're friends. Knowing that Mulder is capable of that level of sensitivity, it always bugs me all the more when he's a jerk.

Anyway, I do think it's a wonderful scene. I love scenes where the characters just get to talk like human beings, even if they're not at their most likable. (That's why my favorite show ever is Homicide, Life on the Street, which is nothing but conversations strung together with a little bit of plot.)