S11.E07: Rm9sbG93ZXJz

[FormerMod-a1]

Quote

In a world of ever-increasing automation and artificial intelligence, Mulder and Scully find themselves targets in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse.

[chitowngirl]

Always tip your waiters people!

Edited March 1, 2018 by chitowngirl

[janeta]

wth?

 

and mulder just should have shot down the drones.

[AimingforYoko]

Oh, Mulder. I love that even though he was 99% sure he was saving their lives, he really, really hated coming off that tip.

The best X-Files (and by that, I mean most terrifying) are the ones that are just a couple of degrees past plausible.

Edited March 1, 2018 by AimingforYoko

[tennisgurl]

Never forget to tip your wait staff. Even if the wait staff is a sentient sushi bar. 

It felt like we were watching I am Legends a few times, the whole world outside of Mulder and Scully seemed to be missing until the end. Also, Mulder and Scully hand holding! And all was well!

I know that the mythology and the MoTW stuff has always been a part of the show, but it always cracks me up how the X- Files verse has so much weird stuff in it, totally unconnected to each other. Like, who cares about the stupid alien conspiracy, there are sentient AIs and magic and vampires and sea monsters and angels and monsters and ghosts and super powers and 500 other government conspiracy that have nothing to do with aliens running around right here at home! Now that the show is continuing, maybe we can get my dream X-Files ending, where the aliens finally get here...and they get their asses kicked by all the other weird crap already here for trying to get in on their territorial. Like, the aliens show up, only for their computer to suddenly be taken over, and a smiley emoji shows up and asks for a tip...

[WritinMan]

Well, that will go on the list of least favorites.

[Batgirl]

Well, I can show this episode to my spouse to explain why I don’t want an amazon echo. ;-)

 

Honestly, though, I didn’t find the episode very interesting. Hearing Mulder & Scully talk about their cases, and interact with each other and other people is a lot of what makes the show enjoyable for me.

The “silent” episode angle felt forced, too. 

I guess we got to see Scully’s house... in direct contrast to her calling Mulder’s house “our home” in episode 2.

It seemed like they kept showing us “This Man” intentionally in the shootout scene. Anyone catch that?

Oh well. At least week’s episode looks really creepy.  

[SparklesBitch]

3 minutes ago, AimingforYoko said:

Oh, Mulder. I love though even that he was 99% sure he was saving their lives, he really, really hated coming off that tip.

The best X-Files (and by that, I mean most terrifying) are the ones that are just a couple of degrees past plausible.

I love how much he hated leaving that tip! And even better, at the last possible second he leaves the least amount he can. 

And I completely agree! I was incredibly creeped out during the whole episode, mostly because it didn’t seem so far fetched. 

Also, I’m such a sucker for how cute Mulder and Scully are in their little moments when they’re just hanging out together. GA’s laugh when Scully cracks up at Mulder’s fish is SO charming. 

Oh, and Scully’s vibrator made me laugh out loud. 

[Pippin]

Random neural firings: 

First impression:  Surreal, nightmarish and funny simultaneously.  One of the best. 

Half expected SkyNet to make an appearance.  Loved the contrast of the cold efficiency of the "Yum" restaurant at the beginning and the sloppy warmth of the coffee shop at the end. 

Minimal actual dialogue. 

Loved Mulder and the baseball bat vs. the drone.  Half expected him to pull out a double-barrelled shotgun to take on the mini-swarm.  

"Why is your house so much nicer than mine?"  LOL.

High-tech Scully vs. rural Mulder.  Interesting. 

I always suspected Roombas were murderous little bastards at heart. 

Good ol' human contact victorious over texting.  Yay!

Will definitely watch again.

[AimingforYoko]

1 minute ago, SparklesBitch said:

Oh, and Scully’s vibrator made me laugh out loud. 

Of all the humans on planet Earth, Fox Mulder is the last person who gets to give Scully's "personal massager" the side-eye.

[Pippin]

3 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

Like, the aliens show up, only for their computer to suddenly be taken over, and a smiley emoji shows up and asks for a tip...

Or Bigfoot and the vampires band together to kick their asses.  Or they get caught in an endless time loop.  Or they get infected from one of the "anger" worms from "Ice" annihilate each other while humanity sits back and takes bets.  Or the devil shows up and says, "You ain't moving in on my territory!"  Ghods, the possibilities are endless....

[AmeliaBedelia]

I was so bored. Annoyed they wasted an episode on this. Guess they saved time/money by not writing a proper script. 

[tennisgurl]

10 minutes ago, SparklesBitch said:

I love how much he hated leaving that tip! And even better, at the last possible second he leaves the least amount he can. 

 

I think salty, petty Mulder is one of my favorite Mulders. He just did not want to give that tip! Its 10% Mulder, is it really worth your life? Also the "how come your house is nicer than mine?" cracked me up. Well Mulder, you spend your spare time crying to old Carl Sagen VHS tapes, and hunting Bigfoot while wearing shrub costumes. Maybe she puts in a bit more of an effort into home decor? 

Next week looks super creepy, I cant wait!

[ReginaF]

Why is Sculls shacked up in a dojo with a personal massager when she could be shackin’ up with Foxy? 

[EUROTRASH]

I appreciate the idea but not the execution. There was no need for the completely out-of-character portrayals and abysmal continuity. The episode indicates that Mulder and Scully are nothing more than props to 1013. Scully's "high-tech" home is only there because it fits the completely self-contained individual plot of the episode. It is also implied Mulder was never at her house, which makes no sense. Continuity is completely irrelevant at this point. Was it really that difficult to have Daggoo in her home? How about anything at all that tells you it's Scully's place? No, instead we got a vibrator. Fine. There are just so many things that are wrong. And four episodes away from the series finale, this one does not advance anything. I did enjoy it much more than "Kitten" though.

[Bastet]

I look forward to finding out what the deal is with Mulder and leaving a tip (it airs in a little over an hour here; I always pop in early to see if there's something truly horrible awaiting me), because one of the 873 things that make me laugh in Bad Blood is when Mulder tips the pizza delivery guy TWO CENTS, at which point I root for the little vampire to go ahead and gnaw on his cheapskate neck.

[domina89]

1 minute ago, Bastet said:

I look forward to finding out what the deal is with Mulder and leaving a tip (it airs in a little over an hour here; I always pop in early to see if there's something truly horrible awaiting me), because one of the 873 things that make me laugh in Bad Blood is when Mulder tips the pizza delivery guy TWO CENTS, at which point I root for the little vampire to go ahead and gnaw on his cheapskate neck.

Oh man I LOVE that two cent tip.  Classic.  I think with Mulder it may not be so much that he's a cheapskate (although there are hints of that throughout the series) but it may be more that his rebellious nature bristles at the idea of doing something just because it is expected.  Scully follows the rules.  Mulder never has and never will.  One of my favorite tiny moments illustrating this is in "Arcadia" at the end of the episode as M & S drive away, Scully buckles up... and Mulder doesn't.  I love fun character moments like that.  

[ganesh]

1 hour ago, SparklesBitch said:

Oh, and Scully’s vibrator made me laugh out loud. 

I liked Mulder's reaction to it. And then at the end when they were most certainly going to do it. 

This was a little much, but I do tend to think most tv shows are overrwritten and actors aren't allowed to just act. They certainly were allowed to act here. I thought they both did a great job. I can see them hanging out and enjoying their company without having to talk much. 

1 hour ago, EUROTRASH said:

The episode indicates that Mulder and Scully are nothing more than props to 1013.

This was kind of my problem. Scully isn't a technophobe, but I found the house a little much for her. I can buy the house alarm because she's surely been abducted enough, but the whole smart house just didn't ring true to me. I found it weird that they came in separate cars too. 

GA posted a picture of the fish today on FB and called it "William". 

It seemed to me that they got Mulder's order wrong, so I don't see it as him being cheap. 

I did like the message about Skinner's birthday coming up soon. 

[MissL]

The no talking at dinner made no sense. It was pretty forced and obviously done so they could say there was barely dialogue in this ep. At least in Buffy's Hush there was a reason nobody talked. I mean this is the same two people who yelled each other's names 42 billion times in 5 minutes in a cornfield and they don't speak at ALL? 

How does Scully afford that hi tech house? And it was awfully cold and didn't feel like her. AND she LIVES with Mulder now show!! Come on writers. This is what happens when you don't have a writers room.

So all of this happened to them because they picked a bad restaurant? Nothing to do with an xfile or who they are? It was just random? Did they as law enforcement look into shutting it down so as to protect others from the same fate? Is Mulder at all curious on whether "they" created that place? His all powerful "they".  I miss the realism underneath my show.  Only saving grace was the last minute of hand holding because sometimes I'm easy. And it was still better than my struggle.  

[phalange]

Even though I'm not one who fears that sentient robot overlords are in our future, I still thought it was a fun episode. The empty, silent restaurant did give off a creepy vibe, and really, any place that serves blobfish is going to be an automatic no from me. Scully taking pictures of Mulder with the blobfish was adorable, though.

Scully's house was way more technologically advanced than I'd think she'd like, but I love that her alarm password is Queequeg. Aww. Her frustration with trying to answer the security question only to be repeatedly told it's wrong is all too real. I lost it at the roomba thing finding the "body massager" under her bed. See, this is why you don't open suspicious packages. I guess now that her house tried to kill her, she can move back into the unremarkable house with Mulder? 

The little dialogue that did happen was pretty funny. Mulder's, "You suck Mr. Phone" and Scully saying, "Not all of them" when Mulder mentions getting all her personal devices back. The crowded, noisy diner at the end was a nice contrast to the sushi place and M&S putting their phones down to hold hands was sweet. It's the little things.

I liked the opening with the Twitter AI, and how it was bookended by the app telling Mulder "we learn from you" once he finally tipped them. I feel like it's less about making sure technology doesn't become malevolent, and more about making sure we don't raise other humans to be that way. The Twitter AI wasn't "born" cruel--it learned cruelty from humans, just like real people do. 

Moral of the story: don't be a bigoted douchebag on the internet (or anywhere), and always tip your servers. 

[100Proof]

This almost could've been a black mirror episode

[ganesh]

41 minutes ago, phalange said:

Moral of the story: don't be a bigoted douchebag on the internet (or anywhere), and always tip your servers. 

That's kind of the flaw. Didn't they get his order wrong? I don't think it's fair to expect a tip. Shouldn't it be that they learn from that? Mulder probably shouldn't have stuck his card in the slot though. That's what triggered it. I don't think they really followed the premise they put forth at the start. 

Did Mulder get an email from Harry Reid at the end telling him to deny everything? 

[Bastet]

There is a whole lot of modern technology I want no part of, so I was looking forward to this one (as much as I actually look forward to XF anymore, since I'm so ho-hum about it this season), but apprehensive that the "silent" aspect would feel like a gimmick.

Which it did, as these are people who say each other's names every three minutes, but it really only bothered me during the dinner date, which was fucking ridiculous - they're both constantly on their phones instead of interacting (why not just each stay home and order in?), to the point they don't ever say a single word to each other.  And, yes, I get that it's just an exaggeration of the ridiculous way many/most smartphone users behave these days.  But Mulder and Scully are not these people; they just got inserted into a story without regard for what's realistic characterization.

Like Scully's house.  Come on; there's no way she's that high-tech.  (And I see the writers still can't agree whether they live together - there's far more in the "they don't" column, so I guess the "they do" thing was a continuity error, and I don't give a shit whether they do or don't, so I'm not complaining about anything other than the inconsistency.  Maybe now that her house tried to kill her, she'll move back in with him.)  And, my goodness, her home decor has changed since her old apartment; her house looks like something Gillian would have come up with in all things, but that's about where the similarity to the past ends.  And, fine, people change styles, but it, too, was just so painfully exaggerated. 

The episode wasn't bad, though -- we got one of Scully's great laughs.  A shout-out to Queequeg.  Bigly Credit; hee.  And GA and DD do non-verbal interaction better than most, so they're ideal candidates for this type of experiment.  Plus I had my memories of Mulder's two-cent tip for pizza delivery triggered.  Scully telling her driverless car to be quiet in response to "how can I make your trip enjoyable?" was great, too. 

I like poking fun at shit like taking pictures of your food and posting it, being expected to review (and post that review on social media) every damn thing you use (about two seconds after you get it), the stupid descriptions for "poor, fair, good, great" ratings, arguing with the phone you've voluntarily turned your life over to.  (And having to pull out ye olde Thomas Guide to actually get somewhere.) 

The drone-to-drone search and rescue mission was fantastically creepy.  Trying to get a company's automated customer service to respond properly is low-hanging fruit, but it also never gets old.  "Get rid of everything we can be tracked with" leading to casting off half a dozen things was great.  I kind of like the idea of poor-/non-tippers being hunted down, heh.  And I definitely like the "put your fucking phone down and engage with the person sitting right there with you" message.

The concept was great.  The execution was okay.  These days, that's plenty for me.

The opening just kept me thinking, "Battlestar Galactica did this theme better," but I couldn't help a rueful laugh at an AI let loose on Twitter to learn about being human from the people posting there inevitably winding up posting racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, etc. shit.

Am I correct in assuming the tag line translates to something, like on boards where spoilers are turned into gobbledy-gook like that?  Anyone know what?

Who keeps their vibrator, totally uncovered, under the bed with all the dust bunnies?  She indeed needs an automatic vacuum if she's going to do that.

It amused me that so many of the commercials shown during this hour were for automated things like were causing them so much grief in the episode.  That juxtaposition was a better commentary on modern society than the episode itself.

Edited March 1, 2018 by Bastet

[100Proof]

Scully's house was more suited to Media Bowie

[AntiBeeSpray]

3 hours ago, WritinMan said:

Well, that will go on the list of least favorites.

Same here.

It was ok. But not all that memorable.

 

42 minutes ago, ganesh said:

That's kind of the flaw. Didn't they get his order wrong? I don't think it's fair to expect a tip. Shouldn't it be that they learn from that? Mulder probably shouldn't have stuck his card in the slot though. That's what triggered it. I don't think they really followed the premise they put forth at the start. 

Did Mulder get an email from Harry Reid at the end telling him to deny everything? 

I think that was Scully.

Edited March 1, 2018 by AntiBeeSpray

[Ghost of TWOP Past]

This was a lot of events without a reason for it to be happening. 

Say for example the badguy kills the hero's brother, then the story is the hero out for revenge. All kinds of things can happen in that story, but you still need a reason for it to be happening or it's just senseless noise and commotion, and that reason is revenge. Revenge drives it, even though not everything in the story is driven by revenge. 

But in this ep, sure, Mulder declines to tip the robots. But so what? Why do they care? It's not as if they would get to spend the money themselves anyway. But the restaurant goes berserk, and then the robo-taxi company takes up the enmity. What the hell does the robo-taxi have to do with the sushi-bots? Why would it care if they got stiffed on a tip? Then the Amazon-analog delivery drones get in on the act and the Roomba-analog joins the fray. Replacing the drone Mulder destroyed would cost the nebulous robo-alliance more than they were stiffed on the tip, so where is the gain? Scully's house sets fire to itself, for fuck's sake. Is it really THAT frigging suicidally irate over the sushi-bots' lack of tip? Apparently so, because phones, credit company answering machines, and whatsit factories are all seemingly part of the same William-Gibson-esque hyperintelligence. And the only thing it cares about is making sure the sushi bots get a tip? Seriously? Or are they separate intelligences working together despite having no motivation to do so? That makes even less sense. 

Ugh. Why am I wasting my time trying to analyze this? It's evident that like so many X Files episodes, this was a single fairly interesting idea, a rebellion by automation, which wasn't thought through and given an actual reason for any of this stuff to be happening. The sole saving grace was that these actors can make these characters so charming, but that wasn't enough to save it for me. 

I really hoped they were going for a Terminator-spoof finale in that automated plant, but alas, that did not materialize. 

Edited March 1, 2018 by Ghost of TWOP Past

[Mystery]

30 minutes ago, Ghost of TWOP Past said:

What the hell does the robo-taxi have to do with the sushi-bots? Why would it care if they got stiffed on a tip?

 

I was pretty bewildered, too. In the case of the taxi, I assumed it was because Scully declined to interact with the restaurant, "follow" it or whatever it asked for on social media. And she disappointed the taxi by not interacting with it either. And then all the AIs just hooked up against them. I was just wondering random things, like why was Scully living in that kind of horrible house? (I mean, it was gorgeous but so COLD.) Really the only time I laughed was when Mulder asked why her house was so much nicer than his. 

It's definitely not an episode I'd ever watch again. 

Edited March 1, 2018 by Mystery

[phalange]

1 hour ago, ganesh said:

That's kind of the flaw. Didn't they get his order wrong? I don't think it's fair to expect a tip. Shouldn't it be that they learn from that? 

Honestly, there was really no point in tipping in a place like that anyway. Of course they had to pay for their food, but who is the tip going to? Robots don't need money. 

 

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

Am I correct in assuming the tag line translates to something, like on boards where spoilers are turned into gobbledy-gook like that?  Anyone know what?

The tag apparently translates to "The Truth is Out There" in base-64, the same code used in the title.

[Tachi Rocinante]

It wasn't too bad as social commentary but it did get a bit ridiculous.

This ep was co-written by actress and X-Files alum Kristen Cloke.

[luna1122]

I'm not analyzing any of it, and yeah, some of the 'no talking' concept was a little tortured, but I thought it was a lot of fun. I don't really care if they live together or not, cuz they're a forever couple no matter what, and I can handwave the inconsistencies with Scully calling Mulder's house 'our home' cuz she lived there for a long time, etc, but I did think it was awfully sleek and cold and high tech for Scully. I laughed at Mulder's 'why is your house so much nicer than mine?'. I laughed at his bemused reaction to her having a vibrator in her pocket.

I'm a huge proponent of tipping and hate people who don't, but they had no actual servers or people in that weird little blobfish restaurant, so I ain't hating on Mulder for this one. Also, DD looked exceptionally fine this episode.

Loved the hand holding at the end. Sweet.

[AimingforYoko]

48 minutes ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

It wasn't too bad as social commentary but it did get a bit ridiculous.

This ep was co-written by actress and X-Files alum Kristen Cloke.

She's also Glen Morgan's missus.

[domina89]

I liked the overall commentary, even if I thought it was a bit overcooked.  M & S not speaking, driving home alone and living separately (???) representing the idea that we are losing touch with the importance of personal and social contact (I guess this could have been demonstrated further if M & S were texting each other while sitting next to each other in the restaurant and, yes, I do know people who do that).  All the devices going haywire over seemingly nothing representing our dependence on technology and literally how our lives could fall apart any second without it.  And the idea that others are watching our behavior (good or bad) and learning from it is always a relevant message.

I was geniunely creeped out by the Roomba memorizing Scully's floorplan then uploading it... somewhere.

I'll have to watch again to catch the small details.  I missed the "this man" image everyone is referring to.

ETA: I think the motivation of the bots was that they wanted to be helpful and needed some sort of positive reinforcement that they were, indeed, useful in some way.  When M & S declined to give them the attention they desired, they reacted by becoming aggressive and demanding (like children).  

Edited March 1, 2018 by domina89

[festivus]

Maybe I'm just a dumbass but I did not get this episode. I know the world is getting to the point of the technology in this episode but I don't think we're there yet and I definitely don't think Mulder and Scully are. Unless they've decided to skip them into the future kind of like how somehow 2016 became 2018 between My Struggles 2 & 3. I mean, Mulder hasn't been to Scully's house before? All that tech is chasing them because Mulder didn't leave a tip at some weird restaurant that nobody else was in? This episode works as a kind of Black Mirror allegory of "Get off your damn phone and interact with the person sitting next to you" but it does not work as an X-Files episode for me. I need that to be grounded in some kind of continuity of what's come before. Or maybe it's a damn alternate reality. IDK.

[ganesh]

1 hour ago, domina89 said:

ETA: I think the motivation of the bots was that they wanted to be helpful and needed some sort of positive reinforcement that they were, indeed, useful in some way.  When M & S declined to give them the attention they desired, they reacted by becoming aggressive and demanding (like children).  

Yeah, but like children, sometimes you need to put your foot down and say, 'you don't get something just because you throw a tantrum.'

[domina89]

17 minutes ago, ganesh said:

Yeah, but like children, sometimes you need to put your foot down and say, 'you don't get something just because you throw a tantrum.'

Very good point.  I guess we need to question what lesson the bots actually learned.  Intimidation and violence gets results?  

[welnoc]

1 hour ago, domina89 said:

ETA: I think the motivation of the bots was that they wanted to be helpful and needed some sort of positive reinforcement that they were, indeed, useful in some way.  When M & S declined to give them the attention they desired, they reacted by becoming aggressive and demanding (like children).  

That was my take on it as well but it also reflects the social media universe too; when they didn't get the feedback they wanted, they when crazy. Sort of like people posting their mindless shit on social media and being flabbergasted when they don't get the kind of feedback they thought they would.

I think too, one of the points they may have been trying to get across was the "interconnectedness" of it all. We live in a world of mega-companies and who's to say that Whipz and the sushi place, and the robo-whatever it was company weren't all under one single umbrella and talking to each other about what was happening? Again, it's a bit like the comment section of social media with loads of people banding together to try and force change and bully the poster.

I fully believe that your "smart" fridge and your "smart" car and your "smart" phone can all talk to each other. Forget about those new google and amazon "assistants". They're just there to gather data, not help you out.

I am so glad I don't own a mobile phone, "smart" or otherwise. 

[ganesh]

Yes, they're riffing on the Internet of Things. I agree with the theme, but it starts with a flawed premise in that the robot was wrong in the first place. Mulder's comment at the end about 'we have to be better teachers falls flat.' He was a better teacher. His order was wrong, he tried to correct it, and he didn't provide a reward. He didn't fly off the handle, throw insults, or harass anyone/thing. He even brought it to the kitchen to show that it was wrong. The lesson is that you have to pay attention to details at your job. 

It's a different story if Mulder just didn't like the taste of the food or something. 

28 minutes ago, welnoc said:

Sort of like people posting their mindless shit on social media and being flabbergasted when they don't get the kind of feedback they thought they would.

Given the obvious overwhelming flood of bots and trolls over the last year, if that's what they think of social media, then they're views are rather antiquated imo. 

I did love all the sounds of the machines. 

[luna1122]

2 minutes ago, ganesh said:

 

I did love all the sounds of the machines. 

I loved the "YUM" after every selection they made on the menu. Even when it didn't seem so yum.

[teddysmom]

Quote

Well, that will go on the list of least favorites.

Me too. I hated this. I was so bored I started cleaning my apartment.  No dialogue, and I hate this "automation taking over everything". Why was no one else in the restaurant? Why is she ordering a car when Mulder can just take her home. Why does he have to get a map out? He's lived in DC for 20 years. 

I did like that they got her a shorter wig, it looked much better. 

[ganesh]

GA posted a pic of the 'egg' on her FB with an hilarious caption.

[Sharna Pax]

Well, heck. This show has been around for 25 years, why shouldn't it get to write its own AU fanfic? I'm really starting to get a kick out of the complete lack of continuity in this season. The X-Files has always had a weird relationship with continuity, what with MOTWs that don't interact with the mytharc, joke episodes, unreliable narrators, etc., but this season is really giving me the impression that all the episodes exist in slightly different universes. I mean, Mulder and Scully definitely didn't live this way in "This." Not only were they apparently living together in Mulder's house, but all they had to do to keep the bad guys from tracking them was ditch their phones. 

Depending on what episode you watch, Mulder and Scully are simultaneously platonic, friends with benefits, casually dating, and married. They are absurdly hyperconnected to all kinds of tech, but Mulder is also a Luddite and Scully an old-school, pre-google repository of information like Katharine Hepburn in Desk Set. They live together, but also they have separate homes and Scully never invites Mulder over. There is literally no way to reconcile all this, so all I can do is think of this season as a series of interesting riffs on the concept of Mulder and Scully - each one compatible with some aspect of the show as a whole, but none of them fully compatible with each other. I kind of like it. It's like the writers are leaning into the ambiguous, Choose Your Own Adventure quality that the X-Files has always had and making it an explicit theme.

Anyway, I liked this episode, even though I didn't buy that Mulder and Scully would be in such a weird restaurant in the first place, or that they would be completely silent for that entire first scene. The part where they're just sitting there scrolling on their phones was great, and very real, but two people who can make an X-File out of a bran muffin would definitely not react silently to the blobfish. And I don't think the episode quite figured out what it was about. "We need to be better teachers" is a fine moral for a completely different episode, but the moral of this one seemed to be that we should stop outsourcing our lives to technology.

But I don't really care that none of this made sense. Scully got to wear boots and sweatpants and own a vibrator. Scully turning up the volume on her phone and sitting back with a blissed-out look on her face when "Teach Your Children" came on was hilarious. There was a Birds scene with tiny drones. All of Mulder's facial expressions were amazing. Scully's fridge literally started flinging ice at her. "Poor, Middle-Class, Rich, or Ballin." Harry Reid wants Mulder to deny everything. Mulder and Scully held hands at the end. I was happy.

Edited March 2, 2018 by Sharna Pax

[Sharna Pax]

To add to my previous comment - I think I was able to enjoy this episode because I don't think of it as "real," exactly. For one thing, it seems to exist somewhere in the near future,  and as far as I can tell the rest of the season is happening right now. For another, there's something extra not-real about a massive robot uprising that can be triggered by something as small as not tipping for poor service, but that only affects Mulder and Scully. Does the restaurant even exist? There's no one else there. Did it just pop into existence for Mulder and Scully as part of a weird cautionary vision of the future we're making for ourselves? (Please tell me William didn't somehow engineer this whole thing to get his parents back together. Just kidding - that would require way too much continuity for this show.)

I think of this episode as having the same relationship to The X-Files that a Simpsons Halloween special has to the Simpsons, or that the Lord Peter Wimsey short stories have to the novels - it's part of the universe but it's not canon. I can't imagine that Mulder and Scully will ever mention it in a later episode. 

[mledawn]

Mulder and Scully sitting in the restaurant with the volume up on their phones is pretty much justification for everything that happens later in the episode.

 

Wasn't my favourite episode but it was worth it for Scully's laugh, Mulder's double take at the vibrator, and the hand holding at the end. I'm such a softie.

[spritz]

As satire, this episode wasn't too bad. No need to overthink the story. 

 

It was fun to watch Mulder and Scully have to deal with a common but frustrating task of talking to an interactive automated phone service. "You can say things like make a payment, re-order items... Returns! ... Returns! ... Returns!"  

[RoseofSharon]

I assumed for most of this episode that they were half undercover for a case. I even assumed at first they were in some self contained high tech city.  Then Mulder drove home and Scully was suddenly living in the tricked out techno house.  I then assumed that she was living there to check out more reports of weirdness.  Like others pointed out, there was nothing in the house that made it look like HER house except her personal products were there.  Add to it that Mulder had never seen it before, I have to assume she'd at the very least JUST moved there. (And now it burned down so never have to worry about it again) but moving in there to do some digging also still works.

There was very little dialogue and yes, that was an affectation but when the episode opened, I assumed they'd been warned that someone was listening so I thought at first it all made sense.  Now maybe they just had a weird bet going?  For most of the episode, I'm still going to go with the theory that they were at the restaurant in the first place investigating stuff even if we were never explicitly told so.  After all, we also weren't explicitly told they weren't investigating, so why not? It helps explain out of character things.  Like Scully using a self driving car service.  Wouldn't she just drive herself if need be?  Or as others pointed out, let Mulder drive her home.  Plus all the automatic smart home stuff didn't seem her.  In season one they were both almost killed by an AI building so I dont' see ever choosing to live with that much control given to computers.   So I'm going to hand wave the back story that would explain the contrivance and keep my made up excuses.  Going in believing all that, I enjoyed the episode.

I had a blast just watching them interact in their first scene and after how they used drones so precisely at the Olympics, I found the drone army very believable.  

It was an odd episode but I enjoyed how it unfolded, plus, any lingering plot holes questions were appeased by the hand holding at the end.

[pagooey]

18 hours ago, ganesh said:

I can buy the house alarm because she's surely been abducted enough

LOL, excellent point. 

I too was astonished at her cold modern bland house; it looks like a model condo for the sales office. I figure that's the decor-in-a-box version you sign on for when you've left the cozy Unremarkable House in the boonies to save your sanity. Electronic within an inch of its life, and never personalized. Impermanent, in other words. On that note, I suspect Mulder's quip about it's niceness was a Duchovny ad-lib too funny to leave out. I mean, he knew how to drive there, right?

 

2 hours ago, Sharna Pax said:

But I don't really care that none of this made sense. Scully got to wear boots and sweatpants and own a vibrator. Scully turning up the volume on her phone and sitting back with a blissed-out look on her face when "Teach Your Children" came on was hilarious. There was a Birds scene with tiny drones. All of Mulder's facial expressions were amazing. Scully's fridge literally started flinging ice at her. "Poor, Middle-Class, Rich, or Ballin." Harry Reid wants Mulder to deny everything. Mulder and Scully held hands at the end. I was happy.

I think in my middle age I'm much more willing to accept the handwaving at continuity and...basic sense-making, yeah--provided I get to laugh as hard at an episode as I did in this one. Scully/GA's goofy, drunk-y laugh is PURE GOLD, and I will forgive a great deal for that wonderful rarity.

And although broad continuity has never been this show's strong suit, I honestly LOVE the very subtle thread running through season 11 of Scully, a badass, independent, fifty-something, sexual woman who has both a vibrator and a hot soulmate she now allows herself to reach for when the AA-battery version does not appeal. There's an element of defiance in it--a rejection of the Blessed Virgin Saint Scully portrayal she labored under for years--and I am HERE FOR IT. Scully no longer gives a shit, y'all. You go on and put that beautiful man to work, girl. 

 I also found the storm of insectoid drones, and the blithe tip-tapping robo-dogs, extremely creepy. Something emotionless and relentless, scuttling AFTER YOU FOREVER, has always given me the willies. I went to bed thinking about this episode of The Twilight Zone, specifically for its little scrabbling spacemen. And then when I woke up, I remembered that it also features virtually NO DIALOGUE at all. I see what you did there, 1013!

[SparklesBitch]

6 hours ago, teddysmom said:

Why does he have to get a map out? He's lived in DC for 20 years. 

Thank you!!! I texted the same thing to my dad during the show. 

[ganesh]

They showed Scully's address as Maryland so they could have been going out to eat somewhere close to her that Mulder hadn't been to yet. 

[Pippin]

5 hours ago, pagooey said:

You go on and put that beautiful man to work, girl. 

Amen!  And really, who wouldn't? 

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, ganesh said:

They showed Scully's address as Maryland

That's pretty funny, because she initially lived in Annapolis (MD), but then in the first movie her apartment - the same as we'd seen on the show - was said to be in Georgetown.  And, of course, we all wanted Scully to have the cool address rather than the shitty commute, but where does she really live? 

So if they put this totally uncharacteristic sleek, modern home - as, apparently, part of a sleek, modern development, given the fact her neighbor's home (when they tried to call 911 after their phones didn't work) looked the same - in Annapolis, are they really putting her back there after her having returned to the FBI rather than centrally locating her as they, possibly, hadn't before?  The hell?