The X-Files 2x25: Anasazi
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tori_reviewsThe X-Files 2x25: Anasazi
This is kind of an odd episode; though I think some of that oddness is a modern view where it would have played better at the time. It’s very much a first part of a two (or maybe three, I think it’s three) parter, which means it’s slow and set-up-y rather than when all the shit hits the fan. Modern finales, or any big event episodes (even two-parters) the set-up has been done for episodes leading up to it, so the big event stuff only has to do so much of its own heavy lifting in that regard. And this one does end on a cliffhanger of how Mulder’s going to survive this, but if there ever was any tension on *if* he would rather than how, it’s been lost to the ages.
There are a lot of pieces of things going on, and several pretty good scenes, that never click together in a satisfying matter. In a lot of shows/stories I’m all for multi strand plots that only connect in a few moments but mainly do their own thing, but that’s never the kind of storytelling that works here very well. The ability to have waxing and waning arcs only works in a show with arcs; and having different characters dealing with different plots, works a lot better when you have multiple characters in focus.
Another thing lost to time is that I think the reveal of Pa Mulder and Smokey knowing each other should be a big thing, but I’ve known that too long to be surprised the first time we see it. You may remember that I was far more interested in noting the similarities back in Colony/End Game, but it never was spelled out until here. Also, Bill looks like he was probably dying already here; the scene with Smokey seems a bit like there’s some poisoning going on though it’s not quite enough to call misdirection, and then his scene with our Mulder kind of feels like they’re both being slowly poisoned so it was clearly going to end badly (even if I didn’t already know that).
Krycek’s role here is also odd. Does he even have a line? He might have during the fight with Mulder, but it wasn’t much of one. I actually don’t remember who he’s working for at this point, but I sort of feel like even if I didn’t remember just how changeable his loyalties are I think I wouldn’t immediately assume Smokey was lying about being involved in Pa Mulder’s death. I wouldn’t rule it out (and as I don’t remember, I’m not), but Krycek’s departure from the series always had him more ‘in the wind’ than necessarily working for the conspiracy.
One thing I do remember about this element of the story back in the day (although I only saw this after the fact, we’re still a ways from when I started watching the show in first run), is that it appealed to me, because I spent a lot of my childhood going to Anasazi ruins. I think it was a bit in vogue to evoke that particular unsolved mystery of history (although cause and effect, TXF might have brought it into public awareness for a time) but that’s not how I remember it; I just remember a lot of spring break trips to New Mexico that included visiting ruins (New Mexico being my parents’ favorite destination for spring break trips, it was in driving distance and south so we could do outdoor stuff).
This is a Scully’s convenient miss issue, but why doesn’t Scully go out to look at stuff in the desert? It literally makes no sense why she wouldn’t go along; it’s not like she’s even sitting there with Albert going through the files so they’re attacking the problem from multiple angles. She brings up missing the meeting with Skinner as if she was going back, but not only is she not, but that would make no sense until they’ve at least tried to find some answers.
The water poisoning plot seemed really obvious to me all along, and I didn’t remember it (at least not consciously). As soon as the old lady shot her husband I felt like they should have been investigating that, because there was clearly some kind of mind-control or altering substance that Mulder, on a normal day, would totally have looked into before accepting at face value.
Also, Mulder is an idiot at the beginning. Oh this file should be in plain, obvious English, it’s not so he throws a hissy fit (admittedly he is being drugged); it couldn’t possibly be encoded, encrypted, or in any kind of cypher. How did this guy get anything done without Scully?
And, as a side note, this is the first time I can recall Scully actually seeing how Mulder goes about contacting his contacts; something that should have been established before she used that system a few episodes ago. It’s even framed as if it’s setting up her knowing how to do it for a later plot point, except that she’s already done it.
Previous status
I feel like I must have seen this before, I even kind of remember a feature on the old tape about how they had to paint all the rocks to look like they were in New Mexico) but I don’t remember seeing the rest of the story.
When are we?
April 9-14 (1995 I assume). However, Scully says she’s been working with Mulder for about a year and a half, which even if we say the pilot too place in 1993 rather than ’92 as said at the time, it happened in February so it’s around two years. A year and a half is about the time between when the pilot aired and when this episode is set, which is the shortest window to put between those events.
Are we saying it’s aliens?
They’re cagey about that this time. It’s more about the conspiracy instead of exactly what it’s covering up. It’s connected to alien conspiracies, the bodies look alien-ish but there’s no confirmation of alien involvement; except implying that the Anasazi were scooped up by aliens.
Scully’s convenient miss of the week
The only explanation I can half give for Scully staying behind at the end, is that they had to get there by motorcycle and there was only room for one to go. She didn’t even seem to doubt there was something worth seeing.
How crazy does Mulder sound?
Considering he’s been drugged; pretty crazy. He also tampers with a crime scene after his dad is shot (admittedly, still drugged), assaults a superior officer (also, drugged), should clearly not be driving in his condition, even on whatever meds he knows he’s taking but keeps driving himself around. Mulder’s really pretty terrible in this episode.
Who’s driving?
For some reason Mulder is driving Albert’s car at the end, though Scully must have been the one to drive them across the country (put a pin in that, because I suspect she’ll end up flying back, so what happens to her car?).
The gang that’s here
Skinner, Smokey, Krycek, the Gunmen, Bill if he counts as noteworthy.
People allowed to call Mulder Fox
Bill
Who’s your daddy?
Smokey plainly refers to Fox as Bill’s son (too many Mulders); but that scene is so creepy that it isn’t that hard to call it code or a dig or at the very least not necessarily a continuity error. Really, I wonder if the problem is that there was a lot more that could have been done with Bill’s past with the conspiracy that they never got to do because they killed him off, so the writers decided just to do it with Smokey as the father figure.
Break-ins
Mulder’s whole apartment building gets their water messed with and at least one person dies because the conspiracy decided to mess with Mulder. Actually...which branch of the conspiracy did that anyway? We’ll see if they ever answer that.
Are they in love?
Even ignoring the crap Mulder says to Scully while he’s drugged/detoxing, he’s kind of a dick to her. He kind of apologizes afterward, but is still not super good to her. And while a shippy reading is fully possible, there’s little that Scully does here that can’t be read as a caring and devoted partner first and foremost.
Noteworthy injuries
Scully shoots Mulder in the shoulder, that’s going to leave a mark.
This is kind of an odd episode; though I think some of that oddness is a modern view where it would have played better at the time. It’s very much a first part of a two (or maybe three, I think it’s three) parter, which means it’s slow and set-up-y rather than when all the shit hits the fan. Modern finales, or any big event episodes (even two-parters) the set-up has been done for episodes leading up to it, so the big event stuff only has to do so much of its own heavy lifting in that regard. And this one does end on a cliffhanger of how Mulder’s going to survive this, but if there ever was any tension on *if* he would rather than how, it’s been lost to the ages.
There are a lot of pieces of things going on, and several pretty good scenes, that never click together in a satisfying matter. In a lot of shows/stories I’m all for multi strand plots that only connect in a few moments but mainly do their own thing, but that’s never the kind of storytelling that works here very well. The ability to have waxing and waning arcs only works in a show with arcs; and having different characters dealing with different plots, works a lot better when you have multiple characters in focus.
Another thing lost to time is that I think the reveal of Pa Mulder and Smokey knowing each other should be a big thing, but I’ve known that too long to be surprised the first time we see it. You may remember that I was far more interested in noting the similarities back in Colony/End Game, but it never was spelled out until here. Also, Bill looks like he was probably dying already here; the scene with Smokey seems a bit like there’s some poisoning going on though it’s not quite enough to call misdirection, and then his scene with our Mulder kind of feels like they’re both being slowly poisoned so it was clearly going to end badly (even if I didn’t already know that).
Krycek’s role here is also odd. Does he even have a line? He might have during the fight with Mulder, but it wasn’t much of one. I actually don’t remember who he’s working for at this point, but I sort of feel like even if I didn’t remember just how changeable his loyalties are I think I wouldn’t immediately assume Smokey was lying about being involved in Pa Mulder’s death. I wouldn’t rule it out (and as I don’t remember, I’m not), but Krycek’s departure from the series always had him more ‘in the wind’ than necessarily working for the conspiracy.
One thing I do remember about this element of the story back in the day (although I only saw this after the fact, we’re still a ways from when I started watching the show in first run), is that it appealed to me, because I spent a lot of my childhood going to Anasazi ruins. I think it was a bit in vogue to evoke that particular unsolved mystery of history (although cause and effect, TXF might have brought it into public awareness for a time) but that’s not how I remember it; I just remember a lot of spring break trips to New Mexico that included visiting ruins (New Mexico being my parents’ favorite destination for spring break trips, it was in driving distance and south so we could do outdoor stuff).
This is a Scully’s convenient miss issue, but why doesn’t Scully go out to look at stuff in the desert? It literally makes no sense why she wouldn’t go along; it’s not like she’s even sitting there with Albert going through the files so they’re attacking the problem from multiple angles. She brings up missing the meeting with Skinner as if she was going back, but not only is she not, but that would make no sense until they’ve at least tried to find some answers.
The water poisoning plot seemed really obvious to me all along, and I didn’t remember it (at least not consciously). As soon as the old lady shot her husband I felt like they should have been investigating that, because there was clearly some kind of mind-control or altering substance that Mulder, on a normal day, would totally have looked into before accepting at face value.
Also, Mulder is an idiot at the beginning. Oh this file should be in plain, obvious English, it’s not so he throws a hissy fit (admittedly he is being drugged); it couldn’t possibly be encoded, encrypted, or in any kind of cypher. How did this guy get anything done without Scully?
And, as a side note, this is the first time I can recall Scully actually seeing how Mulder goes about contacting his contacts; something that should have been established before she used that system a few episodes ago. It’s even framed as if it’s setting up her knowing how to do it for a later plot point, except that she’s already done it.
Previous status
I feel like I must have seen this before, I even kind of remember a feature on the old tape about how they had to paint all the rocks to look like they were in New Mexico) but I don’t remember seeing the rest of the story.
When are we?
April 9-14 (1995 I assume). However, Scully says she’s been working with Mulder for about a year and a half, which even if we say the pilot too place in 1993 rather than ’92 as said at the time, it happened in February so it’s around two years. A year and a half is about the time between when the pilot aired and when this episode is set, which is the shortest window to put between those events.
Are we saying it’s aliens?
They’re cagey about that this time. It’s more about the conspiracy instead of exactly what it’s covering up. It’s connected to alien conspiracies, the bodies look alien-ish but there’s no confirmation of alien involvement; except implying that the Anasazi were scooped up by aliens.
Scully’s convenient miss of the week
The only explanation I can half give for Scully staying behind at the end, is that they had to get there by motorcycle and there was only room for one to go. She didn’t even seem to doubt there was something worth seeing.
How crazy does Mulder sound?
Considering he’s been drugged; pretty crazy. He also tampers with a crime scene after his dad is shot (admittedly, still drugged), assaults a superior officer (also, drugged), should clearly not be driving in his condition, even on whatever meds he knows he’s taking but keeps driving himself around. Mulder’s really pretty terrible in this episode.
Who’s driving?
For some reason Mulder is driving Albert’s car at the end, though Scully must have been the one to drive them across the country (put a pin in that, because I suspect she’ll end up flying back, so what happens to her car?).
The gang that’s here
Skinner, Smokey, Krycek, the Gunmen, Bill if he counts as noteworthy.
People allowed to call Mulder Fox
Bill
Who’s your daddy?
Smokey plainly refers to Fox as Bill’s son (too many Mulders); but that scene is so creepy that it isn’t that hard to call it code or a dig or at the very least not necessarily a continuity error. Really, I wonder if the problem is that there was a lot more that could have been done with Bill’s past with the conspiracy that they never got to do because they killed him off, so the writers decided just to do it with Smokey as the father figure.
Break-ins
Mulder’s whole apartment building gets their water messed with and at least one person dies because the conspiracy decided to mess with Mulder. Actually...which branch of the conspiracy did that anyway? We’ll see if they ever answer that.
Are they in love?
Even ignoring the crap Mulder says to Scully while he’s drugged/detoxing, he’s kind of a dick to her. He kind of apologizes afterward, but is still not super good to her. And while a shippy reading is fully possible, there’s little that Scully does here that can’t be read as a caring and devoted partner first and foremost.
Noteworthy injuries
Scully shoots Mulder in the shoulder, that’s going to leave a mark.
