The X-Files 3x14: Grotesque

[jedi_of_urth]

The X-Files 3x14: Grotesque

This episode wants to be so much better than it is. In my ongoing gripes about how the show seems to operate in a weird warp core where continuity meets anti-continuity to produce mostly aggravation in me, this is at least trying something. Since I’m not sure there is even anything paranormal happening here, it’s another episode where most or all of it could have been written for any show where an investigator goes a bit mad by staring into the darkness for too long. It’s again very much a Twilight Zone sort of story, though where often our leads just seemed tacked on to someone else’s Twilight Zone story, at least here they are being plugged in to said story (well, at least Mulder is).

It’s also another episode where the version that’s happening in my head is much better, and only slightly tweaked from what we actually get. To the point where I almost wonder if the version in my head isn’t more the original intent of the story and it got mangled somewhere in execution.

This episode could have provided a really interesting look at Mulder’s history, all it would have taken is saying that he *did* take in the idea that to catch a killer you have to get in their head; that his whole Spooky Mulder thing is because this is the kind of thing he did when he was profiling by spending his time getting into killers’ minds. It would serve as a reason why he left that career path for a basement office investigating cases where he can’t get in the mind of his subject. It would be a reason why he so quickly slips off the deep end on this case and why the people who know him worry about him acting like this.

Having him be a protégé of Patterson and then having left that life would have made so many of their interaction here make a lot more sense. That they did love each other and it was seen as a betrayal when Mulder left, would explain why when Patterson gets going he’s keen to tell ‘Mulder stories.’ And why he would bother to call Mulder in to be the one to stop him, subconsciously trusting his surrogate son to be the one who would figure it out (and could have brought up some feeling sin Mulder after the death of his father).

But what we get is self-contradictory since Mulder says he didn’t think that was the right way to solve cases, yet he does it so quickly after getting on this case. It ends up being the most paranormal thing about the episode because it never explains why Mulder starts acting this way and not able to be pulled back from the brink. The episode does a poor job explaining why Mulder and Patterson’s supposed rivalry is so personal, and feels mashed on when a friendship was probably the original intent.

It also feels like we were supposed to think it might be Mulder going to the dark side, but the episode is too much from his perspective for that to really work. There’s also the fact that I never feel afraid the story is going to have Mulder do something that he’ll actually be punished for; so if there was some sort of demon I don’t believe it’s going to possess him and have him start killing (alternately that he would weasel out of it and Scully would cover for him, because even that would necessitate an arc to deal with). He’s a jerk, and ass-clown, and a terrible investigator, not to mention probably insane, but I never felt like there was a chance he was going to be the bad guy here. The few moments that focus on Scully’s fear for him are the only even slightly effective parts of that idea, and there isn’t enough of that.

I sort of have things to say about the other guy too. It’s actually one of the few things that almost feels like it was done for an X-Files story, in that it’s a red herring only because of the kind of show this is. In TXF, it would have made total sense for the possession to be like a werewolf bite and passed on to the other agent. And there are sometimes camera cuts that seem to frame him as a suspicious light. In a non-supernatural show this wouldn’t make a lick of sense, but here it could, so it is at least a little bit surprising when he’s a red shirt as well as a red herring.

Also just to say, I think his name is Patterson, but in my head I keep thinking of him as Thrawn, Thrawn also thought you should study art to understand people.

This is a potentially good episode of another TV show that got combined with a couple scraps of potentially good ideas for TXF, then so misaligned that even the parts that could have been right for TXF don’t connect in a way that does anything. So we’re left with an episode that I really wish they had done another pass or two at the script of, because I’m more confused why it doesn’t work than anything. The episode in my head makes so much more sense.

Previous status
Never seen before, though the opening scene in the office was a little familiar, but that was the only part that was.

Are we saying it’s aliens?
Like I said, I’m not sure there was anything paranormal here at all; I kind of think there wasn’t.

Mitchell of the Week spotting
I’m going to tentatively count Patterson as one. Pretty much all episode it was clear he was either a dead man walking or the bad guy; and it is someone Mulder has totally always had this important relationship with. The version in my head it would definitely count though.

Can DD act?
He’s not bad here, but he’s not good either. He’s kind of just there, which is kind of terrible since he’s the focus on this episode. I’m not even sure this would be fully saved if we were more in Scully’s head, because I feel like we should be seeing him as more interesting than he is here.

Does GA deserve an Emmy?
I’m not sure she’s given enough to do in this episode for one, but in general sure. She is carrying the emotional weight of the episode, acting circles around DD, and when she is our viewpoint character I am completely with her.

The gang that’s here
Show, this is not a good use of your Skinner. If he was a more consistent presence in other episodes I would be less disappointed in his limited use here. His one scene is pretty effective (it’s also a Scully scene, so obviously), and very much where I would like to see Skinner’s relationship with the duo be shown more often, that he cares about them a lot and is very much looking out for them. Also, why did they get a guy who looks so much like Skinner to play Patterson? If it was intentional I feel like Skinner should have a bigger role to play; if it’s unintentional it’s just distracting.

Is that continuity?
More anti-continuity, you have Skinner asking about Mulder’s mental state and no one brings up the drugging back in Anasazi when Mulder tried to hit Skinner.

How crazy does Mulder sound?
Intentionally so this time, but a lot crazy. Although ‘sound’ isn’t quite right since he doesn’t actually say much, he just acts like a nut bar, and not in his normal way.

Is that a cautionary tale I see?
More so with the version in my head, though I think you can still detect the remnants of it in the version we get. Unfortunately it’s not a cautionary tale about how Mulder’s quest to tilt at windmills is bad for him, it’s more generic about not staring into the abyss too long.

Wow that’s uncomfortable in hindsight
Before I spiraled into thoughts about what this episode was maybe meant to be but wasn’t, I thought Mulder talking about not pursuing your enemy for so long you become the enemy was the lesson we were going to explore. Because the monsters that Mulder is hunting, like CSM and the gang, are often the cautionary tales as well.

Are they in love?
This is one time where I’d say Scully probably is in love with Mulder, but I’m not so sure about the reverse. But that may just be because she’s a better written and acted character.

Pretentious voiceovers
So much wobbling about the nature of evil...I think that’s what it was about, I zoned out of most of it.